Title: A STUDY OF HISTORY, VOL.

II
Author: ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE
Language: English
Subject: Fiction, Literature
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THE DRAGON

STIRS

Chinese jtm^ at davun on the broad Yangtze "\iang

THE

"

DRAGON
STIRS
AN

INTIMATE SKETCH-BOOK

OF CHINA'S KUOMINTANG REVOLUTION

1927-29

Ey

HENRY FRANCIS MISSELWITZ

NEW

YORK: HARBINGER HOUSE

Copyright 1941 by Henry Francis Misselwitz

reproduction in "wnole or
rignts reserved.
in part forbidden, except for slLort excerpts
quoted, by reviewers.

FIRST EDITION

PRINTED

ENT

THE! TJNTTEiD STA.TE3S OF

CONTENTS
PREFACE
1

THE DRAGON

WHEN

THE "NANKING

INCIDENT"

32

"WHY WE ARE

IN CHINA"

52

IN THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

65

RED RULE AT HANKOW

87

UP

THE RED FLAME FADES

121

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

132

10

A "NEW

144

11

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

157

12

RED REBELLION

167

13

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD"

174

14

THE MARINES GET GOING

186

15

THE END

191

16

TOKYO'S DILEMMA

17

A DREAM

18

SOME AMERICANS

19

THE DRAGON LEARNS

20

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

239

21

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

248

22

THE "BoY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

262

23

THE ROAD AHEAD

276

INDEX

287

STIRS

11

SHANGHAI FELL

18

TO THE FRONT

103

DEAL" FOR CHINA

OF

CHANG TSO-LIN

202

THAT RIVALS GENGHIS

WHO WERE
TO

KHAN

206

THERE

215

FLY

229

PREFACE
The Chinese are

united

today

temporarily.

They were

finally

aroused, along with much of the rest of the world, by Japan's invasion of China. Smouldering coals of deep hatred against the Japanese
into

burst

quenchless

flames.

Internal

was

strife

forgotten

in

the

new menace from outside their Middle Kingdom, and

the Chinese made peace at home for the moment there in the tinderbox of Asia against a common foe.
The intolerable heat of their
white heat of a

hatred of the invaders from tiny, insular Japan welded

one vast loathing, incoherent mass.

One

definite

the

among

unity

those peoples
or any other

significant result

many

was the

first faint

China into

sign of real

totally different types of Asiatic peoples in that

Japan's invasion of China did more to unite

than any other one thing
those restless sons of Han
leader had done since the revolution in 1911, which

illiterate

broad,

and

all

land.

overthrew the craven, effete and criminally corrupt old Manchu Dynasty in Peking, the ancient Capital.

new

China, as the Dragon stirs and awakes,

with which we are concerned in the following pages, rather than
another book on Japan's sanguinary "undeclared war" with an unIt is

the birth of a

wieldy neighbor in the chaotic Orient.

of those vital days a few years ago,
a

national

consciousness

Here is a stirring cross-section

when China began fumbling for

and took the

first

faltering

steps

upward

toward unity.

The Chinese were

in

early

South

1927.

from united when

reached Shanghai,
deep-rooted uprising had begun far in the deep
far

of China, at Canton,

first

and was convulsing

all

east Asia.

It

was

the Kuomintang, or People's Party, against the war lords at Peking,

The rebels from China's far South were led by Chiang
in the North.

Kai-shek, then a youthful commander

issimo.

They swept

who was

to

become

their General-

swiftly northward, through the Yangtze Valley,

seizing province after province in their relentless advance,

ing

"Down

with the Peking war lords

!"

and shout-

and "Down with the Foreign

Foreigners from the West were denounced to the people of China as their enemies then, as now, by leaders
Devils

1"

in their

ruthless

fury.

in the Kuomintang.

dawn

It is this tense period, the

which

Orient,

is

discussed

in

this

of the current era in the exotic

No

volume.

effort

was made

to

write a "stop press" story of China, with bulletin-like accounts of her

frenzied, heroic attempts to ward off the land-hungry Japanese with

have concentrated essentially

on the beginnings of China's struggle toward unity as a nation, so very
recently, while her soul-baring People's Revolution swept to victory
our financial and material

aid.

Rather,

around me.

name and a bit of personal history may be of interest. Misselan old German name, from Saxony on the border of Poland.

My
witz
I

is

was born

century.

he and

My
my

Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1900, at the turn of the

father was born in New York eighty-two years ago, and

in

mother

still

live

in

His father was born

Missouri.

in

with a German girl who had lived long in France.

They fled Germany in the middle of the last century and settled first in
New York. Shortly after my father was born there, the family moved to

Saxony, and

fell

in love

He, Herman Francis Misselwitz,

became a Philadelphia lawyer; and about the time when Horace Greeley
was telling young men in the growing nation, reunited following our
Philadelphia where he

Civil

War,

was

to "go west,"

reared.

he went west.

There in Leavenworth, then a thriving trading post and jumping

off place for the still none too safe journey across the continent to the
West Coast and California, he hung out his shingle. And there this

She
sandy haired, blue-eyed Saxon from Manhattan met my mother.
was a tiny young lady, not long from the blue grass country of her
native Kentucky.
Shy dark eyes, like caves of sunlight, shone from
her delicate features beneath a cloud of jet black hair piled high in a
pompadour, then fashionable. From them, I get my light brown hair

and dark brown

eyes.

name then was Grace

Mother was but 4

Ella Fields.

Norman French on her

father's

our United States postal service

mother's side.

feet

She came

of

11

inches

a mixture

tall.

Her

of English-

he was Heniy Clay Fields, of

and of Scotch and Dutch on her

side

Rer mother was Laura

Belle

Embry, of Kentucky, who

became an ardent temperance leader of the post-war (Civil War) era

and one of the very early members of the Women's Christian Tern-

perance Union headed by her friend and associate, the dynamic Frances
Willard, in Wichita, Kansas.
I

was born

as

the twentieth

century began, near the very heart

of the United States. I asked a friend in Berlin a few
years ago
to look into the family name Misselwitz, and determine if I weren't at
least partly Jewish so that, as I put it in a letter to him, I couldn't "be
a genius, too/' like so

are in music and the other arts, to

as bankers and in almost any kind of

many Jews

say nothing of their success

commerce or business
My friend, a foreign correspondent originally
from New Orleans, La., had the name Misselwitz looked up and after
an extensive search in the Reichstag library in Berlin and through a
;

professional genealogist there, he wrote back to the effect that ''backto the year 800
D. you're 100 per cent Aryan, and could even suit
Hitler on that score ... so I'm very much afraid you can't become a

genius in that

way

or

might add,

in

any other

!"

In recognition of their helpful services, which played a large part

in making this book possible, thanks are due to several persons and

organizations, including B.
tiser,

an

American

Tokyo, for whom I

since has been sold

Thanks and
for giving

The Japan Adver-

morning newspaper printed in English in

went to the Far East in 1924. The Advertiser

daily
first

to the

Japanese government.

appreciation likewise are due to the United Press,

assignment in Shanghai, early in 1927; to The New

for appointing me their chief correspondent in China,

me an

York Times,
later

my

Fleisher, publisher of

in the

same year;

to

Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of The

Times, for telling me I could use material gathered for

the paper while I was in China, as the basis for much of this book;

New York

Kenworthy, in Washington, DC., who as an expert

on the Orient, did much to answer my queries or to get them answered
at the Chinese and Japanese embassies while this was being written.

and

to

Carroll

H. F. M.
February, 1941

Santa Monica,

Calif.

To

MY MOTHER

THE DRAGON

Chinese had the

STIRS

The idea
league of nations on earth.
nearly three centuries, until the Dragon

first

THE

worked smoothly for

Throne in Peking was overthrown in 191

The machinery
among men was set up when
1.

for

the
league
Manchus swarmed south over the Great Wall of China and conquered
half a continent.
They took over the Middle Kingdom, as the Chinese
this

initial

at

attempt

themselves invariably
autocratic rule over

country, and in 1644 inaugurated their

call their
all

the provinces.

The Manchu regime had

its

Peking, now Peiping.

Like the Tartars, Mongols and others

capital

at

contact

with

the

Chinese

peoples in that land

cess

was

None

races

Manchus

in time

were absorbed.

The pro-

passive, scarcely noticeable from generation to generation.

from outside the Great Wall ever has been capable of with-

the

standing
Chinese.

The

the

who have come into close

and there are many widely varied

and

ultimate

seemingly

inevitable

dominance

of

Japan may control the land we know as

Possibly

the

China.

subjugation of those peoples may last for generIt might well prove .a^great. "civilizing ^bpon*
ations, even centuries.
.to- the Chinese
bringing them modern life and its attendant benelatest

possible

'

factions

such

as

the

radio,

airplanes,

and even the

last

word

in.

plumbing and heating now so sadly lacking in countless millions of

Chinese homes.
But at last the descendants of these twentieth century militarists

may

The Manchus

be absorbed.

by banding the
various Chinese provinces together into what they called the Middle

They

Kingdom.

ruled

their

believed

first

that

league of nations

the

land

we

call

China,

and

quite
was
of
earth
consider
one
the
center
the
nation,
literally
erroneously
and that Peking was the dead center of the Universe.
One day not

stood on a stone at the great Temple of

I shouted
Forbidden City within Peking.

long ago I
erstwhile

11

Heaven
for

the

in

the

echo,

THE DRAGON STIRS

12

honoring
as

it

experience,

to

voice

actually

so long,

for

was convincing

is

a riddle.

still

was placed in authority in each Province under

Heaven and his court advisers in Peking, Each

military governor

the rule of the

Son

of

military governor swore allegiance to the

or

taxes,

at

tribute,

and

intervals

stipulated

He

Manchu Emperor.
ruled

his

paid

territory

in

long as the revenue flowed in regularly, Peking made no

The Provinces enjoyed an extended period of
interfere.

As

peace.

to

effort

under

tranquillity

this

freedom

of

rights

or

whatever

arrangement.
simple reason that

stultifying,

for

states'

nation

province,

state,

though perhaps

calm,

There was no question

the

you

care

to

They merely paid "taxes" to

Government, and went their own way.
It made not the slightest difference in the world
full

hollow,

in

the foxy old architects arranged that stunt, which

many

each

somewhat

sound

did

rather an odd
telephone booth anywhere
inasmuch as the "dead center" is right out in the open.

does

usually

How

The

custom.

of

call

action.

had

it

the

central

simple

to

peasant from the Shanghai area that he could not speak with a man
from Peking
or anyone from other remote cities and distant areas in
that

vast land.

Even

today,

from Peking cannot

a citizen

talk with a

the

of

man

Chinese

Republic

who

woman

or

from, say, Canton.

And a Hankow-man could not, and cannot now, talk with anyone of normal, peasant mentality from any of the other cities.
They
do
the
not
talk
same
simply
language.
hails

As

result,

an

official

word "mandarin" means

of

"mandarin

coat"

or

"mandarin*'

"official."

somewhat

For

instance,

popular

The
grew up.
when one speaks

language
in

the

West,

the

literal

garment once worn by an official of the old Manchu

Men \ve would call governors, mayors, judges and the like
regime.
wore these badges of office, and usually they were resplendent, to
reference

is

to a

These official*, all over the Middle Kingimpress the common people.
dom conversed in the Mandarin language, and eventually scholars in
every province learned

it

widespread

in later years

respected.

They proved

of

in

addition to their

own

tongue.

It

became

and scholars under the Mancluus were highly

invaluable to the

men running

the machinery

the government which ruled much of Asia.

But the "man in the street" remains unable to converse with

from other parts

of China.

Those who can read and

men

write, however,

DRAGON STIRS

TTIE

13

can get their thoughts over by writing them for others

know

both

if

enough of the countless hieroglyphs, or characters, which the Chinese

in

using in preference to the

a guess, for no
400,000,000 Chinese

persist

have mastered that formidable

Roman

census

accurate

There

task.

Few

alphabet,

is

an

available

is

effort

the

of

now meeting

with some measure of success to teach them the "thousand characters"

system of simplified writing and reading, and radio programs help to

bioadcast knowledge to the masses.
In the main, the Chinese remain

an

mass

inert

any foreign

of

illiterate

but each other.

land,

who

peoples

moment

are united at the

white-hot

heat

of

may weld them

will not

have died

But as a matter
no more

Cantonese

of

fact,

-a

short,

usually

"go-getter" in business.

In

abroad.

speech sounds

ft

sibilant,

They are

languages.

was from Canton

seeds of

speak

If

so,

The

the

The

men from Japan

sons

of

Cathay

swarthy or dark yellow, hot-headed, and

They are the Chinese one ordinarily finds

States,

the
that

thousands

are

revolutionaries,

the

the latest

war began, when

civil

restless

souls

of

the

Asia.
first

unity

different

They

rarely

original

dynasty in

lack unity

still

Canton-man and a Peking-man now

or a Spaniard, and an Irishman. The

tongue.

It

is

better

These men are less volcanic.

pleasing to hear.
the scholars, bankers, soldiers.
Some go into
fessions

coolies.

against the Japanese invaders.

little

is

were planted.
from the north are taller than those of the Canton area.

national

The men
,They

province

Their
laundrymen.
more "sing-song" in tone than other Chinese

United

the

an Italian

alike than

is

men from

in vain.

jare

Chinese

the

why

permanently.

together

only

man from the next

common peasantry, and

hatred for the sturdy

their

not

"a foreigner/' to millions of the

This is one fundamental reason

They

distrust

1911

travel,

as

too

and more

They are more

business

or

the

often

pro-

do the Cantonese.

Chinese revolutionaries

moved

modulated,

rapidly

for

who overthrew the Manchu

their own good.
They de-

The ousted
stroyed authority, but had none with which to replace it.
Son of Heaven was forced to watch bandits and war lords scramble
for

power

in his

rotting

realm.

Few
within China kept the world guessing for years.
people in the United States or elsewhere understand why the Chinese
The uproar

always

have

fought

among

themselves.

THE DRAGON STIRS

14

In the
the

in

first

vast

place,

it

should be understood that the causes of war

and teeming Provinces of China are

with

identical

the

In other words, they are economic and

war anywhere.
The difference is that these
if the two
can be separated.
political
causes affect the individuals involved more directly than they usually
of

causes

do elsewhere.

He

offered.

money

man
is

out of work,

number now join

creasing
chiefly

an army

joins

in

China because he needs the

he cannot

find

An

jo)).

in-

and are sincerely patriotic

because the Japanese threaten the economic existence of the
to fight Japan,

Chinese.

The majority

see in the uniform a license

to

in

loot;

the

rifle,

gain a wealth of sorts; in the roving life of a soldier, what

romance there is to be had out of an existence that is at best

chance
little

to

barren.

Conservative estimates place China's armed forces at from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 men, but none can count accurately the hordes in

armies and bandit bands that

the

roam

the wartorn face of a tired Cathay.

sanguinary way about

Famine has added to the horror
their

wars for decades and of Japanese invasions in latter years;

and thousands of men are ready to go into an army or join a desperate
Their increased numbers add to
bandit band to keep from starving.
of civil

the vital social problems they would escape; but their impulse
tainly

is

cer-

natural under the circumstances.

Chiang Kai-shek and other leaders in the old

Nanking regime, now on a wartime basis at Chungking, are hampered
by lack of communications and by the natural mountain lairs to be
Generalissimo

found

in

feeble

even

find

out

many
in

provinces.

Efforts

normal times.

at

Nanking,
Even a bona

will

Any

have

to

maintain

law

government, as

difficulty

in

and

Tokyo

bettering

the

order
will

are

now

situation

Chinese Central government would have

difficulty in maintaining order over all China until such time as railroads and highways can be built, the peasantry educated and a strong
rapidly.

national

fide

army evolved from

Bandits

have

the present

been a traditional

still

scourge

loosely
of

federated

China

for

forces.

centuries.

These roving robbers are considered as certain there as death and

taxes.
The bandit-suppression generals occasionally found it expedient
to incorporate bandit
gangs into their armies

rather than try to fight

THE DRAGON STIRS

with

out

it

the

"Bandit

outlaws.

one

IS

next"

the

soldier

day,

is

truism in China.

along the China coast of how the

first police force in the world came to be formed there. I outline it
here, to demonstrate the thoroughly resigned attitude toward these

There

is

classic

James" men

"Jesse

told

story

of Asia.

powerful bandit chieftain in olden times, it

with the daughter of a wealthy merchant in the
bandit and his

men

He was
scheme.
He

held sway.

one day he thought of a

merchant's palatial warehouse

and

is

said,

in

fell

area in which the

But

long unable to win her.

ordered his

when they

love

men

divided

raid

to

the

loot,

the
all

he took was an ivory miniature of the merchant's daughter.

Disguising himself as a traveler, the bandit Chief took the mini-

home a few days

ature to the merchant's

"I

beg you,
miniature which

permit me to return
chanced upon in a shop in the village.
he

sir,"
I

said,

"to

and am pleased to return

The merchant was not fooled. He

of

your

loss,

nized him

Now

that

later.

it

learned

the bandit that he

The

bandit

replied

recog-

amiably.

they understood one another, he said, he wanted merely to

marry the merchant's daughter. The merchant

indignantly it was impossible that a daughter
and they talked

thief,

ivory

to you."

told

and asked what he wanted.

this

of

He

refused.
of

his

declared

should

wed a

other things

He comwas made by the merchant.

which the bandit's raids were making on

Finally a counter-proposal

plained of the heavy levies

properties and

his

offered

pieces of silver each year

pay the chieftain a certain number of

the bandit would only quit robbing him,

to
if

and would assure him of immunity

They made a

deal

after

the

through thievery by others.

habitual polite haggling and swore an
to loss

oath to the pact.

week or so

later the bandit called his

prosperous band together.

He

had been quite busy in the meantime. When they had all come
He had seen most of
together he addressed them with his proposal.
the merchants
to

pay

set

"The

in

his

territory

sums a year

total,

my

and he had got the others to agree

for immunity.

brethren/' he said, "by far exceeds the

amount we

have averaged by working hard as bandits in recent years.

Hence,
we may retire and yet be assured of incomes greater than if we

THE DRAGON STIRS

16
continue

to

ply

our

and

ancient

honorable

worthy gentry of these noble hills."

There was no little dissension at

first.

The

bandits

the

among

profession

hesitated

to

up the ancient profession which they and their ancestors had

followed for generations.
But in the end, all agreed to their chief's
give

plans.

They would cease

to plunder

likewise, they agreed to prevent

bands from robbing their generous patrons.

police force on earth was founded.
lival

The

bandit leader,

the merchant's

now

daughter.

In a word, the

first

a respectable chief -of -police, paid court to

In due course, the story runs, they were

married and lived happily ever after.

True or not, this gives an insight into the average Chinese psyBandits continue to play an important part in
chology on banditry.

During Japan's "undeclared war" and

for years afterwards, bandits may be expected to roam from uniform
to uniform and back again with astonishing abandon.
the military

life

of the

land.

a strong and rapidly growing sentiment among

the loyal subjects of Emperor Hirohito for a greater, and ever more
Their new cry is, "Asia for the Asiatics!"
They
powerful Japan.
in
to
the
And
imachieve
Oriental
most
Utopia
hemisphere.
hope

In Tokyo, there

is

Japanese would evict the century-old dominating

influence of the white man from all the Far East
and rule them-

portant to

us,

the

selves.

Even among

the Chinese,

of latter days, the Japanese have

some

supporters in the surge toward renewed vigor and authority for the
Others who occasionally join the Japanese
yellow races of the world.
in

this

phase of their drive for power are the peoples

of

India,

the

Moro, Tagalog and others the Siamese, Tibetans,

Mongols, Arabs and even the Turks and roving Moslem tribes of
North Africa.

Filipino

races

Passionately, always in the guise of high patriotism,

hope that one day they

of

these

zealots

will achieve control of the entire

would

even

include

Australia

in

the Japanese

Far East. Many

their

far-flung

scheme.

Nippon's statesmen envisage Japan as the spearhead of this

In
movement, emerging one day as the greatest power in history.
the last century another island

kingdom England, in the Occident

rose to such heights through the dreams and exploits of Lord Clive
of India; of Gladstone, Disraeli and their imperialistic
men-of-the-pen,

THE DRAGON STIRS

Thus

such as the late Rudyard Kipling.

dream now for yellow men who ponder on

glory and achievements
There are observers
Orient

the

who

believe

world would be
military
that

the

is

wise

men and
not

our

books,

swift events

itself.

legations

similar

and consulates

in

fair-skinned peoples in the rest of the

now to ignore Japan's determined little

just

concern here

chief

to aspire to

that,

that

their antics, regardless

Japanese invasion

many

the embassies,

at

not too far-fetched a

is

it

17

of

But

China
I

is

what they

do.

be

the

However,
a fascinating study, and

undoubtedly

shall

that have kept the

It

of

discuss

Far East

will

subject

of

the

rugged

men and

in mystic

turmoil

for

here

more

than a quarter of a century.

The decade 1927-37 began with the start of the violent Kuomintang
I shall describe the rebels' seizure of Shanghai
Revolution at Canton.

and the turbulent events which followed while

in

the thick of

it.

was

living out there

WHEN SHANGHAI

FELL

from the United States Marine Corps abruptly leaned

across our dining table at the American Club in Shanghai and
surprised me with a sudden question.
'Can you keep a secret?" he asked.
His voice had become low and oddly intense. It was far from apI told him I could,
propriate to the heedless atmosphere around us,
officer

THE
4

necessary, but said that being a war correspondent at the height of

the Kuomintang Revolution convulsing all China meant cut-throat comif

petition, particularly in "secrets."

There were

literally scores

of other

press men who had been sent out East by the syndicated press services
as well as countless individual newspapers and magazines in practically

every civilized country on earth.

"I can/' I said, ".but you can't make

He

thought for a

"You'll

now.

But

know
will

moment.

Then

me

like

it.

Why?"

this

by morning anyway; I might as well tell you

you keep your source, at least, absolutely a secret

between us?"
"Positively."

"Okay," he answered, "but don't quote me.

listen,

this is

straight dope.

It's

official,

I'll

deny

it!

Now

or will be by morning, any-

So get this:
might issue our communique myself.
"The Cantonese are on the march. Their troops are closing in this
minute.
And that's
Shanghai will fall in the next forty-eight hours.
way.

a fact."
"I won't quote you," I promised, "but

get out of here,

If that's from your Marine
Intelligence reports, it goes to New
let's

now!
York

I'm cabling it urgent. And without qualification.

"You'd better be right or rather, I had! Come on."
hurried over to the gloomy-looking ramshackle United Press

tonight.

We

18

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

two blocks down Foochow Road toward the Bund, or waterThe officer and I stumbled down a black, cobble-stoned blind

offices,

front.

to

alley

19

my

wrote an urgent cable to the United Press in

It read:
relay point to the United States.

desk.

London, then

my

CANTONESE TROOPS MARCHING.

UNLATERN MONDAY INEVITABLE.
That was

But

all.

it

FALL SHANGHAI

was enough.

"Boy/

I shouted.

Get going

''Chop chop!

!"

came running.
He grabbed the dispatch, hopped on his
bicycle and was off for the Telegraph Building, two blocks away on
Avenue Edward VII. A few minutes after the Marine officer's quiet
coolie

announcement

at the

a smashing lead for

American Club, word was on

my

Saturday afternoon papers

its

all

It

gave
over the United
way.

and South America, and the evening editions in Europe. The

world had waited weeks, while China's revolution was at stalemate.
States

Many

were

foreigners

convinced

thoroughly

Some
newspapers back home

that Shanghai

the contrary, and also

was kind

lords

had won.

The

a Marine officer to dinner with

me

Nine

China

war

at

o'clock

was

still

invincible.

Fate proved

to me.

my

difference in time

moment.

North

that eventful night even cabled their friends or

made

casual

the

fortune possiblesthat, and inviting

at the American Club, in a purely

night

in

Shanghai

is

o'clock

eight

same day in New York, for New York is thirteen

hours behind Shanghai.
Time was with me; also the Marine. We
the

morning

of the

had been working together ever since his arrival on the troop transWe had swapped
port ship Chaumont several weeks before this night.
tips

and mutual confidences, and now he gave

been waiting for

all

Shanghai.
This incident

it

civil

occurred

war.

the tip on what

we had

those frenzied days in that most baffling of

tremendous upheaval.
called

me

March

on

19,

1927.

China

was

cities,

in

Her sons were engaged in revolution. Some

Her men from the North and those from the

Brothers
South were fighting in a desperate struggle for mastery.
The Soviet
fought brothers, as in our "War between the States."

The
Union was (and remains) more than an interested observer.
It was
rebellion had a Russian Advisorate sent out from Moscow.
headed

by

Mikal

Borodin.

Today,

he

runs

an

English-language

THE DRAGON STIRS

20

Japan likewise was

newspaper in Moscow sic transit gloria mundi.
far from idle.
She had no "advisorate" on either side
officially.
ever enchancing their power abroad, had an "ace
in the hole" in the person of the Boy Emperor, a scholarly but help-

But her

militarists,

young man
changed his name

The

the

of

less

Manchu Dynasty
"Mr. Henry Pu-yi."

to plain

Russians

in

old

Peking

who had

Japan tenaciously hung on.

Eventually, in 1931, she seized Manchuria, renamed it Manchukuo and
He is a Manput the Boy Emperor on the throne of his ancestors.

Some

chu.

power (or

day,

fled

later

in

1927.

the Japanese militarists

patriotism,

in

their

lust

as they are fully convinced)

for

may

glory and

be expected

It
puppet again on his Dragon Throne in Peiping.
but that is another story.
All China, meanwhile, recould happen
mains in chaos, and probably will, for years.

to

their

place

followed up the dispatch with a brief description of the advance

as described by the Marine.

He

said his Intelligence Corps lieutenants

had been out toward the rebel Cantonese

had talked with the advance guards.

"The drive is on, no question," he
on by morning, or

Monday

at

the

lines

said.

all

that

Saturday, and

"There'll be a good

show

latest."

We

got off those dispatches and then made a round of the Shanghai
defenses
both in the International Settlement and in the French
Concession.

Most

of

the

Americans

living in

in the latter area, chiefly within small

In

fact,

Shanghai were located

cannon range of the native

city.

some of their homes that turbulent, unforgettable spring, were

damaged by

shells.

On

the streets, patrols of foreign troops from half a dozen nations

around the world kept the curfew.
Our press and military passes,
however, made us immune to the strictly enforced orders that all
civilians

be off the streets by 10 p.m.

spring of 1927 when the Nationalist

(Kuomintang) armies from the South came roaring into the Valley
of the Yangtze, was even more than usual the exotic blend of East and

Shanghai,

West.

It

in

spread

missionaries,

and

that

its

eventful

gaiety and wickedness

its filth

among

its

the lowest dives

innocence

among

the

along the low banks

River, a few miles upstream from the place where

the broad, yellow Yangtze meets the sea
of

the

Whangpoo

While troops

of far nations

concentrated in martial array

behind

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

barbed

wire

21

and

Chinese as
sandbag emplacements, the populace
well as foreign
danced an amazing whirl in a wartime atmosphere
of thorough abandon.
Young Chinese maids foxtrotted to American

swank night

in

lazz

New

York.
of

versities

clubs

as

luxurious

as

any

in

Berlin

Paris,

or

They danced with Chinese youths educated in the uniOld Chinese, swathed in
Europe and the United States.

the coarse blue clothing of the country-side, mingled with the younger

generation.

Foreigners from the four corners of the earth came and

went on endless missions.

the

Some were spies working for

anybody who would pay them.

North, the Japanese

01 them were businessmen with eye to a quick

profit.

the

South,

But most

And

of course,

were the scores of press correspondents there to "cover" the

story for readers to whom the city was but a name.
But in the main they were traders
descendants of men who went

there

out in the romantic clipper ship days of the last century, and who now
owned spacious estates on the fashionable outskirts of the metropolis.

Others appeared with get-rich-quick schemes in which high intrigue

more often than not played a sinister part.
Tall Sikhs from India,
rifles

slung in readiness over their towering shoulders, policed the In-

ternational Settlement, their bright turbans, black beards

eyes
in

all

and flashing

United States Marines, smart

"Tommies," French sailors and their

part of the picturesque setting.

their

British

uniforms,

Anamites

from

Japanese troops and marines,

the men
Italians, and Portuguese swarmed in and around the city
in the Allied Army of Defense who threw a ring of bayonets around
swarthy

Shanghai and kept

it

Indo-China,

safe

from the

possession of the native part of that

Chinese armies
river

struggling

for

port.

Foreign men-of-war lay anchored off the Bund, ready to protect

There were fortythe lives and property of nationals from overseas.
six

foreign

strung out along the narrow waterway at

revolution.
In the foreign areas, six miles along

warships

height of the
river front and within a perimeter of nearly thirty miles,

modern mansions, banks,

hotels as

fully appointed clubs, all flourished.

fine

as

any on

earth,

the

the

handsome

and beauti-

Taxicabs, buses, trackless trolley-

cars ran on the broad avenues, cluttered with rickshaws and ancient,

creaking

Chinese wheelbarrows.

Hungjao Airport outside

the war beneath them,

the city,

Overhead, commercial planes from

or elsewhere, droned hourly despite

THEDRAGONSTIRS

22

On

Bund

the

the

stood

Shanghai

Club with

its

"longest bar

in

the world" packed three deep at noon and night for half a block along
its

burnished dark wooden length.

It

is

below Avenue Edward

just

VII, boundary between the French Concession and the International

Settlement.

few blocks away, down Foochow Road, the American

itself a magnificent stone structure

Club faced the Municipal Building
The American Club, an eight-story building of
covering a city block.

red brick, modern in every

room

with

filled

British

officers

men

took

was packed day and

detail,

brought there by the war,

quarters

finding

there,

it

night, its every

score

or

more

more cheery than a

hotel or another club.

Night clubs ran

home

unable to go

The

until

dawn.

until the

10 p.m. were
at dawn, about 4 a.m.

Patrons inside after

curfew was

lifted

were controlled by the British in the International Settlement.

The Commissioner was British, as were the Inspectors and
other officers.
Under them were the Sikhs, some Chinese and a few
police

Russian patrolmen and

The

traffic

officers.

International Settlement

was so named because

it

is

composed

and Japanese and what was to have been the

American Concessions. The American Concession was to have been
of

the

old

British

between the British and Japanese.

century,

when

this

who

in the last

arrangement was being made on the mudflats of

the mosquito-infested

Chinese

But the United States

Whangpoo

River,

at the

express orders

of the

wanted

badly to segregate the "foreign barbarian"

traders that pestered them with goods
refused to take a concession
in Shanghai or anywhere in China.

The

and Japanese as a result proposed a combination, and

the International Settlement was bora.
The French took their conBritish

which became a separate part of Shanghai, governed by a

French Municipal Council, under the French Consul-General.
Shangcession,

hai

was a

triply divided

city,

then,

of

some 3,250,000 inhabitants

predominantly, of course, Chinese.

Of

the

total

population,

possibly

50,000

were foreigners.
There
and possibly 2,000 other

were about 5,000 Americans, 8,000 British,

Europeans, most of them either French or German.

There were

also

some 15,000 or more Russians, chiefly emigres forced to leave home

These fled to China through
by the rise of the Bolshevik regime.
Siberia by way of Harbin, in what was Manchuria.
There were

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

20,000 or so Japanese or other Asiatics, as well.

most

of the opulent cotton-textile mills in

was

and

23

The Japanese owned

Shanghai.

most exciting period in Shanghai's

modern history that the Marine Captain and I made our way around
the outlying defenses that Saturday night.
We actually found nothing
It

in this setting

at a

although the French apparently had had word of the

advance and were more than usually alert.
In fact, they had been
extraordinary,

criticized

somewhat

by

the

other

officers

general

of

the

foreign

Shanghai Defense Force, and at one time in the proceedings the International Settlement contingent put up barbed-wire entanglements for
a mile

or more

down Avenue Edward VII,

Concession on the other

side,

separating

the

French

which faced the Chinese "native

city"

Nantao.

of

But while the Defense Force

officers

may have known,

certainly

few among the civilian population were aware that the Nationalists
from Canton were disregarding orders from the temporary Red-con-

government up the Yangtze River at Hankow, and were

It had originally been planned to proceed to
moving on Shanghai.

trolled rebel

Peking overland, by the back door, leaving Shanghai to fall once

the revolution had captured the ancient Capital.
But leaders in the
Nationalist

Army,

Hankow and

including

General

Kai-shek,

Chiang

broke

with

Russian Advisorate, captured Shanghai and set up

the semi-conservative regime in 1927 at Nanking.
The Cantonese, or Nationalists as they insisted on being called
its

movement was not purely Cantonese), had been dug in

about eighteen miles south of Shanghai for a month, waiting for word
(because the

to

attack.

Their presence at

first

startled

populace, including the Americans, but

complacent

Shanghai

when nothing happened week

subside

after week, their jitters began to

the

as

much

as they could in

The foreigners
atmosphere of uncertainty and military display.
proceeded with plans for their evacuation to the Bund and thence, if
that

necessary, to warships in the river.

The city was astir with intense excitement. Yet only a handful
knew the climax was due that week end.
The next day, March 20, was a clear, warm, spring Sabbath. I
had luncheon with
and
a

special

guest

J.

B. Powell, publisher of a local weekly in English

correspondent for

drove outside

the

the

lines

Chicago Tribune.

that

He and

and

Sunday afternoon, against the

THE DRAGON STIRS

24

and ran

orders of our Consular and Naval authorities

into advancing

We

had passed numerous cars on the drive, filled with

We
correspondents and photographers out for the news and the thrill.
all got plenty of both.
The retreating Northern troops were putting
Cantonese!

We ran into
up a half-hearted resistance to the Nationalist drive.
hundreds of them on the ten-mile drive through what, even then,
seemed a

We

scene

peaceful, pastoral

and motored rapidly past farmers going about

The road toward Minghong,
truck-farming chores as usual.

left

their little

Shanghai,

a nearby village, was dotted with more and more Northern soldiers
in little groups or alone, straggling not from but toward the front

Further along, some carried boxes swung clumsily on bamboo

These we discovered were the ammunition bearers.
They in-

lines.

poles.

number as we proceeded,

creased in
of

these

coolie

troops

Shanghai than most people

The

defeated troops

too cheerful, but

came

into view

quarter of a mile away.

We decided

It

difficulties
little

we rounded

until

more than a

dashed toward us waving his arms and shouting.

"Just

go

frightened,

now

about a

was guarded by about a hundred men.

this bridge, inquire about things and then

an

feur, visibly

to

a bend and

culvert,

return to
officer,

closer

this

Some seemed none

down to
As we drove up one
Shanghai.
to drive

in

Settlement knew.

looked at us in surprise.

a tiny bridge,

comrades

their

to

was apparent, was much

in the

we had no
of

it

was a steady stream

there

bullets

transporting

The war,

fashion.

primitive

until

of

the soldiers,

evidently

The

chauf-

interpreted:

shooting/'

he

*4

sputtered.

He

say no

can

go.

Must

back-side, plenty chop-chop!"

It

was

men

true.

We

were

in the front

lines.

On

either

side

of

the

gray uniforms, stretched out as skirmishers, formed an

irregular line as far as we could see.
They lay behind an embankment by the canal or creek which the bridge spanned.
From time to

bridge

in

apparently without orders,

they took a pot-shot at the enemy.

Others glided around barns, the trees here and there, or raised Chinese graves
and kept up a scattering
anywhere they could find shelter
time,

fire

at the

enemy.

The Cantonese

the intervening lowlands.

of a mile away.

on a

similar

They were,

Their faint

hit-and-miss

rifle

method

was gradually pushing across

line
I

should say, about a quarter

shots indicated
of

warfare

they were carrying

As

far

as

one could

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

25

there were no casualties on the Northern side, and certainly the

only hope these alleged defenders of Shanghai had of hitting the enemy

tell,

lay

in

chance.

But there was a chance

The chauffeur needed no

that the

enemy might shoot

orders to whisk that

in our direction.

machine around,
although he "killed" the motor twice in doing so on the narrow country
lane.
We streaked away from the front at a mile a minute, back to
safety within Shanghai's lines of

men and

steel

little

and

to the cable wires.

Shanghai fell the next day, on March 21, 1927, to the marching
men from Canton. All through a moonlit Sunday night the blue-gray
lines

fired

swept in waves across the soft meadows.

Hardly a shot was
in actual defense of the port.
The Northern troops, dispirited,

Some were trapped

virtually leaderless, fled in rout, deserting the city.

along the railroad and at North Station, just outside the International

Settlement.
laborers

in

reign of terror began that

black

Armed

Monday morning.

gowns scurried through the narrow

in

streets

the

Chinese citizens poured into the

foreign-protected areas by the thousands, a miserable stream of des-

native areas, firing indiscriminately.

titute families.
It

was on

United

morning that the 4th Regiment of the

"took" Shanghai.
The men had been

this bright spring

Marines

States

also

quartered on board the transport Chaumont, tied up downstream for

two weeks awaiting word they were needed.
There was some talk

even of sending them on to Manila

if

if

the

"show"

failed to break,

or

the Northern forces attacked, pushing the rebels back into the south.

The Marines were

restless.

They came ashore

gladly,

ready for a

but immensely glad to get their feet on Nanking Road,

marching to billets in the Western District where a few days later
they stood shoulder to shoulder with the famed Coldstream Guards
fight or a frolic,

from London.
rabble

fought off a
through barbed wire

Together

seeking to pour

they

half-maddened
entanglements

Chinese
into

the

International Settlement.

With bands

playing, the

Marines had landed.

Their

"tin

hats'*

and side-arms glistened in the sunshine.

Foreigners, including hunBut the Chinese looked
dreds of local American residents, cheered.
on
it

hating this display of foreign force even though they knew

meant further protection for them. The 6th Regiment landed some
stolidly,

weeks

later.

For most

of the spring

and summer

of 1927, the

United

THE DRAGON STIRS

26

Uncle Sam's part of

an allied foreign defense force that at one time totaled more than
The Marines
This was exclusive of the naval forces.
25,000 men.

men

States had over 4,000 fighting

in Shanghai,

got plenty of action the minute they stepped ashore.

their posts in the front lines around the western rim
national

Settlement and

down once more under

inspired

stuck there for weeks,

until

They took up
of

the

the city

Inter-

calmed

the smug, victorious forces of the Cantonese-

Kuomintang armies.

Shanghai fell practically without a struggle, except for one or two

One occurred when a corps of
clashes which were sharp and bloody.

White Russians (desperate emigres

enlisted in the

Northern

Army

to

keep from starving in a strange land) were trapped and tried to fight
their way out from behind the Cantonese lines.
They manned an
armored train on the Nanking Railway with its terminal at the Shanghai

North

and

Station,

finally surrendered.

The Northern Chinese soldiers, however, panic-stricken on that

Monday when the Cantonese attacked in force, threw down their guns.
They stormed

the

One incident of this

Road gates, between
blockhouse

there

begging for protection.

kind occurred about dusk at the North Honan

International

the native city and the

inside

the

tall

command.

Settlement.

sandbag
iron gates was manned by a squad

youth hardly out of his 'teens was

The Northern rabble stormed the gates, and in their

of very young British troops.

in

Settlement,

panic fired on the

met with a return

men whom
The

fire.

they sought as protectors.

They were
first ranks pressing against the iron bars

were shot down apparently without mercy. There was no help for
Snipers along Range Road, which crosses North Honan Road
the
this

Settlement limits,
sector

just

after

fired

indiscriminately

the clash

on both

sides.

it.

at

got to

between the British and Chinese, in

time to get in on the interpreted instructions to the Chinese to lay

down their guns if they would enter. It was almost dark. Together
with four or

five

other

foreign

correspondents,

had motored out

Szechuan Road from the heart of Shanghai.

We left our car some
blocks behind.
Clinging close to a ten-foot-high brick wall guarding
the front yards of most houses facing Range Road, we
crept along

toward the North Station blockhouse, three blocks away.

I counted
three or four dead Chinese, one in Northern uniform, lying in their

own

blood in the

street.

We

scurried along under the protection

of

WHEN SHANGHAI
that friendly wall.
secting streets,

We

making

one took a shot at

had to run for

us.

man

one

it

Still,

in

at a time.

27

crossing the two interSo far as I know, no

the fact that they might, sniping from

windows and from dark

shuttered

it

FELL

was a thought

roofs,

that did not

calm the nerves, none too good by that time, anyway.

The Chinese forces, cowed, finally laid down their rifles and began
to stream into the Settlement, before jubilant Southern forces could
catch

did

up with them and make them

seize

shamble to comparative,
barbed wire.

victors

actually

watched about 2,000 badly battered men

temporary, safety through the gates and

but I

thousands,

The

prisoners.

if

body of men I ever saw

in my life. Their uniforms were ragged and torn
scores were wounded
and poorly bandaged. A few were fortunate enough to get rickshaws,

They were

the most desolate,

dispirited

pulled by a comrade

but in the main,

wounded and

well, they

Their grass sandals and flapping wrap-puttees were in

along.

and disintegration seemed

sorry looking

members

They were interned

to

possess

the

souls

very

of

hobbled
tatters,

these

men,

of another "lost battalion."

for several

weeks but

finally

were repatriated

Shantung Province, to the north, on foreign ships saved to fight

some other day by the same foreign devils that they themselves and

to

the Southern Nationalists were one in damning.

of their incessant jumble

of politico-military

bitter hatred against outside interference

Kingdom.

On

unity inside

their

All Chinese, regardless

faiths,

at

least

had that

within their troubled Middle

ancient

Great

Wall,

these

yellow

men

themselves were fatally divided.

They still are.
Meanwhile, white men and women up-country, including scores of

Americans, were in very real danger of their lives from the victorious
Southern hordes who swept everything before them up to" the southern

bank

of

the

possible.

Yangtze.
In fact, the

They were urged

United

States

to

evacuate

consular

as

authorities

rapidly

as

had been

missionaries and business men the

trying for months to impress upon
Many
necessity of hurrying back to the less dangerous treaty ports.
did.

He was
correspondent, an Australian, was less fortunate.
killed up-country, near a small town called Chengchow, north of HanOne

kow, in Honan Province.

down

the

railroad tracks

At
to

he was engulfed while walking

inspect a "model village" a mile away
least,

THE DRAGON STIRS

28

from Chengchow.

Consul-General stationed up
the Yangtze at Hankow, reported him missing when he hurried back
to the river port alone.
search was ordered by the "Christian
Marshal Feng had just returned from
General/' Feng Yu-hsiang.

His

host, the Belgian

His headquarters were temporarily at Chengchow.

The correspondent, a war veteran from Europe's battlefields, had interIt was not quite the sensible thing
viewed the impenetrable Feng.
exile

in

Moscow.

do and was undertaken against the advice of friends, official and

I
otherwise.
But Feng's return to China was news.
nearly went
to

up from Hankow myself.

had just seen Feng

over at Hsuchow-fu, near Shantung, and heard from his own hps of
his desertion of the Russian Advisorate and his "deal"
(it proved

Only the

fact

that

with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the revolutionary chief,

prevented such a possibly fatal excursion.
The mystery of the disappearance
Feng's "search" was fruitless.
transient)

Some

man

by soldiers or bandits.
Others blamed the prevalent anti-foreignism which propagandists of
the revolution spread throughout the length and breadth of China.
remains a

secret.

Even

simplest peasant

the

foreign ballads.

thought the

was

infected.

killed

School children

sang anti-

They shouted "Down with the Foreign Devils

I"

and

"Down

In any case,
with Imperialism!" along with the multitude.
the body was never found.
Whether the man was kidnaped or whether
he died a sudden death, I cannot say.

The name

martyr to journalism was Frank Riley, the son

of a bishop in Australia.
Riley said that he had escaped from a German prison camp during the first World War. After that he had lived
in

various

of this

countries,

including

He was

Mesopotamia.

companion, a chap about thirty-five years of age,

and

tall,

delightful

with black hair

His dispatches went to The London Times.

I
always suspected he had some sort of connection with the British
I never knew.
He was the sort of man who had
Foreign Office.
intelligent eyes.

He

the "long view," instinctively.

spective,

saw peoples and problems

an essential to good reporting anywhere.

Scores of foreigners, however, took

missionaries.
insisted they

They
were

felt

they

knew

sides.

In the main, these were

the Chinese races thoroughly,

Many maintained that

business.
And these refused

safe.

main, that was their

of

in per-

them and a score or more

of

if

and

they wanted to re-

to budge.

number

American business men, as well as the

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

29

who

stuck by their posts, were in Nanking when the

victorious troops got out of hand on Thursday of the week that Shang-

consular

hai

officials

fell

had an urgent

call

chief-of-staff

Vernou,

from Captain

on the old

(now Rear- Admiral)

flagship

U.

S.

S.

Wallace

Pittsburgh,

that

Thursday,
"All hell's busted

loose

ship-to-shore telephone.

and

icans

other

Nanking," the Captain said over the

laid down a barrage to bring out Amerthink
The British have joined us.
I

at

"We

foreigners.

were no foreign casualties.

hear from our men on the Noa"
there

I'll

let

you know more when we

The U. S. S. Noa was a destroyer on the Yangtze Patrol Lieut.

Commander Roy C. Smith was in command. The British destroyer
H. M. S. Emerald joined the Noa in saving more than fifty foreign
men, women and children and seeing

that they got safely

downstream

to Shanghai.

The "Nanking
forces

were out of

men

the

new

Incident"
control.

occurred on

They

March

looted the city.

The Southern
Drunk with victory,
24.

and raped foreigners as well as Chinese in the then

The United States and British destroyers lying off Nan-

killed

capital.

when called on by the refugees

ashore, in imminent danger of their lives. The Noa fired first, although
the British skipper was the superior naval officer present.
Commander

king in the Yangtze River opened

fire

Smith had asked the English captain for his approval.

Both vessels laid down a heavy barrage around "Socony

Smith
Ensign
York.)

got

Hill,"

it.

the

New

York's headquarters in Nanking, conIt saved the lives of all present.

the refugees.

Standard Oil Company of

centration

He

point 'for
had sent a

Woodward
Phelps,

landing party

Phelps.

an

officer

ashore,

commanded by

the late

(Phelps subsequently shot himself in New

born to the tradition of the sea, led his

He and his men rescued members of the

squad to "Socony Hill."
United States Consulate-General staff, as well as some refugees who
The hordes swept on toward the hill. Phelps
Under fire, the American
ordered a signalman to stand on the roof.
Back on the Noa, Commander Smith watched
sailor signaled the ship.

had gathered

for the
his

signal.

gunnery

there.

He

officer,

disregarded formal naval regulations.

Calling to
the late Lieut. Ben Staude (who afterwards com-

mitted suicide in Southampton, England), he shouted:

THE DRAGON STIRS

30

know whether

don't

"I

but

for this

let 'er

go,

or a decoration

Benny!"

Not a

Benny obeyed.

get a court-martial

we'll

Noa

derous barrage which the

have penetrated the thunand Emerald laid down. The foreigners,

living soul could

down

scrambled

knotting sheets together,

the ancient

sixty-foot wall

which surrounds Nanking. They scuttled across the lowlands bordering

the river and were quickly taken off in small boats to the destroyers.

The Noa brought

others

came on

down

several refugees

the

river.

of the

Commander Smith

Chinese river steamers.

friendly

Most

got no court-martial!
Inside the International Settlement and French Concession the gay

The

routine went on and on.

by the war going on

all,

all

inhabitants

were disturbed

The

around them.

field

in

the

breeze, a

left

upper

flapping

American
sight

a red

of the Nationalists

on the

hand

emblem

sailors
streets

fluttered

It

"new

of the

at

Kuomintang

with a white star in the blue

flag,

corner.

if

old five-barred flag of

the original Chinese Republic was replaced by the scarlet

emblem

little,

deal"

in

everywhere in the

China.

and United States Marines long were a familiar

there.
We kept a permanent "China Patrol" of

warships on duty along the coast, and up the Yangtze for more than
a thousand miles.
The 4th Regiment, U. S. Marine Corps, remains
stationed in Shanghai.
Until the country is less chaotic these forces
will

The men frequent

stay to protect our interests there.

the same

dance halls and other amusement spots in the beguiling "Paris of the
East," which

members

of

the other

services

when men

Occasionally from a corner,

of

patronize.

the

Noa and Emerald

got together you would hear this ditty

Staude of an old Marine ballad,

orating the

"

Nanking Incident."

From
To

a paraphrase by the late Lieut.

The Halls of Montesuma, commem-

It

goes

the dance halls of old Shanghai

the walls of old Nanking,

We
And

have met

all

kinds oj

we've fought

all

women,

kinds of men.

Chorus
// the

Noa and

Ever join
Ifll be

And

the

Emerald

in fight again,

good-bye to Chiang Kai-shek

to Hell with Eugene Chen!

WHEN SHANGHAI

FELL

31

Eugene Chen was foreign minister in the now defunct Red-controlled regime at Hankow, in Central China, some six hundred miles
up the Yangtze River.
The foreigners, within ten days after the city's fall, returned to
their normal routine of club life, roulette, night clubs, golf, tennis,
dogs

and

horse

racing.

Shanghai

under

the

Kuomintang

revolu-

and foreign allied "Army of Occupation" appeared to have

changed but little from Shanghai under the North China war lords

tionists

and the

British.

THE "NANKING INCIDENT"

"Nanking Incident/* as it became known around the startled,

uncomprehending world, happened on Thursday of the week
which began with Shanghai's fall. The marching men from Canton seized Shanghai on Monday
and took Nanking, 175 miles inland
on the Yangtze, on Thursday.
The fall of Shanghai was a peaceful

THE

event compared to the horrors which accompanied the seizure of power

in the pleasant city of Nanking.
The Kuomintang troops, sweeping
ever northward toward Peking, their goal, got out of hand completely

Their

officers

could do nothing with their wild-eyed

men from South

China.

Men

hand, pillaged the town.

They looted
and sacked that town as a city has rarely been looted, even in China.
The worst part of that "incident" was that there were two score or
more foreigners residing there who refused all advice to clear out.
in

uniforms,

rifles

in

These "old China-hands" thought they

believed they could trust them, soldiers
out they were wrong
those who lived.

"knew the Chinese."

They
found
or no soldiers.
They

What these men and sturdy women did not know was that any
man with a gun, riding the high crest of victory, is not responsible
for his actions.
He may do anything, and usually does. That is an
axiom

of war.

The

victorious

soldiers

roamed through the

city,

destroying, pilhorrible events

raping the women, killing the men.

Many
occurred, but few were so cold-blooded as the wanton murder of Dr.
laging,

E. Williams, a missionary.
He had lived for years among the Chinese and could talk to them in their language.
He also thought that

J.

remaining in Nanking was safe.

Many others, too, preferred to remain and "save face" with their trusted Chinese friends.
But many

who saved face

man of God, was

lost

one.

their

lives.

He was

Dr.

Williams,

the head of

elderly

Nanking University. To go

along with the trend of the times, he had agreed to

32

kindly,

make a Chinese

THE
nominally
dent, but

the

"NANKING INCIDENT"

President

of

the

He

University

33

became Vice-Presi-

governed that missionary institution

still

The change was due

to the

wave

of anti-f oreignism

and nationalism

which swept over Asia.

Dr. Williams lost his life when a youth in
uniform, bent on robbery, loot and rape, shot the missionary dead.
The gunman doubtless had not the faintest inkling of Dr. William's
identity or the
area.

It

good he was doing countless Chinese

the corpse and went on his carefree

spoils

He

did not matter to the youth.

of war.

way

in

the

Nanking

killed him, leisurely

robbed

rejoicing in his share of the

These included the dead man's watch.

It

is

doubtful

whether the gay young man with the gun could read the timepiece
but time meant nothing to him then.
The ticking may have amused
his infantile mind, or the glint of the gold may have attracted his eye.

The "Nanking Incident" is a black spot on

The Chinese admit
Kuomintang Revolution.

the escutcheon of the

that.

For one

thing,

That meant "international complications."

The Chinese revolutionaries were not ready for such complications

were involved.

foreigners

They had

Hankow

war of

preferred

coast, until

their

men then at
Shanghai and Nanking, down near the

own on

avoiding

Peking was taken.

Railway to the ancient

Capital.

their hands.

They wanted

Also, the

to

They feared such

go on up the Kin-han
"incidents/' involving

not only the usually easy going United States Government, but tougher
customers to deal with when protection of their nationals is concerned,

such as Great Britain.

But men within the Kuomintang disliked the growing influence of

Moscow and Communism. This group included Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-shek, the

They

new Commander-in-Chief

of the Revolutionary Annies.

Shanghai and Nanking in a sudden swift bit of

definitely with the radical bloc in control of the

therefore took

strategy,

and

"government"

split

set

up

at

Hankow,

in the

center

of

China.

And

the

Nanking bloc eventually won out. General Chiang organized the National Government at Nanking in April 1927, less than a month after

He

Chungking today as President

of the Executive Yuan, or Council
His Man Friday, Lin Sen, has
But Chiang
the nominal title of President of the Chinese Republic.
the

"Nanking

Incident."

controls

Kai-shek rules "Free China" with dictatorial powers.

of the Communist influence in China

is

The

only vestige

the Committee form of govern-

THE DRAGON STIRS

34
ment,

and

outbreaks

sporadic

of

Communist bands

in

the

interior

South-Central sections.

The

official

was made

report on the "Nanking Incident"

week by the United States Consul

His data was made available to me and

citing

been printed generally, in

believe

Consul Davis, a

full.

Mr. John K. Davis.

there,
I

ex-

that

man

never before

has

then in his forties,

whose wife went through the "Incident/' wrote his report under difHe remarked as he ended it on board a United States warficulty.
our Yangtze River Patrol, that "the task of drafting it by
longhand when without my glasses, of which I was robbed by Naof

ship

tionalist

soldiers,

and by

artificial

has been painfully

light,

laborious

and slow."
Nevertheless,

work

the

happened that week

is

an interesting, precise resume of what

Nanking, especially insofar as the events affected the foreigners there.

Mr. Davis called his report Anti-Foreign
No one in the foreign comOutrages at Nanking on March 24, 1927.
at

munity was concerned very deeply about what happened to the Chinese, but it may be assumed these "occurrences" were at least as grueThe Consul's report treats without mincing words of what
some.
happened

to

American women who refused

to

heed advice and

get

out while the getting was good.

Mr. Davis was forced

to flee

from the United States Consulate

In

and two small children the morning of March

24, finding refuge in the Standard Oil Company's house on Socony
Hill.
Here he, together with E. T. Hobart, a Standard Oil executive,

Nanking with

his wife

and members

of the

before forced

to

order the

Mr. Davis'

river.

Consular

report,

staff,

signal

kept the

for

therefore,

is

Chinese

off

for hours

from destroyers in the

based on his own eyewitness

relief

experiences in addition to conversations with others

who went through

the affair.

He

described

how

the

United

States

Consulate

was

looted,

and

brought out vividly the manner in which the American flag was intenHe said, in a paragraph on
tionally desecrated by Chinese soldiers.
the flag incident:

"The

flag

was

evidently as an

first

hauled

insult;

it

down and then

raised upside down,

was then hauled down, torn and the

halyard cut and taken away."

"

THE

NANKING INCIDENT"

35

This and the looting, Mr. Davis added, were done "by Nationalist
It was this point that men in the Hankow "govtroops in uniform."

ernment"

desired

mission to

to

inquire

argue,

into

the

contending

Nanking

that

affair

an

International

was the only

Com-

"civilized"

go about establishing whether or not Nationalist soldiers were

guilty; and, secondly, if so, whether the Hankow government could

way

to

be held responsible.
To this "Note," written by Eugene Chen Hankow's Minister for Foreign Affairs and note-writer par excellence
none of the Powers involved publicly replied.

Consul Davis'
at

official

report on the

"Nanking

Incident,"

prepared

Nanking while he was temporarily a refugee on board the U.

I

Isabel,

reproduce here in

S.

S.

full.

THE ANTI-FOREIGN OUTRAGES AT NANKING

ON MARCH TWENTY-FOURTH, 1927
From John K.

Davis, Consul.

Nanking, China.
Date of preparation: April 2, 1927.
Date of mailing: April 3, 1927.
File

No. 800/300.

The

outrages against foreign lives and property perpetrated by

soldiers

the

of

American

Nationalist

citizens

affected so

many

widely separated parts of the city

property, that it is impossible even now

located

and involved so much

army on March 24
in

a comprehensive picture of American injuries and losses.

In this report, however, an effort will be made to give a general
to give

picture

by

my

and to supply such pertinent information as is supported

own personal observation, sworn affidavits by American

citizens

and by statements

of the

Nanking Consular

of thoroughly reliable Chinese

members

staff.

L INJURIES AND LOSSES SUFFERED BY AMERICANS:

a. To Persons:
The most

serious single incident that occurred

blooded murder of Dr.

J.

was the cold-

E. Williams, Vice-President of Nan-

king University, by a uniformed Nationalist soldier at 8 a.m. on

the twenty-fourth.
From the sworn statements of Dr. Bowen,

Mr.

Speers and

Mr, Lowdermilk, enclosures Nos.

1,

and 3

THE DRAGON STIRS

36

no provocation whatsoever was

given by the victim and that the murder was entirely wanton.
Further, after killing Dr. Williams, the soldier callously robbed

to this report,

his

it

will be seen that

body.

As

members

five other

No.

11,

recognized

that

they

soldiers

obeyed

time

short

Nationalist

and

Women,

of the Ginling College for

comparatively
the

Williams,

proving

Minnie Vautrin and

be seen by the affidavit of Miss

will

were

the

looting

Nationalist

not

the

after

Ginling

the

of

"agents"

murder

thus

officer,

enclosure

Dr.

of

College

conclusively

Chihli-Shantung

Since the Ginling College is the first foreign compound

army.
west of the University of Nanking where Dr. Williams was
murdered and is less than half a mile from it, with no other

houses

intervening,

it

a large group, the members

Nationalist

Next

of

which were clearly proven to be

of

soldiers.

in seriousness after the

murder

Miss Anna E.

Moffett,

Presbyterian Mission.
Hull, enclosure No. 4,

Secretary

From
it

will

the

of

Dr. Williams was the

of

and wounding by a uniformed

shooting

was one

evident that the murderer

is

Nationalist

the

affidavit

soldier

American
of

of

Northern

Miriam E.

Miss

be seen that this crime was entirely

The sworn stateunprovoked, deliberate and peculiarly brutal

ment of William Jamieson, enclosure No. 5, also gives a general
idea of the attitude of the soldiers at this time,
ject
in

was the

the

stealing of property,

means

employed

to

whose main ob-

and who were uniformly brutal

force

their

victims

to

disclose

the

whereabouts of their valuables.

There occurred two known cases

of

attempted

American women by uniformed Nationalist

believed that

similar

cases

of

and

is

soldiers,

occurred of which

it

have not

For obvious reasons of modesty, the two

do not wish their names given and were unwilling to

yet been
victims

other

violation

informed.

make written sworn statements.

known to me and are thoroughly
teria or exaggeration.

or

more

However, both women are

truthful and not given to hysIn one case the woman was held by one

soldiers while the

would-be rapist pulled up her clothing

and was only stopped by the fortunate rushing

rable bent on loot in the wake of the soldiers.

in

of

civilian

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

so invariably the rule that to include all known

require a far longer report that it is possible now

was

Brutality

would

cases

under

to prepare

37

my

present limitations of staff and

office

equip-

ment.

From my

personal observation I can vouch for the rough

handling and robbing of Mr. E. T. Hobart, Vice-Consul Paxton
were repeatedly
and myself at the residence of Mr. Hobart.

We

menaced with loaded

pistols

soldier started to shoot

and

rifles

Mr. Hobart

One

and by bayonets.

order that he might get

in

and only desisted when I promised

that it would be promptly taken off, and pointed out that they
would get more money if we were not killed.
Women were treated with as much brutality as men and the
off a tightly fitting finger ring,

number

reported instances of extreme

brutality to them \vas due (1) to the fact that the greater part
of the American women and children had heeded my advice and

absence

of

larger

of

already been evacuated; and (2) because of those who were in

the city, many were either assembled in the places of greatest
safety

were hidden away singly or

or

houses

of

friendly

in

small groups

in

the

Chinese.

Mrs. Bates, whose husband's statement appears as enclosure

No. 6, was very roughly handled and partly stripped by NaBrenton, an American lady of 60 or
more who lay seriously ill in a chair, had her bedding torn off
her and was searched and robbed; and a young American nurse

was made
enclosure
feelings
ing,
dier.

Mrs.

soldiers.

tionalist

of

to

show her

garters

(see

Mr. Alspech,
woman, who from

affidavit

One young American

modesty refused to make a sworn

No.

7).

of

statement in writ-

had her sanitary napkin torn off her by a Nationalist solMrs. Mills (enclosure No. 6) reports the threatening of

an old lady because

could

she

not

get

off

her

wedding

ring

quickly enough.

In Mr. L.
that his wife,

J.

Owen's

whom

affidavit

know

abdomen and her

searched. Their two little

to

her

Miss Van Vliet

(enclosure No.

10),

he states

be pregnant, had a bayonet pressed

dress ripped and her underclothing

to

were also roughly handled.

(see enclosure No. 1) was robbed, partigirls

THEDRAGONSTIRS

38

and then searched, the soldiers feeling her garter

convinced of its lack of
clasp and intending to remove it until
Even children of tender age were not exempt.
intrinsic value.
Mr. Lowdermilk (enclosure No. 3) states they were searched,
stripped

ally

while Mr. Speers (enclosure No. 2)

tells

of the deliberate firing

a child of seven.

at

The

greatest brutality

They were

ican men.
fire

shot

arms,

at

was shown the majority

beaten,

and many

of the

Amer-

repeatedly threatened with loaded

had their outer clothing stripped

Dr. Jones in his statement (enclosure No. 9)

described how Mr. A. A. Taylor (British) was dragged along
with a rope around his neck and was shot at, and many other
their backs.

off

instances

will

be found described in

the

sworn

enclosed

state-

ments.
b.

Robbing and Destruction

Only second

and

in

American Property:
the

importance to

violence

lesser

of

American

to

taking

persons

of

were

American
the

life

wholesale

robbery and destruction of American property.

Practically all Americans in the city were robbed of

all

their

belongings on their persons and in their homes, and usually with

Details of the circumstances will be
great violence and brutality.
found in the enclosed sworn statements.
Even stairways, win-

dow

frames, doors and in short everything which could be torn

Not content with this destruction, three
out, were taken away.
institutional

dren,

the

buildings,

the

Hillcrest

School

for

Nanking Theological Seminary and

American
one

chil-

building

of

the Friends* (Quaker) Mission Hospital were burned.

Approximately ten American residences suffered a similar fate.

Some American

business offices and the

Pukow and
up to now to be

pany's installations in

kwan

are believed

the

Standard Oil Com-

riverine

intact,

suburb of Hsia-

an immunity growing

out of their location and the fact that the naval barrage stopped
the worst violence before the Nationalist soldiers had
got down
to the river.
c.

Attack

Upon American

The most outrageous

Consulate:

destruction of

American property from

THE

"NANKING INCIDENT"

39

an international standpoint, however, was the attack upon and

thorough looting of the American Consulate shortly before

the

noon on March 24 by Nationalist soldiers.

Entry was gained
through the rear entrance upon which in large Chinese characters was a sign "American Consulate," so that the attack could
been through "misunderstanding/* Moreover, the flag
on the flag staff was fully visible from all around.

not have

The

soldiers

came

in holding their

rifles

ready to shoot and

"show us where the foreigners

are so that we may kill them" and similar threats.
Upon being
told by the Chinese staff and the servants that this was the
American Consulate and that Americans were friendly to the
Chinese, the soldiers replied that all foreigners were alike and
were to be killed.
out

calling

When

"kill

the foreigners,"

satisfied

no Americans were there, the soldiers

everything in the office and residence and to
that

proceeded to steal
break up what they could not carry away.
They paid special
attention to the safes and metal filing cabinets and endeavored

by threats and force to compel the Chinese employes to open

the former.
Using various implements, they then attacked the
safes and managed to make a good sized hole in the back of one.
Fortunately, the compartment reached only contained stationery,

upon the discovery of which they decided

worth further effort.

The

that this safe

soldiers even took off metal beds, metal

similar large pieces of furniture.

When

they had

file

all

cabinets

and common people were urged by them

and take what was left
As a result, the Chinese

two

stoves,

latter,

is

and

they wanted,

the loafers

that the building

was not

to

come

staff

in

report

looted clean with the exception of the safes,

books

scattered

and papers

and

some

desks,

the

however, being seriously damaged.

The

flag

was

first

hauled

evidently as an insult;

it

down and then

raised upside down,

was then hauled down, torn and the

halyard cut and taken away.

Thus,
its

the

furniture

American Consulate was robbed

of

virtually

all

and equipment and the American Consul stripped

THEDRAGONSTIRS

40
of all
all

household furnishings, clothing and personal

by the Nationalist troops in uniform.

property

his

No

was made

effort

to stop this orgy until subsequent to the

naval barrage, and after

damage had been done.

the

all

INJURIES TO OTHER NATIONALS-

2,

In a manner similar
foreigners,

including

to that

used against Americans,

Japanese,

were assaulted and

all

other

robbed,

but

American buildings were burned,

no buildings owned by other nationals were so treated.
The Japanese Consulate was the first government center
The large number of Japanese assembled there were
attacked.
it is

significant that while

some

13

According to the statement of

then in charge here, shots were de-

robbed and brutally mistreated.

naval

the Japanese
liberately

officer

and several times

fired

at

the

Japanese

Consul

who

Three Japanese members of the consular staff

were attacked and wounded by Nationalist soldiers, while the

was

ill

in

consular
looted.

bed.

offices

and

residences

Japanese hotels,

dences

all

were

hospitals,

suffered similar fates.

thoroughly

places

of

robbed

and

and

resi-

business

One Japanese

sailor

was

also

shot and killed.

A
of

French Catholic father was murdered.

the

men

Alerte

stated

that

Nationalist

officer

The commander
followed

entered the school where the priest was and,

warning whatsoever, himself shot him.

An Italian Catholic priest was also shot and

by

his

without any

killed

by Na-

and without provocation.

Nationalist soldiers are reported to have poured kerosene on
parts of the Catholic church, but were prevented from actually

tionalist

soldiers

setting fire to

of their

The

own

it

by Chinese neighbors who feared for the safety

property.

having two men

S. Smith, a much respected and honored local
killed, Dr. L.
practitioner, and Mr. Huber, the Harbormaster of the Chinese
Maritime Customs.
Both were murdered at the British ConBritish suffered the heaviest loss of

life,

where they had been taking refuge. Mr. Bertram

Giles and Captain Spear were also shot and wounded at the
Both the murders and wounding were done
Consulate General.
sulate General

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

41

by Nationalist soldiers who knew where they were and,

Giles*

who

case,

The
cessive

their victim

Mr.

in

was.

was thoroughly looted by sucsoldiers and the two wounded men

British Consulate General

waves of Nationalist

accompanied by Mrs. Giles and a Miss Blake were for 31 hours

in the back room of the gate house.
Although the outrages at
Consulate

the

were matters

General,

the

including

wounding of Mr.

common knowledge throughout

of

the

Giles,

nothing

city,

whatsoever was done towards affording adequate protection and

afternoon

the

until

relief

British

25.

wherever found were robbed and abused in

citizens

same manner

the

March

of

Americans, and their residences, places of

as

business and the hulks, alongside of which ships load and

were

charge,

all

were

buildings

thoroughly

burned,

in

looted.

Although

cases

many

none

and

door

the

dis-

their

of

window

frames were torn out, and in one case, even the floors were dug
up.

CHINESE OFFICERS AND TROOPS RESPONSIBLE:

3.

Cheng Chien, Commander-in-Chief of

General

Army and

tionalist

River,

the

is

high

for

sponsible

deavor to

the

the

city

4th

city

of

the

whose troops are

re-

(South)

probably be useless to en-

time of the incidents.

informed us, however, that

The Red Swastika

the Commander of

(2nd Nationalist Army) was actually in the

24th; it has also been subsequently learned that

Division

on the

Hu

General
Division,

My

will

Bank

Na-

upon any particular division, as

both the 2nd and 6th Nationalist Armies were

Society's officers

the

It

6th

responsibility

the

at

Officer

Commanding

outrages.

fix the

at least parts of

in

Director of the Right

the

was

Yao-tau,

Commander

of

the

2nd

"Independent"

also then in the city.

Chinese

staff

inform

me

that the

troops which attacked

and looted the American Consulate belonged to the 2nd Independent Division.

However,

this

fact should

not be mentioned

might result in the persecution of our very loyal employes

who have already suffered both loss and hardship because of
as

it

their connection with our office.

THE DRAGON STIRS

42

PROOFS OF ORGANIZATION AND PREMEDITATION:

As

sworn

of

affidavits

of

some 30 American

which are ap-

citizens

a number of the
report as enclosures or exhibits,
level headed of the Americans have stated it as their firm
this

to

pended

more

noted from an examination of the certified copies

will be

outrages of

the

belief that

March 24 were not only committed

with the knowledge and consent of the higher Nationalist officers,

but were part of a premeditated and carefully arranged plan to

From

drive Americans and other foreigners out of China.

written

and verbal

statements,

as

well

as

from

the

their

of

series

came under my personal observation and the statements made to me by uniformed Nationalist soldiers and petty
events that

am

fully

king Incident

was

convinced both

of the guilty

knowledge
of
on
the part
the higher
of, and the consent to, the outrages
officers, including General Cheng Chien, and (2) that the Nan-

officers,

carefully

(1)

planned

in

advance by

at

least

part of the controlling leaders of the so-called Nationalist move-

ment.

This

is

a serious statement, but

believe that after care-

examining the enclosed affidavits and noting the following

points, the Department and Legation will fully concur in my

fully

conclusions
a.

It

Chen

Time Within Which Outrages Occurred:

has been claimed
that

agents

of

the

Nanking

in

a public statement

incidents

the Chihli-Shantung

were the

by Mr.

work

Army and were

of

Eugene

disguised

planned with a

view to bring discredit upon the Nationalist government. There are

many proofs that this was not and could not have been the case.

The

single item of the time within

almost

which the outrages occurred

and

sufficient
throughout the city, is
alone to prove that they could not have occurred without the
knowledge and consent of the higher Nationalist commanders.

simultaneously

Commencing

at

about

in

the

morning,

they

continued

with

ever increasing violence until after the naval barrage which

began
in
the
at 3:25
Not only so, but the three consulates
afternoon.
are

all

located on the principal street of the

city,

and whatever

took place there must have been promptly and

fully
the higher officers.

known

to

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

43

Further, although General Cheng Chien, Commander of the

6th Army, issued an order for the protection of foreign lives

and property, according

own

written statement, after hearnot enforced.

For while the

to his

barrage, this was

barrage stopped violence to persons, foreign buildings were looted
on the 25th and 26th, according to the statements of servants

ing

naval

the

who would have no

reason

to

lie

in

this

Moreover,

regard.

petty looting at the British Consulate General by soldiers continued on the 28th and the residences of the British employes

Tientsin-Pukow Railway at Puchen, three miles above

Pukow, were reported as looted on the first of April. Had it

of

the

been true that the outrages were the work of Northern soldiers,
they could not possibly have been continued under the noses of
the Nationalists

for so long.
In the affidavit of Miss Minne Vautrin

(enclosure No.

11),

she states that at about 10 in the morning of March 24 an officer,

the brother of a Ginling College student, came to the college
and rendered assistance in protecting the American teachers.

As

that time he must have seen and heard

at

outrages

many

of

the

Americans, including the murder of Dr. Wilcertainly would have reported them; the uninter-

against

and

liams,

of

2 hours thererupted continuance of the worst incidents for $y

after could not have occurred without the full knowledge and

consent of the higher

b.

officers.

Similarity of Incidents Throughout City:

The
number
as five

were perpetrated in a large

of separate premises located, in some instances, as much
miles apart were all characterized by so striking a simianti-foreign outrages which

larity as

to indicate that they

a prearranged

were carried out

in

the execution

In practically each case the soldiers entered the foreign premises threatening the occupants with rifles
of

or pistols

would

and

plan.

calling

When

kill.

for the foreigners

whom

foreigners were found, they were

and then forced

at the point of loaded fire

whereabouts

concealed

given

up,

of

the

they stated they

soldiers

valuables.

proceeded

to

arms to

After
kill

or

all

first

robbed

disclose the

these

otherwise

had been
mistreat

THE DRAGON STIRS

44
their

victims,

in

many

cases

stripping

them

outer

their

of

clothing.

was noted by Mr. Hobart and myself and also reported by

missionaries who at the time were many miles from us, that the
It

soldiers bore every evidence of having been

worked up by

care-

propaganda to perform deeds which they naturally feared to

commit.
It was noted that when one soldier gave evidence of
ful

being somewhat
of his fellows

by our attitude and arguments, one

would remind him

army"
them all.

lutionary
killed

restrained

which

In the majority

did

that he belonged to the

not

fear

and purposely

foreigners

of cases, and notably at

"revo-

American and

the

Japanese Consulates, after the soldiers had taken what they could
carry,

come
an

they forced the

in

alibi

later

in

loot also

people at

the

of

point

the

gun

to

This was palpably done in order to create

advance that the "ignorant and stupid'

people might

be blamed.

The
on

and

local

looters proceeded in groups of 4,

when

one

6 or more, which moved

number, evidently a petty

This plan was noticed both at the Standard
officer, to do so.
Oil residence and at the American missions many miles away.
See the
c.

directed

affidavit

by

of Dr.

of

their

Bowen

(enclosure

No.

1).

And

Lesser Officers Were Often With Looters

Control Them When They Desired:

Had

the looters been Northern agents, they

Could

would not have

been

accompanied in some cases by Nationalist officers, nor

would they have been recognized as Nationalist soldiers by, or
have

obeyed

statements

of

the

orders

of,

such

officers.

Yet

Miss Minnie Vautrin and other

in

the

Ginling

sworn
College

faculty members (enclosure No. 11) it is distinctly shown that

not only was a Nationalist officer on the scene of looting, but
that he was able, when he chose, to exercise control over the
soldiers.
it

As

this action took place at about

clearly proves

that

10 in the morning,

the Nationalist

have known at approximately

being perpetrated by their men.

commanding officers must

10-30 just what outrages were
Their failure to

take

any

re-

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

45

straining action until after the naval barrage, which did not occur
until five hours later, is a clear indication of their guilty knowl-

In view of the control

edge of and acquiescence in the outrages.
exercised over the Nationalist soldiers elsewhere, the permitting
of the anti-foreign orgy at

Nanking

It is inconceivable that the higher

able

to control

their

men

for

also indicates premeditation.

officers

commanding

practically

were un-

hours and then,

eight

upon the barrage from the American and British naval vessels,
The unavoidable
suddenly became able to exercise such control.
conclusion is that control was exercised according to the desires
of the higher commanding officers, and that since at approximately 4 p. m. the troops were suddenly and promptly called
together, they had for the preceding eight hours been functioning
under orders

The

fact that

the looting

by

their

acquiesced in by various Nationalist

out in the sworn statement of Dr. A.
(enclosure No.
statements in the enclosed affidavits.

Nanking University

d.

soldiers
officers

was seen by and

is

clearly

brought

Bowen, President
1) and by several

of the

J.

Looting Soldiers Directed by Whistles

other

And Assembled

by

Bugle Calls:

Reverend Walter R. Williams (enclosure No. 12) states that

the successive bands of looting soldiers were moved on by shrill
whistles evidently blown by leaders.
As Mr. Williams was at
that time in hiding and not then being molested, he was in a
what took

place,

not enjoyed by those whose observations were

made

peculiarly advantageous position carefully to note

an

ability

while

undergoing violence at the hands of Nationalist

For this reason, and because he is a peculiarly con-

actually

soldiers.

servative

and

truthful

individual,

his

statement

in

this

regard

should be given special weight.

Reverend Walter R. Williams,

Mr. James M. Speers, Dr. Harry F. Rowe, and Dr. Donald W.
Richardson (enclosures Nos. 12, 2, 13, and 14, respectively),
According

to the statements of

immediately after the naval barrage bugles sounded the soldiers

As no
were evidently assembled or called off under orders.

THEDRAGONSTIRS

46

bugles had been previously noted,

did nothing to

officers

naval gun

men

Civilians

From my own
sworn

until

frightened by the

general control.

Looting Well Organised and in

e.

the

off their

commanding

but were able at will almost instantly to bring

fire,

men under

their

call

appears that the

it

Who Know

Some Cases

Nanking:

observation on the Standard Oil

statements

Directed by

made by

missionaries,

and from

hill

notably

by Dr.

Bowen, Mr. Owen and Mrs. C. H. Flopper (enclosures Nos.

was not haphazard
1, 10, and 15), it was clear that the looting
The small
but was carried out in a generally organized manner.
groups seemingly had known objectives and all followed 'the same
procedure of robbing, securing of concealed valuables by intimidation and violence to Americans.

According to statements of Messrs. Speers, Jones, Smith and

Mrs. Mills (enclosures Nos. 2, 9, 16 and 8, respectively), looting
groups of Nationalist soldiers were
nese

civilians

looters to

as

it

who,

known

led, in

familiar

being

with

This point

several cases,

Nanking,
is

by Chi-

guided

the

of great

importance
indicates that the outrages were planned in advance and that
objectives.

Nationalist

civilians

soldiers

their

f.

in

were

As

it

in

directing

and guiding the

campaign of outrage and terrorization.

All Civilian Looting

diers

utilized

Ordered or Led by Nationalist Sol-

has been asserted that

all

looting

was done by Northern

soldiers or

by the local people, it should be carefully noted that

from enclosures Nos. 17, 2, 4, 18, 13, 19, 20, 15, 7, and 26, it is
distinctly established by sworn statements by thoroughly reliable

American
by

citizens

occur,

it

although considerable

looting

was done

was only committed when ordered or led by

In other words, although some civilian looting did

local people,

the soldiers.

that

it

was never

initiated

by the people who merely followed

the soldiers' lead.

At

Consulate when the police endeavored to

stop some late looters from taking out bundles of articles which
the American

they had picked up, they (the police) were covered by the guns

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

of passing soldiers who said that

to loot foreign property at will

should be allowed

the people

At

47

time the proclamation

this

ordering the protection of foreign lives and property had already

been posted at the consular entrance gate.
g.

Houses Indicates Motiue Injury

of Chinese

Exemption

Mere Loot:

Foreigners and Not

From

to

several of the enclosed statements

from

Chinese houses were exempt

will

it

be seen that

In the

looting.

affidavit

of

Mr. Holroyd (enclosure No. 22) it is pointed out that the residence of Mr. Ip, a Cantonese member of the University of Nanescaped looting although located in the midst of a group
of American residences.
Had mere looting been the object of
king,

the troops, or had they been actually out of control, this building
Thus the prime actuating motive
would also have been robbed.
of the

outrages

is

seen to be injury to foreigners and not loot

alone.
h.

Evidences of Planning

From
it

W.

the statements of Reverend

and

No. 12)

of

Reverend

W.

P.

R. Williams (enclosure
Roberts (enclosure No. 23)

appears that certain steps were definitely planned in advance.

Mr. Williams heard soldiers stating that foreigners were to

be stripped to their underwear and that to kill a foreigner would

be to gain prestige.
As this was exactly the procedure followed
in several
this

cases in different parts of the city,

was a prearranged

plan,

the

eventual

it

is

evident that

execution

of

which

was only frustrated by the unanticipated naval barrage.

Mr. Roberts was told by a Nationalist officer that the
British hatred

was caused by the finding

anti-

of a dead

Englishman
"white"
dead
Russian
and
this
soldiers
that
discovery
among the
had so inflamed the minds of the Nationalist soldiers that they
had determined to

Mr.

found.

ganda

kill

Roberts

all

Russians and Englishmen

believes

purposely used to stir

hesitate

to

kill.

fully warranted.

It

appears

that

this

is

evidence

whom

they

of

propaup the soldiers that they would not

probable

that

this

conclusion

was

THE DRAGON STIRS

48
i.

Refusal oj Responsible

Officers

See Foreign Consuls:

to

Efforts to get into touch with the higher Nationalist

me

were made by

throughout

through the police

the

entire

by giving
Political Bureau

officials,

my

March

of

day
card

officers

to

24th,

and

soldiers

in the Hsiakwan surburb.

through the self-styled
While it is
Similar efforts were made by other foreign officials.

understandable

that

that all did so,

and

some messages miscarried

it

is

and be

officials.

Their

Even

obvious

were they to see such

officials

informed of the outrages, they could not disclaim

officially

knowledge or

is

impossible

only too plain that the higher officers

did not desire or intend to be seen by foreign

motive for this refusal

is

it

responsibility.

in the

evening

when General Cheng Chien

word

sent

through the Red Swastika Society asking that the barrage not
be repeated, he refused to send any responsible high officer to

Rear Admiral H. H. Hough, Captain

This refusal was continued
the Emerald and myself.

discuss the situation with

England of
on the 25th, when an impudent and evasive reply was received
from him.

j.

Neglect to

Had
erty, as

shek)

Take Advance Precautions:

the Nationalists desired to protect foreign lives and prop-

was claimed by General Chiang Chieh-shih (Chiang Kai-

in his statement to press representatives

in

Shanghai, ad-

vance steps would have been taken in view of the

known

pres-

ence in Nanking of three foreign consulates and a large foreign

population.

The

fact that

steps

Committee had no

that the Central

foreigners, but

no such

that anti-foreign outrages should occur.

vance

the protection

desire for

on the contrary, and for

that personally

were taken, clearly proves

its

own

It is

of

purposes, desired

believed, however,

General Chiang Chieh-shih probably had no ad-

knowledge

of

this

plan

and perhaps

regrets

the

occur-

rence.

However, General Chiang does not control the Nationalist

government and his own personal seemingly more reasonable

attitude

cannot be considered

trolling element

in

his

party.

as

representing

that

of

the

con-

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

49

Troops Committing Outrages Were Southern Chinese

k.

The

troops

which committed the outrages were from their

speech unquestionably Southerners. The large number with whom

I was forced to parley for over two hours at Mr. Hobart's resi-

dence and the

several

with

whom

spoke

before

leaving

the

American Consulate were either Hunanese or from Kiangsi and

few were evidently from Kwangtung, as they could not speak
Mandarin.
They wore straw sandals and many had the typical
Cantonese, large round bamboo hats strapped to their backs.
5.

EFFECT OF THE BARRAGE:

The
the U.

naval barrage which was put

S.

Preston and H. M.

S.

S.

down by

the U. S. S. Noa,

Emerald

in order to

save

the 52 foreigners beseiged in the Standard Oil house, unquestionably saved the lives not only of this party, but of a smaller 'group
at the British

Consulate General, of the large group of Japanese

at the Japanese Consulate and of some 120 Americans mainly as-

sembled at the University of Nanking.

It was directed at the
open hill country immediately around the Standard Oil residences

and while a few

shells

went beyond, the damage done to Chinese

other than to the attackers of the residences in question, was

infinitesimal
the damage to Chinese property was also negligible.

life,

Not only

the country around the Standard Oil hill open and

with only occasional groups of farm houses, but the same statement is true of the country beyond and in line with the fire. The
is

Nanking was not bombarded and all of the statements to

the contrary by Mr. Eugene Chen are palpably mendacious and
intended to deceive the Western world.
City of

The

statements of Americans in their sworn affidavits as to

the beneficial effect of the naval barrage are too

quoted

here

but

should

be

carefully

noted.

numerous to be

In

general these
the lives of all

agree that the naval gun fire saved

foreigners then within the city walls; that it instantly stopped
the firing off of rifles and pistols by looting Nationalist soldiers;
statements

that

it

that

it

possible the evacuation of foreigners on March 25th;

caused the blowing of bugles to call off the looters; that

made

the worst violence and looting

was

instantly stopped

by

it;

that

THEDRAGONSTIRS

50
civilian

in brief,

of the results desired both effectively

all

produced
6.

were awed and restrained; and,

looters

that

it

and promptly.

CONCLUSION.

From

the facts as brought out above, and from the abundant

material contained in the enclosed affidavits, it is shown that on

March 24th

there occurred a deliberate and evidently prearranged

campaign of unparalleled violence and outrage against all foreigners in Nanking by portions of the 2nd and 6th Nationalist
Besides doing nothing to restrain his troops until forced
to do so by the naval barrage, the Nationalist commanding officer
armies.

refused to send any high ranking officer to discuss

consistently

and arrange for the

whose actual evacuation

the incidents

the

city,

relief

of the foreigners left in

described

as

in

my

despatch

March 28th, was only made possible by a strong threat to

bombard the city.
Further, after the outrage he has shown no
of

and

contrition

done

has

nothing

whatsoever

towards

making

amends or punishing those guilty on the contrary, he has maintained an attitude of truculence and impudence, and has lightly
;

dismissed

the

instigated

by Northern agents.

It

incidents

has been

as

the

work

impossible to cover

therefore, that the

of

all

local

points

Department and Legation

"bad

and

characters"

it

is

hoped,

will not confine their

attention to those elucidated in his report, but will carefully ex-

amine the mass of valuable material contained

in

the enclosed

copies of sworn statements by American citizens.

7.

THIS REPORT PREPARED UNDER DIFFICULTIES:

In

spite

Commander

of

the

generous assistance of LieutenantFrank H. Luckel and the officers of the U. S. S.

very

John D. Ford, the preparation

with

much

without
diers,

slow.

difficulty.

my

glasses,

and by

shortage

appearance.

for

of

report has been attended

task of drafting

which

it

by longhand when

was robbed by Nationalist

sol-

been painfully laborious and

of typewriters on board and limitations of

artificial

space have also

accountable

The

of this

light,

has

These conditions are

delayed its completion.
the many obvious imperfections in style and

THE "NANKING INCIDENT"

In making the enclosed copies of

affidavits,

do good typing and many corrections

required to make them exact.
Finally credit is due Vice-Consul Paxton

possible to

assistance

worked

and

far

to Clerk

into

the

51
it

has been im-

in ink

for

have been

his

constant

A. H. Zee who has come on board and

night

in

order that this

report

might be

completed and put upon a down river steamer.

John K. Davis
American Consul
Davis*

report

would seem

Washington as the
so

many

dren)

foreigners

official

It

remains

on

file

in

version of the "Nanking Incident," in which

(including

were involved.

self-sufficient.

American men, women and some

chil-

"WHY WE ARE

if

Corps
FEW,
idea

IN CHINA"

any, of the men in the United States

officers as well as enlisted personnel

of

why

they

were sent

to

China in

Navy and Marine

had a very clear

such numbers by the

American Government during the chaos which began with the Kuomintang Revoution.
Some eventually gained a rudimentary knowledge (1) of the basic
causes of the trouble that was endangering all life and property in
Asia, native as well as foreign; and (2) that they, for this very fundamental reason, were sent East to protect American lives and property
in that persistently erupting area in the Orient. Their task was not to
interfere with domestic difficulties of the Chinese, but to prevent these
frequent outbreaks from interfering too greatly with the activities of

American

families

who

chose or were obliged to reside in that almost

constant "danger zone" in the Far East.

This protection of foreign "lives and property" became a catchphrase among the inhabitants of China during the Canton-inspired
revolution which swept northward over the entire country beneath
the Great Wall, from 1926 to 1928.
With some observers, this ordiserious
business
of
our
men
in
uniform became known as the
narily
"protection of

&

1.

or "lives and property

p."

as usual,

don't

you

know."

The

fighting

men

toward the Chinese

that surge.

them

with the popular attitude of the traders

imbroglio and the Chinese peoples involved in
fell

in

knew

the causes of the turmoil which brought

on the long voyage to the Orient, let alone understood the races

They

rarely

of yellow-skinned, slant-eyed peoples around them.

odd in that lack of comprehension by men in the

In the

was

There

is

nothing

Navy

or

Marine

"not to reason why."

Their oath to the flag and their own country was but "to do or die."
These men had not the slighest interest in the cause of China's trouCorps.

first

place,

theirs

52

certainly

S3

The majority were a happy-go-lucky lot of men, without a care

the world.
The "tour of duty" out China-way was just another

bles.

in

assignment which made the

men who were

pealing to

look for a

Marine so ap-

or naive

enough to
They were largely intent on taking
"causes" be damned.
They were

by "joining up."
where they found it

was enough.

strangers in a strange land, and that

To combat

sentimental

romantic,

thrill

fun

their

of a soldier, sailor or

life

"know-nothing" lethargy among the United States

Navy in the Far East during the Kuomintang Revolution, an officer
aboard the U. S. S. Cincinnati issued a mimeographed Memorandum
this

to fellow-officers

The

Cincinnati

and

was

enlisted

men

flagship

of a cruiser

in

our

on the ''China Station/

fleet

squadron rushed to China

The

during the height of the trouble in the spring of 1927.

ships were cruisers

They were
fleet

sent

in those

U.

S.

S.

Richmond and

out to reinforce the

the

S.

normal strength

S.

sister

Memphis.

our Asiatic

of

abnormal times.

In addition, the United States had two bodies of Marines at Shanghai then
the 4th and 6th Regiments.
Their ignorance of why the

Chinese fought, endangering foreign lives and property, was abysmal

but, be it emphasized, no more abject than that of the average trader

who moved

make

into a strange land for the usual reason, namely, to

money.

The Memorandum was

nery

officer

issued by Lieut.

of exceptional intelligence.

Stanley A. Jones, a gun-

Jones rose from the

He was

own
The

a natural student, and passed on his

others with him in the China "adventure."

which

the

Lieutenant gave was

He

ation in the Orient.

our

government's

the

Chinese races.

few

words

follows, in

told
its

what

information to the
outline

of

history

situa comprehensive study

gave a thumb-nail sketch of the reasons for

intense

He

ranks.

interest

in

1927

in

the

developments

among

"Our Mission to China," and in a

mission was.
The unique Memorandum

called

that

of

it,

entirety:

OUR MISSION TO CHINA

To

the crew of the U. S.

S.

Cincinnati:

time to acquaint you all with the

Our mission is to protect the lives
object of our cruise to China.
It

is

appropriate at this

THE DRAGON STIRS

54

and property

of

American

and by reciprocity, we protect

citizens,

the lives of other foreigners.

You might ask:1. What are American

doing in China?
don't they leave China if their lives are in danger?
grievance have the Chinese against foreigners?
citizens

2.

Why

3.

4.

What
What

5.

be our relations with them under the present difficulties?

What countries are in sympathy with the Chinese in their

are

countries

involved,

particularly

and what

will

present stand?
6.

Cannot the Chinese government handle their own affairs?

seem

These
minds

the

of

to

be

those

the

who

questions

logical

are

to

likely

not acquainted with

the

arise

in

situation

In reply thereto, the following extracts from

various sources, coupled with first hand knowledge of the Chinese

Far

in the

East.

question gathered during seven years of duty on the China station, should enlighten you as to why the foreigner is persistent
in his interest to get

China on her

feet.

As

a result of the experience of one John Ledyard of Connecticut with the Captain Cook Expedition to the Pacific, the
first ship to sail from America to engage in trade with Asia was
the

Empress of China
coast of America with
with Canton.

He

Ledyard returned from the northwest

stories of the fur trade being carried on

told of traders buying furs for sixpence

which

These tales interested merchants of

Canton for $100.
Boston and New York so the Empress of China was fitted out
and sailed for Canton on February 22, 1784. She returned May
sold

in

1785.

12,

The

return of the

sensation.

Empress

of

China created somewhat of a

report of the cruise to our President contained the

statements that the Americans were treated as barbarians.

today,

among

the illiterate Chinese,

we

Even

are referred to as foreign

Americans and Europeans have always been unwelcome

Until the year 1842 Canton was the only
prospectors in China.
devils.

China open to foreign trade; and the merchants who

attempted to do business with the Chinese suffered many inport

of

justices.

The

foreigners

made every

effort

to

come

to

friendly

"WHY WE ARE
terms with the

Chinese,

CHINA"

IN
to

yielding

55

Chinese authority as

cir-

cumstances demanded.
Terranova, from an American
ship out of Baltimore, was turned over to the Chinese for punThe
ishment for the killing of a Chinese bumboat woman.

In

1821

Francis

seaman,

punishment for slaughter under Chinese law was only a small fine.
As an indication of the prejudice against foreigners, Terranova

was strangled without even a hearing.

Until 1840, the United States Government offered little or
no protection to our citizens in China.
Since then, however, we
have entered into treaties with the Chinese and become interested
and involved in Far Eastern affairs, along with other Powers

who

are competitors in the commercial

John Quincy Adams,

field.

a lecture in 1841, before the Mass-

in

The fundamental principles of

achusetts Historical Society, said
It admits no obligation
the Chinese Empire are anti-commercial.
It utterly denies
to hold commercial intercourse with others,
:

the equality of other nations with

itself,

and even

is

independent

It holds itself to be the center of the terraqueous globe, equal to

the heavenly host,

and

relations,

or

political

reverently submissive

all

other nations with

commercial,

as

outside,

whom
tribal

to the will of its despotic chief.

it

has any

barbarians,
It is

upon

openly avowed and inflexibly maintained, that the

principal maritime nations of Europe for several centuries, and
the United States of America from the time of their acknowlthis principle,

edged independence, have been content to hold commercial interIt is time tJiat this enormous
course with the Empire of China.
outrage upon

the

rights

of

human

nature,

and upon

the

first

principles of the rights of nations should cease.

The caus

war

arrogant and
unsupportable pretensions of China that she will hold commercial
intercourse with the rest of mankind, not upon the terms of equal
reciprocity,
lation

of

the

but upon

the

is

the

insulting

"kowtow,"

the

and degrading forms of re-

between lord and vassal.

Adams was
execution,
foreigners.

and

Secretary of State at the time of Terranova's

well understood the Chinese attitude toward

THE DRAGON STIRS

56

Nanking (British) provided for the

Foochow, Ningpo, Amoy and Shanghai

In 1842, the Treaty

of

opening of the ports of

for the purposes of trade.

The

American

first

He

Caleb Gushing.

Commissioner,

resident

in

was

China,

the United States with detailed instruc-

left

make a

tions and with the authority to

treaty to regulate trade.

After the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, England believed

that Cushing's mission would be fruitless.
However, he proved
himself an able diplomat and

without intimidation.

Wanghai, contains
has

there
ticles

recently

won

several concessions

Cushing's treaty,

known

from China

as the Treaty of

the doctrine of extraterritoriality, over

much

been

discussion.

The

with reference to extra-territorial rights

China who

is

text

which

the

of

as follows

ar-

"Sub-

be guilty of any criminal act toward

citizens of the United States shall be arrested and punished by
of

jects

may

the Chinese authorities according to the laws of China,

zens of the United States

who may commit any crime

and
in

citi-

China

be tried and punished only by the consul or other public

official of the United States thereto authorized according to the

shall

laws of the United States," And,

"all articles in

regard to rights,

property or person, arising between citizens of the

United States and China shall be subject to the .jurisdiction of,

whether

of

and regulated by, the

this

article

authorities of their

also adds:

between the

citizens

and

of

all

the

own government."

controversies

United

States

And

occurring in China

and the subjects

of

any other government shall be regulated by the treaties existing

between the United States and such governments, respectively,
without interference on the part of China.
That until the Chinese laws are distinctly made known and recognized, the punish-

ment

for

others

wrongs committed by foreigners upon the Chinese or

shall

not

be greater

than

their

applicability

to

offense by the laws of the United States or England;

any punishment be

inflicted

foreigner until the guilt of

the

nor

like

shall

by the Chinese authorities upon any

the party shall have been fairly and

dearly proven."

In drafting

famous

this

Terranova

treaty,
case.

Gushing evidently had in mind the

Other

Powers

now have

the

same

"

\V

H Y

A R E

XA

"

57

The Treaty of Wanghai provided also

agreement with China.
for the right of American citizens to establish residences in treaty
Thus, the Treaty of Wanghai marked the entrance
the United States into Far Eastern politics.

ports.

of

our dealings with China we have endeavored to follow

The present unrest
diplomatic channels rather than military.
In

all

by no means our

experience with the anti-foreign feeling

in China.
During the Taiping Rebellion in 1853 the walled city
of Shanghai came into the possession of the rebels.
The customs
is

first

house was looted and the Imperial Chinese Government sought

assistance in the suppression of the rebels.

While

has always
to interfere with the
it

been the policy of the United States not

internal politics of a nation, we consented to concerted action of
the treaty Powers in rendering assistance to the Imperial Government of China. The United States took no part in the affair

because of our

own

civil

war

at

home.

The Taiping

Rebellion

ended in 1863 in favor of the Imperial Government.

On account of the corruptness of Chinese officials and as a

made by

the treaty Powers, all revenue is

collected at the treaty ports by the Chinese Maritime Customs,
which is officered by the Powers.

guarantee

for loans

In 1923, Sun Yat-sen,

threatened

tonese,
t

his

collect

to

who was

seize

own*' revenue.

Sun

this occasion.

customs

house

The Powers saw

The writer was

at

to

it

Canton
that

his

and
in-

present at Canton
issued a statement to the effect that, while

tentions did not materialize.

on

the

then the leader of the Can-

the Chinese people might expect a second Lafayette, the

Powers

concentrated men-of-war at Canton to prevent him from taking

The Powers could
over what he believed wr ere his just rights.
not yield to Sun Yat-sen's demand without violating their treaty
Sun was not recognized as in any
with the Peking Government.
way connected with the Chinese Government.

Cantonese, with their recent successes, are now in control

the treaty ports south of and along the Yangtze River.

The
of

all

Even though they

are in control they cannot collect the revenue,

due to the treaties which exist between the Powers and the rec-

ognized

Peking

Government.

This

provokes

the

anti-foreign

THE DRAGON STIRS

feeling.

Should

the

Cantonese overthrow the

Peking Govern-

ment, they will no doubt negotiate for the modification of existing

opinon of many correspondents that the
Powers will not consent to the abrogation of extra-territoriality
Also, that the best solution to the Chinese question is
rights.

treaties.

It

is

the appointment

the

a council

of

or commission,

expert in govern-

mental organization, to straighten out the government in China.

Another anti-foreign demonstration took place in 1900 when
a secret society, known as the "Boxers/' said to have been in
collusion with the Manchu Government, attacked the foreign lega-

Peking and massacred native Christians and foreign misThe Legation guards were unable to handle the situsionaries.

tions at

ation, so a force of

19,000 troops composed of British, American,

Russian, French and Germans, advanced on Peking.

This affair

Government $337,500,000. The idemnity

by the Powers was $750,000,000, but through the good
of the United States, it was reduced.

cost the Chinese

levied
offices

The death of the Emperor in 1908 hastened the overthrow of

Sun Yat-sen organized a revolutionary
the Manchu Dynasty.
party in 1910 and became the leader of a movement for a govThis move was successful, and Dr. Sun
ernment by the people.
abdicated his leadership in 1911 in favor of Yuan Shi-kai, who
subsequently became the first President of the Chinese Republic.
Yuan was confronted with a very difficult task, for neither he

nor his associates had the experience necessary for the establish-

ment

of a stable federal government.

During the organization of

some dissension developed regarding the representatives of the provinces.

In 1916, a movement was started to
abolish the Republic and return to a monarchy.
Yuan Shi-kai
the Cabinet

was to become Emperor.

throughout the country.

This step met with wide opposition

Sun Yat-sen set up a Provincial Gov-

Canton and started another revolutionary campaign

that has been active ever since.

ernment

in

Sun Yat-sen was

tireless

in his

efforts to gain foreign

recog-

nition, but was unsuccessful.

After the Powers blocked his plans

to take over the Canton Customs in 1923, he
accepted the aid and
counsel of Soviet Russia.

The propaganda and

activity

of

Red

"WHY WE ARE

CHINA"

IN

59

Russia has prevailed among the Cantonese forces for the past
three years.
Russia, an outcast so far as world politics is conthe only country allied to the Cantonese and

is

cerned,

is

agita-

ting the anti-foreign feeling in China.

study of American participation in Chinese affairs clearly

indicates that were it not for the United States, China would
not be enjoying the sovereign rights she has today.
The United States Government and other European Powers,

having due regard for the recognition of treaties made according

to the laws of nations, are represented at Shanghai ready to use
force,

if

the various

enforce our

to

necessary,

treaty

The

rights.

forces

of

Chan Kai-shek (Chiang

provincial war lords, viz.
of the Cantonese,
Pei-fu, of the Central Govern-

Wu

Kai-shek)

ment; Chang Tso-lin,

the so-called

of the

Manchurians, and Feng Yu-hsiang,

"Christian General/' are

all

mercenary.

They are
pay them

often disloyal and will fight for anyone who is able to

More often they receive their pay through the
and feed them.
privilege

"The

of looting.

national

Dr,

writes

oped,"

spirit

of

the

Koo

Perhaps so, but it

tional spirit" be directed against the

to

the

British

tactics

of

war
menace

the Chinese

and can be expected to prove a further

the organization of the Chinese Government, than toward the

lords
to

devel-

Legation at
would be far better that this "na-

Wellington

Peking.

who

has been

Chinese people

are,

foreigners who are anxious to see a stable government at Peking.

The British and American Governments have both expressed

desire

for

the

modification

of

existing

treaties.

We

cannot

deal with rebels.

the

Summing up

information

contained

in

this

thesis,

the

answers to the opening questions are:

1.

American

2.

by right of treaty.
While treaties call for the protection
tionals,

citizens

citizens are in

we

of

lives

of

our na-

tolerate the actions of the Chinese rebels.

look

to

us for protection.
have us believe that

would
our rights as Americans
opinion

China engaged in legitimate trade

citizens,

we

Our

Some

expressions of
in order to demand

should remain within

THEDRAGONSTIRS
boundaries

the

nation

on

founded

is

of

rest

our

of

the

our

In

world.

The

country.

commercial

order

to

of

our

with

the

prosperity
relations

maintain

our

national

commercial interests require their representatives

establish residences in foreign countries.
They should

prestige,
to

and religious prejudice,

and protected against the laws of a country where the loss
of a human life is often not recorded.

at least be protected against racial

3.

Modern China

be unequal
and unjust. They forget the fact that the national indebtedness of China is in the neighborhood of one billion dollars.
All of the

believes the existing treaties

Powers of Europe, the United

to

States and Japan,

are concerned in the present situation in China.

allied

5.

the

determination

that the

foreign

Settlement

at

Shanghai shall not be disturbed.

None but Red Russia. She is trying to drag China down
to

6.

in

are

They

her level

China has not proven herself able to handle her own

ficulties.
The Government is bankrupt.

(SIGNED)

Stanley A. Jones,
Lieut.,

This document
bly tabulated form,

tells

its

which

own

all

story and

dif-

U.

S.

N.

answers the questions in

could read, given the desire.

Few had

ven that, of course;

professional fighters rarely care to get so deeply
iterested in the subject nearest them.
The Lieutenant's Memorandum,
lerefore, did but little

icture

aces

of

the

basic

good other than to show an exceptionally clear

relations between the Chinese peoples and the

from abroad
*

Sometimes the afternoon sun shone through the gray of February's

louds that lowered most days in the winter of 1927-28 over the

Vhangpoo

River

flats.

When

it

did,

the

rays

set

aglow the bur-

ished curves of a silver cup on a desk in a cold stone building in the

sart

of

Shanghai

Then

spattered sunlight, broken into myriad tiny

brightened the eyes of the man in uniform at the desk, and he

ioked at the loving-cup with admiration and pride.
The man was
lafts,

01

H.

C. Davis,

commanding

officer of the

Fourth Regiment, United

"

States

WH

Marine Corps,

stationed

The cup bore

headquarters.

ARE

in

Shanghai.

this inscription

NA

The

"

61
building

was

his

Presented to the Fourth Regiment,

United

States

Marine

Corps, by Major-General J. Duncan, Commanding British Shanghai Defense Force, as a memento of our friendly cooperation in
Shanghai, 1927-28.

The Duncan Cup was presented

January

who

Colonel

at

1928,

17,

Davis'

to

the

Regiment on

Fourth

headquarters.

General Duncan,

became Major-General Sir John Duncan and who returned

to England after nearly a year's service in China, presented it himself
later

token of appreciation of the friendship and cooperation

which existed between the American and British defense forces in the
as a personal

The General had appeared on

Far East.

the morning of the presen-

American Marine headquarters, unaccompanied by any of

In honor of that event, a full company of Marines had been

tation at the

his staff.

helmets and light marching equipment.

The
regimental band and the Marine fife and drum corps had taken part.
General Duncan had been given two ruffles and flourishes which he

present with

steel

rifles,

rated as a Major-General.

Just across the room, facing Colonel Davis' desk, another trophy
It was a flagstand bearing a silver
stood, also won in friendship.
plaque,

and on

it

was the

inscription

Presented to the Fourth

Regiment,

United

States

Corps by the First Battalion, the Green Howards,

orate Their Service Together in Shanghai, 1927.

The

to

Marine

Commem-

Green Howards, a British regiment, was at the

the plaque, and the Marine crest, with its motto, Semper

crest of the

bottom of

was engraved at the top. The American flag and

Regiment's colors were crossed, in the stand.
Throughout those earlier months the American and

fidelis,

other defense forces cooperated in a

The Nations

allied

in

fighting forces in the

the Great
field,

this

remarkable

War

in

time in

spirit

of

the Fourth

British

and

friendship.

Europe again had to place

And the manner in
China.

which they worked together and formed lasting friendships was the
When the Green
subject of much favorable comment out East.

Howards

left

for

England, the

Shanghai gave their

officers

officers

of

the

American Marines

in

a farewell dinner in the American Club,

THE DRAGON STIRS

62

December

the night of

port on January

down
sion.

the

6,

them

to see

As

1927

28.

they departed on board a trans-

company of American Marines

and the Marine Band turned out for the occa-

1928, there was a

off,

The "Tommies'* and the "Yanks" were

The same sort of spirit was noticeable in

entire

the

While there was no formal arrangement

American and British, and others too, in com-

covering the subject,

mand of naval vessels up the Yangtze River, took
io protect the lives and property not only of their
of other foreigners

example of the

two navies during

China.

in

year

buddies.

as

spirit

of

upon themselves

own

nationals, but

Incident" was a striking

The "Nanking

well.

it

was apparent throughout.

cooperation that

be recalled that American and British destroyers at Nanking

fired when called upon by refugees ashore in danger of their lives that
will

It

Every day the American and British commanding

spring of 1927.
The Japanese also attended. Although a
officers conferred together.
British officer, Captain England, was the superior naval officer present

when Lieut -Comdr

the time,

at

S.

S.

Noa, requested

England readily granted

And now, in the wardroom

the

Smith,

commanding

Jr.,

the

Cap-

it.

silver cigarette box,

not to the

but

his permission to fire first if necessary,

tain

tiful

Roy

the

to

wardroom

was the

of

U.

S.

Noa

S.

there

is

a beau-

suitably engraved, presented to the destroyer

officer,

his

British

warship,

commanding

Noa

of the

officers

by

the

the

Emerald stands a

or any other individual,

H.

large

British ship from the

M.

Emerald.

S.

silver

cocktail

In

shaker.

Noa.

Already a tradition
has arisen the shaker never is to be used except when an officer from
the U. S. S. Noa comes on board the H. M. S. Emerald.
It

gift to the

These are but a few

showing the cooperation and

spirit of friendship which marked the relations of the American and
British forces in China.
The fact that General Duncan and the late

Admiral

Mark

L.

of the incidents

Bristol,

commanding

the

American

naval

forces

were also close personal friends should be remarked.

Following their official calls, the British General and the American
Admiral were often together at social functions, and General Duncan
in

the

Orient,

was frequently a guest

Bristol.

at the

Shanghai residence of Admiral and Mrs,

This personal diplomacy,

this

getting to

know

the

men

of

other nations in charge of the affairs of their peoples, previously de-

monstrated in Turkey, again marked Admiral Bristol as an unusual

"

WH

A RE

and outstanding naval man who,

it

NA

"

was widely agreed,

63
fitted

fectly with his job in the Orient in those trying days.

In relating these incidents I have discussed only

States and

in

the

per-

United

Britain because these two nations had the largest defense

China during 1927.

It must not be thought that the other
Powers represented were not almost as friendly.
However, speaking

forces in

other languages, their men did not become as well acquainted as did
the British and Americans.
And, again, having smaller forces, there

was

little

occasion for the individual units of the French, for example,

or the Italians or others to work together intimately

A
that

study of the American and British forces in 1927-28 discloses

altogether the United States had, according to official figures,

men

4,399 officers and

in

the

Marine Corps

and men, and the usual complement

gunboats, destroyers and other men-of-war
officers

1,000

Army

United States

Navy

in

of
in

China,

the

"China

Station,"

together with three cruisers sent out to augment normal naval strength.

These were the

under

command

light

of

cruisers

Rear-Admiral

defense force in Shanghai

The American

Richmond and Marblehead,

The British
R. Y. Blakely.

Cincinnati,

was cut

J.

to 4,500 officers

and men.

strength in China of nearly 4,500 Marines in 1927-

28 was the greatest in the history of our relations with the East. The
Fourth Regiment, less the Second Battalion, embarked for China at

San Diego on February

3,

1927, aboard the U. S. S. Chaitmont.

They

The regiment
Shanghai on February 24 of that year.
remained aboard the ship until March 21, the day the Nationalists
captured Shanghai, when the men were ordered ashore to protect
arrived

in

and property. The Sixth Regiment (minus the Third

Battalion), the Third Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company, and the Third Brigade Service Company, one battery of the

American

lives

squadron sailed from San

Diego on board the transport Henderson on April 7, 1927, following
a request for reinforcements. In the meantime, Brig.-Gen. Smedley D.

Tenth

Artillery

and a Marine Aviation

Butler arrived, landing the day after the "Nanking Incident."

Other additions were made shortly after the Henderson

The passenger

liner President

sailed.

Grant was chartered for use as a trans-

port and sailed April 17 for the Philippines with the Third Battalion
of the Sixth Regiment and the Second Battalion of the Fourth Regi-

THE DRA GON STIRS

64

ment, together with the First Battalion of the Tenth Artillery (less
one battery), one light tank platoon, the Fifth Company Engineers,

and part

Marine aviation squadron. The rest of this aviation squadron was picked
up at Guam and the vessel proceeded to
The men were held there in reserve and
Olongapo, near Manila.
of another

subsequently brought to
mained there ever since.
to Tientsin in June,

The Fourth

Shanghai.

where

have

re-

Third Brigade was shifted

was stationed until withdrawn. General

The
it

Marines

rest of the

who is now dead, made Tientsin his headquarters.

The Marines fell into regular encampment routine much

Butler,

they were in San Diego or anywhere

initial

novelty

of

else,

aside,

of course,

as though

from the

The men were given every

surroundings.
they could in the way of an education out of their

their

opportunity to get all

And they had their sports
"tour of duty*' in China by sight-seeing.
and amusements there as in America. The Marine dramatic club gave
occasional plays in the

Navy Y. M.

C.

A.

The men had

basketball

teams, played football and other sports and went in for boxing matches
which were attended by civilians and men in uniform, alike.
The

Marine Band played for various formal and social affairs, and some
of the musicians formed a dance orchestra that was popular and often
In the summer
played at the Columbia Country Club tea-dances.
Shanghai had a baseball league, and the Marines' team always was

among

the best.

IN THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek captured Nankking and set that ancient city up as the new Capital of China, I
went up the Yangtze-kiang to Hankow, in the heart of that warafter

SHORTLY

The kiang

part of the name means "river," although this

like the way the Chinese themselves pronounce it

ring land.
really is

very little
the word sounds more
Chinese.

Why we

The Yangtze
treacherous

spell

is

streams

like "giang,"

one

on

with a

it

the

of

with a hard G, when spoken by a

is another Chinese puzzle.

longest,

widest,

deepest

and

most

frequently overflows, flooding the

placid countryside for miles until the valley resembles an inland sea,
storm-tossed and angry.
The Chinese take such evidence of the
earth.

It

unfathomable caprices of the river god in resigned or philosophical

manner: as a whim of the elements, over which they have no control.

So they accept it with a shrug, bury their dead, and rebuild their
dismantled homes and towns which they realize must be destroyed
There are flood control movements, but they have
failed to accomplish much.
Until recent years the Chinese peoples
could not be persuaded even to try to stand in the way of an inexorable
god, bent on mischief.
They felt, and still feel, that to do so is to
risk an even greater vengeance.
again another day.

to

From the source

The Yangtze remains unbridged to this day.
its broad mouth at the sea, there is no bridge across its impetuous

current.

Construction of one

cash outlay involved, but

it

is

not only prohibitive because of the

still too dangerous a
job in structural

is

engineering.

The size and power of the Yangtze may be grasped when it is

known that men-of-war as large as the 10,000-ton U. S. S. Cincinnati,
a sea-going light cruiser, not only can but do cruise right up the
The Cincinnati spent
center of China along this river's deep channel.
the summer of 1927 at Hankow, her guns adding their protection to
65

THE DRAGON STIRS

66

those of gunboats on the customary U. S. Yangtze Patrol in behalf of

American lives and property up the river.
The cruiser was pre-

vented from returning to the sea by low water during that hot, fetid

summer

in the

Hankow

area.

was there during the exciting days

the end of the Russian Advisorate in the seat of the revolution

Mikal Borodin and

My

first

trip

his

little

when

fled.

up the Yangtze was made

spring of 1927.*

comrades

at

river steamer, the

in
S.

the latter part of the

S.

Loongwo, operated

by a British navigating and trading concern, made the trip with a convoy of foreign war-craft, including American destroyers.
The Yangtze at that period in China's warring history was the
dividing

line

between

Northern war

lords.

From

and at us

at each other

Kuomintang and those

the

of

troops

the

banks they took pot-shots

Chinese cowpradore, or clerk, had been

the stream's

of

flat

by a stray shot on the previous trip, and this brought the war
home to the crew and to us. No one was hurt on our trip, although
killed

we were

My

occasionally under
files

fire.

show notes and

copies

of dispatches

which

sent back

while on that cruise into the heart of China and her revolution.
are reproduced here to give an idea of what the voyage
"griffin" (less than a year in China,

China-hand),

like

myself.

In

was

They

like to

and anyone is a "griffin" to an old

sense it was like a Frenchman's

up the Mississippi on a French boat, convoyed by French

for most of us among that ship's company certainly were
war-craft
cruising

not Chinese,

Impressions to

Yangtze River

my

editor

S,erics

No

follow:
1.

ON BOARD THE STEAMER LOONGWO,

Far away, high amid the mountains
pirates, the
* I

had been

Yangtze, begins

\vith

New York

of

its rollicking,

The United Press

April 20.

Tibet, that old father

of

pillaging course through

Associations on a retainer basis.

They

a "part-time" assignment.
It
was later made a regular Bureau. Frederick Moore, chief of The New York
Times staff in the Far East, had already offered a billet as full time correspondent with them, and under the circumstances I was forced to accept. Walter
decided in

to keep the post there then

Duranty came across Siberia from Moscow and was stationed that summer in
Frederick Moore remained as chief at Shanghai; and I completed this
Peking.
three-way coverage set-up by going to Hankow and reporting the decline of the
Reds there. Later, when Mr Moore and Mr Duranty left, I became the chief
correspondent in China for The New York Times, remaining until late in 1929.

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

IN

China to where, yellow with looted

Shanghai, eternally flings

Leaping mountain

broad mouth, near

soggy bandit's burden into the sea.

its

streams,

67

leisurely

soil,

its

tributaries

in

long

valleys

lowlands, creeks and tiny rivulets seeping to their

level, combine to abet and strengthen the broad-chested old brigand that exacts tribute from half of Asia.

and, in the

flat

mantle of romance, thick as the silken folds of an opulent

Mandarin's coat, hides the coarse figure of this robber river. It

The Yangtze must ever be veiled in

tradition.
Steaming along its muddy course between its flat,
commonplace banks, one cannot but remember the tales of its
cannot be seen as

it

is.

they say, run red with the blood of

as often as its golden flood has swept

history; that this river has,

ancient

warriors almost

angrily over the lowlands in the spring; that in the pleasant

life

China's early culture, gorgeous processions, rich in splendor

with the brocade and yellow gold of potentates and princesses,
bobbed along this highway; that in times of conquest, stern warof

manned by savage men from beyond

came down to ravage and conquer and

craft,

the hills to the west,

the

invaders

tarried,

and were absorbed.

The Yangtze, predominantly

Sweeping across the lowlands
havoc in

its

path, leaves

survive are glad.

They

cruel,

proves

kind

to

some.

in flood times, the river, spreading

a carpet of fertile

silt,

and those who

prosper.

Prospering, they sought markets for their products. In turn,

they formed a market for other products, these agricultural millions in the Yangtze Valley, and in less than a century traders

from the West

have

built

up

sturdy

commerce with these

people.

War

Revoluhas again torn at the heart of that commerce.

tion beginning in Canton has swept northward, and the Yangtze
today is a line of demarcation between the north and the south.

The
ply a dangerous trade up the Yangtze.
The markets
of river steamers is growing steadily less.

River packets

number

still

The Chinese are afraid to buy.

up-country are dull and stagnant
The armies, first one and then another, confiscate whatever they
desire.

The

revolution

is costly.

Many men-of-war from

nations abroad are plying the

Yang-

THE DRAGON STIRS

68

tze today, in ever increasing numbers.

in

way,

the

main,

to

once

warships

up and down

escort river steamers

Merchantmen have given

more.

Stern

the Yangtze,

gray craft

for soldiers

the north and of the south fire indiscriminately on

all

of

shipping.

It is not, therefore, without a feeling of adventure that one

boards a river steamer these days and embarks for Hankow, as

Shanghai, that wickedest city, they say, in China,

safe behind the lines of men and barbed wire entanglements

did last night.

is

as safe as

New York

Chinese

concerned.

is

itself

Shanghai, bulging with people,

from everywhere in the

in China at present is,

The

could be, so far as attack from the

interior, is well guarded.

hiding his

ostrich-like,

The

cially, in

who

lives

These men point out the futility of existence, commerIt's the body
China if only a city like Shanghai is held.

of trade they

Men

foreigner

head in the sand.

people of Shanghai are ridiculed by the foreigner

inland.

refugees

would

like

save.

these inland traders keep the river steamers run-

Pioneers in commerce, they go into the country and sell

Chinese goods
always on a cash basis in these troubled

ning.

the

but the point is that they sell products from

There are two of these
abroad and prevent trade from dying.
men on board, tobacco merchants on their way to Wuhu to

times, to be sure,

straighten out their

the revolution.

One

is

and

seek to carry on despite

an American, the district manager from

office there

Nanking; the other is British.

and on for sixteen years. He

The
is

to

latter

has been in China off

typical of these traders,

speaks

the language in half a dozen dialects, hardy, a big fellow, afraid

of nothing. He has just come out of Pengpu, he said, going

north by train to Tientsin and thence south to Shanghai by boat.

And then, straight away back into the thick of it. His experiences would

fill

a large volume.

The Loongwo, scheduled

finally got under way at about
British

sailors

on guard from

to

sail

at

midnight

last

night,

three o'clock this morning.

The
the flagship Hawkins patrolling

the dock and the steamer, while inspring a feeling of comparative

safety, also

were constant reminders

that

this

trip

up-river was

not exactly the safest thing in the world just at present.

I was
surprised to find the steamer nearly full.
strange person in

IN

my

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

cabin with

me

words of German.
Russians on board,

69

speaks only Russian and a few, a very few,

There are, as a matter of fact, about a dozen

bound for Hankow; four or five Chinese

in first cabin; my two tobacco merchant friends, a Commander
Ward coming out from England to take a post on the British
cruiser Vindictive now at Hankow; and a Catholic priest.
all

my bunk

Clambering into
asleep,

despite

the

was soon
and their
The
the hold.

shortly after midnight, I

cries of the wharf coolies

shrill

staccato sing-song chant as they loaded cargo into

hoarse blast of the fog horn awakened me several hours later.

The dawn was

peered out into the mists.

drear.

drifted slowly past in the semi-twilight of the

Phantom

new

day.

ships
slept

midmorning and then, dozing, listened to the strange noises

around me the swish of swirling water against the ship's sides
the low hum of the engines; someone in the saloon playing
There's a Long, Long Trail A-winding; voices on the promenade
until

deck outside; snatches of conversation:

"business
"Cantonese have been,".
.

glad these warships are

"looks pretty bad,".

.

terrible

dangerous

*.

We

were stuck in the mud. The tide

Two other ships and a river gunboat were
was going out.
The wind
sighted off our stern, seen dimly through the mist.
I

went out on deck.

blew a gale.
maneuvering.
waited for us.

Two

hours later

The
I,

we

got off somehow, after endless

other vessels had gone ahead a little and

for one,

was glad

to

have that American gun-

Our group of four ships (we picked up another

along.
One ship could only do
during the afternoon) made slow speed.
eight knots, and that held back the whole procession.

boat

The day wore

Commander Ward,

two tobacco
merchants and myself, and, in a way, "the Padre/' thrown more
or less together by our common interests and language, formed
The Padre, a little chap with horn-rimmed
a bit of a clique.
spectacles, was forever peering at the shore through a pair of
He announced about three o'clock the sighting of
binoculars.
on.

the

a group of Chinese warships.

There were four

Peary, which had been

of

them

in

all.

just alongside the

The American gunboat

Loongwo, shoved ahead

THE DRAGON STIRS

70
a

as

little

were

we drew

lined

up

The
The

near.

in a row.

Chinese, flying the Cantonese flag,

place is known as the Crossroads,

Each
being at the mouth of a tributary to the Yangtze River.
dipped her flag in reply to our salute of a similar nature as we
it

This was the only evidence of war the whole day long.
Aside from our convoy and these ships, and the fact that our

passed.

steamer has quarter-inch iron plates lined up

armor against

as

from

fire

either shore,

we might
Not a

been steaming up the Mississippi River.

sight

the

all

day up the

first

Yangtze River Series No.

ON BOARD THE
A man named
April 21.

around the deck

all

as well have

soldier

did

we

river.

2.

LOONGWO,

Yangtze River,
H. C. Felling who has been, he says,
China for more than sixteen years, off and on, sat at dinner

in

on

steamer

this

S.

S.

night and painted as dismal a picture of the

last

Chinese people as one could well imagine.

The man, a tobacco merchant born in London and in the

employ

American organization, spoke of cruelty

He told tales of the hell the White Russian

an

of

to conceive.

difficult

soldiers

have been through of Chinese soldiers who, taking other Chinese

and Russians prisoners, have set their captives aflame after
;

pouring kerosene over their clothing.

"One popular method

of

he

torture,"

giving the victim 'the thousand

cuts.'

Men

bodies, each cut too small to be fatal but

ingly painful.

The

find relief

finally

"I

victims live for days

in

have also

known

"is

said,

are cut

all

as

over their

enough to be exceed-

sometimes, before they

death.

seen

women

tortured

horribly,

their

breasts

some victims burned, one skinned alive.

You have no
idea what is going on in the interior during these wars.
It is
cut off,

frightful."

What
will

the

women

never know.

nese mothers of
year's

of China have suffered, he says, the world

They must
the men who

suffer without protest,

pillage their

own

these Chi-

people from one

end to the next.

"They

jump

in

the

wells

in

frantic

efforts

to

escape

the

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

IN

71

"Often, we have been unable to get water

have been full of dead women and children.

soldiers," Felling said.

because the wells

"The merchants never know when they may next lose their
I know of one man, and his case is typical, who
entire stock.
Yet
everything he had once a year three years running.
he started up again each time.
It is marvelous the way they
stick to it.
Yet what can the poor devils do?"
lost

war

Felling described how they get their armies, these Chinese

lords who have been the curse of the nation since the 1911

revolution.

"Suppose," he

''General

said,

Chang Chung-chang wants

000 men out of Shantung province.

that

many

district

The

troops.

province

of the various cities

sends out an order for

divided into districts.

The headman

has a headman.

headmen

is

He

40,-

Each

of the district advises the

and towns and

villages in his area

must produce so many soldiers by a certain date.

"The village or city headman calls a meeting of the heads
He tells them how many men
of all the families in his town.
Then they pro-rate the thing. A family
the city must produce.
with three boys sends two, one with four sends three, and so on.
that they

They never take a son

Chinese are very
an heir.

if

strict

he

is

on the family system.

There must be

"In a few days you have your 'army' of 40,000 men.

are trained a very short while and then sent into battle.
is

how you

The

the only boy in the family.

get your 'volunteer armies'

in

China.

The

They
That

soldiers

In a battle,
main, inexperienced and they can't fight.
they are as likely as not to turn and run for it any time they
think they are getting the worst of it.
They have no stomach for
are, in the

fighting.

army.

They

Up

are

against
those fellows."

afraid.

any

real

They are even

opposition

they

afraid

to

run

like

quit

the

rabbits,

seems to be true that they do, too. It is significant to note

that the Nationalist revolution has come to the Yangtze almost
without opposition.
They took Shanghai without a struggle.
It

It was a Northern
Nanking was expected to be a battle.
One wonders what would happen if the Northerners were to

rout.
fight

THE DRAGON STIRS

72

and win a

Felling believes the

victory.

Southerners would run

just as quickly.

"Of

course,"

he

"the

said,

are a

Nationalists

They've got a cause to fight for. They seem to have a

spirit than the Northern soldiers."
Felling has just

come out

Pukow-Tientsin

railway

looted

thoroughly.

that

city

of Pengpu, north of

He

line.

The

nese as well as to foreign firms, he

different.

bit

more

little

Nanking on

said

the

Northerners

losses

are

enormous

the

have

to

Chi-

said.

Yangtze River Series No. 3

ON BOARD THE

S.

interviewed the

April 21.

dangerous

in

LOONGWO,

S.

white

woman

River,

Yangtze
in

Chinkiang toShe is Mrs. B. M. Smith, an American, the wife of a

day.
Standard Oil Company man who is "carrying on" in Chinkiang.
She said it is not
Mrs. Smith didn't have much to say.

Not

Chinkiang.

She and

anyway.

Mr.

last

as

much

one

might

Bruce,

they

as

SmithBetty and

happy young pair married not very long

live

know

all

don't have

the

such a bad time," Mrs.

Navy men

American gunboat.

Not

so

young

good,
girl

either,

like

tions at present.

And

It

Mrs.

here, and

at

There

isn't

was

Smith

"We

said.

usually dine on board the

bad as you might

think.

For a

bit.

Chinkiang offers very few attrac-

Smith,

It is rather

(there

as

just

and she laughed a

that,"

the circle of foreigners

and American

isn't

really

we

are,

on a launch

alongside the Standard Oil installation in Chinkiang.

a white man, woman or child on shore.

"We

think,

not being able to go ashore.

even with the Navy, both British

dull

is,

one

of

gunboat

each

here

today),

rather small.

Mrs. Smith was

chiefly

interested

in

her mail.

The

trains

Shanghai run now and then and the river boats bring mail
twice a week, so they are not so out of touch with the world.
She is from Binghamton, New York and admits that at times
to

she wouldn't

mind being back

to find this girl, bobbed hair,

thing

in

sleeveless

sport

her husband, living on a

seemed most incongruous

nice eyes and wearing the latest

there.

dress,

little

It

bravely

launch.

sticking

it

out

with

IN

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

73

The Loongwo arrived at Chinkiang shortly after noon today.

The day was perfect, warm, the sun shining in a sky devoid
of clouds.
About 11:30 a. m. we saw our first soldiers, a few
here and there on the north bank.
They were Marshal Sun
Chuan-fang's men, as one could
the

little

hats they wear.

tell

They are

by their gray uniforms and

like

and with slanting bills.

All they lack
But they do not look very cocky, these
little

to

spirit,

on the south

Robin Hood
is

a cocky

peaked

hats,
little

feather.

They have very

fellows.

None of them fired. Fortresses

say the least.
bank looked ominous, their guns trained on the

but nothing happened.

It lies scattered along
Chinkiang is not a very large city.
the waterfront, a hodge-podge of houses overshadowed at the east
river,

end of the

city

by the Standard Oil

We

plant.

came alongside

Jardme-Matheson Company's hulk where an old resident, a

British representative of the shipping company, told us nobody
is left on shore at all.
He, like the rest of the little community,
All live in boats.
is living on board the hulk.
Two tobacco merchants on board the Loongwo knew the oil
merchant, so I joined them and rode over in their launch to call.
the

man, said that he is still doing a little business.

"We demand cash on delivery, however/' he said. "Only way
we can do it." He said there wasn't much to do, but insisted
that ''business is really rather good, despite the war and our cash
Smith, the

oil

requirements."
It

seems that Americans are getting the British

trade.

feeling against the British is rather high everywhere,

are persistent efforts to boycott all British goods.

For some reason, we spent the night

in

The

and there

Chinkiang harbor.
The river boats do

Last night we spent anchored in midstream.

It is only a few hours' run
not, it seems, travel at night now.
up to Nanking from here but we were unable to get under wa\

due to one thing and another with

the gunboats and our cargo; so the skipper decided to remain
all night.
Again I went for a ride around the harbor with the
early

enough

in the afternoon,

tobacco merchants,

this

warlike attitude of the

dusk,

we calkd on

being apparently quite

safe

despite

the

Nationalist

At

Smiths

an

the

troops along the Bund.

once more and there met

THE DRAGON STIRS

74

from the American gunboat Paul Jones, stationed

His
said everything had been rather quiet recently.

officer

here.

He

chief

when he found

complaint,

who

out

York Times was not being

was,

delivered until

was
at

that

least

The New

two months

after date of publication.

Martial law goes into effect at six o'clock, but we were permitted to stay out after that time.
The sun sank and after a
not

twilight

We

ten

minutes

took the Paul Jones

long,

officer

darkness

fell

over

the

harbor.

back to his ship and then chugged

back to the Loongwo for the night

Yangtze River Series No.
22.

ON BOARD THE S. S. LOONGWO, NANKING, April

We had our baptism of fire this morning. Soldiers on the

south bank and, a

Nanking,

let

fly

learned, striking

four

at

little

river

Jones, also

any

boats.

further on,

on the north not far from

Their aim, fortunately,
bullets, as far as I have

us indiscriminately.

None of

was bad.
of

4.

us

was

no

hit,

of the steamers in our adventurous quartet

Our

convoy, the American

gunboat Paul

was untouched.

The Paul Jones

returned the

fire

from the south bank with

a brief spurt of machine gun fire. There was no further shooting.

On board, none was excited, although the Chinese boys were
inclined to be a bit frightened.
They lay flat on the deck wherever they

happened to

One

be.

yesterday,

in

fact,

when we

were passing the forts below Chinkiang, dropped the dishes he

was serving at table and ran for the galley, there to join his
fellows prone on the deck.
since the

vious

He

explained that that

was

orders,

Chinese compradore had been shot dead on the pre-

trip.

The passengers were permitted

to

do as they pleased.

re-

So
mained, for the most part, inside my cabin during the firing.
few bravely foolish souls took a turn about the
did most of us.

promenade deck. They dodged

after each shot, involuntarily.

We

were, however, pretty safe inside our wall of armor plate.

Nanking, crown jewel of the Yangtze, lay glistening at noon

in the

warm

a suburb,

all

spring sunshine.

The

harbor, the Bund, Hsia-kwan,

were deserted, not a soul

in sight.

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

IN

We

75

On the northern
past in midstream.
bank, the town of Pukow stretched its ramshackle acreage here
and there along the river.
At that point yonder, a steamer lay
sunk.

steamed

It

rapidly

was the

am

vessel,

told,

on which Madame M. Bor-

odin, wife of the Russian adviser to the Nationalists at

was

recently

taken captive.

stark

Its

masts stuck

We finally berthed a mile

We were opposite the

blue at a crazy angle.

Nanking in midstream.

Emerald, lying

off

or

tip

Hankow,
into

the

more beyond

British

warship
The United

between us and the north bank.

States gunboat Paul Jones, stationed at Chinkiang, returned there.

The Ford pulled into a berth just above the Emerald. Further
on, a Japanese gunboat lay

The
firing

we

three warships in

all.

Nanking was that intermittent

between Nanking and Pukow was going on and it was
reason

considered

too

did not

tie

dangerous to

up

at

remain

in

the

line

of

fire.

The

Northerners, so said officers from the Emerald who came aboard

to see about getting provisions, have a good lot of heavy artillery.

Each morning they

"strafe" the

Southerners in Nanking,
of artillery could be heard

and the Southerners reply. The boom

from time to time as we lunched, and an occasional rattle of
rifle fire added to the war noises in the harbor.
It is doubtful
whether either side did much damage in their firing.
Nanking from the steamer was uncanny in its desertion and
What must usually be a busy harbor was swept clean
quiet.
even of its sampans.
These last swarmed around us and the
other river steamers in droves, safe in our company, the miserable
coolies seeking a fare, alms, anything to earn a few coppers.

a sorry plight.
Pukow, its back to a long, low range of mountains, was too
far away to be seen clearly, even with field glasses.
Nanking

Theirs

we

is

could view quite plainly.

lows, steamed slowly

tobacco

merchant,
places of interest.

up

Two

Nationalist gunboats, tiny felthe creek outside the city's wall.

The

who has

lived

in

Nanking, pointed out the

"See that house on the hill, away back there, in line with
That
that smoke stack?
Well," he said, "that's Socony House.
is where the foreigners gathered and the American and British
gunboats bombarded the place so they could escape.

Right along

THEDRAGONSTIRS

76

BAT.

house (British-and- Amer"

ican Tobacco Company), and further along
and he told me of

there on the next

hill

is

the

two miles or more away

across the flat lowlands, were in plain view from the river.
The black line of Nanking's city wall runs an uncertain course
of interest.

places

Bund.
size

these

houses,

perhaps a mile or so back from the

Nanking from the river does not give an impression of

miles along

for

All

the

river,

or of particular beauty.

Its

modern buildings

the

in

busi-

ness section lend a certain spick-and-span-ness to the place, and

But even so, my
its wall recalls the splendor of another day

impression was of anything but awe.

beauty, seen from midstream, will not

Two young

Nanking
last

as

thing

of

forever.

Emerald came on board,

Both were
the other after the mail

British officers from the

one to get the provisions,

lads yet in their teens, rosy-cheeked boys with a serious air, nice

young

fellows,

strangely youthful for their chevrons.

old enough to be their fathers,

answered with a

The men,

"sir,"

to

each

query and were completely respectful.

It was two o'clock before we got under way again, this time
The other three steamers had gone ahead with our conalone.
along the route between here
and Wuhu. Throughout the afternoon the south bank was dotted from time to time with soldiers walking about amid their
It

voy.

seems there

dingy

little

green

fields

is little to fear

mud-hut barracks, thatched roofs yellow against the

of grain.
We saw no Northerners the whole after-

noon, but the North holds everything right up to the Yangtze,

from

all

reports.

They come

take a few pot-shots

to the river

(both sides

fire

whenever they

please,

on foreign vessels without

and go their way again.

Darkness had settled over the river when we reached Wuhu,
on the south bank, about eight o'clock.
Our erstwhile comdiscrimination)

had reached port before us and there were no berths

We anchored in midstream again for the night. The Wuhu

panions
left.

harbor was a busy place with four river steamers arriving. Sig-

from the gunboats and the cruiser Caradoc, naval

motorboats popped about, two calling to inquire as to our wel-

nals

flashed

fare

and the British

to

instructions to "keep

all

leave

an

soldiers

armed guard on board with

off

this

"

ship

IN

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

The few remaining

these

motorboats, are

77

foreigners, I learned from the officers of

They go
living in ships in the harbor.

ashore during the day but return at night to their floating homes.
The Chinese have done a little looting, but it seems that they have

returned

the

Club

Recreation

to

the

moving the
Aside from an occasional
foreigners,

troops barracked there to other billets.

effort to board river steamers and go elsewhere, the Nationalist

Three tried to do
troops have apparently caused little trouble.
that yesterday, the young British officer remarked.
They were
slightly

wounded with bayonets while the

sailors

insisted

that

they remain ashore.

Lights down, anchored in midstream with an armed guard

on board to protect us, our ship's company turned in tonight
with a feeling of comparative security.
tonese soldiers do in a case like that?

What

could 20,000 Can-

Nothing.

In

fact,

our

news from the outside world.

Aside
from a word here and there from these youthful officers who
and these not always
get it from their naval radio dispatches
accurate and never with any detail
we are completely cut off.
The general impression seems to be that the North controls everything right up to the Yangtze once more and that the Nationalists
chief complaint

is

lack of

are holding on to their positions on the south bank.

munists apparently continue to hold the dominant

The Composition

in

Hankow.
Yangtze River Scries No.

ON BOARD THE
This has been an

idle

5.

S. S.

LOONGWO, WUHU,

day on board the Locngwo.

April 23.

The

coolies

have been busy enough unloading cargo and loading other stuff
for up-river with a terrific shouting and din the whole day long.
The passengers, forced to remain aboard, idled about the deck,
reading and fretting at the delay.
The two tobacco merchants left us here.

One, H. C. Felling,
is remaining in Wuhu.
The other, a chap from Boston named
Foley, is returning to Shanghai on the next boat, the Tuckwo,
which is due to sail downstream tomorrow, Sunday.
Foley is
taking my dispatches to Shanghai where they are to be relayed.

There

is

no other way

of

getting

them out from up here

at

THEDRAGONSTIRS

78

Communications are impossible.

present.

get to the telegraph office safely,

it

is

Even

one

if

could

doubtful whether the mes-

And then
sage would get through within three or four days.
it would doubtless be
subjected to the strictest censorship.
The first news of what is going on around us came through
today in the form of a carbon copy of the American Pr,ess wireless kindly given us by the captain of the British cruiser here,

He

the Caradoc.

Powers which,

it

also told us the

news of the ultimatum

seems, has been handed

He

Hankow.

of the

was not

sure whether or not a similar document had been handed General

Furthermore, we heard that the

Chiang Kai-shek at Nanking.
allies have given orders to their captains of the Yangtze patrol
to reply "with all they've got" to any further firing from either
shore.

seems they now intend

It

to stop this playful halit of the

Chinese soldiers.

The Loongwo docked

were awakened
of

alongside the hulk about dawn, and

the amazing turmoil that only

to

a small band

The harder they work

Chinese coolies can make.

we

the

more

Beggars in sampans and one actually

they shout, these fellows.
in an oblong wooden tub with wooden shovels for oars swarmed

around

Above

the

steamer,

was an

adding

their

shrill

cries

the

to

hubbub.

shouting for all the world like

the noise heard on approaching a football stadium at home when
one is, however, still some blocks away from the game.
it

all

occasional

turned out, was a sound made by companies of Cantonese soldiers drilling on the Bund, not a hundred yards from
This,

our

it

The soldiers, whole companies of them, shouted their

command in unison as they sought to execute the order.

ship.

officer's

or five companies were marching about drilling, and very

Here and there on the green parade-ground others
badly, too.

Four

squads of four or six, stalked about doing the "gooserather, a Cantonese version of that German exercise

singly, or in

"

step

Or

for troops which

was strange

to observe.

knee so that they gave the impression

that the ringmaster

tells

Most

of

them bent the

of a circus horse

the local yokels will

the one

"now execute

the

waltz."

The day has been

breeze

blowing.

perfect,

Wuhu,

like

clear,

most

warm, not
of

these

hot,

river

with a cool
towns,

lies

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

IN
stretched

out

hind the

city,

all

along the waterfront.

and on

am

their

tops

are

now

fine

Hills

foreign

rise

79

abruptly be-

homes have been

occupied by Nationalist troops.

Foreigners do not live ashore and now even during the daytime
There are less than a dozen still
rarely go as far as the Bund.
built.

These,

here.

They

live

armed guard

Wuhu

told,

on launches or hulks alongside the Bund.

An

protects them.

It has a
way, a rather pretty little city.
In normal times,
Chinese population of about 100,000 persons.
there are perhaps 100 foreigners living here.
The customs house,

now

is,

in

virtually idle, stands in the center of things

clock

on

its

tower

Below the clock now is a

Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Kuo-

tolling the

great picture of the late

hours.

Eh-.

The Bund and one

mintang.

the hills are partially shaded

in this part of the world.

the Yangtze to

on the Bund, a

of the avenues leading back toward

by rows of

One seldom

trees,

an unusual thing

sees a tree

anywhere along

Hankow.

went over to the hulk alongside which

we were docked and talked with the shipping company agent
there
His name is C. B. Wortley. He is a Britisher, as most of
After

tiffin

(lunch)

men

are up here.
J. Canim, of the Standard Oil, is still
here, and H. L. Mecklenburgh, a tobacco man, also an American,
these

is

is

The Commissioner

carrying on for the present.

a Belgian, Baron de Cartier.

Customs

of

Wortley said that there has been no excitement here for some
time.
He said, however, that a few days ago a number of soldiers and students came down from Hankow and started trouble.
"
Orders came from Nanking, from Chiang Kai-shek, I'm told,
to run these students out of here," Wortley said.
"They have
been leaving as fast as possible ever since.
I still see a few of
them around, agitators for the 'Bolshies/ You're taking some of
them on the Loongwo back to Hankow."

And
dents

so

we

are.

who came on

There are a number of these so-called stuboard at

Wuhu, down

said

they can't be prevented from

still,

ostensibly at least, peace

below.

coming aboard

times.

If

The
in

captain
what are

they cause no trouble

they won't be molested, he said.

Scheduled to get under

way

at twelve

noon and then

at

two

'

THE DRAGON STIRS

80
the

o'clock,

Loongwo

finally

pulled out at

o'clock.

five

At

the

western extremity of Wuhu, two Chinese gunboats lay at anchor,

We did not dip our flag
steam up, flying the Cantonese flag.

The next

this time, nor, to be sure, did they.

stop

is

Kiukiang.

toWithout mishap, we should arrive late Sunday

morrow, that is by steaming all night. We are alone, without
convoy or accompanying merchantmen. Up to dark we saw no
A few miles above Wuhu, on the south bank, we
soldiers.
The brick
passed a little village that has been thoroughly looted.

afternoon

customs

house,

vacant,

stared

window and door frame had

us

at

been

blank

with

torn

out

eyes.

Each

and carted away,

leaving a jagged outline of brick.

Yangtze River Series No.

ON BOARD THE
One

24.

6.

S.

LOONGWO, KIUKIANG,

April

paradoxes of this revolution in China occurred

The Chinese Kuommtang foreign commissioner, a

of the

here today.

man named Mr.

Y. Z. Lieu,

fleeing for

came on board the Loongivo and

and sanctuary which he desires

his life

from Kiukiang,

being given the safe passage

In other words, the foreigners

is

the British, American, Japanese and other warships up-river

are giving protection to an official of the government whose

diers, responsible or not, have made it essential for the white
to evacuate

He

is

much

sol-

man

of China.

thoroughly appreciative

And

he declares that his party,

the Kuomintang moderates, want the foreigners to stay in China,

and he adds that the Nationalists are doing everything in their

power
going

make

to

else.

He

for everybody

safe

Hankow on

to

where

it

The

He

has

Loongivo because he cannot go anyfor the radical adflee from Kiukiang,

must

telegraph

is

useless,

They

Mr. Lieu

are expected any

says, at least to him.

or no news of events outside this vicinity.

Loongwo reached Kiukiang about four o'clock this after-

We

the hulk.
of each.

is

little

The
noon after an
side.

He

the

herents are sending their troops there

moment.

including himself.

anchored

The

The customs launch came alongmidstream because there was no room at

uneventful day.
in

and American destroyers are alongside, one

There also is a Japanese cruiser here and an American
British

IN

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

81

and a British gunboat

The captain of the British warship Wild
Swan came on board with an armed guard. He scrutinized the
passports of the Russians
then left.

we

are

transporting to

Hankow and

Businessmen who came on board for a brief visit said that

the Chinese on shore are nonplused.
They don't know which
to turn,

way
the

Red and

the

others

it

seems, for Kiukiang

is

just

on the border between

Moderate influences in the Kuomintang.

General Chiang Kai-shek's men were still here when we left.
But
The Reds are expected momentarily, and
they may not stay.
the

probably retreat down-river until they find reThe dozen or so foreigners are living in houses
enforcements.
Each, I am told, has a bag packed and is ready
along the Bund.
to

will

make

ness

is

a run for a warship alongside at a moment's notice. Busivirtually nil, the representatives of the various companies

remaining to clean up back accounts and to keep in touch

the day, if any,
nearly normal.

when they may expect

There has been

We got under way
Mr. Lieu, until

to

find

conditions

until

more

or no fighting here in the last few days.

at five o'clock, off for Hankow, our next stop.
this afternoon Foreign Commissioner in Kiulittle

kiang, is being given every courtesy on board. He has been placed

at the captain's table in the dining saloon, where in his halting
English this evening he eagerly told us of his desire to be friendly

toward foreigners, and the desire of the Kuomintang to be the

same.
His is a rather pitiful tale, but he clings to the silver
lining which he believes, he says, is behind the present dark <^oud
of dissension in the Nationalist Party.

"We

must put out the Communists,*' Mr. Lieu told us. "This
They have no troops. We will win out and
split had to come.
then we can continue our drive on the North.
But/' he reIt
peated, "we had to break with the Communists in our party.
had to come."
There was in his attitude a "Don't you see?"
plea.

came along

my

cabin where

could talk at length

with him about his plans and those of his party, and we talked
for an hour about the situation, which, he declares, does not
Later, he

mean

to

the breakdown of the Nationalist movement, but which,

it

THE DRAGON STIRS

82

appears to me, looks bad for adherents to the theories of the late
The disintegration is apparent on all sides.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
Whether Chiang Kai-shek and his loyal political advisers and
friends can patch

of a semi-state is con-

up the floundering ship

jectural.

"I think

we

'The Communists

can/' said Commissioner Lieu.

Hankow have no

General Chiang will

speak of.
Then he will
surround Hankow, I think, as he did Shanghai.
He will, I think,
There is no doubt about it.
capture it again.
Once
bring men up from the south to help him accomplish this.
at

troops

he wins a victory, he

Communist

in the

will

to

The

have no trouble.

forces are not with the Reds.

under-officers

They

for

are

our country," he said earnestly, with a touch of the dramatic,

That is true.
"not for one man or for the Communists.

"General

Teng Yen-tah, head

Hankow, has no power.

tse,

Hunan

the

He

of

the

Political

has no troops.

General

leader, has a big force, but

he

is

not

Bureau

in

Tang Shenfor the Com-

He

has been persuaded to act independently and refuse

He only wants
to accept orders from General Chiang Kai-shek.
to increase his own force.
He is a very foolish and selfish man.
munists.

He

commander

Eighth Army, and has many troops.

But he is neither Communist nor Kuomintang. He is, I think,
a selfish man."
independent
is

of

The Commissioner

the

bring up forces from the south.

said

Chiang Kai-shek would

asked him from where.
He

said that General

I

from Kweichow, Fukien and Kwantung, around Canton,

his

stronghold.

These men, who, he said, number scores of thousands in all,

would, he admitted, have to walk, in the main, to Hankow. That
will take a long time.
it

will

trying

be hot soon.
military

The country

mountainous and wild, and

march across that vast area will be a

maneuver.

It

is

might be done.

But

it

is

like

marching a band of ill-paid, badly trained young fellows, mere

boys most of them, from Arizona to Michigan, more or less,
across the
do.

Rocky Mountains.

The Commissioner

be downcast
available,

said

a job that will prove hard to

would take time, but refused to

It's
it

(The Chinese know "time"

though one man's

life-span

is

always present and

be brief.)

IN

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

As we

talked,

the

of

crazy quilt picture

83

China slowly ap-

The Nationalists, split among themselves, fighting for

peared.
control of their own party against the Communists' influence, are
There are enough patches in that half
to make the task of knitting them together in anything like a coordinate pattern almost futile and certainly discouraging.
And
on the North of this Yangtze are other factions, united for the
moment against the Nationalist movement.
Marshal Chang
Chung-chang and his ally, Marshal Sun Chuan-fang of Shanghai,
are said to be somewhere in the near vicinity of Nanking and
Hankow. Marshal Sun has not held a very high head since his
ignominious defeat and cry for assistance in Chekiang Province,
and at Shanghai. He can hardly be expected to feel thoroughly
safe with Marshal Chang, an enormous old bandit from Shanone part of the picture.

Chang's history reads like a Wild West tale, or a yellowthe Tale of

back that might be entitled From Coolie to Marshal
tung.

a Successjul Warrior.
He certainly worked his way up in his
chosen profession, from a wharf coolie through the essential
stages of banditry to the military control of Shantung and
the temporary ally of Marshal Chang Tso-lin, of Mukden

now
and

Peking.

Wu

and faded, a very

small bit of the picture right now, and one, everybody seems to
believe, who will not return to his erstwhile brilliance and power.
He is content with the quiet life of a poet and scholar. He has
gained a reputation for scholarship and as a poet, chiefly, his
critics affirm, because he is one of the few militarists of the old
Marshal

school

who

Pei-fu, once powerful,

could even read or write.

is

He

old

is

somewhere in north-

seems, content to let his successors in militarism

carry on the ancient feudal pastime of the Chinese.
Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang in Shensi with perhaps 100,000 men,

ern Honan,

it

Commisexpected to remain with General Chiang Kai-shek.

sioner Lieu fervidly averred that the widely known "Christian

is

He has sent a delegate

General" will never go back on Chiang.
to the Nanking Conference, Mr. Lieu pointed out, and his army
is

to be a vital factor in the taking of Peking

some day.

Mr.

Lieu was not sure when that victory could be expected to occur.

Things are too

unsettled.

THE DRAGON STIRS

84

The Commissioner was

bitter

against

He

Russia.

the

said

this
trying to get at the Powers through China, using
as a catspaw.
"They don't want a war in their own

Soviet

is

nation

country/' he said.

"They

with the

field of their battle

Thus, Russia

in China.

desire to stir

is

up one

here, to have the

Powers, as they call them,

I don't think they will
not harmed.
capitalistic

send an army to China," he added in response to a query.

He said he had advised General Chiang Kai-shek to accept aid

from Japan,

and

to

cooperate

with

Japan.

That

in

brought

another part of the picture of disintegrated China, namely, Marshal Chang Tso-lin.
I said that if Chiang Kai-shek worked with

But
Japan he would have to work with Marshal Chang, too.
the Commissioner, a true Cantonese, said that would never come
to pass.

"General Chiang Kai-shek will never shake hands with Marhe said.
shal Chang Tso-lin,
"Why? Well, because they have
1 '

work together in China

But Japan must work with China; and if we take all of China,
we will have to work with Japan. That is natural. Japan is so
been

enemies

close,

it

is

They

long.

can't

America and Britain are

necessary to her existence.

too far away.

So

too

We

that part

the figure),

of

would be

friendly,

of course,

the picture, or the crazy

not

in

with the

to everybody."

quilt

(to

to

stick

Hence, the unity of

China may have to wait again for a while, Mr. Lieu admitted.
Then there is Yunnan, that vast province on the border of
will

fit

Burma where
frayed edge

rest.

That
brigands and opium smugglers abound.
of the quilt which causes no little trouble to

is

the

Yunnan, it will be recalled, a few months ago had a

revolution all on its own, and now instead of the military governor in charge, there is a Citizens' Committee of Five running
toilers.

That it is a
Communistic, exactly.
''commission form" of government.
Yet it has a certain crimson

things.

They say

it

isn't

which won't wash away

Furthermore, Yunnan is a
wild country, sparsely settled and infested with bandits.
It is
tinge to

it

another problem which these

toilers

must face who would unite

a feudal state whose people are

China of today
admittedly
centuries behind the times in thought, culture, education and in
their dealings with one another.
Their warlords still, one must

this

IN

VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

TTIE

are similar to the feudal barons of

fear,

Ages whose

certain an affair.

can

that

Chinese

the

is

in

the

today,

Middle

none

too

could be bought by the highest bidder.

So
These
average Chinese military chieftain.

It

or

said

things

the

of

as

was,

loyalty

Europe

85

implied.

Yet

the

Commissioner

remained

optimistic.

We

The Commissioner said that

Hunan Province is the hotbed of Communism. He said that there
they demand that everybody who has more than $200 must divide
it

discussed names and places.

This seems to be the usual report on

heard recently that they have tried out dividing up

with his fellow-men.

Hunan.

the

and

land

f'^rms

instituting

the

Communistic

for

Communal)

of government.

General Chen Chien, in

to

all

Hankow. He was

in

command

Nanking.

of the Sixth

Army, has gone

He commanded

the armies that

captured and looted that ill-fated city on "March 24. Commissioner

Lieu thinks General Chen will stay in Hankow.
Chien Tsu-min,

Kweichow army, is dead. He was executed at Chanteh, in western Hunan, at the order of General Tang
The Commissioner thought, therefore,
Shen-tse, now at Hankow.
that General Chien's men, some 35,000, would be loyal to General
Chiang Kai-shek, sworn enemy of the man who killed their chief.
late

commander

of the

General Teng Yen-tah

He

declared.

is

is

a "very bad man/' the Commissioner

the recognized "Reddest of the Reds" at

Hankow:

he and George Hsu-chien, Minister of Justice.

The Commissioner was not sure where he

stands but seemed inclined to think Chen might like to get back
with the Moderates. He had heard that Chen, the Hankow ForEugene Chen?

eign Minister, wants to get to Shanghai, but the Radicals are holdHe thinks that Chen "might be all
ing him virtually a prisoner.
right," but

"Don't

it

tell

isn't certain.

Eugene Chen/' the Commissioner

said as

we

said

goodnight, "that I am on the Loongwo" I promised I would not

It would not be
breathe a word of his presence in Hankow.
healthy.

We

are due before noon tomorrow, April 25.

This exciting trip up-river to Hankow ended on April 25, 1927, as

The
I landed in some trepidation but was not molested.
scheduled.

THE DRAGON STIRS

86

most anguish which I suffered was during a mile walk along the Bund
to the United States Consulate-General, to meet Col. Frank P. Lockhart,
our genial Consul-General there.
He put me up at the ConsulateThe ''anguish*' was
General for my stay, which lasted several weeks.

due

to the heat

not to bands of insulting Chinese on murder bent.

RED RULE AT

HANKOW

dust, fine, hot, thick as a rug, lay heavily over the macadamized sections of the Bund at Hankow.
The street, paved

RED

only in a few spots, stretched its slender length two miles and
more along the Yangtze. No breeze stirred, but an occasional hurtling
motorcar spurted handfuls of dirt over pedestrians and disappeared in
a dull red cloud.

These rare automobiles usually bore on

the Nationalist flag, also predominantly red, with

corner of blue.

The

hoods

white star in a

Morning was sultry even on the

Hankow was hot. The heat wave was premature.

dull red clouds

twenty-fifth of April.
But Hankow's climate
States.

its

their

Its

were
is

stifling.

similar to the middle-south

summers are long and

sticky

and

fetid.

of

The

the

United

city is strik-

ingly similar to any river port along the Mississippi River, below St.
Louis.
If you could exchange the Chinese coolies for Negroes, the

towns would almost appear identical. The coolies shout and "hee-haw"
as they carry their burdens on bamboo poles or piled high on their
sturdy broad shoulders and necks, just as Negroes shout and sing as

But
Hankow, to be sure, is a little more cosmopolitan.
they work.
there is a striking similarity
except for one thing: recurrent wars.
Even that was not noticeable as one disembarked from a river
steamer and walked along the Bund.

an abnormal situation prevailed

It

in 1927.

was

The

noticeable, to be sure, that

chief reason

was the pres-

On the
ence of some thirty or more foreign warships in the river there.
Yangtze's rising, rumpled waters floated a remarkable collection of fighting craft of half a dozen nations there to see that foreign lives and propwere protected, regardless of what Chinese
tory which includes Wuhan.

erty

Wuhan

name

faction held the lerri-

given the three cities that have been built up

around the joining of the Han and Yangtze Rivers at this point. On the
southern bank of the Yangtze is Wuchang; immediately opposite is
is

the

87

THE DRAGON STIRS

88

Hankow and
;

have a

way

tue of

West"

The

Hanyang.

Wuhan

million.

three cities
the "gate-

is

controls the interior markets

It

by
almost no

position

along the river

made and

are

The Yangtze

routes.

was

Mississippi

Yangtze

of China.

two

is

vir-

railon the Yangtze.

There are still
the rich central and western provinces, and goods must flow

its

roads in

to

fifty

still

modern times

in

seventy-five years

being

made

what the

is

Fortunes have been

ago.

the river transport business in the

in

valley.

Hankow
interests

ings

of perhaps

total population

to the

Hankow

just to the west of

is

the

The Bund

are centered.

which

house

for

structures

the

foreign

is

all

three

the

cities.

lined with

commercial

The

banks.

These buildings

the Bund.

of

port

principal

firms,

foreign

large

There foreign

modern

including

consulates-general

face the river.

The

river

build-

magnificent
are
side

along
of the

given over to a parkway lined with trees and benches, bordering a broad sidewalk where one may promenade in search of air
street

is

on humid

nights.

one big difference between the present and the "good

old days," they say.
Formerly the Bund's parkway was reserved enNow it is alive with Chinese, chiefly
tirely for the use of foreigners.

There

is

The Bund was built by

green trees.
the foreigners, each nation with a concession doing its share.
The
that is, farthest upBritish Concession is at the far end of the Bund
coolies, lolling in the

shade of

its

stream; the old Russian Concession is next; the French after that;
and at the lower end, the Japanese
then, the old German Concession
;

Concession.

This

last

and sandbags so that

On

it

by barbed wire barricades

remains free from Chinese loafers.

usually

is

cut

off

Loongwo, I was advised by the Captain and others

There had been reports of trouble with the
not to take a rickshaw.
coolies, who, it was said, had been making exorbitant charges and had
leaving the

been insulting on

Hence

plodded along the Bund to

the American Consulate-General, a mile or so from where our steamer
docked.
Later, I found that there was little or no reason for endurall

ing this discomfort.

erous.

They charged

occasions.

The

coolies

were not then

in

the least obstrep-

the usual low prices and were inclined to assist

The change from a week prior

any foreigner cheerfully.
rival was described as remarkable.
This, in fact,

was

the subject which

all

to

my

ar-

foreigners were discussing

RED RULE
was the

first to

89
Col.

mention

were safe to ride

rickshaws and he

in

HANKOW

The American Consul-General,

that April 25, 1927.

hart,

AT

said

it.

he

that

asked whether

thought

it

it

was

Frank Lock-

adding that

the

He was at a
change which had come over the coolies was amazing.
loss to explain it to himself satisfactorily, but was inclined to believe,
as
of

most foreigners were, that the change was caused by the presence
the numerous foreign warships in the river.
The attitude of the

apparently changed chiefly because of government orders to

The government worked through the
them to be kind to foreigners.
coolies

Labor Unions and seemed

be in complete

to

as

control,

far

as

the

workers were concerned.

Most

Americans

of the

still

Hankow were residing in the Amerrooms.

The Consul-General offered

in

ican Consulate, using cots in the

me

his hospitality.

the hotels in

be too

Hankow,

And

luxurious.

I accepted.

It

like hotels in

at that time there

seemed the better part of valor

many a river town, were far from

was no assurance

that they

would

safe.

From

proceeded to the American flagship Isabel

to call on Rear-Admiral H. H. Hough, then in charge of the AmeriAfter paying my respects, I withcan Navy patrol in the Yangtze.
the

Consulate,

drew and met the captain and

of the Isabel's launch to get
it

port

to

the dock.

officers of the flagship.

my

luggage off the

had some

slight

difficulty

was given use

Loongwo and
in

trans-

getting the bags

No wharf coolie was in

transported from the dock to the Consulate.
sight, and one of the sailors handed the bags over to a coaling coolie.
Innocent of any breach of coolie etiquette,

proceeded ahead of the

fellow toward the Bund, across the wooden pier that extends out over

Looking around

sudden outcry, I discovered before we had gone fifty yards that he had been beset by three or four
rough looking characters who seemed to be insisting that he release
the foreshore.

my

baggage.
ment, unable

at his

Alone, unable to speak the language and, for the moto understand the cause of the argument, I could do

From

had heard, I was ready to believe we

were being robbed on the shore in broad daylight.
I shoved one of the attackers aside, finally, after he had struck

nothing.

my
and

the stories I

coolie frequently

told

failed to

on the face and head with the

the fellow to continue, brandishing

work.

They returned

to the fray,

my

flat

of his hand,

stick the

while.

It

and one motioned that he

THE DRAGON STIRS

90
wanted

to carry the bags, pointing to

ing junk.
ently

The

my

coolie

had been unloading the junk.

coal-

and apparseemed that that was his job

had was smirched with

fellow I

and then to the

It

coal dust

and he could not do

his "pigeon" as they say in the vernacular there

he should want to be enterprising. If he did, he

I paid the first chap
cut some other coolie out of a bowl of rice.

anything else even

if

twenty cents Mex.

time).

When two

(or about eight cents in U. S. currency at the

others grabbed my two bags, each taking one, I

decided, rather than suggest that one take both of them, to

them

let

gave them a Mexican dollar to fight over and they grinned their way back into oblivion.

have their way.

It

At

the Consulate a block

was probably three or four times

away

their usual

wage

for that sort of

but getting rid of the pair of them without an "incident" was

I was told later that hitting or
worth the forty cents it cost me.

job,

shoving one of these fellows a week earlier would have been almost
like signing one's own death warrant.

There were only two or three places to eat in Hankow at that

time.
The most popular was the U. S. Navy Y. M. C. A., a block

from the American Consulate and just off the Bund.

The hotels
were serving food again, and the Hankow
there were two of them
Club was running its dining-room for members and guests.
tiffin with a man from the Consulate and two Standard Oil

M. C. A. The
with Hankow's officials,

had

men

at

afternoon was spent in making appointments

including the Minister for Foreign Affairs,

the Y.

Mr. Eugene Chen, and that remarkable adviser, Comrade Mikal Borodin.
He was the man behind most of the Kuomintang Revolution
the "brains" of the whole show.

The whole day was

extraordinarily quiet so far as warfare or un-

was concerned, and

were absurd.
The city,

Hankow's "tenseness"
aside from the warships and the occasional
Nationalist soldier seen on the streets, was as quiet then as Detroit.
Tea at the Hankow Race Club was another surprise.
Here, as the
sun went down, I sat with Bruno Schwartz, of New York, then pub-

rest

lisher of the

There were
clubhouse,

thing from

the wild reports about

Hankow

Herald, and listened to music by the club band.

scores of persons sitting on the broad lawn before the

chatting
their

as

in

minds.

everyday

life

number

mostly Germans, and a few French.

anywhere,

farthest

women, too, were present,

was still impressed then with

of
I

war the

HANKOW

RED RULE AT
Hankow was
who refused to

dangerous, and inclined to believe that

take it seriously were sitting on the edge
But Mr. Schwartz disabused my mind of such illusions.

idea that

the

these people
of a volcano.

The

women

other

dancing

large cities

Hankow were

in

The

of the cabarets.

girls

Not

that

it

but to find

it

unique thing.
It

91

was the climax

to a

the

Russians,

cabaret system of

including

the

Hankow was

found anywhere in China's

there at a time like that was utterly odd.

isn't

still

to be

grotesque day not at

all

like

one

the

had

After dinner, with two sound and respectable busiexpected to find.

ness men who were not at all of the "tired'' type, I rounded out the
day's education in the ways of that city by a visit to the cabarets.

first

There were probably half a dozen in one block.

The orchestras
pounded out music which in the gaudily lighted street blended into
one raucous howl of
halls,

though

description, I

The

jazz.

cabarets were, after

all,

merely dance

The best
palmier days they had had entertainers.
think, of the street and the dance halls in 1927 is to be
in

found in a comparison with the typical motion picture "set" depicting

the dance halls of America's Wild West in the days of '49.
There

was no pretense of finery. Only one place had even an attempt at it,
and here one found vari-colored electric lights stuck in a line around
the walls about ten feet above the floor.

a burlesque on the Christmas spirit.

The girls, Russians all, were a

It

gave a weird

effect,

gaudy,

They danced with

sailors in the afternoon, and at night with men of all ranks and positions and nationalities who for one reason or another had come to
those

My

places.

guides

pointed

clever

out to

lot.

me

diplomats,

captains

of

heads of large foreign firms, lawyers, doctors, bankers, Chinese

It was one of the most bizarre sights to be seen anywhere
officials.

ships,

of

governments mingled with officials of the Hankow government in those dives; Communists from
Moscow danced side by side with the men they were seeking to force
in

the

world.

Officials

foreign

young girls, always Russians, laughed at them and

danced with them all, demanding frequently, "You buy me a small
out

of

China;

bottle wine, pliss?"

The "wine" was usually a pint of vile imitation champagne which

was sold to the men at $8 a bottle, Mex., the girl getting $1 as her
commission.

Mex.

If she danced, she

Everything in China

is

was given a
still

on

this

ticket

worth forty cents,

"silver basis,"

originally

THE DRAGON STIRS

92

imported from Mexico to aid trade. The

but they earned a living in this fashion.
learned

things which

many

not become wealthy

girls did

Some

enabled them

of them,

was

told,

enhance their usual

to

in-

come.
In these cafes which
Some, the whisperings said, were spies.
formed so much a part of Hankow's life during those strange days,
they were supposed to learn much from foreigners and to retail their

knowledge

witting victim often

scheme

let

it

Whether

of cross-purposes in the Orient.

do not know.

true, I

The uncould prove useful.

something drop that had value in the muddled

channels where

to certain

there were songs of

kow; and

the

red

It

was highly

Moscow sung
dust

that

lay

at

possible,

their spy scare

least.

But

certainly

Han-

often in those dance halls of

the

in

narrow,

was

rickshaw-cluttered

"Street of the Cabarets" was often swirled into angry eddies by the
hurtling motor cars
I

of the Bolsheviki.

interviewed Eugene Chen the next day.

Everybody interviewed

He was

Foreign Minister in the radical Hankow

Government and was, therefore, a major source of information about

Mr.

Chen

then.

China's actions,

man*'
fore,

of

the

desires

Hankow

for the horde of

and

He was

reactions.

Nationalist

men who

the

Administration.

flocked

from

all

Hankow and out again, led to his busy door.

The Foreign Minister was occupied with the
He sought as a member of the Cabinet
tion.

"official

All

spokesthere-

paths,

over the world into

mechanics of a revoluto

run that section of

China then under Hankow's control; and Chen was worried

at

that

time by a crisis within the Kuomintang, the split which, for a while,
divided the Nationalist forces.
However, occupied with these things

and the

on the "Nanking Incident," Mr. Chen

conception of the aims and aspirations

He

pleaded for "sanity

among

sat

of the

Kuomintang Revolution.

the powers" in their attitude toward

He

hoped that the Powers would not blockade the Yangtze.

did not deny that they could, but said that China hoped the Powers

China.

He

Note from the Powers

for an hour and told of his

possible necessity of replying to another

would refrain from

that sort of action.

t(

don't

think that this

'will

happen," he said, "unless the world has gone mad."

Yet, he wondered about the thirty or more foreign warships in Hankow then.
"If they blockade the Yangtze," he said, "we still have rice and

peanut

oil.

We

shall continue to eat

and to have lamps.

And,

after

R E D
all,

we do

will,

not

H A X K

AT

R U L E

up nights and read very much."

But I hope most sincerely
think, get along.

sit

93

He

"We

smiled.

that that does not

happen."

Eugene Chen, a man nervously energetic, sank back into his blue
He was a
plush chair and regarded me, awaiting the next query.
rather

man, perhaps fifty years old then, his black hair shot
with gray, his thin hands gesticulating in emphasis or explanation of
his remarks.
Journalist and temporary statesman of the new China,
his

slight

was a pleasant

personality.

ions, his views, the

activities

of

One might not agree with his opinthe men with whom he was allied in

but his personality on

seeking to unite China under Nationalism
acquaintance was certainly not against him.
;

"The
reply

Nationalist revolution

next

my

to

will

''We

question.

continue as planned/' he

first

said in

not

permit the defection of

will deal with him later.
In the
will

We
Chiang Kai-shek to stop us.
meantime we plan to proceed with our drive to the north.

think

you will find something interesting happening in the next few weeks.
I do not say months, but weeks.
We already have the lower half, or

Honan

more, of
section

Province.

on the north.

"Marshal

We

Tso-lin's armies

Chang
will

Feng Yu-hsiang

soon control
is

with

us.

all

He

of

hold but a scant

Honan.

will

not

stay

with

He is now in Shensi. Our forces will combine

Chiang Kai-shek.
and drive Chang Tso-lin back into Manchuria.
It will not be long.

few weeks.

Interesting developments are at hand.

We

originally

The split in the party has

planned to proceed on Peking via Hankow.
caused a temporary delay.
Now, we are on the march."

_Chen

that

said

expected.

The

the

plan of

Chiang Kai-shek had been long

the revolution, he said, never had been to take
breach with

he

they wanted to get to

Peking inland.
Nanking in particular had, the Minister said earnestof ill omen to revolutions.
But
ly, forever been, a Nemesis, a city

*"5fiangha"i"

or Nanking in 1927.

First,

said,

He
Chiang Kai-shek turned against advices from the Government.
called Chiang a "rebel and a militarist of the old school," out for
"The split," Chen insisted, "is final, there
"personal gain and glory."
will deal with Chiang Kai-shek when once we
is no doubt of it.

We

get Peking.

He

has only 30,000

kept busy with the

Hankow/'

men

Northern troops.

at the most,

We

and they

will

be

don't fear their attacking

THE DRAGON STIRS

94
These

figures,

of course, varied extraordinarily

from figures given

The
spring by General Chiang Kai-shek's adherents.
It was imposNanking block asserted that Hankow had few men.
sible to count them, so I can but relate what each side declared then.
earlier

that

In 1927 one could only await developments to determine which side

was correct. Chen, of course, lost out, and had to flee later that same
year but he could not foresee those events then.

One

reason the Minister said the Government had opposed taking

until

Shanghai

He

was the danger

later

of

conflict

with

foreign

troops

holding of Shanghai by the Powers with

in China; that it
force was against "the principles of Nationalism'
there.

said

the

that

was

"an

intolerable

ereignty."

Hence,

Nationalists

in

situation,"

the

troops

and
must

control they must,

that the troops depart.

"challenge

go,

Chen

to be true

They did make

their

to

to

China's

said,

and

their

cause,

sov-

with

the

demand

demand, but the troops

remained.

He
hai,

Chiang Kai-shek had disobeyed orders in taking Shangand his Government in Hankow was not responsible for what
said

The matter of the foreign Settlement and the

might occur next.
French Concession there he felt would "have to await the time when

Hankow
"The

controls that part of China, as

Powers

defeat

their

well as

own end

Peking."
in

sending troops to
"The presence of those troops has done more
China," Chen added.
to arouse the people of China against foreign imperialism than all our
foreign

propaganda ever could have hoped to

No

do.

It

means China

is

not free.

country virtually run by foreigners is free.

The super-government of China has been the Diplomatic Corps at
In Shanghai, of course, there is the local government in
Peking.
nation that

the Settlement.

has

Its

its

duty

is

to police the city.

government it keeps things clean."

The United States, Chen said, was
being, as he

China.

saw

Until

it,

that she

America

sent

troops

had joined Britain

a scavenger

making a great mistake

in

out

Shanghai, he said, the

States as a friend.
However,
to

in using force,

he said

it

was

diffi-

"our traditional friendship with the AmerChen was born in Trinidad, and was a British subject

cult to continue to maintain

ican people."

it

misled by the British into following their lead in

Chinese had looked upon the United

now

I call

but he denounced Great Britain.

RED RULE AT
Chen

HANKOW

emphatically that the Hankow

He denied reports which were

said

Communistic.

that the principles of the

Kuomintang

in

95

Government

was

not

common in Shanghai,
Hankow were being colored

red.

"We
nomic

are just

questions

now

tackling in the
us,"

facing

advising the workers that

and not seek to obtain

is

it

the
is

Hankow Government

Foreign

Minister

said.

the eco-

"We

are

best to better their position gradually

Ours

once a 100 per cent increase in wages.

a workers' and peasants' revolution.
They have worked for
at

many

If a
generations at wages too low almost to permit them to exist.
man gets sick and is out of work, he and his whole family must starve.

That

is

not right.

We

want to change

that,

and we think the workers

are entitled to better treatment.

"The

labor unions themselves are taking responsibility

ling the workers.

Labor leaders are

of control-

in control of the situation.

They

are advising the workers to go slow and take gradual increases.

"On the farms, things are different. In Hunan, it is true we have

man will be a better

experiment of dividing up land.
citizen if he is a land owner.
He will fight for his land. Hence, we
are trying it out to see how it works.
That, no doubt, is where these
tried

the

rumors about our Communistic principles originate. China never will

be Communistic.
We will not do away with private ownership of

The

property.

him a

fact that the peasant

owns land

will,

we

believe,

make

better citizen."

He
China were comparatively safe.
said that they were as safe in Hankow as in New York.
Hence, he
Chen

was

said that foreigners in

bitter against warships being sent there.

Chinese/'

he

said.

He

added

that

they

"They
were

only aggravate the

not

needed.

This

brought up the "Nanking Incident," and the position of foreigners in

China in general.
"Foreigners in China are, as a
"In the case of Nanking,
avowed.

from any harm," Chen

we do not accept guilt for what-

rule,

safe

ever happened during the taking of that city.

for

We

will,

of course,

any damage done to the American Consulate at Nanking.

"But the charge that we deliberately organized the attack on

pay
for-

we do most certainly deny. The only way to settle the

we see it, is to have an investigation. That is the way

eigners there

matter, as

these things are done in any other country.

Why

not in China?"

THE DRAGON STIRS

96

Chen again

made by

referred to statements,

many thousands

of

Northern troops were

Cantonese captured the

He

city.

the

Nat'onalists,

that

Nanking when the

these men were more

in

still

implied that

was pointed out that Americans and British coming from Nanking had sworn the attack was by
men in Nationalist uniforms, chiefly from Hunan Province.
Chen
likely the ones guilty

then said the only

He

remain.

China and that

The Minister

it.

said

It

was

to settle the affair

way

committee look into

to

of the looting.

also,

have an international

China wanted foreigners

said

there

that

however,

to

was a revolution

in

If foreigners thought
might at times be dangerous.
it too dangerous, they should leave, he said; but he emphasized that
4<
the Chinese were
not anti-foreign and do not want the foreigners

to

it

depart."

"We

want them

We

to

Chen added.

remain,"

"We

are

not fighting

however, to do away with the

Imperialistic policies of foreign governments toward our country.
want our country back. We want the unequal treaties abolished, along
the foreigners.

are determined,

We

with

We

extra-territoriality.

are

We'd

handle our nation now.

Comrade Mikal Borodin was

Government during

to

ready

like

the

prove ourselves

able

to

chance/'

the dominating figure in the

Hankow

He was

dynamic head of
the Russian Advisorate and directed the more radical branch of the
its

rocket-like career.

He
Kuomintang Revolution.
in the days when it was at

Hankow's regime for a time

and the Reds ruled in China.

controlled
its

peak,

His word was law, and he was far from silent. He made few speeches
but he was the "power behind the throne."
or public appearances
It was too good to last; and when the wheel of fortune turned
;

abruptly against him, Borodin

bowed

to

land through Mongolia to Siberia and

His career
absolute.

of
It

the inevitable

made

and

the long trek to

fled

over-

Moscow.

power in Asia was brief but spectacular and in all ways

was this last fact that caused his fall
Chinese led by

Chiang Kai-shek saw the omnipotence of Moscow as

He became
exemplified by Borodin, its agent so they threw him out.
an editor in Moscow.
Generalissimo

At

the

He

height

of

his

mission

in

Hankow, Borodin was a world

was a revolutionary from his youth, and even before the

Revolution in Russia, had been forced to flee his native land.
JI917
He went to the United States before the World War and attended
figure.

HANKOW

RED RULE AT
school

at

school

teacher,

Valparaiso

Chicago, and

in

in

University

He met

Indiana.

his

wife,

marriage he conducted a

their

after

97

His name is Berg, I believe, and he

School of Political Economy.
and his wife ran the school under that name.
He returned to Russia
at

the time

1917 revolution.

the

of

Borodin (or was Berg assumed

wanted

Naturally,

to see

he took the name

Eventually,

and was given the mission

?)

him

in

in China.

The appointment was

Hankow.

woman from Chicago,

the Red rule.
She was

arranged by Rayna Prohme, a dynamic young

then editing

who

of

William

Prohme, another journalist of rare intelligence

a propathat time was head of the Nationalist News Agency

wife

the

The People's Tribune, organ

at

of

Both are now dead.

Rayna (as
ganda organization in Shanghai.
with
her shock of
everyone came to know this quite amazing girl

Moscow

died some years ago in

flaming red hair)

of overwork and

1935 in Honolulu, after suffering for years

brain fever; Bill died in

from a pulmonary illness.

Despite political differences, all who met
Rayna and Bill were influenced by their personalities and their clarity
of vision.

In Hankow, Rayna was very much alive and arranged my entree

to the great man's sanctum that week in late April with no apparent
trouble.

She said: ''You want to see Borodin?

can be done."

me

got a note the third day I was in

Hankow,

Borodin had

that the meeting had been arranged.

see

I'll

Okay,

offices

what
telling

on the

second floor of a building in the old German Concession (seized by

After waiting half an hour, I was
the Chinese in the World War).

He was about fifty, tall, heavy but well

ushered into his presence
He had a flowing black musbuilt, with a thick mane of black hair.
marked by an

tache, setting off a face

While

eyes.
pipe.

He

was

there,

Borodin strode

up

asked Borodin

and candid dark

restlessly about,

He was

spoke volubly, and in perfect English.

living

figure,

aquiline nose

sucking a

an imposing

to his reputation for sagacity as well as fearlessness.

how he happened

to

join

the Chinese revolutionary

movement.

'The
ago,"

late

he

Dr. Sun Yat-sen invited

said.

naturally I have
people.

"I

am

in

my own

their

me

to

revolution

come

an individual

as

ideas for conducting

to China four years

it

have no connection with Moscow."

though

for the good of their

THE DRAGON STIRS

98

Communist

Borodin said that there could be no truly

China at that time.

in

China were being named today," he

I have found it is impossible
could not be called Communist.

Communist Party

"If the
said, "it

State

of

communize the Chinese simply because

munize poverty. The Chinese peoples are
to

it

is

not possible to com-

different

from the Russians

might be possible to communize the United

States, where you have vast wealth and property can be communal,

or

the

Americans.

It

owned by the community.

munism (in its pure sense)

or

JJutChina
is

is

impossible.

poverty-stricken.

Com-

Hence, our theories are

We

seek, of course, to aid the plight of laborers and the

changed.
fanner, or peasant, classes."
The split which was to overthrow him so swiftly was explained

from
<4

of view.

his point

We

broke with Nanking, or General Chiang Kai-shek, for two

"First, Chiang began the Northern Expedimajor reasons," he said.
He reached the Yangtze
tion from Canton in 1926 with 50,000 men.

In that vast army there were scores of

Their officers were not injoined to save their necks.

Valley with 400,000 troops.

rabble

who

spired with

the

purposes of

this

revolution

they influenced

Chiang

Kai-shek to seize Shanghai, solely to fill their own pockets with gold.
"Second, General Chiang Kai-shek came under the influence of
the merchants and compradore class in Shanghai.

He

got a few millabor so the greedy

from them and agreed to hold down

might continue to wax fat and wealthier. Chiang was also swayed by
the foreign banks and is lost in the shadows of those iniquitous
lion dollars

Hence, as far as
temples of the money-changers in Shanghai.
Chinese movement, or revolution, is concerned, he is doomed."

But

for

once,

Borodin erred.

man, as a revolutionary

He

He, not Chiang, was the doomed

in China.

explained his attitude toward the foreign

Powers

the

Powers.

Chiang Kai-shek a second Marshal Chang

Tso-lin they will try to throw China back into chaos, and anti-foreignThis revolution will not end there.
ism will continue indefinitely.
"If the

see in

These peoples are aroused.

Momentarily stopped, they
toward their destiny blindly at times, yes; but they
It is
toward the goal we now desire.
us, the Powers should now recognize

inevitable.

the

To

will continue
will

continue

aid them and

Nationalist

Government

HANKOW

RED RULE AT
Hankow.

here in

99

It is for

your government in Washington, for any

foreign government, to make up its mind which is China's true government, best equipped to lead these peoples toward achievement of
If

their goal.

make up

they cannot

turmoil will persist

their minds,

and present conditions in China will remain indefinitely.

"The United States seems to be growing as imperialistic as Great

Why

Britain has been for the past century.

why do you back one

there

support factions

America, and

Central

all

you have

because

simply

Well,

You

Nicaragua and not the other?

in

side

back any factions?

You

America.

Latin

interests

special

are

in

an imperialistic

nation."

.The

man

insisted that

the purpose of the Chinese revolution

primarily to aid laborers and

social

men and women

problems must be solved, he

could become united.

was a farm

said,

The Kuomintang

on the farms.

before the

was

These

Chinese peoples

Revolution, as viewed by him,

program a joint Farmer-Labor Movement, in its

His desire seemed to be to aid the Chinese in their

relief

highest sense.

England and America of

the past hundred years; to aid them to become an industrial nation,
and thus offer a greater market for farm products of every sort.
"industrial revolution," similar to the one in

Thus the yellow man could emerge as a power on

me

earth.

to lunch at his

apartment a day or so later.

At that time he put out a feeler toward an American loan to the
Hankow Government, emphasizing and reiterating that China was

Borodin invited

getting

no money from Moscow

at that time.

would not be a better prospect, or

if

had asked

if

Moscow

they were not getting revenue

there.

"Not one

cent,"

Borodin

said,

"absolutely not a cent.

The

Soviet

We

are spending around $200,always rather economical.

We can get this from
000,000 Mex. a year here in this revolution.

Union

is

various taxes, of course, in time."

for

the

debts.

no idea

hire

"We

of

the

money,"

desire to stabilize

He

insisted

Hankow was "good

and certainly would meet her foreign

our credit abroad," he said. "We have

of renouncing our debts, or those

we may

incur.

"Furthermore, you were not stopped by the bogey of

'security'

in

World War. What security did AmerWith a loan, we could refund China's na-

the case of Europe during the

ica

have then?

tional debt;

None!

and we would pay

it

off in a certain period of time,

say

THE DRAGON STIRS

100

a century
the same as France, or any
need have no fear of lack of security here."

other

half

From

later

history

concerning

international

nation.

obligations,

America

it

would

appear that Borodin's opinions were not so far-fetched as they seemed

in Hankow then.
But nothing ever came of that visionary scheme in

China; at

least,

Yangtze.
As one vital
ers,

not

for the Communist-controlled

before

the

business stood almost

their daily

unmolested.

life

ways nearly

full.

evening.

The

its

the

usual

golf course

in

Hankow

the

in

most

was

The

popular.

in use

with

that

Bars were

al-

French Club and

the evening the

tea-dances,

virtually
fact

few women went about

Various clubs were open.

At noon and

Hankow Club were

Race Club had

men and

the

life

Aside from the

Chinese struggle.

idle,

toward foreign-

attitude

lenient

the tiny colony of foreigners carried on

the same as

the

more

the

of

result

regime far up the

beautiful

Hankow

orchestra

foreign

each

and the tennis courts occupied

but the whole thing reminded me of a skeleton strutting about.

In
normal times that vast club is the meeting-place of 200 or 300 persons

each afternoon.
the only

women

Hankow, 100

In those days, perhaps a score or so gathered there,

There were 70 Americans still in
being Germans.

British, about

500 Japanese and 250 Germans.

business reopened a few days later.

The Japanese made the firmest

mand
wire

for the removal of their

and

sandbags.

Shanghai, and passes

however,

stand and

armed guards

refused
as

Japanese

Hankow's de-

well as their barbed

The Japanese Concession was reminiscent of

The rest of Hankow,
were required to enter.

was wide open.

Nationalist

soldiers

and

officers

strutted

about the streets everywhere.

Thousands of foreign sailors aboard
warships in the harbor were not permitted shore leave for weeks because of an "incident" in the Japanese Concession.
Banks remained
closed, but eventually the men in the Hankow Government found a

way

to permit

them to operate

at a profit, despite the

temporary

silver

embargo.

The

only foreign newspaper there then was The People's Tribune,

However, The Hankow Herald republished by the government.

opened with its first new issue the next Friday morning after my
arrival.
There was no stopping Bruno Schwartz, the editor and publisher of this wide-awake American daily.
The reopening of the banks,

HAN ROW

RED RULE AT
as well as the return of

Japanese, indicated a general lessening

many

Soon

of the tension, at least temporarily.

to

walk about

at

night

101

anywhere,

was no longer dangerous

it

in

except

the

native

The

city.

French Concession was not touched, Annamites policing the streets as

The movies were running nightly. Foreigners,
they did in Shanghai.
especially

Americans, moved back into their homes.

Consulate

now had

on the third

floor.

The American

only myself as guest in a barracks-style quarters

I slept on an iron cot shipped there from Kenosha,

Wisconsin.

The government-owned
functioning was

telegraph

lines

Privileges

unsatisfactory.

were operating, but

to

their

war correspondents

to

send their messages collect were cancelled, for the Hankow office did
not cooperate with Nanking and Shanghai during the split with the

down

Dispatches had to go out by

messenger on board an occasional British river steamer, or through a
They were relayed abroad
foreign destroyer going "out" to the coast.
leaders

Kuomintang

the Yangtze.

by cable from Shanghai, but were invariably

if

fortnight late,

delivered at

Hot and panting

layers

of

banks,

swarmed

several

days or even a

all.

already noisy and dirty enough beneath

dust which rose from clay of the river

coolies,

penetrating

red

the streets in various stages of undress.

They popped

the inevitable Chinese firecrackers everywhere day and night, adding

to the din of

Hankow

at the start of that nightmarish

summer.

contribution to the confusion of daily existence (and the

the

to the popular

lie

Western

was a thing

lent Oriental'*

belief

to behold!)

in

Their

way they gave

the inscrutability of the "si-

was no

aid to the nerves, already

jumpy and frayed by events in recent weeks.

The Yangtze was a remarkable sight then, unlike anything before
or since.
The broad stream was literally crammed with warships of

many

nations.

my window

Their

in the

Lights from

many

impressiveness

craft

it

objects

ship's

didn't matter

Powerful searchlights

peered

which were often

be

exaggerated.

From

seemed aglow at night.

gleamed through the darkness, and the men
Often these naval
signals to one another.

United States Consulate,

on board sent frequent

signals were merely some
next day, but

cannot

officer

it

inviting another

there

was mystery and awe

over

the

afloat

stream's

on that dark

surface

river's

to

tiffin

the

in the sight.

for

sinister

strange
current

THE DRAGON STIRS

102

These added
Northern

their

lights

in

fingers

of

blaze

to

the

whole

touch

of

the

effect.

In a short time I was to return to Shanghai and the trustworthiness of a foreign-run cable-head there.
June had just drawn the curtain on her eventful

not without a sigh of

weeks when
relief.

headed back down the Yangtze,

UP TO THE FRONT

Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, was back

from a sojourn in Moscow.
There were rumors that he might
confer with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek somewhere near the
Front in the Kuomintang Revolution's advance toward the north. His
"Christian

General/'

THE

position in the Nanking-Hankow split was vital to China's revolt.

from the astute Marshal in pertask was to discover what it was

My

than two weeks, he came east to meet General Chiang at Hsuchow-fu, in Kiangsu Province, near the Shantung
son,

if

In

possible.

less

border.

So

went there

also.

Mystery survives but faintly in the heart of China. In June 1927,

with two other foreign correspondents I spent a fortnight in the interior.
We visited the war front and we traveled hundreds of miles
Peasants at work in peaceful valleys are
through a land of farmers.
not glamorous; and tales of days when ancient tyrants ruled and
warred, and this land of the Dragon was unknown to a wondering
West, faded in the

Old temples

still

warm

sunshine of June's modern days.

existed and towering pagodas reared their storied

fingers into the blue; but the temples rotted hi decay, skeletons of an
older glory, occupied by troops who, like gray rats, scuttled in and out

of vacant doors.

The pagodas, one

felt,

must have been used as

silos

China's golden harvest which, like her gold in another

day, was sapped from its source to provide the ever-diminishing sinews
of war so that the Kuomintang Revolution might go on.
for the grain

China, in being born again, destroyed every vestige of her former

self.

The dragon

yet a view of

it

shuffled off

its

ancient

at close range in 1927

coil.

had

The
its

process is tragic,
merits in a series of

queer experiences in the East.

were three on that expedition to quaint Hsuchow-fu, in the
extreme northern tip of Kiangsu Province, near the Shantung Province

We

103

THE DRAGON STIRS

104
border, where the
ally

Nanking

Nationalist line

northward and eastward to the

noticed

not

the

slightest

Pacific.

anti-foreignism

had been pushing gradu-

During the

among

the

entire trip

Chinese

we

people,

thorough-going propaganda of the Nanking authorities

against what they termed ''imperialists/' which the average Chinese
despite

the

The propaganda posters

naturally expected to include all foreigners.
Most of them were illustrated, in order that the
were everywhere.
illiterate

faint

(the vast

Chinese

idea

of

what

it

was

the people) might get some

And the "imperialist" was in-

of

majority
all

about.

a white foreigner. We also saw a number of antiJapanese posters during this trip, which were characterized by figures
evitably, of course,

of Japanese troops

despoiling the

I started for the exciting trip

Chinese.

up

to the front

on Sunday, June

12,

Nanking with former Senator Hiram Bingham,

of Connecticut, who, with his son, Woodbridge Bingham, had been
making a thorough tour of China, both North and South. In Nanking,
1927, going as far as

met Robert

S.

Pickens,

special

correspondent

for

the

Chicago

Tribune, and a Danish correspondent named Dr. Aage Kaarup Nielsen.

Dr. Nielsen was a South Polar explorer, among other things, and for

seven years had been traveling for three Scandinavian newspapers, returning to Europe to lecture and write books on what he
had seen. I hired a cook, took food and bottled drinking water, and
six or

with a translator started for Nanking and the front.

I left Shanghai at 9:10 a.m., going to
Nanking in a private car
with the Binghams and Mr. Julean Arnold, the American Commercial

Attache in Shanghai.

We

arrived about four o'clock in the afternoon.

An

under-secretary from the Nanking Foreign Office met us, together

with two officers from the United States destroyer Peary, stationed
After getting settled,
there, and we proceeded to the Garden Hotel.

Mr. Arnold and

with the Foreign Office secretary (a chap named

Chang), called on the late Dr. C. C. Wu, the Nanking Foreign Minister.
told us briefly of the desire of his Government to have
Dr.
I,

Wu

the foreigners return to Nanking, assuring us that neither he nor his

were

We

compared Nanking's Government

with the Hankow Nationalist group, and Dr. Wu said the only difference was that Nanking was anti-Red.
The general mechanism of
the two governments was the same.
These people, however, did not
colleagues

feel that labor

anti-foreign.

should be placed yet in such an exalted position.

UP TO THE FRONT
Mr. Arnold and

We

visited

Ginling

I,

Nanking
for

College

with Chang, departed for a tour of Nanking.

University and drove through the ground of

girls.

graduate classes that week.

Both were functioning

The

missions

and expected to

supporting them,

charge told me, were planning to continue to do

that no foreign teachers remained.

The

105

so,

men

in

despite the fact

Nanking where I stayed, while not the most modern

The rooms were large and comfortable.
in the world, was a surprise.
The place was full then, and I took over a room belonging to Pickens,
hotel at

who had gone

than

Shanghai over the week end.

had been led to believe, and none of us,

slightest danger.

dences that

Nanking was quieter

it seemed, was in the
noticed a few isolated evi-

to

all

However, the next day I

was not well in the relations between foreigners and

the Chinese.

Next morning we went on another tour of Nanking. The Standard Oil house, where fifty-odd foreigners had gathered during the
"Nanking Incident," was a wreck. It was a stiff climb up the hill on
Nanking to where it stood overlooking the city and
the Yangtze River.
There was an old tin cup four feet high, a trophy
the outskirts

made
and

Standard Oil five-gallon

of

On

bent.

on the trophy.
They read: "American Team, InPolo," and beneath this, one under the other, were the

ternational

names

of

its

standing in the yard, battered

defaced surface one could still make out the words
tins,

black

in

painted

of

members

of the team.

Below

this

list

was the

date,

1921

and at the bottom, a rudely sketched figure of a horse. The Chinese

rabble considered this sentimental trophy too trivial to bother stealing.

They

left

fixtures

little

else.

The bath

had been ripped

out,

tubs

were gone,

all

light

and water

windows broken, baseboards stripped

off,

everything left in complete confusion.

Letters and parts of envelopes lay everywhere, together with old
torn page from The New York Times
newspapers and magazines.

lay in a hallway with scraps of personal letters to the

mothers,

once

men from

their

Desolation hung like a shroud around this

whose eaves now dripped rain.
Blank, sightless

wives, friends.

lively

house

windows gazed unseeing across the verdant landscape, over the valley
and river flats below to where the yellow Yangtze sweeps gracefully
out of sight past Lion Hill to the west.

Julean Arnold and I called again at Nanking University, where

we

THE DRAGON STIRS

106

He and

met the Acting Dean.

lege graduates,

took us to

another professor, both American colthe

visit

home

an American professor

of

who had evacuated, John Reisner, It was occupied by Nationalist

We pushed by and went
troops who sought to obstruct our entrance.
No furniture was left other than a batFurther desolation.
inside.
tered piano,

We

useless.
diers,

ivory keys stripped from the board, its strings snapped,

were ordered out before we could go farther, the sol-

its

ugly and menacing, speaking in guttural tones to our Chinese

My

friends.

translator told

me

they had called the professors ''run-

1 '

a then popular Chinese slogan.

ning dogs of imperialism,
It was our first sign of anything like anti-foreignism, although the
Senator's son had told us of an occurrence the night before that was

He was

worse.

on the U.

Peary, and about

to the dock to meet a launch he had been told

to spend the night

S.

8 o'clock went down

would await him. He found no launch, so took a sampan. The navy
men told him the launch had waited for him, but that while waiting
dusk a Chinese mob gathered and demanded that they be allowed
The sailors refused and were greeted by
aboard to inspect the boat.
Rather than create a disturbance, the Americans
a shower of stones.
at

decided to withdraw

sampan

to the

Peary

young Bingham $2, he said, to hire a

The usual price is 20 or 30 cents for this ten-

It

cost

minutes' rowing to midstream.

Mr

Arnold

left

at

noon

After

tiffin,

the Foreign Office secretary

brought us invitations to a dinner being given for Senator Bingham.

During the afternoon, we visited the American Consulate. Here again

we found a wreck safes battered, papers scattered everywhere, trunks
:

two

minus bed clothing or mattresses.

There was little to guard.
A NaOutside, a policeman stood guard.
tionalist seal had been placed over the doors of the huge office safe.
emptied,

It

or

three

bedsteads

was not opened, but evidences were many

onets

of

soldiers.

From

there,

we

home of the late Dr.

man who was murdered. It

visited

John Williams, the Nanking University

was occupied by troops.

of a battle with the

bay-

the

next to General Chiang Kai-shek at dinner that

It
evening.
was the first time I had seen him since late April, in Shanghai, and
we talked of his victories and what he planned to do next. He said
I

sat

he wanted the Americans to come back to Nanking, and that he would

He also said he would order the troops out
see that they were safe.

UP TO THE FRONT

107

somebody would submit to him a list of the

houses so occupied, and their owners.
I made arrangements on Tuesday to go north to the Hsuchow-fu
of

if

foreign propert}

front, the

Nanking outpost

at the tip of

Kiangsu Province, near Shan-

Chiang Kai-shek offered me a guard when I talked with him in

the afternoon, and this I gladly accepted.
He also wrote two letters

tung.

me and

asking that they ex-

was a queer

flimsy document, be-

to his generals at the front, introducing

My

tend courtesies.

local passport

ing really a military pass, but

Chang (my

interpreter)

said

it

would

me

by anywhere in Nanking-controlled territory.

He again
Chiang Kai-shek gave me his autographed photograph.
stressed his desire to have Americans return to Nanking.
I suggested
that the anti-imperialistic posters they had up all around were hardly

get

conducive

to

the

return

of

foreigners

posters favorable to the white

man

they

put up.

changed and
The Commander-in-Chief
be

should

He said also that he and Marshal Feng

"might be done."
Yu-hsiang were in complete accord, and that Marshal Yen Hsi-san in
said

this

Shansi Province west of Peking was working with him in the NationBut one cannot tell. It was fatal to rely on such inalist revolution.

even when given by

formation,
their

own

interests

men

in

high places.

They

all

had

to protect.

Dr. Nielsen, the Danish correspondent, arrived at the Garden Hotel

He

and Pickens, who had returned, and I planned to

There was no way of
get under way the next morning by train.
telling what sort of train it would be, however, for most of the rolling

that evening.

had gone northward with the retreating Shantung soldiers.

The three of us and Secretary Chang had "Chinese chow**

stock

night on a picturesque canal boat.

along; Chinese lanterns bobbed on

that

Brown-bodied boatmen sculled us

all

sides; there

was the sound

of

Chinese music and thin voices of the sing-song girls, the chatter
scene of color and laughof Mah Jongg tiles as we floated along.
shrill

and paper lanterns, reflected in the dark water.

The Chinese are like that.
rumors of wars here.

ter

However, I found on Wednesday

was not as easy as one might think.

that getting

The

No

wars

or

away from Nanking

train left at seven instead

we had been told, and the Chinese

One is impotent in the face
sorry.

who

told us

of nine, as

chap

was very

of that "very sorry" ex-

pression of the East.

Our

wrong

military "guard/' a rather inconsequential

THE DRAGON STIRS

108

young

told us that another left at

officer,

But we hadn't

to take that.

two

o'clock,

on the cook.

figured

and we planned
This remarkable

person left early in the morning to buy provisions for the journey;
and he returned just at two o'clock, promptly. We had told him the
He arrived on the
train left at two, hence he must get back in time.
dot,

and when

at two,

it

was explained

in

was improbable we could get

bil of force that it

the Yangtze River

all

in

and not without a

detail

an instant to catch the

train,

comprehension

and sorrow spread over his demure features.

He, too,
to wait
had
was "very sorry."
In the meantime, we
to

morning

We

and across

to the ferry

turned out,

it

until

another

go.

got under

finally

way toward

on Thursday.

the front

It

took

from four-thirty that rainy morning until ten at night to get started
from Pukow, but at last we were on the train, and that was some-

tte

thing.

Rising in the gray dawn,

o'clock.

Our

we rushed

ahead, and he

train
I

soldiers.

might pull out at seven

He

o'clock,

little

fellow,

The cook we had

future.
station

ferry at five

platform

said that

it

for

was

sent

us beside a
possible that

but had his doubts.

might pull out at seven or any other o'clock for all we

we couldn't ride on it. There wasn't a square inch of space

said

cared

it

anywhere on any one

could

own

was waiting on the

jammed with

train

coolie

a dandy

special officer failed to appear, like

leaving us to worry about our

Pukow

to get the

never

of those freight cars;

have packed our cook and

and

if

there

had been, we

three packing

his

cases

of

It was hopeless.
Our officer had failed to appear
provisions aboard.
anywhere along the route, but now as we were gazing about he blew

in

and

said there

wouldn't be a train until at least two o'clock that

afternoon.

But we moved our cook and his luggage and ourselves alongside
another and a far better train which, I discovered by asking one of
the soldiers who spoke English, was waiting for General Chiang Kaishek.

The Commander-in-Chief was expected

that day, he said.

There were two

first-class

to

go up

to

the front

compartment cars which

suggested prodigious possibilities!

I asked our interpreter to get it across to the "Little Colonel" with

us that

we

desired to enter one of these cars and rest until the Gen-

eral arrived.

He was

shocked and surprised, and escorted us to the

THE FRONT

UP TO
waiting

room

109

we

After half an hour, as

instead.

on hard chairs

sat

and watched the Chinese guzzle soup, he pounced

in on us and announced a train was leaving in a few minutes and that
fetid place

in this

we had

better take

we dashed

Elated,

wide open

the

to

it.

out

all

spaces

of

He

ready for Big Things.

that

coolie

He

train.

led us back

skipped nimbly

and we, our ardor dampened by many

light
Even
things when we gazed on this familiar sight, followed warily.
He had evidently taken somebody's
the escort was a bit crestfallen.
ahead through a

word

for

that

that

it

train

offered

war correspondents and

accommodations for a

excellent

hardy and used to

looked at the train where soldiers and coolies sat

of

trio

drizzle

We
roughing it!
on trucks, filled open

their

friends,

all

from grain cars and sat

\Ve looked
perched everywhere atop anything, with their umbrellas.
and then we walked away.
It
sorrowfully at our wayward escort
coal

cars,

exuded

simply could not be done.

As we

strolled along in the light drizzle, I thought

and that

of cushions

we were now going

tice.

He

doubted

try

for

we

it,

car.

It

was

first

class

to open the car

But

carriage

and

sit

more and more

told our interpreter that

therein until further no-

companions, disgusted and ready to

couldn't be worse off, assented.
I tried the door to the
it.

locked.

my

stepped out of the next car, and

It turned out that he was a member of the
Propa-

young

officer

appealed to him.
ganda Corps and a former newspaper
I

man from

Shanghai and 'Peking

who used to work on a paper that Eugene Chen had edited. His
name was Paul Chu, he said, and he was a graduate of an American
mission college in China.

told

him

the General had invited us to

go to Hsuchow-fu, that we were getting no attention at

all in all, the trip so far had been no howling success.

all,

and that

He

pointed out that the car which we wanted to enter was locked.
I admitted this, but suggested we pay a little social call on the Station

Master and see what he would do.

learned

was

we were

true.

We

did.

The

Station

Master

guests of the Commander-in-Chief, which, in a way,

He was

apologetic.

And what

is

more

to

the point,

he

We

parked in a compartment for the rest of our

journey to Hsuchow-fu, for despite efforts on the part of our little
officer-escort, we refused to budge from our comfortable compartment,

opened that car!

where one might

lie

stretched

out on a leather upholstered seat and

THE DRAGON STIRS

110

looking document which

\ve had had at the hotel in Nanking, given us by the Foreign Office.

Bob Pickens produced an important

sleep.

It

did

actually

declare,

under the

Government

Seal,

that

we were

We

guests of the Foreign Office and were not to be disturbed.

were

alone henceforth and had a good ride.

left

The

vision boxes
insist

back in the baggage

cook,

for

the

fear

with lemonade.

rice in

The day passed

afraid

to

open his pro-

with him might

large bowls and washed it clown

soldiers

playful

on their share. So we ate

was

car,

quartered

We

photographed the coolie

train with its accompanying cars loaded with six motor trucks that,
with white-arched backs, looked like covered wagons.
They were for
slowly.

use at the front in transport service and as ambulances,

The Propaganda boys were busy

of the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen on

we were

told.

the whole day long painting pictures

and copies of the Kuominputting up new and better posters.

the train

tang emblem everywhere, as well as

Our 'guard" joined us without display late in the afternoon, glad
to admit defeat and desert his baggage car quarters now jammed with
He said Chiang's
part, I presume, of General Chiang's guard.
troops
*

was

departure

still

indefinite,

but

\ve

had

decided

to

stick

by

our

compartments (we now had taken two adjoining ones and kept them),
if it took a week.
The Chinese were most friendly, and I found one
of
It

on the train spoke English with an American accent.

seems he worked in Vladivostok when we had troops in Siberia

the "boys"

during the World War.

About

six o'clock,

a lucky hunch.

We

we went

onto the platform for a stroll

It

was

met the managing director of the railway and he

His name
foreigners and practise his English.

was glad to talk to

was Wood perversion of some Chinese name, of course
a graduate of an American university.
He was much

and he was
interested

in

and he suggested we might have trouble getting train accommodations from Hsuchow-fu back to Pukow.
I had thought of
our

trip;

So Mr. Wood wrote a note to his man at Hsuchowand ordered him to give us a private car when we wanted it.

the same thing.

fu

Chiang Kai-shek arrived at 9:40, and five minutes later

we were off for Hsuchow-fu. He caught sight of us as he marched
General

past,

we

and returned our

salute.

With a

great blowing of

many

bugles,

pulled out for the north at 9:45 p.m.

What

spitters the

Chinese are

Our

car,

in

the

narrow

aisle

out-

THE FRONT

UP TO

111

our compartments, was alive with noises by daybreak, and the

loudest of these was the spitting by even-body, everywhere, preferIt was a game of "hock, spit and jump/'
ably, it seemed, on the floor.

side

with us doing the jumping.

One of those things you have to get used
to in China, and elsewhere in the East.
It is a national custom.

We
I

used

tour)

had

my
as

to sleep in our clothing during the night,

(which was

brief-case

a pillow.

It

was a

meadows and frequent

the

all

my

clothes.

luggage, incidentally, on that

beautiful night

and quite

lakes

Xo bed

with moonlight across

As we stopped

chilly.

at

each town, the Political Bureau poster propaganda boys went about
putting

up new and shiny posters on everything.

On

tered with signs.

in Chinese read:

HIS

Our

was

train

lit-

the General's car a big black-and-white poster

To CONGRATULATE GENERAL CHIANG KAI-SHEK ON

NORTHERN EXPEDITION

10,000 YEARS!

This

last

was a

typical

and happiness. Dr. Sun's photoand there were the usual slogans, as

Chinese expression meaning long

life

graph was painted on the car,

DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM! DOWN WITH THE COMMUNIST PARTY!

and CLEAN UP THE MILITARISTS!

The

cook, like a good fellow, turned

ing with tinned food and

up

at six o'clock in the

morn-

and the boy brought tea and hot water.

The train's personnel, aside from the many troops, included numerous people of importance, among them representatives of Marshal
fruit,

Feng Yu-hsiang. Two of them, very good fellows, came in for a chat.
They swore that Feng was all for General Chiang, and they said he
was already half-way to Hsuchow-fu on the Lunghai Railway Line
One chap also swore Feng was dead against the Communist Party in
This seemed to me rather strange, after the help Feng YuChina.
hsiang, the alleged "Christian General," got from Moscow after his
The doubtful man seemed rather to be Yen
defeat in Peking in 1925.
But, they said, he was bound to come over to the
of the men, Ting Tuan-siao, a former director of the

Hsi-san, in Shansi,

South.

One

Peking-Mukden Railway,

said he thought

Peking to the

Both were

troops

to

last

ditch.

Shantung.

Japan's aiding

Chang

Tso-lin would

bitter against

So was everybody,
Tso-lin against

Chang

Kuo

it

hold

Japan for sending

seemed.

They

recalled

Sung-lin in Manchuria in

December and January, 1925-26, when Tokyo declared a ''neutral

zone" at Mukden and staved off what seemed to be certain defeat for
Chang.

THE DRAGON STIRS

112

We
greet

passed numerous stations.

their

Everywhere crowds turned out to

The country was as flat as Kansas beautiful

General.

farm country, stretching away for miles in all directions as far as one
could see.
We started from Pukow through a low range of mounbackground, were still visible
It
against the blue sky.
passed through Fu Li Chi at 10 a.m.
Mud
was one of the prettiest purely Chinese hamlets I ever saw.
houses with white tile roofs, curling up at the eaves ... a walled

tains,

and

high

hills,

brown

the

in

We

temple high on a far

hill

some old and

beggars,

bent,

others

them coppers, and as the train pulled out

a big boy grabbed one coin of three I'd thrown a naked little chap not
over three years of age.
The baby howled, and I shouted loudly and

young and naked.

I tossed

without dignity at the rascal.

He dropped the coin and fled.
reached Hsuchow-fu at noon.
milling, banner-waving re-

We

General

awaited

ception

Hsuchow-fu

Chiang Kai-shek.

en

fete,

We

holiday declared, greeted our party.

got rickshaws to the Garden
Hotel where I met General Pei Chung-hsi, capturer of Shanghai, talking with Merle Lavoy, a jovial Pathe newsreel veteran who had been
over to the front in Shantung.
The place was full of soldiers, for

General Chiang made his

GHQ

ing the Police Commissioner,

after our hot ride.
It did.

Another

officer

arranged

We

there.

who
for

met many

thought a cold drink would go good

rooms for

us

through the Chinese

at the hotel and then moved to

Commerce. We had tiffin

our quarters.
They were in a spacious room

Chamber

of

temple, with

General

Ma

bamboo and many

Ho-chow,

inside

an old Chinese

flowers growing in the yard.

in charge

on

officers, includ-

of

the artillery unit with the

MajorTenth

He

brought General Pang Tsientsai, also of the Tenth Army, along, a smiling Buddha of a man, good
natured and funny, a broad, rather self-conscious grin always beaming

Army, quartered

across

his

here, called

us.

round

Shortening his name,

The
Pang, we dubbed him Pa, to go with General Ma, our host.
latter spoke fairly good English.
He was a spirited fellow whose men
must have loved him.

We

left

fat,

at

pleasant,

four

brown,

o'clock,

after

tea,

face.

and interviewed

General

Li

He agreed to take us up to the front with

Chung-jen at his yaman.
him in a few days. It was about 100 li, or a little over 30 miles to
the lines where he was assigned, which with troops would be a two

UP TO THE FRONT
days' march.
in

we

About

the market-place.

we took our departure, to seek bed clothes

Until we got a policeman at GHQ to help us,

six

The merchants, on

got nowhere.

113

holiday, refused to open up.

We

our mosquito netting, unfortunately, and all of us had a

hard fight during the night with these pests, and with flies at sun-up.
Lavoy and his cameraman, Chen, were waiting for us when we got
didn't

get

back to our temple-home about seven.

They had been to the Eastern
front in Shantung with General Pei Chung-hsi, and Lavoy told us of

He was

experiences there.

a jolly big fellow

who had been

the world with his camera, in wars everywhere, and on

all

all

over

fronts

in

Europe during the World War. He could tell a merry tale well. He
anticipated a break-up in the Northern forces that summer of 1927
and a march

to

While we were

Peking

by

chatting, General

Dixie!

He was

tall,

Nationalists

Ma

before

many months.

joined us and as his contribution

American song, / want

to the party sang a popular

in

the

to see

my home

with a fierce black mustache, kind eyes and a

roving spirit that was always hitting on something new to say or do.
He was a natural soldier and well-fitted to be a leader of his ragged

and none too

He
we

spirited

troops.

brought in half a dozen

officers ten

minutes later and insisted

go into his quarters and dine "Chinese-chow" style.

Lavoy
we
to
refuse
the
cook
had
but
had
accepted, although
already preall

We dined by candlelight around a board table, with

pared dinner.
food in the center in enormous quantities which we ate with chopTwo of the officers spoke Japanese but no other foreign lansticks.
guage.

General

Ma

finally felt constrained to sing

once more and did,

He then insisted that his guests sing, and

a hoarse, jovial voice.
Bob Pickens and I obliged with some of the college songs we both

in

knew, ending up with Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here, to which our
there were five Generals and several lesser officers
dignified Generals
present

The

thumped the

table

resoundingly!

mass meeting

welcome General Chiang

Kai-shek next day was present at the dinner, and he invited us also
We held a conference on this subject, and it was
to make a speech.
vice-chairman of the

to

agreed that I was to make a brief acknowledgment of the

honor done us in Hsuchow-fu, the three of us to be introduced at one
finally

time and I to say the piece.

The next day was Saturday, June

18,

and the huge Chinese mass

THE DRAGON STIRS

114

The
meeting was an impressive success although we did not speak.
Chinese were long on addresses, and when it was time for our debut
weary of standing m the hot sun and it was past
General
noon and everybody was hungry, including us.
So we left.
Chiang made a good speech, as usual, and he denied that the Kuopeople were

the

mintang members were against Christianity or Confucianism or anything else in the way of religion or freedom of speech and thought.

The meeting was held on a broad plain at the edge of the

The sun was broiling hot but we didn't mind
beyond the wall

city,

that

so much, being guests on a shady platform.

General Chiang arrived
about ten o'clock.
He saluted us and came over to ask if we'd got

comfortable quarters.
The meeting broke up about 12 :30. The stream
The Doc
of humanity up the hill and back to town was a great sight.
in a rickshaw covered all over like a covered-wagon was a fantastic
sight in his

We
I

w hite
r

day being hot and no one stirring

three o'clock to find the room filled with soldiers.
They

had a

awoke

at

helmet, riding breeches, khaki coat and camera.

siesta after tiffin, the

were an inquisitive lot, all Hunanese, and very "fresh," but they left
It saved us some embarrassment,
quickly when an assembly bell rang.
for

we would have had

cigarettes

taken a

and

lot

tea,

some

in,

evict

fifty

them

we complained

to

them.

They had been demanding

or more of them, and that would have

of cigarettes and tea.

the bell which called

but

to

But we were

to formation.

rid of them, thanks to

don't

know how

they got

our General Ma, and he posted a guard

which prevented further trouble of this kind.

Our next caller was a student-teacher of

art

who

called

for

no

with these "foreign devils." He was pleasant enough, although a fatuous-faced galoot, and he promised to paint
He said he thought the people would like the Nationus a fan apiece.

good reason except to

alists

cers

talk

once they got acquainted better, for, he said, many of the offiwere well educated.
'These Nationalists/' he confided, "have

interests

in art

and

lows, uneducated.

while the

Northerners are rough felthink the Nationalists will be popular, therefore."

literature,

Now, that was a new angle on the revolution.

The town was preparing for the welcome
Posters
hsiang, who was due in the morning.
bought mosquito

nets, looked at jade,

netting for the night,

of

Marshal Feng Yu-

flew everywhere.

We

and after fixing our quarters and

went to General

Wang

Tien-pei's -quarters for

UP TO THE FRONT
There we learned we had to move

dinner.

115

at once, for

Feng was

to

be given our rooms in the temple

So we moved before dinner in a
great caravan of rickshaws through the narrow, roughly cobbled streets
!

of

Hsuchow-fu, and dined

General Wang's mess.

late

at

eleven

The General had

o'clock

with the

officers

to leave to attend a

of

welcome

committee meeting to prepare for Feng's arrival at dawn the next day.
Pei-fu man;
He was commander of the Tenth Army and an old

Wu

We
a cordial host and pleasant, as most of these people were to us.
were treated like princes on all hands, and even among the people
there

was not a

Our new

trace of anti-foreignism.

quarters were in a deserted girls' school at the edge of

Hsuchow-fu, occupied by General Wang and his guard and the propaganda bureau chaps. It was a barn-like place, but picturesque a fine
view was to be had of the entire

After dinner, several of the

city.

Two of them had studied enaccompanied us to our rooms.

gineering in France and Germany, and we got along nobly in broken
French, discovering a common knowledge of several French ballads.
officers

One young Major was

particularly

proud of

his Terpsichorean

accom-

plishments and proved his statements by essaying the Charleston on

the rough boards of that attic chamber.
They left us shortly after

We

midnight.

wood

remade our

billets

on doors rigged up as beds

the

have yet discovered.

We were invited to lunch with Chiang Kai-shek and Feng YuFoolishly presuming the
hsiang on Sunday morning, but missed it.
party would be at noon or later, we went about calling on headhardest

quarters,

and rode

to the railway station to see the

a note about a private car,

the

Chamber

of

and when we would want

Commerce where Feng was giving

noon and the party was

to eat lunch

if

man

We

over.

It

had begun

to
it.

the

at eleven.

whom

We

had

got to

luncheon at

What an hour

arranged to interview Feng at his quarters at four

o'clock.

He

gave us no direct answers

asked him what he expected to do in Hsuchow-fu.

Feng Yu-hsiang proved

to be foxy.

I
on anything.
He said he expected to confer with Chiang Kai-shek. We asked him
why, and he said he had heard much about Chiang and that he, Feng,
was a member of the Kuomintang and wanted to make Chiang's ac-

quaintance.

Asked

if

he

had

come

to

offer

full

cooperation

Chiang, he said that he had been cooperating with Chiang for

with

many

THE DRAGON STIRS

116

He said Borodin was

months, anyway, and would continue to do so.
He said he
an acquaintance of his, but that he liked Chiang better.
did not intend to support separately either Nanking or Hankow, because he declared they would soon merge into one government again.
As to the Communist Party in China, Feng said he could say
nothing, that questions concerning politics were settled by the Central
In that fashion he sideExecutive Committee of the Kuomintang.
all

major questions.
As we were leaving, I said:

stepped

He

tian?"

And

and

grinned

was

''Well, General, are

replied,

"Do you

think

you

still

look

a Chris-

like

one?"

He

posed for pictures and, still grinning behind

a little too cordial, I thought
his three-days' beard, bid us a cordial
that

that.

farewell.

We

went

to

Garden Hotel

referring to the noble principles of the Nationalist Cause

ingless,

calling

a dinner that night given by Chiang for Feng at the

Both the Generals made short speeches, rather mean-

on

everybody to

welcomed him into the

in

tories

stick

together.

Chiang extolled

and

Feng and

and Feng extolled Chiang for his vicAfter it was over I spoke
his march north from Canton.
fold;

Chiang about getting a photograph of the two of them toSo, "home" to our schoolhouse
gether, and he promised to arrange it.
briefly to

rooms

tumbly old walled city.

The Chiang-Feng conference was due to end the next day, and we
in rickety rickshaws, through the

decided that since there was no

news out but by messenger,

it was time to
We asked Mr. Yu, the Station
get back to Shanghai.
He gave us a private freight car, and put it on
Master, to fix us up.
a siding for our use
There was nothing else available.
Then, while

way

to get

waiting to see Chiang at the hotel, we met a young Major-General,

David Loh, chief of communications at the front, who offered us cots

So we were

and a guard.

all

ready to depart when the conference

ended.

General

Wang

afternoon and
terrific

three

strain

cups

sent his signed photograph over to us that

later,

on

and

with his

our

staff,

cook and

saucers,

But we made

four

paid us a formal

his

tea

glasses

service,

and

some

call.

Monday

It

was a

which consisted of
tins

of

cakes

and

parking the General and his officers around

on wooden benches and our door-beds. Wang confirmed my impresAnd it looked as though Nanking could not move
sions of Feng.
crackers.

it,

UP TO THE FRONT
Hankow

north until the

We

there.

Feng

our box-car

into

We

had a quiet evening

We

as

found

learned,

guards, others as

given

special

privilege

was due

dropped
to the train at 11:30

to

who had important

officials

right.

afraid

of

to

move

to go

at

noon.

good as his word, and his army cots were on

about half a dozen others in our car also

We

had no other means of transportation.

all

at

They were still

home and decided

first

Loh was

we

men,

settled.

thing in the morning.

The train
went aboard at 10 a.m.

General
hand.

was

split

117

TPC'

ride

with us,

some as

Nanking and
weren't crowded, so it was
business in

cards of farewell at

GHQ

and returned

We

had got our photoaway.

graph of Feng and Chiang together, and were assured that Feng was
Chiang said no statement on the
leaving at noon also, which he did.
set

all

to get

conference would be issued until he got back to Nanking.

Our

under way at 2:45 p.m.

ten miles in two hours, and stopped in the rain.
coolie

train got

It

crawled a scant

We

stayed there an

hour arguing with the station man and a military train inspector to
That bedraggled engine
cut the train in half and let part of us go on.
could do nothing with the twenty-four cars it was expected to pull.

We

Hsuchow-fu once more, where

we spent the night. General Chiang was leaving early Wednesday
He said
morning, and I asked Mr. Yu to attach our car to his train.
ended by backing

the

all

way

to

one would leave at ten o clock that night and we had better get it
We agreed, and I went back to the siding, rolled
attached to that.
up in a blanket and dropped off to sleep, hoping but not expecting to
get

under way that night.

General Loh came to see us about nine o'clock and talked for an

hour about his work and how the Nationalists and Northerners

and about the Red Cross work

wounded

to bother with
'If
it

well,

privates

privates

China.
in

most

He

said the doctors refuse

cases.

through the leg or shoulder, but could get

difference.
They order the burial squad to toss

are

makes no

in

fight,

shot

and they are buried alive.

They are told
they are of no use, that there is no place to tend to them, and that
they had better die for their country now and save further suffering,"

them into the

Loh

said.

'dead* heap

"It is

terrible.

Officers

are

sometimes spared."

moment later, he left and I turned in for the night.

Our interpreter awakened me about 6:30 a.m. the next morning,

THE DRAGON STIRS

118

and

"They Ye waiting

said:

General Chiang and he is going to

ran over to the
I
shall we do?"

for

What
any minute now.
Hsuchow-fu station to find soldiers lined up, bugles playing and our
He was "very sorry" that no
Station Master of absolutely no use.

leave

during the night; but he had no time then.

The Police Commissioner was on hand. He tried to get us accommodations on another car on the General's train, but it was packed.

Had

train

was

frantic

and

The

behind.

We

left

furious,

and demanded that our car be switched on

Master tore his hair and said

Station

out for a quarter of an hour,

young fellow said: "Why worry about
it

fought

One

The Commander-in-Chief

anyway?
holler

but

bother

don't

them.

about

is
1 '

but

was too

it

nothing

these

crazy

due any moment.

My

late.

happened.
foreigners

Let them

translated

interpreter

all

this.

was misting and the General drove up and the train was about
Bob and the Doc were still over in the box-car on the
leave.
It

to

siding,

The General was on

a block away.

Cheers and

the car step.

grabbed the interpreter, pushed through the mass right up

to the General and paused, speaking rapidly to the interpreter and
I

bugles.

looking at
that

we wanted

plained,

him

in

Chiang.
to

told

him

to

tell

the

When this was exNanking.

I told
"Well, come on in my car."

take that train

to

Chiang smiled and said,

my brand of Japanese (he studied

American newspaper

He

General our troubles and

in

Tokyo

in Japan,

three years)

said to get the others.

and

that there

was on an

were three of

ran, while the train waited,

and got
Bob and the Doc, told the cook to pack his things and catch the next
train to Pukow and Xanking, and with my camera and brief case, ran
us.

back to the

train.

We

made

An

it.

instant later the train shoved off,

while the crowd roared.

Once we had our

wanted

We

We

gladly accepted, and he brought us

While
jam, and the best coffee in months.

to eat.

and

breakfast.

boy appeared and asked us if we

had brought no food and had had no chance

breath,

tated to his

secretaries.

He looked over and

He and his staff then

ham and eggs, toast

we ate, Chiang dic-

asked an hour later

if

we had had "chow."

dined, just as we had.
The three meals we had were all "foreign-style," the General and his
men eating with knives, forks and spoons, and eating food that foreigners eat

no

rice or other

Chinese dishes.

UP TO THE FRONT
After

119

young Captain who was a gradPennsylvania, said that he had a message

the chief secretary, a

tiffin

uate of the University

of

which we might like to see. It was a telegram which Feng Yu-hsiang

had sent to Hankow demanding the eviction of Borodin and the other
Communists there, and the merging of the Hankow people with Nanking forthwith!

The
I

secretary read

our papers

cabled

it

off

after

in fairly

good English, and Pickens and

The Feng message

Shanghai.

reaching

looked as though he really meant to stick by Chiang, at least for the

Even
moment. What his game was to be later was still a mystery.
I asked General Chiang
the staff officers did not trust him much.

what he thought of Feng and whether he believed Feng would stick

by Nanking, and he, of course, said that he trusted Feng and was
convinced the ''Christian General" would continue to support Nanking.
But I doubted it.
If it hadn't

been for Bob Pickens

He

king that night.

we would

not have reached Nan-

used to work summers in a round-house

The wobbly engine broke down

down

But Bob got out

and fixed it both times, cutting a fireman's shovel handle in two to get
Then he showed them how to fix the same
a pin for a driving rod.
in Carolina

when

pin

it

worked

loose

and the threads on the nuts were worn

smooth as a whistle an hour

We

Pukow

reached

twice

after the first

breakdown.

about eleven o'clock and ferried across to Nan-

room only after a Chinese moved out, permitting

The hotel was packed, one guest being Fuad Bey,
us to use it.
former Turkish Minister at Tokyo, who was there talking with Dr.

king, getting a hotel

C.

Wu

C.

train

then

to

about

new commercial

Shanghai, traveling

Mayor

of

Shanghai,

in

treaty.

We

a car provided

who was

took

for

the

General

morning

Huang,

also returning after a visit to the

front.

us had

only praise for the way in which we were

treated in a country where older residents warned us that our heads
All

three

of

would not be worth

that "wild

their chemical content

interior in

if

such troublous times."

we were
It

to venture into

was a

lark for

us,

got data on the Chiang-Feng combine at first hand.

It resulted in the rapid decline of the Red Russian rule in Hankow.

anyway
I

and

caught the

first

river steamer back

up

the Yangtze on July 2 to

break the details to Comrade Borodin and his Russian Advisorate, and

THE DRAGON" STIRS

120
to watch the end of
tion.

The

Moscow's

over the Kuomintang Revolumanner in which their house of cards tumbled about them,
control

I had to wait
forcing them to flee, was nothing short of astounding.
a week for a river boat, and I heard tales from Hankow of the ruth-

less

actions of desperate

They foreshadowed

men

still

the inevitable

vainly seeking a foothold

fall

of that regime.

up

there.

THE RED FLAME FADES

up the Yangtze-kiang left an hour earlier

than I had been told it would for the nerve-tingling voyage to
Hankow, and we nearly missed the boat. Frank Riley of The
London Times (The "Thunderer") and I telephoned to check the
river

steamer

THE

time of departure again, for steamers along that water highway in the
muddled days of 1927-28 left any port when the leaving was good.
I had been told at the pier that the S. S. Tuckwo would sail at

noon so Riley and I had a leisurely breakfast at the well-appointed

American Club that idle morning of July 2, when we went "up the
river."
He was making it for what apparently turned out to be his
We packed one bag each, had the Club's doorman call a
last trip.
motor car, drove to the dock at 1 1 :30 a.m., in what we believed was
and saw the elusive little Tuckwo just breaking away
ample time
for her voyage, and ours.
We drove on to the pier. Pickens of the
Chicago Tribune, was gesticulating wildly to us. Riley and I jumped
The Tuckwo was already two yards from the wooden
from the car.
pier, and the angry waters of the yellow Yangtze were below us.
"Catch
writer.

this,"

"And

this."

yelled

He

Bob and threw him my portable typemy bag, also. Bob and others on board

at

got
kept shouting to us to catch a

sampan to midstream and come aboard

But instead, Riley, a six-footer and long of limb, made a leap
there.
I ran a
I had no time to think.
for it over the ever widening gap.
few paces, made a flying leap in turn and they yanked me on board.
We had made it by the narrowest of margins, but we both were on
board, and safe.

Among

our ardent cheerers as we made that unaided

space were two young American women.

One was going

through
up-river

Navy ensign on board the U. S. S.

to be married to a United States

Cincinnati, a cruiser then standing

bridesmaid.

flight

They had come from

by

at

the

121

Hankow.
States,

and

The

other

after

was her

meeting her

THE DRAGON STIRS

122

finance in Honolulu, the bride decided to "join the

her

She was

sailor.

called

Navy" and marry

and her bridesmaid was

"Chris,"

Miss

The wedding took place in Hankow, the fiance proving to be a Navy officer named William Eddy.
The war
These women enlivened the trip upstream considerably.
was at least superficially quiescent in the unbearable heat of midsummer.
The voyage was less tense than the one on the Loongwo
in April, and we had a gala time among a more responsive ship's
Myrtle Johnson,

from Michigan.

company. My personal recollections of that Fourth of July

The wedding at Hankow a
remain especially delightful.
later

added a touch

romance

of

to the

off

Wuhu

few

days

Both

grim business of warfare.

Riley and I attended in the quiet compound of members of the Lutheran Church there, many of whom were Swedish.

One

not unattractive young person sought to teach

me

a few rudi-

The only one which I still rementary expressions in that tongue.

call from that romantic interlude in the white heat of China's revolu-

To

tion is: "Jag elskar dig!"

The wedding was

love you."

to encounter in

about

Of

us.

a Scandinavian, those sounds mean "I

the only bit of romance which

Hankow amid

the revolutionary events which swirled

course, there were

still

the dancing girls at the cabarets.

In the awful heat, even they faded and their cheap

tense

we were

tinsel

lost all pre-

of glamour.

One
U.

S.

evening I had dinner in the "officers' mess" on board the

The cruiser was anchored in midstream
S. Cincinnati
The

Yangtze
low and
oven,

it

is

a mile or more wide

at

Wuhan, and

the clay

banks are

a breeze were stirring anywhere across that stifling

should waft over that stream's center.
There is nothing whatflat.

If

ever to stop it, no windbreak or barricade of any description.

Yet
at seven o'clock that evening a thermometer below decks, with all portholes open, registered 107 degrees Fahrenheit.
And that was the
"cool

there
the

of

the

those

Foreign

evening"

who

see

Service

Hankow

in

that

in

the lamps

officials

of

the

of

Old-timers

mid-July.

China have

oil,

living

the bankers,

and the missionaries

was the same in any mid-summer,
Consulates,

and publishers were agreed that it

and that the July of 1927 experienced no unheard-of heat wave.

The Hankow government withered and

blew away.
revolution's

Mikal Borodin and

northward

tide

died

in

that

heat,

his comrades,
riding the crest

when

and

of the

was among them a few weeks

THE RED FLAME FADES

fled

before,

haphazardly

northwest by motor caravan toward

123

Outer

though still nominally independent Soviet ReEventually they all reached Siberia and proceeded to Moscow.
a friendly

Mongolia,
public.

The

heat which caused this swift

phenomenon in China's struggle

toward her destiny was of a different nature from that which caused
us so much bodily discomfort.
In the main, it was applied by General

with

ference

and

Kai-shek

Chiang

the

his

unpredictable

new regime
"Christian

His conNanking.
General/' Marshal Feng
at

Yu-hsiang, had swung that powerful ex-traitor into line and brought
a public pronouncement by Feng to that effect.
Feng quit his Com-

munist friends at

Hankow

without a quiver.

He

had just come back

China from Moscow, making the journey overland through Siberia

and Mongolia
His "open door" was through Shensi Province, near
to

Chengchow, in Honan Province athwart the

He seized control of Chengrailway linking Hankow and Peking.
chow, promised aid to his "comrades" in Hankow, secretly went to
to

Tibet,

the

town

of

Hsuchow-fu, conferred there with Generalissimo Chiang and turned

his back on Communism and Hankow.
Feng sent a telegram to the

men

Hankow

government, referring to Bdrodin and his Russian

Advisorate there, and politely but firmly telling them to get out. They

did.

in the

There was nothing

At

else

to do.

Borodin refused to believe in Feng's perfidy.

I told him
that I had seen a copy of Feng's telegram, which had been made
first,

me

while returning with Generalissimo

Chiang Kai-shek
from his meeting with Feng.
The Russian's pale face turned livid.
Then he said: "Marshal Feng is our friend.
He is my friend, no
He is still with us. I am sure he stays true to Hankow."
matter.

available to

But Feng did not "stay true" to anybody or anything for very ^long.
Rayna Prohme, the red-headed young woman who had so ably
edited The People's Tribune, also had to flee.
She made her way to
Peking and

after a

heart-broken but
the

few weeks went across Siberia to Moscow.

still

communal theory

The

telegram

"Christian

wei and other radical

I

of

life,

for the spread of a true conception of

she died.

Feng to Hankow was a self-portrait of the

The message was addressed to Wang ChingChinese leaders at Hankow.
It follows:

from

General."

When

fighting

There,

met you gentlemen

in

Chengchow, we talked

of the

THE DRAGON STIRS

124

oppression of the merchants and other

members

owners and

oppressing the factory

fanners by landowners.
labor

of the gentry, of

the

of

oppression

of

The people wish to suppress this form of despotism. Many

soldiers who fight at the front suffer because their families are
In the
mistreated in Honan and elsewhere in Central China.
name of the Nationalist Party, many things are being done
which are wrong.
There is an effort being made to throw our
country into further
of a few individuals.

way

confusion

for

the

personal

of the radical element

Many

into our Party Organization in

an

effort

benefit

wormed

their

to control the en-

They have done all the unlawful

Higher members in our Party Or-

Kuomintang Movement.

tire

merely

things they can to this end.

ganization have sought to stop this creation of unrest within our

Party, but the radicals have refused to obey orders.

We

also talked of remedies for this situation.

The only

(which we also discussed) is, as I see it,

Mikal Borodin, who already has resigned, should

solution

as follows: 1)

return to his
the

own country

Executive

Central

immediately;

2)

Committee in the

who wish to go abroad for

The others may join with

Those members

Hankow Government

a rest should be allowed to do

the

of

Nanking Government,

if

so.

they

desire.

In Hsuchow-fu,

Government

officials.

discussed this problem with

When

the

Nanking

they had heard the results of our

Chengchow, they were both joyous and sad.

They have welcomed the above suggestions. Both Nanking and
Hankow, I believe, understand these mutual problems.
conversations

in

need not remind you gentlemen, of course, that our country

facing a severe crisis; but in view of this, I feel constrained
I

is

to insist that the present is

factions

for

desire that

you

immediately.
revolution

the

fight

a good time to unite the Nationalist

against

our

common

accept the above solution

enemies.

It

is

my

and reach a conclusion

Individual conflicts must be overcome so that our

may

succeed

Sun Yat-sen's Three

in

the

shortest

possible

time,

Principles be put into effect.

We

and Dr.

This

is

the

must revere the memory of

only salvation of our country.
Dr. Sun, and we must remember those brave soldiers who have

THEREDFLAMEFADES
their

given
healed.

in

lives

Thousands

militarists.

They

the

Our

cause.

the north are

in

anxious

are

for

125

wounds

under the

still

our

have

help.

We

been

not

will

of

the

must unite

forthwith.

General Tang Shen-tse is patriotic and still a true revolutionist, so he should send troops to Chengchow immediately and

me

cooperate with

in order to capture

Peking and complete the

task of our Northern Expedition.

make

these suggestions sincerely, and expect you

to

accept

them.

Chiang Kai-shek, commenting on the above, said:

most happy at this firm stand taken by Marshal Feng Yu-

Generalissimo
"I

am

We

hsiang.

are planning

to

continue

our northern

campaign very

soon now, no longer fearing that our rear may be cut off at Hsuchowfu from the west."
In less than a month the Reds had gone from
and Borodin was in the van of that defeated band on the long
China
overland trek, back to Moscow.
Earlier, Borodin

ernment
I

whom

wanted

to

get

was the

first

man

in the declining

saw when we reached Wuhan

his

reaction

to

that

telegram

early

Hankow
in

from the

July,

gov1927.

''Christian

Whether Borodin saw that his Russian Advisorate's part

in that rapidly shifting revolt was over remains conjectural, but highly
His quick eyes normally not only saw the problems conprobable.
stantly arising all about him, but also saw all around them as well
General."

and sometimes on past them to their inevitable conclusions.

When I talked with him this time, Borodin looked tired. His attitude was still one of defiance to those (to him) lesser men who would
interrupt him as he fought toward his goal of bringing all China into
the world

revolution led by

again that I saw him

Moscow.

It

was

in his

spacious

offices

Despite growing agitation here and elsewhere against him and his Communist assistants, he insisted that he
was not ready to quit. He felt that his work in China was not yet
finished.

principles

He

last.

somewhat heatedly that he was following the

outlined by the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who had invited
reiterated

Borodin to participate in the Cantonese-inspired Revolution against

Peking, and asserted that the Agrarian Revolution of China "must

go on."

THE DRAGON STIRS

126

He

me

received

enough,

cordially

evincing

interest

great

in

all

happenings in Nanking and Shanghai, particularly since Hankow was

The telegraph wires were down and there was no
again isolated.

word except for brief wireless dispatches that reached the Capital. He
wanted to know how General Chiang Kai-shek's government was pro-

how Feng and Chiang were

ceeding, and

agreeing.

Borodin, like the rest of the Hankowites, professed to believe that

Chiang Kai-shek ruled Nanking with an iron hand. The chief objections

to

Chiang were

his

alleged militarism

Hankow saw

and

his

desire

for

per-

Borodin insisted that Feng's telegram

demanding his resignation was a fake.
sonal gain, as

it.

"He didn't write that teleHis personal telegrams to Hankow have been engram, I am sure.
His letters to me are not like that.
Queer things
tirely different.
One
happen in the military and political line-ups in China, however.
must understand how to take these things.
Feng is continuing to
"That

not Feng's

is

style,"

he

said.

He has representatives here now. How do you

cooperate with us.
think he can support such a telegram?
I don't believe Feng wrote
it

although he might have been influenced to sign some such docu-

ment."

We
more

returned to this subject later, and Borodin admitted in manner

than in speech his bitterness at Feng's action, despite his ex-

pressed belief that Feng remained a loyal supporter of their Wuhan

Borodin then refused to talk further on this subject, saying:
faction.
I cannot discuss his actions."
''Feng is my friend.

Borodin readily

"Our
with

discussed

other

things.

problem right here is an early settlement of the split

Nanking," he said.
"Apparently we must do this by force.
chief

Hence, we are sending a military expedition toward Nanking immediately.

We

far better

aren't

will

fighters

very

loyal.

capture

paign will proceed."

bad economic
that time, but

Our men

are

than Chiang Kai-shek's troops, who, furthermore,

They are ready to come over to our side, once

Once

given the opportunity.

about finances,

Nanking without a doubt.

this

The Russian

despite

split

is

also

insisted he

what he termed

situation there.

He

settled,

our

Peking cam-

was not worried

"propaganda"

concerning

admitted that business was bad at

added that the revolution would continue despite

this,

THEREDFLAMEFADES
at

"as long as rice

least

is

available,

which

it

127

still

is

in

great quan-

tities."

Borodin expressed high

ment; he declared the

He

die out."

said

"Nanking Incident" settleIncident "must be settled and not allowed to

"We

interest

cannot

in

now prove

the guilt for this incident,

where the true guilt lies.
continue under

We

but history will show

Hence, we must see that

the stigma of the world for this affair now.

The

reason Chiang Kai-shek disarmed the Sixth Army

at Nanking wasn't to punish them for the Nanking Affair, but beit

settled.

is

cause

they had captured

Pukow

Nanking, and he ordered them to capture

and move northward without the rest, he himself moving into

Nanking

in

safety

own

with his

The Sixth Army

armies.

officers

and opposed him.

Hence he disarmed them, shooting down
many soldiers. I wish that America would take the lead and settle
It must be cleared up."
Nanking.

refused,

Borodin persisted

camp

in

the

idea

that

the

followers did the anti-foreign looting.

men

rabble

He

and

irresponsible

barked out a denial

Hankow had

organized that notorious affair.

Borodin laughed at the constant reports that he had already fled
Hankow. He even scouted the idea that his dismissal was imminent

that

at

he was merely an employe of the government and as such would always submit to its mandates.
but added that, after

all,

This seemingly idle comment was prophetic.

night, Borodin was gone.

The next

stop in

my

itinerary

was

at

In

less

the door of

than a fort-

Eugene Chen,

Chen straightway uttered shrill criticism of a suggestion by Senator Bingham that America send official high commis-

across the street.

sioners to each of China's various de facto governments.

such action would defeat

tion

of China's

disunity,

which Chen declared

his

its

own

He

said that

ends, causing an indefinite continua-

and would work against the common cause

government, through revolutions, sought to

propagate.

Chen

said:

"The Hankow Government

will

never agree to such a

commissioners to each

Bingham's of sending
I suggest as a counter-proposal that Washington
group in China.
send a competent official representative to China whose report would
If such an ofenable America clearly to understand our movement.
suggestion

ficial

as

Senator

represented the United States in Peking today things might be

THE DRAGON STIRS

128

different/ but that representative of the British Empire heading your

do not want another man
Legation has never been fair to us.

We

a new mind giving a

new and yet expert report on what he sees here not a man with the
ability of a clerk!

from or

sent

"He must have

what we are trying
ica's
of.

What

to Peking.

is

and

vision

a fresh

insight,

mind

can grasp

that

That would do more to

do here.

to

is

necessary

clarify

Amer-

can think
understanding of our revolution than anything else I
But if you send representatives here and to Nanking and Peking,

you tend to continue the separation of these

Such quasi-recognition would have the worst
doubt

the

that

Senator's

ideas

idle

will

factions
effect

receive

indefinitely.
I

imaginable.

much

in

attention

Washington.*'
like

Chen,
timistic

the other

Hankow's

concerning

was any more

serious that

Nanking within

take

shek's

men

continued ostensibly dapper and opfuture.

He denied that the situation

officials,

to

in

without

days,

forty

now

are ready

had been

it

come

will

Chiang Kai-

question.

Hankow

to

"We

May, declaring:
as soon as

we move

in

He is pandering to Shangnot loyal.

hai's merchants and as a revolutionary he is finished."
His

that direction.

Chen

officers are

however, bitterly denounced Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang,

also,

He added, "But Feng will

dubbing him the "Leopard of China."
never attack Hankow; his hands are full handling Honan Province
which he
still

is

control

able to use

now

as a result of our appointment.

Honan."

Chen admitted

that

Hankow was

"considering the position of our

Russian advisers, particularly Borodin."

would be retained as long as they were
to

discharge

really

them as

deserved

"He

But we

yet,

He

said,

useful.

however, that they

Chen saw no reason

adding however that he thought Borodin

vacation.

has worked in our revolution for the

"and has done remarkably

last

four years,"

Chen

working hard day and night.

This does
Hence, like any man, he needs and deserves a vacation.
not mean that we consider suggesting that he actually take one nor
said,

that his

work

physical

situation

It

was

is

unsatisfactory.
of

difficult

well,

am

merely talking frankly of the

any man."

to

tell

just

what Chen meant by

this,

but

am

THE RED FLAME FADES

129

he actually meant that any man who works

four years without a rest needs a little time away from the job.
Chen also averred: " Everything is going smoothly here in Haninclined

believe

to

kow.

We

fident

of

that

On

are not worried.

the

future."

daily events that

we remain most

the contrary,

Chen's statement was hardly

summer

in

con-

compatible with

the strange revolutionary regime.

Chen,

Borodin, insisted that the "Nanking Incident*' should be settled

because the world thought that Hankow was guilty.
"We will take it
like

to the

League of Nations

sition for

reply?

if

necessary," he said.

made

"I

Why

an International Investigation Commission.

We

stand

ready to face the

facts,

but

we

the propo-

are not

don't

you

ready to

accept hasty affidavits from biased refugees."

Chen was

gone within the month.

Consul-General Frank Lockhart said later that day that he personally believed things would continue to worry along in Hankow
indefinitely.

also

The Colonel thought

two months had been

that the stupendous changes

in the

Foreigners generally were interested in knowing when America would return a Consul to Nanking.
The traders and bankers were wondering whether any political realast

sons lay behind the delay.

superficial.

The fading glow

of

the

They wanted things returned

red star of

Communism

to normalcy.

lighted

Hankow

few succeeding weeks of that dismal, fateful midAll China, from the unwieldy, uncomprehending masses in
summer.
Yunnan Province on Burma's border to the steppes of the still
but dimly in the

troubled Siberian frontier to the north

new

idea.

The day

of

the

was

infected

self-centered

old-time,

of a

by the virus

militarist

who had

sway so long, dividing the continent piece-meal, also was closing,

though more slowly than the influence of Communal theories from
abroad.
The last days of Hankow's Red regime seem garish, bizarre
held

in the light of present-day perspective.

At

the time they seemed very

indeed and each day of that sunset era was packed with action.
Frank Riley came rushing into my room a day or so after "Chris"

real

had married her naval

officer.

some 200 miles north

into

He

Honan

wanted

me

Province,

to join
to

see

him

in

Marshal

trip

Feng

In the first place, I had seen

Yu-hsiang at the town of Chengchow.
Feng, and in the second, Chengchow was too far from anything like
Too much was going on, and I had to watch
reliable telegraph wires.
it

happen there

in

Hankow.

THE DRAGON STIRS

130
It

was fortunate

me

for

Riley never came back.

when about to start the

that I didn't go.

He

disappeared quite mysteriously one day,

return journey.
He simply walked down the railroad toward a "model
from Chengchow
village" which Feng was constructing a mile out

and was "swallowed by the dragon." Inquiries proved nothing, except

He still is.
that he was lost, without visible trace.
Among the correspondents flocking to Hankow then was Vincent

Jimmy was educated at the University

common with Rayna Prohme, to whom

Sheean.

much

in

of

Chicago and found

introduced him, for

she too came from Chicago.

His full name is James Vincent Sheean,
and every one came to know this sentimental but completely lovable

Irish-American

six-foot

Jimmy and

as

"Jimmy."

had innumerable encounters both

socially

and

re-

Many of these were

porting the Kuomintang Revolution at Hankow.
One I recall was our hailing two Chinese coolies shortly
amusing.
dawn.

before

The

were engaged

coolies

in

the

carrying

inevitable

As was customary,

"night soil" to the city's sewage dump.

they had

their barrel of this vile-smelling concoction, or "honey-bucket" as

known,

generally

The "boys" were

footed way along

slung

on

them

between

as

shouting lustily

bamboo
made their

six-foot

they carefully

The one preceding

the narrow street.

it

is

pole.

sure-

the "bucket"

<4

yelled
albeit

"Hai-ho!" and the other shouted,

Hai-ho" in vigorous tones,
in lesser volume.
Thus, keeping their traditional sing-song, duo-

syllabic

rhythm,

coolies

wended

their

not in perfect quietude.

then we met them.
Suddenly,

seriously,

And

the

way about

business

their

if

found myself holding the

rear end of that bamboo pole and marching along with Mr. Sheean.
He led the procession. The coolies, happy with an "iron" Chinese
dollar apiece

(more than a day's

ceeded along the darkened

full

street,

pay)

shouting in rhythm.

We

cellent progress at the outset of this ridiculous adventure.

stubbed his toe.

The "bucket"

jostled,

we promade ex-

cheered us on as

and the

barrel,

But Jimmy
pole and all,

with a clatter and splash to the pavement.

pole-cat would have
run at our approach when we finally reached the hotel.
And so to

fell

bed!

There were ludicrous incidents such as

main was

serious

Bitterness

day

and a

in

and day

certain

sense

this,

but our work in the

out.

of

desperation

tempered

by

the

THE RED FLAME FADES

determination

grimmest
sphere.

The

tinued.

Officials

superficially

struggle

predominated

against

were

in

131

Hankow's

what proved to be the

outwardly

optimistic,

inevitable

least,

The Yangtze was

appeared unchanged.

was calm.

at

atmo-

clouded

and

still

con-

Hankow

filled

with

was the calm before the storm.

Then Borodin fled suddenly on July IS. That was the end.
All the Reds were soon gone from China.
As far as the eye

foreign warships.

All

It

could see there was not a Communist Russian anywhere

The Russians had

the

gone,

Hankow was

north around Chengchow

with picked

visible..

quiet again, the fighting to

Fengtien

Province

troops

News

from Manchuria was ended.

of any sort dwindled, and it was

almost unbelievably hot, so I went back down the Yangtze again to

Shanghai.
General Chiang seemed to be on top of the world at that moment
despite Hankow's loud threats and denunciations, but in less than
u

out."
another month he, too, was
Hankow for the moment, he went

An

apparent sacrifice to appease

south to a delightful, calm and

extraordinarily picturesque old temple in Chekiang Province, near his

birthplace.

After a few
see

him and

summer days

find out

why.

of idleness in

Shanghai,

went there to

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

Chiang Kai-shek

mintang Revolution
GENERALISSIMO
toward success in
leaders

young
in

his

among
the

side

from the Kuo-

at the height of its apparently rapid strides

of

August

out

resigned

1927.

Internal

dissension broke

commanding generals, led in the main by the fiery

from the Kwangsi Clique who were to prove a thorn

of

General

Chiang again

He

later

tried

compromise,

and quit the revolution.

failed,

month earlier,
run the Reds out of
The midsummer

with the "Christian General," Chiang had

Now he was out himself.
China.

allied
all

resignation

was

partly

due

to

entrance

Japan's

These persistent neighbors flocked into Shantung

Province, blocking an easy way of progress up toward
Peking.
take
felt
it
was
best
to
for
the
moment,
Peking
Chiang
ignore Japan
from the "back door" route up the Kinhan Railroad, as originally
He wanted first to eliminate
planned, and then deal with Tokyo.
Marshal Chang Tso-hn, then declining in glory and power at Peking.
into

the picture.

Dissension arose as to the next

got out to

He
more

let

in

in

the Revolution, and

Chiang

the others try their hands at running the advance.

went south

far"

move

that

to

an old temple

in

story-book land,

Chekiang Province, via "Ningpo

to

ponder.

followed

him

into

calm to learn why.

It is not far as miles go from Shanghai southeast into Chekiang
Province to the mountain village of Chi-ko, nestling in the green
wooded hills where Chiang Kai-shek was born.
Yet to reach this

this pastoral

150 miles away one must travel the better part of a

day and a night, and in the heart of that hill country one may find
old China, unchanged by the parade of the years, as ancient and inOld men and
teresting as a page from the book of Marco Polo.
spot less

than

small boys tend sheep in the verdant valleys beneath

132

tall

peaks whose

"

slender,

NGPO MORE

F A R

"

133

dense evergreens touch white fuzzy tufts of clouds from the

bowl of blue sky above.

Water
little

buffaloes,

fellows,

and thus

punched with

walk interminably

roll

a heavy stone over grain, powdering

which these folk make those

Men

every hamlet.

exactly

the

flat

and women

same fashion as

raised stone graves,

cultivating endless fields of rice

their

some centuries

was not long ago

a flour with

into

it

pancakes one sees in big trays at

under floppy straw sun hats work

summer sun

long days in the broiling

in

in

by half-naked brown-skinned
a circle under thatched round roofs
sticks

forefathers,

now

lying

in

old

old.

China go that Kai-shek, son of

Chiang, the wine merchant, was running about the narrow dirty streets
of Chi-ko, a lively youngster who even then, they say, was always the
It

leader in boyish

games

as

things

in

He

the village.

in

liked

to

play soldier, and

whenever a company of soldiers came that way Kai-shek was thrilled

for days.
His father wanted the boy to become proprietor of his comfortable business in the little wine shop and carry on the family name
in

Fenghwa County

as he

and

his ancestors

had done for generations.

But the boy grew into manhood with no thought but of becoming a
soldier.
His ambition drew him into military school, and by the time
he was twenty he had gained parental permission to go to Japan to
study military science and

good marks and some

practical soldier.

He

little

tactics.

It

is

fame for his

said

that

there

he attained

as a strategist

brilliance

and

returned to China to join the revolution against

Peking military regime and was eventually appointed to his high

post through the influence and friendship he had with the founder of
the

the

Kuomintang movement, Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

He

had learned some-

thing of politics in the years that he studied soldiering, and this combination aided the ambitious youth in his climb to fame.

half

dozen years had passed

since

Kai-shek visited his

His parents, they said in Chi-ko, had long since

old name of Chiang is no longer famous for fine vintages

village.

light wines.

It

has a

new

significance.

become the most outstanding

dozen years of his absence.

figure

The

in

A
the

villagers

native

died.

The

of Chinese

son of Chi-ko had

revolution

did

native

not

in

those

blame him

half

for

remaining away.

"The
heads

at

And they wagged proud

they said, "has been busy."
what young Kai-shek had accomplished.
For the Chinese

lad,"

THE DRAGON STIRS

134

almost as proud over the accomplishments of one

The lad
village as they do of one of their own family.

of

feel

busy returned

to

native

his

That

he

own

their

who had been

returned

deposed
Inhis fellow townsmen.

village.

made not the slightest difference to

it was doubtful that
they knew why he had come.

leader

deed,

Chiang hurried through Shanghai from Nanking on his

way home. He left his manifesto of resignation with the civil officials and went away.
I followed him into the quietude of his retreat,
General

but

was not alone

difficult

to reach

in

my

him but

The Commander-in-Chief made

quest.

all

it

paths led to his door and day and night

the tedious pilgrimage to his temple where he

It was denied him, for his day was as full as
sought peace and rest.
His vacation lodge was not in his old
ever of conferences and calls.
scores of people

home

made

in Chi-ko.

It

was

straight

up that

old

tall

mountain, a climb

of about five miles, to where, just over the ridge, a temple sprawled in

a virgin wilderness and cool breezes made life pleasant in the midst
score of
of a torrid August
The temple was old and little used.

monks

lived there, studying the

word

ancient place in a degree of order.

of

It

Buddha and maintaining

was

quiet

and

restful,

an

the

ideal

place for one seeking surcease from the turmoil that agitated the valley

below.
It

was here

and a day.
Kaltenborn,

material

gathering

we found

General Chiang after journeying a night

There were four in our party myself and Mr. H. V.
at that time Associate Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle,
that

for

and

lectures

articles;

and two

Chinese

who

acted as guides and interpreters.

Nothing but Chinese, and the dialect of the district at that, was understood there.
were the first

We

to

foreigners

visit

that

in

village

four

or

parchment-skinned chap told us in Chi-ko.

siderable interest

and some

Knives and forks were

were

still

We

five

years,

Our caravan

curious

old

created con-

amusement, particularly at meal time

the devil in this land where chopsticks

little

tools of

the only utensils of that sort in use.

Shanghai at six o'clock in the evening, Wednesday, August

17, on board the steamer Ningshao, bound for Ningpo as our first
port of

left

call.

From

there

we

got into the district of

Fenghwa.

We

expected to be rather isolated on this Chinese steamer, having heard

tales of the danger of traveling anywhere off the beaten track in those
days, but to our surprise we met another foreigner on board, a Dr.

135

Thomas

of the Baptist Mission in Ningpo, returning to his post after

a visit to Shanghai.
And we also discovered a friend in Dr. Fong
Sec, head of the English section of a large publishing house in Shang-

Dr. Fong, with his wife and family, was going to the holy island
of Pu-to (pronounced poo-doo) for a fortnight.
His two daughters,
hai.

wearing modern sport dresses, and Mrs. Fong

spoke perfect English, Mrs. Fong having been born in San Francisco
We joined forces, our two parties feeling at home together. We dis-

bobbed-haired

and

covered that a party of half a dozen or so Nationalist officers were

going to see General Chiang, also, so that our journey, it seemed,
would not be lonesome anywhere along the route.

Thomas

Dr.

said

dinner that there

at

were only about a dozen

Nfngpo then, as compared to 125 or so in ordinary

times.
However, he minimized the danger of living there, as most
And so far as I saw
people do who persist in refusing to evacuate.
anywhere in the Yangtze Valley and its vicinity, the Chinese on the
The soldiers at times became bothersome, but
whole were not hostile.
foreigners

in

only rarely.

queer customer aboard was a little Cantonese chap who called

He spoke English fluently, as well as
himself "Professor Young."
German and French and a little Russian, as he pointed out in his perand I must say he would probably make a good
sistent conversation
reporter, with his

He knew

met.

smiling

moon

curled up in
fellow

quest for information about everyone he

insatiable

all

about

and

face

me

his

in ten minutes,

long as an

hair,

some monstrous fashion

that

and despite

his vacuous,
girl's

and

appear bobbed,

this

old-fashioned

made

it

was no dumbbell.

He looked at my card and demanded to know who founded The

New York Times and in what year I had to confess ignorance as to
the answers to both queries, and shall never forgive the fellow for that

bad moment.

and was eager

The

Professor had been to America once, he confided,

He

candidly admitted he traveled "as a

guest of the public," that he had no connections anywhere and that
he picked up a little money now and then by selling photographs of
interesting

to

people

go again.

and

strange

places.

His album

was

filled

with

photographs of prominent persons in China, with autographs of most.

He
its

Ghandi, spoke intelligently of American journalism and

of certain great dailies, discussed life in
history and the founders
criticized

THE DRAGON STIRS

136
Paris,

Berlin and most other

cities

in

Europe, and confessed he had

not been in China for twenty years.

He was then, he admitted, writing a history of

was

also admitted

He

to be a valuable volume.

China, which he

had no idea how he

would get from Ningpo to General Chiang, and I gave him no information.
He wanted to exchange Chinese photographs for some of
Japan that I had in my collection.

two hours by steamer up the Yu-yao River, being inWe docked there
every chief port along the China coast.

Ningpo
land, as

is

is

on Thursday, August

ways than anyone

else.

can make

Chinese coolies

18.

We

arrived at

noise

dawn and we knew

it

more

in

at once.

Countless bells of the tiny servant-calling type were jangling the

ment we were
turned loose.

in
I

sight

the dock.

of

They sounded

like

all

mo-

bedlam

discovered that they belonged to the rickshaw coolies

who rang them

constantly

trotting through

the narrow

while

seeking

winding

customers and

again

while

streets.

We

had three hours to wait while our Chinese got a houseboat

and launch and provisions for the upriver trip, so I took a rickshaw

and an interpreter and drove out to the other side of the city to call
I found the good Doctor
on Dr. Barlow, also of the Baptist Mission.

up

to his armpits in the stream that flows alongside his house,

ing his

He

boat.

little

fixing a place

for

at

it

repair-

had just acquired an engine and was busily

the rear

of

the flatboat.

We

chatted awhile

about the new Baptist hospital, which was half Chinese, half foreign
There was little enough to do
in architecture, and about his work
just then,

on the

it

job,

His family had gone home and he was alone

with Dr. Thomas and the handful of other foreigners,
seemed.

He was interested
mostly merchants and customs people, in Ningpo.
in news of Chiang Kai-shek and especially in the rumors of his comMiss Mei-ling Soong.
The British-American Tobacco manager

ing mairiage to

Varhol, was aboard

to get things lined

boat and launch,

when

got back.

He

Ningpo, a man named

assisted us in every way

in

for a comfortable journey, furnishing his housewith camp beds and chairs and all the rest of it.

up

These foreigners in the out ports are most hospitable, and Mr. Varhol
was no exception. Without him, we would have had no end of delay
and trouble. We got under way finally at about 10:30, the tiny launch
tugging us upriver.

We

started

up the Fenghwa River, which joins

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

the

at

Yu-yao

we moved

137

Slowly, for the houseboat was a large affair,

Ningpo.

and upstream past scores

into the river

of picturesque old

junks and myriads of scuttling sampans, along the narrow, dingy old

Ningpo Bund, and so into the open country beyond.

We had tiffin aboard, an excellent meal served by

we

the cook-boy

Ningpo. The journey so far had been de luxe. Rain

squalls delayed our progress from time to time, the wind being against
us, and at one o'clock we found we were less than half way to the place

had acquired

at

where we would take sedan chairs or rickshaws across country. At that

rate we would not make General Chiang's temple by night.
We con-

and Mr. Kaltenborn suggested cutting away from the houseboat

ferred,

and going ahead in the launch.

possible in

two

We

baskets, together with

did

camp

cots

an hour or so the rain quit and we got only a

to shield the food and ourselves.

much food

taking as

this,

and

little

toilet articles.

as

After

wet, using umbrellas

Our

progress was interrupted at two-thirty, when a junk moved into

the stream ahead of us and a soldier signaled us to stop.
He wanted to

know

we

could take him and his orderly upriver with us.

Already
in
of
five
us
the
boatwith
the
loaded
tiny launch, including
heavily
man, we were inclined to refuse his request, but the Chinese advised
if

this.

against

So

the

two clambered

aboard and

we

set

off

again,

slower than ever.

A
until

few miles on, as we got into the foot hills, the stream dwindled
our propeller was digging up mud half the time and we were

We

muddled through until almost four o'clock when

We could go no further.
the boatman grunted and we went aground.
The stream had become little better than a mountain rill a few yards

barely moving.

We

wide.

got out and walked to a

little

village a quarter of a mile

got rickshaws to the place whence we took chairs.

launch, lightened of all of us but the boatman, came on to the

beyond, where

The

village,

we

where we

left

it

after

instructing the

boatman

to wait for

our

return the next day.

There were some 300

village

of

Kiangkow.

soldiers

We

of General

Chiang's guards in this

were greeted most

cordially

and had no

trouble in getting rickshaws for the hour's ride to Shaowangrniao, arafter an interesting ride through paddy
riving there at five o'clock
fields

the

in

hills.

the shadow of green mountains.

The sun sank low behind

In thirty minutes we had procured four chairs and a carry

THE DRAGON STIRS

138

With

coolie for our luggage.

twenty Chinese

"li" distant.

we were

ten chair coolies

"li"

is

off for Chi-ko,

about a third of a mile.

Riding in a chair is not uncomfortable, but after a while it becomes

tedious, and Mr. Kaltenborn and I found relief in walking at intervals.
Chinese peasants turned to stare at our party as we swung along in
the twilight.
met many farmers returning home, weary after a

We

day under that sun, and every one of them was pleasant, looking
docile and kindly and not at all as though we were the hated foreign
devils they were supposed to think us.

We

Chi-ko

reached

at

seven-thirty,

The town was en

appearing.

fete,

just

scores

the

as

first

stars

were

of children running about

with picturesque lanterns of all shapes and sizes, from big red fish to
a model airplane.
It was a parade in honor of their returned General.

We

went

inside

General

Chiang's

house.

It

was

rather

large

for

Chi-ko, indicating that the Chiang family had enjoyed a certain degree
of prosperity.
in

Soldiers, apparently

officers

of his guard,

were dining

Our interpreter told us we were most welWe discovered

officers bowed and smiled genially.

the outer room.

come, and the

we were expected Mr. T. V.

in the Hankow regime and a

Soong, former Minister of Finance

brother-in-law of Chiang's, having

wired ahead.
General

Chiang had had a private telegraph

line

strung up

We brought
Ningpo to his headquarters up in those hills.
out our food and dined at a table given us for that purpose.
I
had never been quite so much the center of all eyes before. The
from

parade broke up for the moment and the whole town, it

seemed, crammed in at the doors and climbed up to peer in at
kids'

the
to

windows as we ate. They said we were the

come that way in four or five years.
Many

could

not

before.

remember

They asked

ever
if

having

seen

first

of

wai-go-jen

foreigners

the children
(foreigner)

we were Americans, and when we

said

we

were, they seemed pleased, grinning broadly.

We

had to Tiurry on, for General Chiang was in his temple

high above us on the hill.
Leaving Chi-ko about eight o'clock,
we pushed on across the narrow strip of valley between us and

At the edge of the village we ran into the lantern

Our chair coolies, undismayed, stalked right down
procession.
the same narrow street the parade was coming up, and we were
the mountain.

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

in

midst

the

babbling of

of

and

bobbing lanterns

many

voices.

It

139

clashing

was a great

cymbals

sight, those

and a

paper

fish,

and forms carried by children, some

infants in arms holding swaying lanterns on thin reeds.
Why the
children were giving the demonstration we never discovered.
animals, lanterns of

Perhaps

it

was

Through
of

the

lantern

sizes

all

their

day.

we

the night

procession.

jogged, our

Fireflies

grass and scattered

chair processions.

great

bamboo

tall

other

in

trees.

the

Up

own

chairs forming a sort

sparkled amid
In an hour we noticed

hordes

winding

mountain

path

we

walking part of the way, riding when we got tired.

Those sturdy Chinese coolies were marvels. With our load, two
of them could go right ahead at a great pace up the steepest inTheir legs are heavily muscled, hard as steel. Below one
clines.
climbed,

could look back into the valley and see other pilgrims traversing
the long path to the mountain top to see the retired leader.
His
"seclusion"

At

was a myth.

We

the temple!
arrived before the massive wooden
There were at least ten chairs and some
gates at ten o'clock.
An orderly took our cards and a letter Kaltenborn
thirty coolies.
last

had from T. V. Soong to General Chiang and with a grunt

dis-

appeared through the courtyard into the dark building beyond.

We waited. He returned and opened the gates. A shout went

up as the

brought in their chairs.

The General had retired.

coolies

ordered silence.

The guard harshly

We were led into an inner chamber and offered food and tea.
We could not see the General that night, but after long parleys
with his secretary
the next morning

we made
in

it

we wanted to see him early

under way to catch the four

clear

order to get

Ningpo boat for Shanghai. We were then shown to another room in the rambling old temple, where we found mats on
wooden couches ready for our use. We were given every couro'clock

tesy.

eleven

We

got our bed clothing, laid

o'clock

were

asleep,

for

the

it

over the mats, and before

silence

in

those

woods was

heavy.

awakened us at five o'clock the next

Their resonant tones sounded through the woods and
morning.
The sunlight streamed in at our window. We arose
filled the air.

Booming temple

bells

THE DRAGON STIRS

140

and found a

coolie

had brought hot water and towels ...

comforts of home.

General

membered from our Hsuchow-fu

trip

young man

Chiang's valet,

in June,

all

the
re-

soon appeared* and

brought us oranges (Sunkist oranges from California) and breakfast, including hot milk, cakes, bread and a sort of chocolate
wafer.
While we were eating, the valet returned and announced
that General Chiang

We

was waiting

receive us.

to

found him on the broad verandah outside the main build-

We

had chairs arranged around a small table

ing of the temple.
on which hot green tea was placed, together with the inevitable
little

such as

delicacies

nuts,

General

etc.

candies,

Chiang was

dressed in a silk suit tailored like that of a foreigner except that

the coat buttoned up around the neck in semi-military fashion.
It

was the uniform

the

of

He wore

Sun Yat-sen.

Kuomintang,

by

designed

the

socks and patent leather pumps.

silk

looked cool and rather less worn and drawn than

when

Hsuchow-fu

front.

seen him on the

late

way back from

the

had

Dr.

He
last

He

greeted us cordially and shook hands with me, expressing

his appreciation of the hardships one has to go through to get to
place and inviting us to remain over the day
so that he might take us on a hike around the hills and show us a
this out of the

way

particularly beautiful waterfall not far

disappointed

suggested

told

we might go

escort for the journey.

General Chiang was

believed

sincerely

him we must rush through the interShanghai where things were happening. He

when we

view and get back to

He was

away.

to the waterfall

anyway, and ordered an

But we could not make

bitter

them responsible

against

for

his

the

defeat

it.

Japanese.
in

the

He

north

said

and

he
the

failure of the Nationalists' northern expedition in July.

"Their occupation of Tsinan and the railway blocked us," he

said.
"Our success was assured until Japan stepped in."

Chiang said he did not want to talk any more about this, nor
would he go into detail about his quitting as Commander-in-Chief.

He

said,

"My

reasons are in

my

manifesto given out in Shanghai.

There are no other reasons."

He
egotist

ments.

took his position philosophically.

There was a bit of the
in the General, pardonable no doubt in view of his achieve-

He was

asked

if

he didn't think his leaving the revolu-

141

and he said:
said he had to quit
cause,

was bound

weaken the
But he
"Yes, I think so."
Cryptic enough.
in view of what had gone before and referred

tion at this time of crucial happenings

to

In this he said that

again to his long message of resignation.
there had been too much opposition to him personally and that

he thought until confidence in him was restored he had better get

He bowed

out.

to the criticism

of

Hankow and

to the political

exigencies of the moment.

The Commander-in-Chief said he might return to

"I am too much a part of it, it is too much a
tion.

me

to get out for all time.

ment, but I do not know when.
for

"Where?"

I
I

the revolu-

part of me,
expect to return to the movewould like to go abroad."

asked.

"You tell me they are

Chiang replied.
sympathetic there. Well, I would like to go and see. After that,
It is all indefinite, of course.
to Europe and elsewhere.
But I
'To America

need a real

first,"

rest."

He

intimated that overtures were being made to get him back

He was undecided but he intended to remain in
into the Party.

He smiled when we
temple retreat for a time, in any case.
referred to the many visitors he was having, even up here. "Yes,"
his

"one's real friends take the trouble to journey even into

He said T. V. Soong was expected in a few
a place like this."
Soong wanted to urge Chiang's return.
days.

he

said,

We

talked for nearly an hour and then, after photographing

the General on his front porch with his eleven-year old son,
Chiang Ching-pang, we left in our chairs at eight o'clock.

Swinging over the ridge and down into the valley below, we
had a half hour of one of the most marvelous views I have ever
We could see for miles across the plains to where mounseen.
tains rose again on the far side, and below us a mountain stream
widened into a silvery lake whose still waters glistened in the
early

morning sunshine.

The journey down

We

to our boat at

Kiangkow took from

eight

got to Kiangkow at noon, but the boatman, remembering the mud and the shallow stream, had left his launch
had to walk it through the midday furnace of
ten li away!
until

one.

We

THE DRAGON STIRS

142
that valley

and we arrived an hour

rice fields,

humid, swampy

on foot through the

later

dripping with perspiration.

Shanghai at four o'clock.

cided again not to use the houseboat, which had reached

The steamer

left

Ningpo

We

for

this

de-

point

At
during the afternoon and night, but to hurry along in the launch.
two forty-five we were only about half way to Ningpo, and the prosof

pects

catching the boat were

upriver

aboard,

we found

class.

arrival.

hove

run

regular

in

dim.

sight

Then a

and we

launch

large

hailed

on the

Clambering

it.

Chinese of the peasant or coolie

They were most friendly, laughing and jabbering away at our

jammed

it

One remarked

in

of

full

Chinese:

<k

Well, I must say I have seen whiter foreigners than these."

He was doubtless right. Our faces were a bright red, and the

sunburn smarted for days, despite our broadbrimmed straw

hats.

The launch got to Ningpo just at four o'clock. We raced along

the Bund a half mile to where our steamer was to depart.
It had
We could see it a quarter of a mile down stream but far from
gone.
our hopes of catching

However, our Chinese discovered a steamer

it.

was leaving at four-thirty. We sighed with relief.

spend a night and a day in Ningpo would have been tiring.
alongside that

To

We

got under way at four-thirty, after paying off our bills and
giving our Chinese friends many thanks for a most diverting trip.
The voyage was uneventful during the evening.
passed the other

We

ship,

incidentally,

at

After dinner, which

on

rice

turned
It

by a

at

six

much

about eight o'clock,

we

o'clock

our unholy glee.

ate in solitary splendor, the Chinese dining

and we having "foreign chow"

at

seven,

we

in.

was three-twenty-five
series

a.m.,

August

20,

when we were awakened

of terrific explosions.

into the night.

Leaning out of my bunk, I peered

crash, and a flash of fire came from a dark ship not

400 yards away.

Again this was repeated.

the women aboard, and men rushed about.
I

to

went on deck

in

that a Chinese warship

kimono

was

to

discover

firing at us.

Shrill

the

cries

trouble.

came from
It

appeared
Six shots came roaring over

our head, one landing just ahead of the bow and skittering across the
water.
It was no fun, that business, and I returned to search the
cabin for a life belt.
There was none.

The Chinese

cabin boy,

who

could speak English, said the ship was

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

143

a gunboat sent by Chang Tso-lin to bombard the Woosung forts and

harass shipping.
This, after he had said the guns were a signal to

and anchor for the

him

"belong no
good/' and he admitted he was trying to prevent our being worried.
The warship apparently gave it up as a bad job after six shots and
ceased firing.
Why they didn't chase us is still a mystery. But they
lay to

night.

told

that

story

turned their broadside away, to my vast relief, and disappeared into

the night.
Another version of the story was that they were bombarding the
besides
I

Woosung

the forts did not reply.

finally

was glad

Bund

But we were not yet near Woosung, and

forts.

to

went back
get

to

sleep

a rickshaw at

in Shanghai once more.

to

dream

six-thirty

of battles until

as

we came

dawn, and

alongside the

A "NEW DEAL" FOR CHINA

10

Kai-shek

Chiang
tional Government
GENERALISSIMO
was

was April

date

Nanking

less

Nathat

captured by the revolutionary forces from the South.

city

The

at

organized the
than a month after

had

in

Incidentally,

1927.

18,

the

Mandarin

King/' mean, "Southern

dialect

The

Capital.*'

word

the

first

or

character,

"Nan"Nan," means
words,

"Southern;" and "King," (Ching, or Jing, as it is pronounced by the

That is why the name Peking was altered
Chinese) means "Capital."
The newly
to Peiping
for
Pe-King" meant "Northern Capital"
(i

enriched

men

of the

Kuomintang clung

to the theory that there could

There need be but one, they held, and that

Hence, they issued a decree in 1928, and the

be no northern

capital.

should be

Nanking.
had been known as Peking for ages became known in a surprisingly short time as Peiping, or "Northern Peace,"
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek split with his old comrades in concity that

trol at

Hankow

that turbulent spring of

1927,

and

his

men

captured

Chiang disliked the ComShanghai and then Nanking, as described.

munist influence in Hankow.
It was growing in great strides.
He
wanted to check

this

from Moscow.

interference

He

distrusted

the

Russian Advisorate, headed by Mikal Borodin.

The Russian Advisorate had worked smoothly and with rare precision
that cannot be
questioned.

It

worked

for the most part under cover.

Borodin rarely
that it was a

He saw to it
appeared in public or made a speech.
he and his
purely "Chinese movement," on the surface
from within, and well.
Chiang had realized what was
losing control of all their plans at

occurring.

home

to a

He saw

new and

men bored
the

Chinese

insidious foreign

Chiang envisioned them using the Kuomintang

merely as a tool with which to gain eventual mastery of Asia, in the
Russian conception of their goal
the "world revolution."
From the
"barbarian"

bloc.

144

FOR CHINA
General

the

start,

He was overruled.
whom millions in

Moscow.
mintang,"
in

had advised

against

the

145

from

aid

of

acceptance

But Sun Yat-sen, "Father of the RuoChina today revere, had died in Peking

1926.

General Chiang, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Kuominchun

(The

Party), was

Hankow when

He

to

free

struck

the

his

obey

men

well

as

Army)

Peoples*

the

as

own

Kuomintang

dictates.

Once

swiftly.

own

after the dictates of his

The General was

orate.

(The

chose to

Peoples'

split

with

there refused to follow his commands.

in

control

of

Chiang sought a "new deal" for the welfare of

it

He

Shanghai
all

and

Chinese.

Nanking,

He

sought
desires, not those of the Russian Advis-

free.

He

could do good in his

own manner,

and none could say him nay.

The

when he sought a "new

General,

deal" for the

Chinese peo-

National Government at Nanking.

He was denounced as a "neo-militarist" by the voluble Eugene Chen at Hankow.
ples,

The

set

first

his

up

Chinese as well as foreign, from

path was a rocky road toward unity and a more abun-

infant government had

the start.

dant

life

Its

its critics,

for the downtrodden men,

women and

children inhabiting

all

China.

Chiang was one of the rare men in China who believed that it
was time to let the Chinese in on the better things of this existence.

He

was, and remains, a

man who

has the idea that the various treaties

which foreign nations signed with the now defunct Dragon Throne
the days of the

His

scrapped.

For one
her
ally

Manchu Dynasty
slogan

is

thing, the General

still:

felt

at

Peking should be revised,

"Down

with

if

in

not

the

unequal treaties!"
that China should be allowed to run

own Customs
British)

Administration instead of having a foreigner (usuat the head of it.

One result was that the old five per

on everything imported into any "treaty port" in

China was scrapped. The new National Government, nearly two years
after its inception, set up its own first Tariff Schedule on February 1,
1929.
Some foreign traders and others objected, but the tariff
cent ad valorem tariff

remained.

The abolition of extra-territoriality was another goal toward which

It means the end of consular
the men at Nanking were working.
courts for the trial of foreigners

(including Americans)

in China,

and

THE DRAGON STIRS

146
the

end

the

of

United States Federal Court for

with head-

China,

quarters in Shanghai.

was issued shortly

the People

to

Manifesto

after

this

Chinese

idea of a "new deal" was put into effect with the foundation of the
National Government at Nanking.
This historic manifesto was made

me

available to
stirring

and

foi

and for

unsettled

all.

China

the time

at

days

interest

its

was

issued.

present this

for

and

conception in
attaining practical welfare

General

as

the methods

of

it

for its value as a matter of record

document here

vital

information
those

in

Chiang's

His text:

MANIFESTO TO THE PEOPLE

1.

The

Nationalist revolution against the imperialists

and

mili-

the

Kuo-

tarists.

2.
3.

4.

The popularity of the Chinese Nationalist Army.

The crimes of the Chinese Communists.
The three points of fundamental difference between
mintang and the Communist Party.

5.

The misleading

6.

China's three paths:

term,

"New

a.

Military rule.

b.

Communist regime.
The "party government"

The purpose
San-min

of the

Militarist."

of the

Kuomintang.

Kuomintang, since

it

is

founded on the

promote the welfare of the Chinese

people, to free the entire race and to strive for the equality of
all

is

principles,

to

the nations of the world.

Its

task,

overthrow militarism and imperialwicked and violent forces both within and

therefore,

ism, to eliminate

all

is

to

without the country and to obtain China's independence, liberty

and equality. This is also a part of the task of the world revolution.

For many years our country has been oppressed continuously

by imperialism which has invaded our territory, infringed upon
our

sovereignty,

encroached

trolled our political

upon our maritime customs, conand economic life and even killed our youths

(upon such an occasion, for

30,

1925.)

instance,

as the massacre

of

May

Imperialism has also imposed unequal treaties upon

w DEAL'* FOR CHINA

147

and treated us as a semi-colonial possession.

Could China
still be regarded as an independent and free state?
us

In addition to

this the foreign imperialistic

powers

utilize the

ignorance and the ruthlessness of the Chinese militarists in order

to rule China, and they allow the latter's animal instincts to
develop to such a degree that they cannot be checked.

At

first

waged war every few years for selfish ends,

then they waged war once a year, and then several wars every
year for many years, thereby breaking up social organizations
and increasing the sufferings of the people.
With the national
affairs entrusted to the hands of these incompetent, ignorant and
inhuman creatures, can our people have any hope of existence?
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Kuomintang, was the
these

militarists

founder of the Republic of China.

Actuated by a desire to save
China from the peril of extinction and to give the Chinese people

a more satisfactory life, he founded the San-mln principles, which

are: nationalism, democracy and socialization of economic organization.
Unfortunately, however, after forty years of heroic
effort, he died for the Chinese people and entrusted, in his will,
the loyal members of the Kuomintang and the true believers of
the Scm-wiin principles, with the task of the continuation, to-

gether with the masses of the people, of his unaccomplished work

of nationalist revolution.
Since I took the oath to command the

northern

have

always kept Dr. Sun's

ideals as my guide in the struggle with the northern militarists.
Since it aims for the welfare of the country, the nationalist
expeditionary

revolutionary

army

is

army,

not merely for the people,

it

is

also of the

Relying upon public support, our army has succeeded

people.
at every stage; at first occupying Hunan and Hupeh and overPei-fu; then seizing
throwing the reactionary militarist,

Wu

Kiangsi, Fukien, Chekiang, and Anhwei, thereby eliminating the

cunning militarist, Sun Chuang-fang, and then capturing Shanghai

and Nanking, driving away the

brutal militarist,

Chang Chung-

chang.
Since Szechwan, Kweichow, Yunnan, Shensi, and Kansu are
now under the glorious flag of the revolutionary army, the power
of the cruel northern militarists has so far decreased that further

strong resistance seems impossible.

Wherever our

soldiers

have

THE DRAGON STIRS

148

The
gone they have met with the cooperation of the people.
soldiers not only cause no trouble among the people but also
consider them as brethren; while the people whole-heartedly and
This
voluntarily welcome the soldiers with food and kindness.

shows the

of

popularity

the

Kuomintang

soldiers

the

among

people.

The Chinese Communists, having secured membership in the

Kuomintang with malicious intent, masked by our party and
with

the

protection

our

of

unexpectedly

army,

extended

their

and created a reign of terror through the

secret and treacherous plots.

influence everywhere

agency of their

They knew
concrete

for

program

reckless

Kuomintang had its own systematic and

national and political reconstruction, so

utilized

purposely

they

and

that the

notorious

politicians,

rioters

ruffians,

youths and abused government power in

order

to

prevent the program of the Kuomintang from being carried out.

They knew that the Kuomintang supports the peasants' and

movement and pays a

laborers'

great deal of attention

to

their

and economic condition and yet the Communists employed

these treacherous persons mentioned above to harass and oppress
social

and

the real peasants

On

laborers.

one hand they excluded the members of the Kuomintang from participation in the peasants' and laborers' movements, and on the other they ruined the popularity of the Kuothe

mintang among the toiling masses, so that the welfare of the

peasants and laborers has been completely neglected and their
sufferings have increased greatly day by day.
In
ing

this

towards

Chinese

are the tactics of the Chinese

way

the

social

and economic

With regard

is

not

Under

bankruptcy

of

the

state.

advancement and acquisition of

the manipulation of the masses.
In

revolutionary
rule

to

they adopted the

therefore,

their

complete

to education, the

knowledge are hindrances

Hupeh,

and

destruction

Communists work-

in

and therefore

slogans:
it

is

Hunan and Hupeh

"To go

to

school

counter-revolutionary."
education is practically

neglected.

With regard

to

foreign policy, they have rejected the policy

of the Kuomintang, which is to deal with a
single power first,

"NEW DEAL'* FOR CHINA

and they have forced the

149

powers into a strong and

united front so that China might face enemies everywhere and
be forced, in consequence, to come under the grip of a special
imperialistic

foreign organization.

With regard

to party affairs, they

knew

that

we have main-

tained the policy of "Party government" as China's only hope of

salvation, and so they have sneaked into the Kuomintang in

order to upset our system and, by using traitors, to alienate our

comrades.
On the one hand they dominated the "central organi-

and on the other they controlled the lower branches of

the party and excluded the real and loyal members of the KuoThus have they tried to make the
mintang from party affairs.
zation/'

party Kuomintang in name but Communist in fact.

In military affairs, they saw the rapid advance made by our
army and feared an early success for the nationalist revolution

which would allow no time for the Communist propaganda work

when the program of reconstruction commenced, and so they
alienated our army comrades, interrupted military movements,
held up provisions and ammunition and did every other embarrassing thing in their power.
These conditions have all been detailed in

my

"Declaration to

Kuomintang Members/' which all persons may read.

In short, they have deceitfully assumed our name in order to
commit every possible crime and they, being the tools of a special foreign organization, have made use of mobs and ruffians
That is the
and have put into practice their horrible politics.
the

reason

why

there

is

the cry

all

along the Yangtze Valley,

"Down

with the Party men!"

I

desire

that

our

people have a clear conception of the

cannot say that of our million Kuomintang

I
"Party men."
comrades every one

is

perfect, but the true ones follow our party

deceitful

and cannot permit themselves to be misled by the

Those who do not conform to the
Communist Party.

San-min

principles,

principles

Kuomintang, are

even though they hold membership in the

party traitors and will be punished severely.

hope that the people

mintang members.
I

With regard

will not recognize in

to the present revolutionary

them the

real

Kuo-

movement, the Kuo-

THE DRAGON STIRS

150

differs fundamentally

mintang
three

in the

outstanding points:

following

In the

from the Communist Party

we aim

first place,

we

at the

freedom of the entire Chinese

The

cooperation of all classes.

unemandictatorship of one class would leave the other classes
Our
cipated and create another tyrannical and high-handed rule.

hence

people,

the

require

sincere desire is to have a grand union of farmers, laborers, mer-

and

chants, students

need the

not

soldiers.

of

dictatorship

We

firmly believe that China does

the

proletariat.

Furthermore

we

were practised
in China it would not be a true one but would be a mob rule.
Besides, we started the revolution for the people as a whole,
whereas the Communists do it only for the creation of a dictatorbelieve that

if

the dictatorship of the proletariat

ship of the proletariat with the

object

of

destroying

social

and

economic foundations wholesale.

we

the right

recognize that the people of China should have

of self-determination for we understand that only we

ourselves

know

Secondly,

means

of

perfectly

dealing

with

our

them.

own interests and the ways and

The "super-government of the

Legation Quarter in Peking" should not be replaced by a "supergovernment of Borodin" in Hankow.

own liberation we ought to help liberate the other

oppressed and weak races, for we cherish the hope and glory of
As the revolution in China is
fighting the battle of humanity.
part of the world movement we should hasten the completion
of it.
Then we should, independently and voluntarily, join in
After our

the world revolution and not be dragged into

Finally,

we must

lessen

the

sufferings

of

it.

our people during

the transition period and, as soon as our military success

plete,

shall

we must

is

com-

work of reconstruction so that society

have adequate facilities for development.
But the Comstart

the

munists try to destroy every social order and usurp the political
power through mob violence, not counting such a cost as
390,000,000 lives for the purpose of creating a state of 10,000,000 Communists to be the tool of a special foreign organization
It is true that Dr. Sun consented to admit the Communists
into

the

Kuomintang

speaking of

it

as

individuals,

as the "alliance of the

but

two

not

as

unit.

So,

parties" is a misinter-

"NEW DEAL" FOR CHINA

pretation of the

facts

by the Communists.

151

In his consent, Dr.

Sun had two intentions; first to prevent them from practising

the Communist ideals in China and to convert them intellectually
San-min

and second, to afford them

an opportunity to participate in the nationalist revolution.
But
this was not done so that they might usurp the party power and
dictate the party policy, disregarding the San-win principles.
Dr. Sun's policy of cooperation with Russia was made posto a belief in the

principles,

It
only by the Soviet's "equal treatment of our people."
was not to invite Comrade Borodin purposely to hinder our
The determining factor of whether or
revolutionary progress.

sible

not the policy of cooperation with Soviet Russia is to be maintained does not lie with China, but the test is whether or not
If Soviet Russia had not
Soviet Russia can treat us as equals.
In
changed her policy we could have still cooperated with her.

the

world only principles dictate

policies,

policies

never

dictate

principles.

The

insidious

of

intrigues

the

Communist

Party,

whereby

they try to destroy the revolutionary army, the Kuomintang and

At the very outset they frauduthe nation, have been exposed.
lently

placed their

members

in

every

corner

of

our party and

then got control of the so-called "Wuhan central executive committee," which enabled them to deceive and threaten our Kuo-

Our "Central Kuomintang

mintang comrades and the public.
censor
committee" could not endure their domination and
tyranny, which was leading toward the end of our party, and
and traitorous actions of the socalled "Wuhan central executive committee," and at the same
time urged our Nationalist Government committeemen to assume
office at Nanking and with Nanking as the capital.
resolutely

exposed the

Historically,

and was
for

illegal

Nanking was the

later reestablished as

independence and

Those who are

at

capital.

It

had

fallen

once

such by the struggle of our people

liberty.

the

helm both

of

the

Party and

of

the

State are mostly men of experience and of the highest virtue,

who advocated the revolution for years and have been respected
as intellectual pioneers by the whole country.

As

the party power has

now been

restored I shall lead faith-

THE DRAGON STIRS

152

I take the oath to

our revolutionary armies northward.

fully all

support the Kuomintang to the

the

accomplish

revolutionary

and

and obey

last

work, to

commands,

its

eliminate

the

to

sufferings

promote the welfare of the country. I trust

that all our people, unwilling to see China being ruined by the
militarists or by the Communists, will come and give us their
of the people

unanimous and

to

full support.

The movement

to

"Support the Party" and to "Save China"

height within the Kuomintang, and this proves

the reality of the Kuomintang and the strong will of its members.

present at

is at

Now

its

upon the people

call

to

join us

in

the

same cause without the slightest hesitation.

Once more I must inform the whole nation
the

international

present

conditions,

every

class

in

situation

To

considering
internal

changing

awake immediately and

For years, forreadjustments.

have believed that Chinese,

for organization.

our

that,

China must

organize thoroughly for positive

eigners

and

for the

struggle

like

save the nation

is

sand,

lack

a high and

the capacity
vital

mission

and so we must organize ourselves actively and systematically.

You, peasants and laborers, must not be deceived by the
Communists, but must organize yourselves to assist in the revoIn accordance with Dr. Sun's program of ecolutionary work.

nomic survival you may plan for your own permanent welfare.
You, merchants, should do the same with all your power and
resources, for you must not be so short-sighted as to regard the

were the

you need not bother with the

condition of the government and society and that you can do
business behind closed doors and disregard conditions.
You

present as

if

it

past, that

should not think that the workers' hardships need not be your
If the conditions of labor be not
concern.
improved, how can
peace be long preserved?

Please assist them voluntarily to better

their living conditions.

You,

the

"easy-chair"

proper

lines,

so-called

intellectual

class,

should

Please guide the thought

promote mass education and

life.

knowledge and technical

skill

of

give

your

youth along the

apply

in the constructive

up

your

special

work.

In order to get rid of psychological weakness, passiveness and

torpidity all must combine together and work for the revolution.

A
Organization

your

spirit

"NEW DEAL" FOR CHINA

is

and

strength, work is
energy the revolution in

your

your
China

with great success.

The Chinese people should not consider the

153

With

salvation.
will be

split

crowned

between the

Communists and the Kuomintang merely as a problem within the

It is a vital problem which concerns all of us.
party.

friend of mine, sickened with the trend of current affairs,

said that

the

it

was

Communist

still

movement of opposing
not because the Communist crimes

too early to start the

reign of terror;

have not been exposed, but because our people are not yet

fully

I believe not.
Is that really so?
conscious of their sufferings.
In Hunan and Hupeh the Communists have only just begun the

operation of their policy and yet every one feels that

In Hangchow and Shanghai they have
endurable.

life

is

un-

only just
In Kwantung, Fukien and
elsewhere, the peasants and laborers have expressed their grievWe must not wait
ances in numerous letters and telegrams.

made

a start and yet

until the

sword

is

all

are in terror.

placed over our necks before

cry out.
not such that

the present international situation is

can permit China to be the experimental field for
Besides,

it

we

without

Communism

Other
danger of suffering grave consequences.
people do not care whether or not the lives and welfare of our
people are at stake, but we do.
My beloved fellow countrymen,

now

the

the time to wake up.

Suppose that I should let you be oppressed continuously by
the militarists, exploited by the imperialists and disposed of
is

under the reign of terror of the Communists, it would mean that

I had deserted my sacred duty as a revolutionary soldier and
had become the arch criminal of the age.
however, the Kuomintang comrades and soldiers sacrifice
themselves for the national cause and still you render us no aid,
you not only fail to discharge your duty of citizenship but you
If,

also act against your

own

conscience.

To

guarantee our free and proper development, we have our

army, to lead you to organize and to assure you satisfactory conditions for earning a living, we have our party of San-min principles,

and with regard

participation

in

the

to

your ultimate awakening and earnest

national

affairs,

that

is

entirely

up

to

you.

THE DRAGON STIRS

154

has been spreading abroad

The Communist Party

all sorts

of

rumors such as "oppression of the toiling masses by KuominThese are

tang," and "Chiang Kai-shek, the new militarist,"
due to my opposition to its horrible policies. You must not be

we

deceived and

should investigate the

rumors in

detail.

The

temporary surveillance of the Communists was ordered because

they were hampering military operations, this fact being exposed
central censor

by the "Kuomintang
of our soldiers and

the people

For the

was imperative

it

that

safety
their

should be somewhat restricted during the time of war.

activities

This

of

committee."

We

a military necessity.
operations are completed, but
is

This

rise

them only until military

we have no wish to endanger their

the

to

detain

so-called

"Party

Imprisonment."
With regard to reorganizing the peasant and labor unions controlled by the Communists, this is based on the same idea, and
lives.

at the

gave

same time we should give the

real peasants

the opportunity for free organization.

disarmed the Shanghai Labor

We

and laborers

Union Corps because

it

and machine guns.

On April 13,
1927, the Labor Corps surrounded and attacked the headquarters
of the 2nd Division of the 26th Army but they were repulsed, and

attacked our

army with

rifles

we

captured 90 captives, of which 40 were proved to

be soldiers of Chang Chung-chang under the orders of the Com-

as a result

This proves that the Communists will do anything possible to ruin the cause of the revolution, even though
they conspire with the northern militarists.

munist Party.

It

was from documents

the Shanghai Labor

dangerous
the

plots.

Kuomintang

Union

The

is entirely

Communism

ers.

Now

arise

and organize.

is

must not be
will

do

it

all

that

sorts

we

discovered

in

searching

ascertained their secret and

talk of oppression of the toiling

willing to be beheaded.

position to

of

It
is

false.
is

If that

is

masses by
true of us we are

a fact that the Kuomintang's op-

not opposition to peasants and labor-

the best opportunity for the real

toiling masses to

For your own

interests

your organization

neglected.
you do not organize yourselves others
Free from the Comby assuming falsely your name.
If

munist Party's monopolized control all of you have the

opporof
own
Within the
tunity
making your
organizations.

jurisdic-

"NEW DEAL" FOR CHINA

155

Government the emergency measures

taken against the Communist Party would do you, the real peasants and laborers, no harm.
tion

As
it

our

of

Nationalist

to their malicious charge against

is

ridiculous.

quite

world who
territorial

fights

personal
care for

wealth
is

their

From

lives.

expedition

personal

What

Wherever

own

people have had their

as a ''new militarist"

a militarist anywhere in the

there

for principles?

acquisition.

desire is wealth.

Is

me

our

the

militarists

army has

self-government.

What

want

reached,

there

own

nothing

skin and

the time
led the

is

when

army

saved.

What

what they spare

is

the

the militarists

have fought devotedly for years and of

is

the

my

militarists

their

soldiers'

personally undertook the northern

at the front and took no thought of
I

danger.

The Chinese

militarists

get their material and

financial

supnot.
while
I
do
The
devoted
imperialistic powers,
of
our
men over thousands of miles of territory has been
fighting
a sacrifice for principle, but not a sacrifice for me personally.
In

port from the

encouraged my officers and men; in such

a way have they stimulated me.
So the defamation maligns not
If I am
only me but also the 30,000 heroic dead of our army.
guilty of any misconduct I am ready to submit myself for trial
such

way have

and severe punishment by our Kuomintang and by our people.

leave the judgment of my character to the future.
The Kuomintang is a responsible political party and we canbelieve sincerely that
not allow the Communists to wreck it.
I

We

The governChina ought to be ruled by "Party Government."

mental system should not be subjected to such rapid changes of
In order to achieve a good result politically
there must be a class of wise and upright men with definite adpolitical

thoughts.

who

uphold a sound and suitable prinThe representative form of government has been tried in
ciple.
China and has failed because our people lacked political consciousness, and there is no use to try it again.

ministrative ability,

will

We

propose to rule China through the Party and then we

shall have the system of check and balance in the government by
the Party and the people.
Being suited to Chinese conditions,
the San-min principles of the party

constitute

the

only channel

THE DRAGON STIRS

156
of national

salvation.

are unitary and organic and should

They

Imported theories cannot

be put into operation simultaneously.

Moreover, they are favorably accepted

be compared with them.

by the far-sighted

At

the

present

thinkers.

political

is

Kuomintang

It

was organized long before the

It

has

1,000,000 members,

well trained.

has

If

led the people

the

China's

Party.

birth of the Republic of China,

and comparatively

determined,

able,

heroic

Sun Yat-sen, who

Dr.

leader,

Nationalist cause

in the

only political

for years.

Party does not mean that all

governmental affairs must be handled by the Kuomintang, but
only that they must be handled in accordance with its principles,

To

and

policies

are

selfish

with those
is

mintang
all

China

rule

the

through

We

discipline.

not like the

are

We

and narrow-minded.

who

are

a public

not

to

Kuomintang members.

political

Party,

Those who take

times free.

desire

Communists who
also

cooperate
Besides,

admission into which

Kuois

at

interest in national party affairs,

with the exception of the opportunists, will be welcomed everywhere.

With

the removal of the Communists, the Kuomintang's

true face is clear to

united battle

Come and

everyone.

join

us and form a

front.

Only three paths are now open for the Chinese people.
is

to

One

return to the rule of militarism as the tool of foreign im-

perialistic

The

powers and to

other

is

fight

year after year for

to follow the footsteps of the

selfish

ends.

Communists under

the direction of a special foreign organization with the object of

creating a reign of

"Red"

terror

and wholesale destruction, with-

out consideration of circumstances.

Another way

is

to follow the

San-win principles whereby the

people liberate themselves through deliberate process

self-determination
to subject

reign

of

and

self-support.

China to military

"Red"

terror,

let

rule,

If the

of politics,

people are not willing

an imperialistic regime or the

them now join the

Kuomintang

in

order to accomplish the Nationalist Revolution, to

emancipate the
Chinese people and to participate in the world revolution.

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

THE

1^

steady stream of men with missions urging Chiang Kai-shek

to return to his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Kuomin-

tang struggle resulted in his

return to the

revolution

with en-

The

opposition faded and the General reassumed

He pushed his plan
complete control at Nanking in the fall of 1927.
for taking the ancient capital at Peking, avoiding trouble as far as

hanced prestige.

possible with Japan but going forward through

as well as via the Kin-han Railway to the west.

Shantung Province,

He

paused early that winter for a touch of romance when he marShe was educated in a religious school in
ried Miss Mei-ling Soong.
the United States and is a devoted member of the old Methodist
She is a sister of Mme. Sun Yat-sen and
Episcopal Church (South).
of Mme. H. H. Kung, wife of the Finance Minister of China.
Her
brother is T. V. Soong, a Harvard graduate and himself long Finance
Minister

in

the

National

Government

Nanking in earlier years.

This bloc forms what is known in China as the "Soong Dynasty," an
The marriage took
unusually influential family group in the Far East.
place in Shanghai on December 1, 1927.
The Christian ceremony was held at the Soong residence in the
French Concession, but in deference to Chinese custom, a native cere-

mony took place in the

The General himself has

ornate

at

ballroom of the

old

Majestic

Hotel.

embraced Christianity through the

has
learned quite a bit of the English
Methodist Episcopal Church and
has
torn down, but that marriage
Hotel
been
The Majestic
language.
ceremony is one which I recall as a welcome romantic interlude in
recently

China's wars.

Early in
leading

General Chiang returned to his thankless task of

He issued a sharp message to the Third National

1928

China.

He exCongress, pleading for political unity within the revolution.

pressed his belief that a Party Dictatorship is the best form of govern157

THE DRAGON STIRS

158

ment

for

Chinese peoples

the

under present conditions

and sternly

rebuked younger, more radical members of the People's Party who,

he feared, might cause a new split in the Nanking National Government.

"Our Government

is

not like the political organization of any other

country in the world/' Chiang Kai-shek's message

much

as

it

"A

political

any other country does not mean

would to the Kuomintang of China. If our Party failed

defeat suffered by the

as

said.

Government

of

program the whole continent would again be plunged

War might again repolitical chaos and uncertainty.

to carry out its

into

state of

This must not occur.

sult.

politically

The

foundations of a

and every other way, have been

laid.

It

new development,
therefore now be-

comes the principal object of the Third National Congress to devise

means whereby the political organization of our Party may be placed
on an even firmer foundation."
two years and more the chief
tasks before the Revolutionary Party had been the successful conclusion of the expedition against the North and the suppression of bandiGeneral Chiang

recalled

and Communistic

try

for

that

uprisings.

He

said that the first of these tasks

had been accomplished and that progress was being made on the second.
The Reds were evicted in December, 1927, and while radical
uprisings

still

continued they were not as important as in the troubled

past.

"The period

of political tutelage

now

has begun," the General de-

"We

have organized a new National Government.

not turn Back nor can we see our labors go for naught.
have unity and the support of the Kuomintang/'
clared,

About the manifestations by younger members

in

the

We canWe must
Party

of

assume leadership, the General became caustic.

"The younger members/' he said, "should be satisfied with activities
of a subordinate nature.
They should wait until they have
their patent desire to

acquired

more experience and have become

is

better trained in

It
Party affairs.
deplorable to hear that small cliques have been formed within our

Party.

who

Such personal organizations are but

are unduly

tools

of

lesser

leaders

ambitious."

A
had

strong tendency toward moderation in regard to labor problems

long been noticeable in General Chiang Kai-shek's attitude to-

ward workers and

fanners.

This attitude was one of the reasons for

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

159

In
open break with the Soviet Advisorate under Mikal Borodin.
his message on Government policy Chiang came out in opposition to
his

class

and workers

farmers

the

aiding

while

asserting that

warfare,

Government was desirous

the

would not allow

it

their

of

uprisings

against employers.
"The aim of the

Kuomintang," his message explained, "is to increase the material comfort and prosperity of the peasants and
Not only must we protect their interests but
workers of our country.

we must

also direct

and guide them

in their activities so that they

We

not fall victims to the sinister schemes of the Communists.

their

advancement to be

we

reason

exercise for

The Kuomintang's
what

period of
of

moment

the

and for

nature;

their

political

theory at least,

in

policy,

termed

is

a permanent

of

"political tutelage"

is to

the

that

is

in

of

critics

tongued

In

democracy.
the

the

Party

meantime,

present

aver),

the

of citizen-

the

forever,

(and

dictatorship

very
them."

end when the people

China have been educated up to the privileges and duties

ship

wish

this

for

power

may

sharp-

Kuomintang

leaders intend to keep control of the country as long as they possibly

can.

Chiang referred

to

Kuomintang encouraged

that

fact

the

earlier

in

the revolution

the

the workers and peasants "in their opposition

against the oppression of their employers and landlords."

"But," he continued, "times have changed.

Although we have declared against oppression of workers and peasants, we must at the

and peasants themselves do not

become the oppressors that they do not take advantage of their emIt must
ployers and landlords as they are inclined to do at present.
be made clear to the laborers and farmers that any loss sustained by

same time

see to

their employers

it

that the workers

and landlords means

loss to themselves.

ment cannot discriminate against one

class in favor of

The Govern-

any other

class,

or classes.

"The Communists preach

Feng Yu-hsiang,

class

warfare.

the "Christian General,"

We
felt

do not."

He was

otherwise.

the champion of Asia's "forgotten man," and remained convinced that

any

government
its

thesis

of

farmer and

His

lot

government

practical

coolie,

political

for

the

Chinese

economy

on

peoples

immediate

should
aid

for

base
the

or laborer, classes in society.

in latter years

has been the sad one of a

man

professing

sentiments actuated possibly by sincere motives but thwarted on every

THE DRAGON STIRS

160

hand by conditions beyond his control. Feng remains the victim of a

of
capricious fate, a dreamer unable to put his visions for the welfare
One result has been the development in him
humanity into practice.
of a crafty nature which he uses as a sort of "defense mechanism"
against the defeat of his aims, ideals and ambitions for an emancipated

China
to

without

spread

plicable,

Few

in

he fears oblivion as a leader, failure in his mission

Hence his methods have become inexover Asia.

this,

light

large

really

measure.

know

his devious actions

the

man who

is

remain obscure.

His critics are legion and

Feng.
He embraces whatever comes to

the betterment of all

hand, provided it will aid him toward his goal
Chinese peoples.
Feng thus is known popularly as a traitor, a doublecrosser, because, to him, the end for so long has had to justify the

means.

Although
called

shal

personally

from

absent

instructed

his

in

ment's policies en bloc, in

ful march on Peking.
Some months

name changed
Nanking, the new
the

wanted another

to

Third

National

Congress

March, 1928, Mardelegates to support the National GovernChiang's strategy for the rapid and success-

by General Chiang Kai-shek

Feng

the

Nanking

later after

in

Peking was taken and

Feng took up temporary residence at

He was Minister of War for a time, and

Peiping,

Capital.

interview

with

this

astute

politico-military

Our second meeting was at Nanking, where he told

of how men and women and their children might

man

of his philosophy

find

less

harsh

existence in the Orient than the one they had.

He

Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang said that he preferred not to talk politics.

was, however, quite ready to talk about what he thought was

wrong with China and

to

best improve their state.

room

expound

So

his ideas of

how

the Chinese could

for nearly an hour I sat in the reception

of his foreign-style residence in a hospital

compound

in

Nanking
and with only occasional interjections to the interpreter listened to
Marshal Feng's program for the economic rehabilitation of the Chinese
peoples.

There were six men present

and three Chinese.

at

that

interview,

three

Americans

Of

the Americans, two were correspondents for

the other a business man from Shanghai who

American papers and

wanted to go along and meet the man who, many
the greatest single influence in

all

the new,

believed,

semi-united

wielded

China.

The

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

161

Chinese present were our two interpreters and Marshal Feng himself.
The latter sat on a wicker lounge, his huge frame slouching at ease,
cool that hot

morning

in the

pa jama-like white costume

his feet encased in a crude pair of

no

hose.

common

of the Chinese,

infantry boots.

He

wore

His genial round face was grizzled, the fat jowls, strangely
complexion for a Chinese, partially hidden beneath a stubbly

pink in
beard of several days' growth.
The Marshal lived a simple
in

remarked,

"Jeffersonian

He

life.

still

and

simplicity,"

believes,

he

it

practises

has been

what

he

He wears the uniform which his commonest

preaches in that regard.
soldiers wear.
By no insignia may one know him as the man whose
personal leadership built up an

made him probably one

of the

army

that

was

most important

loyal

to

him and

that

single figures in China.

be noted in passing that, believing the leaders of the Kuomintang Revolution should not squander the people's money, Marshal
Feng sponsored a policy of strict economy wherever he went in 1928.

may

It

In Nanking, which he visited to attend the Fifth Plenary Session of the

Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang early in August, the

General" discovered

"Christian

the

politicians

leading

lives

of

ease.

He

found them and, as it appeared to him, everybody else gambling

and giving banquets and entertaining in a fashion that, he declared,

was only a few days later that the Minister for

the Interior, a Feng appointee, issued an order prohibiting all gambling and decreeing that no longer could China's traditional "sing-

was

traitorous.

It

song" girls entertain

about Nanking.

The populace was

irate

and the Chamber

petitions to force a repeal of the

said,

threw

at

least

and

at feasts along the canals

tiny streams in

and

Commerce got up
Government's order. The order, they

10,000 persons

out

of

of

work.

Restaurants

lan-

guished and the picturesque canal boats lay idle for want of customers.
"They will soon find work elsewhere," said Marshal Feng. "They

can put their hands to something more profitable to the community."

But the girls and the boatmen said, "We shall bide our time.

This

silly

order cannot prevail.

home country
cannot

last,

in

this

Honan

When

man

goes back into his

you will see that things will be as before. It
this

order against our traditions."

They were right. Even while Marshal Feng remained in power

Here and
there was a bit of sing-song girl "bootlegging" noticeable.

THE DRAGON STIRS

162

there the shrill voice of one of these doll-like

in

the sibilant,

some

nights

learned,

at

monotonous wail

of

the

entertainers raised

Chinese might be

along the tiny streams

sympathetic than vigilant.

places

were more

little

where the

heard on

police,

one

was not easy to see the Marshal. However, through the secrewas
tary to Dr. H. H. Kung, Minister of Finance, our appointment
The Marshal would be "glad to see you at seven o'clock tomade.
It

He

morrow morning/'

had not been

feeling

well,

otherwise the ap-

Marshal Feng's calling

pointment would have been an hour earlier.
hours were ordinarily from 5 to 7 a.m. His idea was that in this way
he could get callers out of the way and then get
uninterrupted work.

"Are you going

sion?"

down

to a

full

day's

Kuomintang's Fifth Plenary Sesit invariasked when we were seated, tea had been served
to

attend

the

and that day, getting an early start, we were served tea exand the usual salutations passed.
actly twenty-seven times
No unnecessary words. Just a nod
"Yes/' Marshal Feng replied.
ably

is,

to the interpreter

The Marshal was not a

sidi.

tive

and the Chinese word for

regular

member of

all

which sounds

like

the Central Execu-

on the meetings that

His
powers held by regular members.

Committee but he had been invited to

summer and was given

yes,

sit

in

presence then, as a matter of fact, brought considerable relief to many.

"What do you think are the chief problems facing the new Govern-

ment?" somebody asked.

"Demobilization of our huge armies I think certainly comes first,
at home/' Marshal Feng said.
"This will take some time.
But al-

ready plans are under way. Final action is up to the military council."
"What do you think of Japan's attitude in Manchuria and what

would you recommend that the Nationalist Government do about

was my next query.
"I can't answer that/' Marshal

Feng

said.

it?"

"I prefer, rather, not

answer the question.

I have my own ideas, to be sure, but
you
must take that up with the Foreign Office.
I am just a soldier and
to

not supposed to talk about foreign diplomatic affairs."

Then came the subject which drew him into an

animated discussion of China's domestic

ills

extensive

and

and how he would solve

His program as outlined below was submitted in a

comprehensive memorandum placed before the Government at its Fifth Plen-

them.

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

163

ary Session, and since has been considered by experts for years in the
various

Ministries

which

it

affects.

Marshal

based on education and economic reform.

were due

ills

chiefly to ignorance

and

its

He

program was

Feng's
believed

that

China's

inevitable coordinates, revolv-

ing around inequality of economic opportunity.

Briefly,

major projects:
A Government program of immediate action
1.
practical moves to aid the farmers of China.

he had four

with

numerous

2.

Better housing

3.

Government support

4.

Construction of at least 100,000 miles of railways and a com-

facilities.

for "infant industries."

highway system through China.

"I am convinced," Marshal Feng said emphatically, "that the Government should appropriate at least $50,000,000 at once for farm
plete

relief.

"Farm relief is
The people
China.

particularly

needed

in

and

Central

Northwest

Kiangsu Province (in which Shanghai

cated), owing to better means of communication and marketing
ties,

are

of

immensely wealthy as

compared with

the

is

lo-

facili-

poverty-stricken

These
people of interior China, especially Honan, Shensi and Kansu."
provinces constituted the area in which the Marshal had been most in

"We must

improve the lot of the farmers

who form the basis of our nation.
China is essentially a farming
Hence, prosperous farmers mean a happy, prosperous nacountry.
control in

recent years.

tion."

Marshal Feng said much of the money to be appropriated could be

used in irrigation projects in Central and Northwest China and in
providing communications so that, once a farmer raises his crop, he
can sell it at a profit.

Other phases of

farm

relief

which he

touched

on included

establishment of schools and farm banks which could lend

money

the
to

the fanners at low rates of interest to enable them to modernize their

equipment.

In the schools, he said, he would teach modern farming

methods adapted to conditions

in

the particular

districts.

He

urged
the use of disbanded troops in irrigation and reclamation projects.
In
Honan Province, it is significant to note that Marshal Feng in 1927-28

did

much

in the

way

of putting these ideas into effect.

He

has been

praised for the construction of roads and houses in that province even

THE DRAGON STIRS

164

a time when he was busily engaged in pushing the northern campaign toward Peking.
at

"We
shal

must see

that our people have better houses to live in," Mar"There are tens of thousands of people in the

Feng proceeded.

interior of

place to

China

Some who

live.

who- have no
everywhere in our country
have exist in the meanest of mud hovels that

in fact,

For

melt in any kind of a rain storm.

this

reason, I have suggested

Government appropriate another $50,000,000 for public wel-

that the

Part of this money could be a direct appropriation, the

In the past year
rest could be raised through a domestic bond issue.
in Honan I have built 1,800 houses and turned them over to needy
fare work.

This, of course,

families.

ample

of

hardly a

But

start.

it

is

a practical ex-

hope to do and what I think the Government should

have been preaching the benefits of our revolution to the

what

We

do.

is

downtrodden masses.

It

is,

I think, time to give

example of what the State can do

"These houses of the type that

to help
I

its

them some concrete

citizens.

have in mind can be built with

demobilized troop labor for as low as $70 to $100 a house.

small, but they are well built and serviceable.
They are
better than the

home.

call

mud and mat

hovels that the masses are

would rent them out

at ten cents

now

They are
infinitely

forced to

on the dollar of present

I would turn the house

a family cannot afford even that,

over to them without charge until such time as they could begin to
If

rentals.

pay.

"And another

thing:

these houses, thousands

of

them,

would be

produced in China.
They would be 'madein-China houses.
We would buy
Thus, we would aid all classes.
material from the merchants, the lumbermen and so on, and hire men
built entirely

of material

just out of the

do the work, thus, in part, solving our unemAnd the finished product would raise the standard

army

to

ployment problem.
of living of our people."
I

remarked that

place a

this

was an

ideal plan

but that

it

was

likely

to

The thought suggested itself that there

percentage of people who would occupy a house free

premium on

would be a large
and would never try
day for food.

It

laziness.

to earn any

might tend

to

money aside from a few coppers a

make the State paternal and sap the

initiative of the people.

"Not

at

all,"

said

Marshal

Feng.

"The Chinese are not

lazy.

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

Given

chance

better

to

themselves,

they

will

165

progress.

Once a

family sees other families waxing prosperous and living on a higher

There may
scale, the tone of the whole community will be raised.

we

be a few slackers but

will devise

them when the

to deal with

ways

time comes."

sounded strangely

It

"communal

ginia to establish a

of English colonists in Vir-

like the attempts

village" where, history relates, all

had

town products and each was supposed to produce someThat early attempt at a communistic
thing for the good of the whole.

access to the

failed.

state

Feng added that at least 100,000 such houses were needed in

Honan Province alone. "This doesn't mean that I think the Government should become paternal/' he said. "The people, after all, are the
real

masters of a country.

assert

But the masters haven't had a chance

themselves, and their servants,

houses

masters'

We

State.

off

must reverse

may be

It
all

may

the

masters

real

of

the

this."

There are some who

munism.

our leaders, have lived in the

money taken from

the

to

will

see

in

this

a tendency

toward

Com-

be, but as a matter of fact while Feng's economics

wrong according

to

theory,

it

cannot be denied

that

he

wanted to help the people in a practical way.

He is a good disciplinarian and a good administrator, as his otherwise dubious record will
show.

Government support

He

to "infant industries"

drew

his attention next.

said:

"The Government should

raise $60,000,000 to help

our industries

We

and those not yet under way, which we need.

should have more and bigger and better cotton mills, tanneries

and

factories of all sorts.

now

just getting started

China has the raw materials.

There

is

no

If we aid our farmers we can keep

need for us to export them all.
our exports up almost to their present level and still produce enough

supply our mills, tanneries, and factories with

Chinese mined, Chinese produced raw materials.

to

sources are immense.

We

must make use

Marshal Feng's ambitious program

total

of

Chinese

Our

economic reform called for a

expenditure of $300,000,000, Chinese currency.

for

Nanking

to

re-

of them."

It

spend that much money on his

But a start was made.
development program.
sible

grown,

natural

was not posor any

other

THE DRAGON STIRS

166

About

and a highway system, Feng said:

"China should have at least 100,000 miles of railroads as soon as
We have less than 10,000 miles now. An appropriation of
possible.
railroads

made

$10,000,000 should be

on certain

lines

now

b* obtained, abroad

if

at once so that construction

can continue

Then another $100,000,000 should

incomplete.

We

should
necessary, for railway construction.
with the completion of the Canton-Hankow line,

go ahead right away

I think.
That would connect Canton with Peking by rail.
(This has
been done.)
Then the east- west Lunghai line should be completed,
also.
This railway should be extended west through Shensi, Kansu

and

Chinese

Turkestan,

connecting

ultimately

with

the

railways

of

Asia Minor.

we

Marshal Feng concluded, "I

will show the people of Shanghai how to travel to Europe by a much
We do not intend to
shorter route than the trans-Siberian railway.
"If

can complete

connect with that

south.

the

this

We

line.

railway,"

will parallel

The National Government,

original

cost

it

more or

think,

of starting construction.

less,

but far to the

should bear the brunt of

Eventually,

the

provinces

can be made to contribute their share."

Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang had arrived in Nanking accompanied by

a personal bodyguard of 100 men.
They patrolled the hospital com-

pound where he

marching about the grounds with beheading

swords slung over their backs and Mauser automatic pistols at their
The Marshal was not popular with the people. They hoped he
hips.

would soon

lived,

leave,

and he

did.

generals and minor officers rode swiftly

about Nanking's streets in limousines with armed guards standing on
the runningboards, Marshal Feng rode with his chauffeur on an army

While

truck.

arrived.

his

subordinate

That was the way he made

his

official

Ministers in various departments at

to see this great hulk of

and weigh

at least

a man

230 pounds

quickly into their

calls

the day after he

Nanking were amazed

he must be six feet three inches

tall

lunge out of the cab of a truck and

Foreigners distrusted Feng, from the

safety of Shanghai and the other well-patrolled "treaty ports."
They
step

still

do.

offices.

RED REBELLION

12

moved with amazing swiftness the week end of December 10-12, 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek returned to the Kuo-

EVENTS
mintang

He was

revolution.

on a Friday;
what should be done next

officially

reinstated

on Saturday he gave his public views of

and under cover the Communists to the South were active
on Sunday, the eleventh, all Canton was openly
at Canton
;

in rebellion
in the grip

a Red Rebellion, 800 miles or more south of Nanking; and on

Monday, the Chinese National Government, led by General Chiang,
decided formally to break off relations with Moscow within all their
of

revolutionary Nationalist-controlled territory, and to

Russia's diplomatic service men out of the country.

order

Soviet

The Red
even

to

Rebellion in the deep south of China broke unexpectedly,

Their hand had been
the Communist leaders themselves.

they struck abruptly and with rare brutality even for

The Chinese looted, raped, murdered, burned and sacked their
China.
own city even more ruthlessly than they committed similar atrocities

forced,

and

on foreign lives and property.

In
Their sway was brief.

turn,

when they were overthrown by

Chinese soldiery, the days of horror were also brief but even
more lurid, if possible. Photographs I saw of that wreckage, human
loyal

as well as material, told the nauseating, sordid tale more graphically

than could a word picture.
Many of the pictures could not be publengths in torture to which the Chinese go are unbelievable but terribly true, be the victim a Chinese man or woman or a
lished.

lost

The

soul with white skin

from foreign shores.

the centuries have achieved,

among

The Chinese through

other things, an apogee in

ways

of

torture.

Canton was in the grip of the Reds on Sunday, December 12,

1927.
Shanghai was under special patrol, with American marines
The British and Japanese defense
doing "night instruction duty."

THE DRAGON STIRS

168

forces assisted the municipal police in maintaining order as the rising

The fate of Ameritide of peasant-labor unrest swept South China.

cans in the Canton area was uncertain for days

American naval

said that the

authorities

Wireless dispatches

were seeking

to establish con-

with the refugees on land.

tact

While the Red

Canton resulted in setting the

revolt in

afire

city

many places as well as in looting, the mob was not anti-foreign

These men were seeking rather to overthrow China's military regime
in

and

establish

Communist

rule.

Striking during the dark hours prior to that Sunday's dawn the
Red uprising succeeded during the day in disarming the police, rout-

General Chang Fa-kwei's meager garrison and gaining

ing

control
fires

the

of

resulted

Canton was

city,

at

the

which
fancy

rabble

the

of

the

to

proceeded

loot.

power-mad peasantry.

complete
Sporadic

Not only

in the control of the rabble but at least seven other cities

The American gunboats Sacramento and

Kwantung area.
Pampanga stood by at Canton. The U. S. S. Asheville joined them
in

the

there.

The

victorious

mob's

leaders

forces of peasants

over control of Canton.

revolt are troops in the

following

and workmen have

The majority

Home

statement

the

declaring in part:

restoration of comparative quiet,

"The combined

issued

of

these

taken

finally

in

participating

Defense Service at Canton.

the

Our work-

men's Red Corps under the direction of Red troops have captured the
Peace Bureau and disarmed the guards."
Peasants circulated handbills bearing such

inscriptions

as:

DOWN

WITH CHIANG KAI-SHEK, GENERAL CHANG FA-KWEI, WANG CHINGRED

WEI, WHO ARE THE ENEMY OF PEASANTS AND WORKMEN!
PEASANTS AND SOLDIERS ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN PROTECT THE
MASSES!

The

All shops were closed.

outskirts

of

Canton swarmed

with armed peasants and workmen wearing red brassards and apparMass meetings were held, to
ently with little or no leadership.
choose leaders for the formation of a Red Government.

The

ease with which Canton

fell

is

explained by the fact that most

of the regular troops there had been called for duty in Honan.
the capture was easy, many of the remaining troops going Red.
ever, the Chinese

escaped with his

Navy remained
life

loyal to

aboard a gunboat.

Chang Fa-kwei.
The gates to the

He
city

Hence

Howbarely

were

RED REBELLION
closed,

but

efforts

to

retake

the

169

soon made progress,

city

although

navigation between Canton and Hongkong was impossible.

Information as to

was

how

the uprising started

is

still

but

vague,

on the previous Saturday General Wang Chi-hsing's

troops suddenly attempted to disarm the 4th regiment of the new
2nd Division, numbering 1,000 men.
Fighting ensued, peasants and
told that late

workmen taking their cue from the soldiers and joining in the riots.
The Red Rebellion followed.
One result was Nanking's definite decision to break with Soviet
General Chiang Kai-shek announced that the Kuomintang
leaders had instructed Dr. C. C. Wu, then Nanking's foreign minister,
Russia.

to proceed

consulates

with the necessary steps for the withdrawal of

in

Nationalist

leader declared that

the

territories.

party's

(Dr.

Wu

instructions

is

now

Soviet

all

The

dead.)

were "in the form

of

peremptory order," precluding the possibility of the Minister's failure

forthwith demanded the withdrawal of all the Soviet
Dr.
to act.

Wu

Union's

consulates

in

The

China.

Soviet

Consul-General

was

B.

He told me at first that he had "not been

Koslovsky in Shanghai.
He added that he "must await Dr. Wu's formal action
informed."
as well as Moscow's reply."

Chiang Kai-shek said

He

"The

got them and

party's action

left.

was kept

pending the Foreign Minister's formal action.

the announcement is justified now in view of the

However, I feel
Canton outburst,

fore,

which undoubtedly was the

doubt but that Dr.

Wu

will

result

of

act very

Soviet agitation.
quickly.

secret hereto-

He

There

is

no

has not yet had

time to take the usual formal steps following this important decision
as far as a formal note to Moscow is concerned but I am sure he will

proceed forthwith.
troubles in this

Soviet agitators

Canton

area, as

are responsible for most of our

well as

Hankow, Nanking and

break immediately
restoration of peace within our territories."
The latest anti-Red announcement clarified
where,

Hence an

absolute

was declared

is

the

necessary

Canton

for

else-

the

develop-

that the peasantry's

coup d'etat Sunday resulted from the Kuomintang's sending a telegram to Canton ordering
General Chang Fa-kwei to raid Canton's Soviet Consulate and seize

ments.

It

documents

showing that Moscow was

behind

the

peasant-labor

up-

General Chiang Kai-shek, as well

as T. V. Soong and Dr. H, H. Kung, were convinced that these in-

risings in various sections of China.

THE DRAGON STIRS

170

structions leaked out at Canton, resulting in the

mobs

Red

revolt

and plac-

This explained the outburst at that

time, although for a fortnight there had been signs that trouble was
ing

in control of the city.

brewing.

Canton continued

in

turmoil.

Loyal Kuomintang troops sought to overpower the armed peasanFifteen Americans and two British evacutry, with swift success.
ated Canton, while armored launches from the U.
well as the

S.

S.

Pampanga

Installation assisted in bringing out refugees

Socony

as

from

ShaRefugees concentrated on the island of Shameen.

Further precaubut a jew yards off shore, in Pearl River.

the suburbs.

meen

is

were taken on shore, the U. S. S. Sacramento landing field-pieces

and installing them on the United States Consulate grounds, which is
tions

on Shameen Island.

The

Red

short-lived

revolt in

Canton ended on December

The
The

14.

was routed, and loyal Kuomintang troops regained control.

Canton outbreak caused the more moderate revolutionaries to inveigh
rabble

more than ever

rorists'

against Moscow's interference.

was

activities

to

turn

the

The

effect of the ter-

Nanking leaders more than ever

against radicalism.

by Mr. Quo Tai-chi, then Vice-Minister for Foreign

Nanking, at an American University Club dinner in Shang-

Utterances
Affairs at

an abrupt turn toward the Right.

Quo Taichi, later China's Ambassador in London, told a large gathering of
4<
The Kuomintang is thoroughly
prominent Chinese and Americans:
fed up with the activities of all Communists."
He added
hai,

were

indicative

of

"China

is

We

at the crossroads.

Soviet and what

may be termed

the

are facing a decision between the

Anglo-Saxon form

of government.

Bitter experience has proved that the Soviets are false gods.

Hence,

But
Kuomintang are now ready to change.
we need your support, and the support of all the Western Powers

thoughtful leaders in the

other than Soviet Russia

if

our change

is

to prove practical.

We

are

decidedly not anti-foreign, although certain of our policies have been

so described.

"The Chinese

of the early days considered

barians and beneath them.

ern

mechanical

civilization

Then

the foreigners

developed,

and

all

had

foreigners as bartheir day.

foreigners

China considered the Chinese backward and uncivilized.

West-

coming
It

is

to

now

RED REBELLION

171

high time that both Chinese and foreigners discard these ancient prejudices and seek to cooperate toward the best interests of the world/'

General Chiang Kai-shek made further attacks on Moscow and all

the Soviets in the Chinese press.
He declared: "The Soviet con-

everywhere in China are serving as centers for the propagation of Communism.

I favor breaking off our relations: otherwise,
sulates

Communism may handicap our

the spread of

revolution.

If this

had

been done some time ago it is possible that the Canton trouble might
have been avoided.
are definitely against continuing diplomatic
relations with Soviet Russia, and cannot further cooperate with Russia

We

as in the past.

we should cooperate with

Communism."

I also believe

in preventing the spread of

The Nanking Note ordered

The text
China in seven days.

The

all

Soviet

of the

diplomatic

other nations

officials

out

of

Note follows:

National Government has for some time been informed

by various reports

that

the

Soviet

consulates

and

the

Soviet

commercial agencies in areas within the jurisdiction of

the National Government have been used as headquarters of Red
State's

propaganda and an asylum for all Communists.

Exposure of
these facts has been withheld, in view of international relations
between China and Russia.

On

the eleventh of the present month an uprising occurred

in the city of Canton culminating in the forcible occupation of

by Communists who cut communications, burned, plundered and massacred throughout the city.
This startling event

that city

be attributed mainly to
the fact that the Chinese Communists availed themselves of the

with

all

its

disastrous consequences

may

Soviet consulate and Soviet State commercial agencies as a base

Fears were entertained that occurrences
for direct operations.
of a like nature

With a view
ing the further

may

occur elsewhere.

to maintaining peace

spread

of

such

and order and

disasters

our

to prevent-

Government

feels

such a state of things is fraught with incalculable dangers

It can no longer be tolerated.
our Party and the State.

that

to

hereby ordered that our recognition accorded to

consuls of the U. S. S. R. stationed in the various Provinces
Therefore,

shall

it

is

be suspended in order that the root of this

evil

influence

THE DRAGON STIRS

172

shall be eradicated

istry for

and a thorough inquiry

Foreign Affairs

now

is

The Min-

instituted.

instructed to superintend

its

sub-

ordinate organs and act in conjunction with the other Government authorities concerned to put into execution this mandate

with

The

all

due care, and report thereon.

diplomatic, consular

and

all

trade and other Russian officials

Before the coming of the New Year of 1928 not

a recognized Russian official remained in all China.
China was comparatively quiescent before the start of the storm
left

within a week.

Col Henry L. Stimson, now

toward the North again that spring.
Secretary of War, was named Governor-General of the now semiindependent Philippine Islands.

The

Colonel passed through Shanghai

post at Manila, and I got on the

February on his way to his

steamer and went to the Philippines with him.
On that excursion to view our problems and progress in those
islands at the inception of the Stimson rule, I also got a view of the
in

effect of the

Red turmoil

at Canton.

It

South China and found that Canton,

provinces in

tury

all

China, the base of

was April, 1928, when

in the heart of

civil

I visited

one of the richest

wars for a quarter of a cen-

and more, was rapidly going about the business

of

rebuilding

wide areas destroyed during the Red Rebellion the previous December.
The winter weeks and early spring had not seen an appreciable
change in the devastated area, it was true; yet plans were under way
for reconstruction.
In the meantime, the thrifty Chinese built themshops in the gaunt brick walls of burned buildings and were
going about life much as usual.
Blocks and blocks were gutted by the flames that had torn at the
selves

Southern capital when the Reds, infuriated at the discovery of their plot to overthrow the Canton government, were forced
heart of the

The damage ran

to attack prematurely.
lars.

figure

The

of millions

estimates varied from $15,000,000 to $40,000,000,

taking

struction.

into tens

into

The

is

dol-

this

last

would appear, the cost of reconbased, as usual, on China's silver currency.

consideration,

estimate

of

it

Replacement of burned or bombed buildings cost as much or more

than the original structure
and that, it was figured, must be considered in the estimates of the total
It

was depressing

loss.

to walk along the broad streets of Canton, built

RED REBELLION
according to modern plans
C.

Wu, who

also long

usual in a Chinese
ings
for

whose

walls,

made under

was Mayor

173

the regime of the late Dr.

of Canton.

The broad

streets,

C.

un-

went through block after block of barren buildscarred and blackened, were torn down to make way

reconstruction.

city,

They

testified

to

the fury

of

the

mob

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD"

13

a profitable "business" which thousands of roving nomads continue to pursue, but while the devil
reigns over wide areas, let us pause here to look at the work
in

Asia

is

still

BANDITRY

which the Christian missionaries are doing

in a valiant

if

so far futile

show the Chinese peoples "the light."

Some years ago my
mother gave me a little book entitled, CHRIST OF THE INDIAN ROAD.
It was by a missionary who had spent most of his adult life among
the peoples of India, seeking to show them "the Way."
It seems to
effort to

me

that I might

do worse

in selecting a title for this interesting

phase
than
of man's struggle for existence in the Orient
by choosing CHRIST

OF THE "CHINA ROAD."

The men and women

have had anything

to convert "the heathen Chinese."

in our Christian missions

but an easy time of it in their efforts

The Chinese accept the gifts of the missionaries, especially those of a
material nature.
They allow these men and women from foreign
lands to

come

into their land

more than a century

the

and

true

But in
try to spread their gospel.
converts to Christianity among the

For centuries they have had their own way

thinking about infinity and the way of this life and how best to live
They retain their ancient faith in Buddhism, which is the main

Chinese have been few.

of
ir.

religion

of Asia.

There are tens

of thousands,

as their own, and follow

Him

though they number some

who have embraced

Christ's teachings

through His missionaries.

three million souls, are

still

But

these,

but a drop in

nearly 400,000,000 other Chinese, who remain unmoved by these teachings. The same is true in Japan where
Shintoism, a version of Buddhism, is the State religion.

the bucket.

There are

The work

still

of the missionaries, therefore, is hard in the East.

they persist, and where they can they do a good work,

174

it

Yet

must be

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD*'

admitted even by the Chinese.

Most of the converts

for the ride/' out, in other words, for

known to the hard-bitten

"the damned rice-Christians."

are

is

exactly what

Mission School
offered to

many
in

There

them

of

China

is

who

is

in

are merely "out

These

for them.

it

inhabit the coastal cities as

truth in that epithet for that

is

Their only reason for attending a

are.

so that they

may

by the instruction

benefit

an excellent chance to learn a foreign language,

which they may use later when they enter trade,

students,

English,

usually

traders

what

175

banking, a profession or government service.

Knowledge such as that is very useful, the Chinese know, and they

can get
is

minimum

at a

it

Most

conjectural.

vow

them

of

What

they do after graduation

return to their old faith, take a new

of expense.

formula of ancestor worship and the faith of their

forebears, and go about their business contented.
They think they
have "slipped one over" on "these foreign barbarians," again.
their

in

It

true,

is

and

tianity

set

of course, that

live

some

up to the teachings

really

to

become converted

to

Chris-

which they have been subjected.

However, they are few.

The

confined to

with the

tation,

The

work of
two fields

the Christian missionaries in China therefore

chief

of

human

latter field

evangelical

work

is

is

endeavor, namely, education and sanicovering medical missions generally in Asia.

important, of course

but the Chinese are a

and actions speak louder than words.

preacher can stand up and "speech" at them

practical lot

all

day every day

he does something which can prove beyond

the shadow of a doubt that the way of the foreign, white-skinned Chrisin

the week, but unless

make this life more liveable, he might just as well save his
For this reason the Christian workers are earnestly trying to

tians will

breath.

prove to the Chinese that a Christian community

habitants

actually

live

in

nicer

homes on

nicer

is

cleaner,

streets

and

the inin

nicer

towns, they are therefore happier and also more prosperous, and the
Christians are better educated because they have more and better
schools in their towns.

The

childlike

masses

of

Chinese

(or

any

other

people,

for

that

matter) can understand a way of life like that, and they are embracing
Christianity for that reason in larger numbers than heretofore, to the
pleasant surprise of the Christian workers.
Naturally, material benefits here and now

come

first

to

primitive

THE DRAGON STIRS

176

souls existing in a cruel, barren world.

They can see only how they

they cannot be
expected to have the broader vision which encompasses the spiritual
or mental glories to follow.
But once aided toward a more pleasant

are to be lifted

up bodily by a new and strange creed

with social security for all, and one in which they can be educated
up to an appreciation of the finer things of existence, the "true conlife

mode

version" to that

The
scattered

medical
all

come

of living will

missions

over China

Canton Christian College

to pass.

and the educational work through schools

from Yenching University at Peiping to the
in the deep

South

are giving this practical

groundwork today in excellent fashion.

Another good thing which the missionaries did out in China at the
start of this decade was to eliminate (so far as the Chinese are concerned) the incomprehensible denominations through which the Occidental world views God.

The simple-minded but

logical

Chinese failed

when we worshipped

but one Heavenly Father, we also

must have Catholics and Protestants. Or why these, too, are divided
to grasp why,

and sub-divided

like

the Methodists

a real estate development

(North
and South), the Baptists, the Christians, the Lutherans, Presbyterians,
and so on.
The denominations of the Protestant Church did away
with creeds and divisional barriers in 1927, about the time that Gen-

Chiang Kai-shek was getting married according to the wedding

ritual of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South) to a devout Methoderal

The

Church (South) Chinese girl in Shanghai.

divided into Greek Orthodox, Roman, etc.

ist

Catholics

a good place to review the missionary

they occurred in China at that time.

This

I think is

At Hankow

in

May

of

ary work there.

sion to China to

take

in

view

of

crisis

are

activities as

Bishop L. H. Roots, head of the

had refused to evacuate despite Con-

1927,

American Church Mission, who

sul-General Frank Lockhart's urgent
one result of the

still

would be the

request, told

me

he believed that

entire reorganization

of mission-

Bishop Roots advised his Church to send a commisinvestigate conditions and decide on the best steps to
the

revolutionary

activities

which

men and women from China.

The Bishop received me in his offices in an

had

temporarily

ousted Christian

old red brick building

near the Bund, and cordially welcomed frank discussion of current

He admitted that adverse condiproblems connected with his work.

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD"

tions

were

the

affecting

talked earnestly

on

this

future

entire

of

Christianity

177
in

and

Asia

subject.

Bishop Roots responded somewhat sharply to my query as to his

reasons for refusing to depart from the dangerous Yangtze River

He

shores.

said:

"I believe that

three score business

matter.

Why

these business

my work

men remaining

should

here

is

now

desert until forced to

as important as that of

or as yours, for that

do

so,

any more than

men

should leave the job or anyone else still here?"

said that only four foreigners then remained in his

The Bishop
mission, doing work formerly done by one hundred

missionaries.

They

were himself, T. J. Hollander, Dr Paul Wakefield and John Littell.

"In this crisis I find we are discovering the true value of our
Chinese Christians," the Bishop said.
"They are carrying on the work
which we have begun. Our hospital, university and middle school are
still running here, under the direction of the Chinese only.
are

We

supporting our institutions the same as before, and they represent

an investment of at least a million dollars, gold, and possibly more.
still

Our annual maintenance

Mex.

cost runs approximately $400,000,

The

Chinese are in complete control.

"I am unable to say yet what our position will be in the future,
but I am inclined to believe that this test of the Chinese Christians is

Whether we

need as many foreigners in the future

remains to be seen.
Personally, I think we will be forced to reorganize our entire mission work on a new basis, leaving the Chinese Chris-

a good thing.

tians essentially in control.

is

will

The

position of the National

Government

They have denied being anti-religious or

but numerous campaigns against Christianity have been

another consideration.

anti-Christian,

held in recent months with their consent.

ernment must be reconsidered.

in force actually are not.

We

The

Our

relations with the gov-

old treaties while nominally

must therefore determine our

still

status with

they are victorious, as seems probable.

"The Chinese today are not like the Chinese of thirty years ago.
They are aroused now. Of course, only a few actually are articulate

the Nationalists

and

it

is

if

these that

we hear and

see the most, but the masses also are

have advised our Mission to wait until these revolutionary

conditions clear up before deciding on a definite policy in China.
They
changed.

are sending a commission to China to assist the missionaries already

In the meantime, we have evacuhere and to agree on future plans.

THE DRAGON STIRS

178
ated

almost

our

all

in

stations

the

Yangtze

Our

Valley.

mission

workers are remaining chiefly at Shanghai temporarily, pending a decision on how to proceed with our work.
"I

believe

that

sentiment

among

freedom in China as a whole.

the

Nationalists

General Tang

favors

religious

Shen-tse in charge here

a Buddhist, others in authority are Confucians, and so on; General

Tang sent a letter to us recently written on paper bearing a watermark
is

showing an old Buddhist saying, Most merciful compassionate one who

I believe that the government
saves individuals and saves the world.

make some

will

way.

provision for religious freedom eventually, in a formal

This present war hysteria cannot last forever."

Bishop Roots said that Hunan Province was the worst spot in
China as far as missionary work was concerned and that all the for-

Hankow had been evacuated. He said that the

who were left then were unable to continue with

eigners there south of

Chinese Christians
their religious

mission there
confiscated

work and no services of any kind were being held. His

was closed as were many of the others.
Several were

by the Chinese Communists.

"The Unions

of the peasants are chiefly responsible for these acts/'

4f

Roots

said.

The

situation

there

is

on

anarchy.
in
term
exists
a
for
it.
Mob
rule
Hunan,
good
All missions are closed
where they now have a rule of the unruly.
and, as I say, church services are not possible at the moment."

Bishop

Communism

is

bordering

too

Bishop Roots intimated that he and the other missionaries would

take

up

the entire question eventually with the

authorities,

if

Nanking revolutionary

and when the government was able to give attention to

problems concerning internal organization of the continent.

Dissension in the harried ranks of American missionaries broke out

Shanghai that summer.

Shanghai was the religious capital for a
time, where workers from scattered interior posts were congregated
in

awaiting the doubtful future of Christianity in that land.

group of
Fundamentalists held a meeting and after bitterly denouncing the

Modernists in the mission

was sent

field set their signatures to

a message which

to various church organizations and newspapers in America.

The Fundamentalists
Modernists,

to

the

carried the fight against their bitter foes, the

American

public,

and

their

sought to influence church leaders back home.

message

The message

definitely

asserted

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD*'

179

"The present evacuation of the missionaries has been permitted by God

as a means of purifying the missionary enterprise in China."

The Modernists were dubbed

"ecclesiastical Bolshevists," the attack

The
being particularly bitter against the National Christian Council.
Rev. Dr. Hugh W. White of the Southern Presbyterian Mission, who
presided, belabored his Modernist colleagues in the following vitriolic
fashion in his address:

"Satan's adaptation of Jerusalem Christianity

has put into the lead of the Modernist movement a band of ecclesiasBolshevists

tical

who work on

the principle

feeding on Christianity to destroy

and

is

aimed

it.

'boring

Modernism

is

from within/

primarily political

works government, as well as the

at our Christian

on which the Christian

tution of marriage

of

insti-

system is based."
The message to America denounced the National Christian Council
as a destructive agency and demanded that when missionaries again
social

returned to China they be sent to conduct what the Fundamentalists

termed "orthodox work."

The Rev. E. E.
Union, said:
chine which

"We
is

Strother,

Secretary

of

the

Christian

Endeavor

are facing a thoroughly organized Modernists'

like

a great

army run by

well

trained officers

ma-

and a

marvelous intelligence department with secret codes, wireless commuThis army has a vast
nications and well equipped training camps.

number

of soldiers

even to death.
allied

willing to follow blindly their

This powerful army

is

liberally

own

trusted leaders,

financed and secretly

with other great subversive organizations with abundant funds.

Their propagandists are some of the most clever men in the world,
and by their strategy they have succeeded in pulling the wool over
the eyes of a

number

Strother gave a
ist

of people in large countries."

summary

and Fundamentalist

of the differences

beliefs,

attacking

between the Modern-

and quoting the

bitter fight reached a

evolution

William Jennings Bryan. Feelings in this

climax in Shanghai, which is the nerve center of

late

all

China for the

missionaries.

These squabbles

during

a time

when missionary problems were

occupying a prominent place in the activities of foreigners generally

caused no little adverse comment there.
Among the significant public

remarks was a leading article printed in the Shanghai Times, a liberal

The article gave figures
British-owned daily edited by an American.
showing there were only about five hundred missionaries remaining in

THE DRAGON STIRS

180

the interior stations as compared with eight thousand in normal times.

homelands either on furlough

hundred were in Shanghai, and

Five thousand had been returned

to their

or on special leaves of absence fifteen

another thousand were temporarily transferred
;

to

stations

in

Japan

and Korea.

The

commented

editorial

"It

is

not too

much

to say that the clock

of missionary progress in China has been set back many generations."

It added, however, "Conditions are bound to improve, at least as far

China

as the missionaries are concerned, insofar as

continue to

will

need for many years to come their healing institutions such as hospitals, schools, and other such organizations which go toward building
a more sane and lasting state of society."

The
through
welfare

editorial,

Christian

after

the

outlining

practical

which

Institutions

are

benefits

essential

being

to

the

gained

material

Chinese peoples
appealed for the return of the missionaries in greater numbers.
However, while praising the welfare work
of the

hoped that when foreign missionaries did

return they would be those "whose eyes have not been dimmed by
political considerations or by the gravity of their own dilemmas."
of the various missions,

it

*
If

the

you were

Nanking

to take a train

line

and

travel

picturesque old walled city of

far

on

the

outskirts,

*
at the

the

North Station

fifty-three

miles

Soochow from the

in

that

sea,

Shanghai on
separate

you might

approached through the narrowest

the
find

of

winding
a
modern
American
You
would need
shop-packed lanes,
university.
a guide to find it the first time unless you could explain to a rickshaw

where you wanted to go

school and "the Nances/'

for

coolie

The Nances have been

tury or

living in

more and everybody

hospitable folk

from the south

most

of

them know

Soochow

this

missionary

for the past quarter cen-

knows who they are.

They are
America and they were sent out to
teach in Soochow University.
Dr.

there
in

China when they were young to

Walter Buckner Nance, a native of Marshall County, Tenn., became
President of the school in 1922.
The university is a monument to
his

work.

It

copal Church

was founded and

is

supported by the Methodist Epis-

(South).

Dr, Nance invited you to spend a week end with them and had
rickshaws awaiting at the station you would not need to
worry about
If

"

CHRIST OF THE

CHINA

ROAD*'

181

a "Soochow man," as he puts it.

You would probably learn more about Soochow's strange history in a week end than
most people would in a much longer time.
Furthermore, you would
anything, for he

is

discover that Mrs.

Nance

is

of the old south into the heart of

taught everything he knows,

is

China

who

has brought a bit

and that her cook, whom she

a charming hostess

a composer of symphonies in Southern

delicacies.

One week end

in the late

summer

of

1927, Dr.

Nance showed

Soochow's temples, a famous garden and the Soochow pagoda.

was a youngish little man despite his years and his silvery white

and

He

me
He

hair,

with perpetual humor behind rimless glasses.

was tireless in conducting our tour of Soochow, and he was first
his

sparkled

eyes

when we

to the top

scaled the pagoda's dizzy height.

Standing on

its

narrow topmost balcony we gazed out over Soochow babbling in the

dusk at our feet, its tiled roofs and little whitewashed buildings, typically Chinese,

splotching the scraggly landscape for miles around.

In

meandered protectingly around the houses.

about a million, lies chiefly within this wall, which

the distance, the black wall

Soochow, a city of
is

more than ten miles

in circumference.

temple adjacent the old Soochow pagoda, destroyed at some

time or other during the wars that sweep over this area all too freWithin, one found gods in the making,
quently, was under construction.

workmen

sturdy

and artisans
and

energetically

skilled

in

hewing great Buddhas from long logs

their labor

stern, pensive faces

busily

of these idols to

fashioning the arms, bodies

whom

they and others soon

would pray.
Soochow has changed little since the Middle Ages. It is, in this,
like most of China's cities.
Destroyed from time to time by war or
fire or famine or some other natural disaster, the city is rebuilt and
the survivors carry on.

curious

mounds overgrown with

were the heaps

by the survivors
of the

From our

last

into

grass

we

which

could see on

Some

of

was

laid

these

all

sides

Nance explained
Soochow were raked

Dr.

which the charred ashes of

after the city

century.

pagoda,

waste in the Taiping Rebellion

mounds are

thirty

or forty feet

up above the houses round about. Little if anything of

Nothing but bricks and stones,
they say, buried within.

high, looming

value

is,

charred rafters and the

enterprise

and

curiosity

like

have ever been discovered by those with

enough to dig into them.

THE DRAGON STIRS

182

With Mrs. Nance, we

of ivory and fans.

ancient

scrolls,

And

and bought curios

pieces
monks
in a temple we found young
tracing
visited the shops

the

reproducing

striking

when China was creating art. The

tance, and we added several to our
At

pictures

drawn

by

for a pit-

may be bought

tracings

priests

collection of things Chinese.

night after dinner our party strolled about the

in the

campus

moonlight and Mrs. Nance showed us her garden of many flowers,

The campus quadincluding a remarkable display of chrysanthemums.
rangle

is

American campus as one might

as typical an

town anywhere

college

The

the United States,

in

own

its

find in a small

buildings thoroughly

Tall
and power system.
shade trees form an archway along the broad walk that bounds the
campus. Everything about the university recalls its American counterpart.
Along the campus edge the Soochow moat runs, bounded on its

modern.

by the

far side

university has

city's

wall.

its

The

light

contrast

is

powerful.

Dr. Nance told of the changes that were taking place in the univerThe Nationalsity under new regulations governing such institutions.

Nanking Government had ordered

be registered with the Government and
ist

be the head of a school in China.

bers, eight of

whom

that

all

of control of fifteen

are Chinese, was named.

mem-

Chinese was chosen

The new head

as President to succeed Dr. Nance.

must

schools

none but a Chinese may

that

board

foreign

of the school

was

an alumnus of the university, Prof. Y.

Yang. Dr. Nance continued
in his new capacity as the so-called "American Adviser."

With

these

changes,

subject

to

the

permanent

of

approval

the

Board of Missions, Soochow University continued to operate, and already had opened its fall semester that August with an enrollment
approaching normal, there being 181 college students and 243 in the
The changes were not revolutionary, because Dr.
preparatory school.

Nance

as adviser continued as virtual head of the school.

movement seeking to abolish all

mission work in China resulted, in Shanghai

Inception of a

sectarian

lines

in

October 1927,
in a conference among ninety-four Chinese delegates from all parts of
These delegates, representing sixteen denominations,
the continent.
foreign

in

voted to dissolve their old status and organize the Church of Christ in
China.

Their decision wrote

finis

to

the

work

of the

Presbyterian,

Congregational and other denominational institutions as such,

all

losing

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD"

their

identity

had the

believe,

the

in

full

new

non-sectarian

The move,

organization.

home

support of the

offices

183

of those missions

in

the United States and Great Britain.

Lobenstme, Presbyterian leader who had just

returned from the United States, told me that his organization was

The Rev. Dr. E.

C.

sponsoring such a

This action, long anticipated, crystallized efforts to establish an entirely Chinese Christian Church with

virtually

step.

abroad but not controlled in future by any one not Chinese.

Nevertheless, the movement continued to receive foreign support

affiliations

financially as well as the assistance of foreign missionary advisers.

The

foreigners

then declared

that

who had been conducting

elimination

their

as

the

the missionary

work

heads

controlling

until

of

the

various missions had long been expected and favored.

Many of these
said that they favored having the Chinese administer their own Christian institutions,

and the sooner the

The

better.

Baptists and the few

who

attended the conference insisted that they were present

merely as observers, and that their denominations were not yet fully
prepared to merge with the others into the new and unified associa-

Methodists

tion in the

Orient.

pointed out that advantages of the

non-sectarian organization included the removal of the varied denominational teachings which had always been mystifying to the Chinese

Many

missionaries,

however,

whom

The conferences involved more than

they sought to convert.
1,000 churches in 16 provinces in China, representing approximately
These became "adone-third of the Protestant missionaries there.

visers," but the coalition

in their

was

titles.

elected

by the

The conference
at present

the

and

still

sphere
politics,

no
of

limits

human

little

drastic

change immediately except

Chinese Moderator, the Rev.

Mr. Chang Cheng-yi,

delegates.

issued a

summary

needs foreign

responsibility
set

meant

of

to

the

but individuals in

denominationalism

activity

activity.
it

It

work, saying

"The church

But the members should undertake

aid*

dismissing

of its

is

of

the

not

spirit

that

the

must face these new

of

and credal

God

church

in

the

strife

wide

should

enter

responsibilities.

For-

urged to be patient and to continue with even greater

energy in their work."
That December another group of foreign mission institutions joined
eigners

the

are

new Church

of Christ in China.

Dr. Lobenstine, Secretary of the

THE DRAGON STIRS

184

National Church Council in China, announced that the English Baptist

Mission in Shantung Province had voted to join the new non-sectarian

Chinese Christian Church.

The announcement

said:

"This

is

the

case

first

in

the history of

the church where a group of Baptist churches has formally united with
the Congregational, Presbyterian and Reform Churches.
few years

ago in Canada the Methodist Church joined with the Congregational,

ists and the Presbyterians, and the United Church of Canada Mission

now

joining with our Church of Christ, thus combining

in this one church the Congregationalists, Presbyterian and those who

China

in

is

were formerly Methodists and Baptists."

The announcement also pointed out

that

the

Shantung Baptists

are a branch of the English Church and should not be confused with

Southern

the

Mission

Baptist

from the United

States.

learned,

however, that the American Northern Baptists had appointed a committee to confer with the Chinese concerning their joining the new
Members said that final action was then largely
and unified church.

The
dependent upon the head offices of their denominations at home.
Canadian Methodists in Szechuan Province were considering a similar
move.

The movement has

aries

on the

the support of the majority of foreign mission-

field of battle in

The Chinese

Asia.

Christian leaders

still

emphasize the fact that they have no desire to split with the western
Christians, but merely desire to combine their many disconcerting
creeds into one Christian church directed by Chinese

who

for the time

being will have numerous western advisers.

The

addition of other foreign missions

tion that the nation-wide

was rapidly

Some

was regarded as an

indica-

campaign for unity among the missionaries

fructifying.

interest

was created by the

of

Archbishop Constantini, representative of Pope Pius XI, who went to China on tour
early in 1929 and was feted by the National Government in Nanking.
Archbishop Constantini called officially on President Chiang Kai-shek
at

little

Nanking and was

He

ernment.
of the

said he

also greeted

visit

by other high members of the Gov-

had come "to convey personally the good wishes

Pope."

Archbishop
Kai-shek
:

Constantini

said

of

his

mission

to

President

Chiang

"

CHRIST OF THE
deem

"I

NA

ROAI>"

185

a great honor to be here as the representative of His

Pope Pius XI, the highest authority of the Catholic Faith

Holiness,

it

in the world.

What hope

the

Pope

entertains

stated clearly in his circular telegram of

August

to convey personally the wishes of the Pope.

"It is a great pleasure to see peace restored
in this country.

It is

my

toward China has been

1,

and

1928.

am

here

unification effected

sincere hope that the National

Government

might head toward the way of reform and reconstruction, thus establishing the

permanent foundation of the nation.

who

now

preaching in China belong

to different nationalities, their aim is one, that is, to convey to the
Chinese masses the Gospel of Christ which is one of fraternal love and
The Catholic religion knows no national or racial discriminaequality.

"Although Catholic

and

priests

are

a religion upholding the equality of mankind.

"We, as priests, have no intention of interfering in the politics and
diplomacy of any nation and our attitude is one of absolute impar-

tion

is

it

We

are ready to offer our every assistance to newborn China

in her numerous reforms and tasks of reconstruction.
pray for

tiality.

We

God's blessing upon the Chinese people in order to enable them to

We also pray that China may be
enjoy permanent peace and order.

on an equal footing with other Powers, thus ensuring peace

the whole world."

established
in

scene has changed with the times, of course.

One
of the induction of Chinese Christians into service for the

The missionary
evidence

saw a brief item about

Florida.
The dispatch was from
it in a daily newspaper in Miami,
Vatican City and related how Pope Pius XI had set a new precedent
for the Holy See with the formal appointment of a Chinese Catholic to
The man was Mr. Lo Pa Hong, a
an office high in Papal circles.
citizen of some wealth in Shanghai.
He was created "the Pope's Private Valet of the Sword and Cape."
The account indicated that this was the "first time that a non-white
"faith of our fathers" occurred not long ago.

It seems that "Mr.

has ever been accorded that honor by a Pope."
Hong," as the report called him, was President of the Catholic Action

and a frequent and large contributor "to the finanSociety of China

cial support of the Catholic missions in China."
Both Catholic and Protestant Chinese are slowly moving more and

more

but even so, their religious fervor is not yet

what the missionaries could wish it. That will require much time,
into

prominence

THE MARINES GET GOING

14

Kuomintang Revolution engulfed Peking early in June,

The ancient capital fell on June 8 of that momentous year.

THE

1928.

The

They entered the picture on

Japanese at once became serious.
the Asiatic mainland in a determined way, especially around Peking
and Tientsin and north of the Great Wall in the Three Eastern Prov,nces known as Manchuria.
They have since, as all know, annexed
this particular
sphere of influence" and renamed it Manchukuo.
The weeks of June were crammed with excitement and events of
historic significance.
Old Peking fell, though not without a noble
replenished from provinces all along
struggle, and the Southern forces
the long trek from the Pearl River at Canton
joyously marched by
fct

the thousands through those stern old gates, swarming everywhere in

profuse enjoyment of their hard fought victory.

The men were happy

property

damage there

gaining their goal, and of looting or of

was little in those winding old avenues so
at

strange to the new battalions literally from another country in the deep
south of China.
Some were slightly disForeigners were unharmed.

commoded

day or two but none, as far as I know, was injured

or lost an appreciable amount of property, if any.
And that, in time
of war, is not usual.
But the troops, victorious and inclined to be
Harm to those who had remained was far from
rampant, were gay.
for a

their thoughts

in

the

week

that

Peking

fell.

Old Marshal Chang Tso-lin, the defeated war lord from ManHe fled back toward his own capital
churia, saw the fight was vain.
of Mukden, above the Great Wall of that China which the old brigand
had hoped to rule as yet another Manchu emperor on the Dragon
Throne in Peking.
But Marshal Chang never lived to see his own
capital again, and there are many who still say it was "bad joss" (ill
luck) for him ever to have left the peaceful plains of Manchuria where
he was dictator.
1S6

THE MARINES GET GOING

The coach on which

Marshal was

the

fleeing

on the outskirts of

mysteriously blasted to bits

187

toward home was

Mukden

the

as

just

Marshal Chang Tso-lin was killed,

as dramatically and mysteriously as he had lived to rise from bandit
in Manchuria to the man who would be
king over the Chinese, their
train

was about

ruler

and emperor

The

he died.

The

to enter the city.

in

a modern

Peking

explosion was at

dawn on

4f

Son

of Heaven.'*

Instead,

the morning of June 4.

foreign troops in China became interested in the rapid devel-

When word came

opments around Peking that week; and so did I.
that old Marshal Chang had taken a private train and fled, we realized
that

were decidedly picking up in the north.

And when we
Shanghai, nearly 1000 miles to the south, that in his flight

things

heard in

from

Peking the old soldier-brigand-dictator had been assassinated,

there was but one thing for me to do.
Like the Marines and the Navy,
I

to

went to the scene

first

Manchuria, landing

to

in the

Tientsin and then across

Japanese-owned port

Peichihli

Bay

Dairen near Port

of

Arthur.
I

away on a crowded steamer and

got

deck chairs.
Just before

It

we

slept

in the

library

or on

weather in early June along the China Coast.

may explain the northern drive by the Kuomin-

fine

is
left,

along two major salients was resumed toward Peking.

also want to stress here the attitude of our own, the British and the

tang armies
I

Japanese forces out there at that important juncture in the revolution

The possibility of America's joining with the British in sending
at least part of the troops defending Shanghai northward was increasing daily, and the United States Marines were soon ordered to Tientsin.
The theater of the Kuomintang Revolution rapidly shifted north-

ward and both the

ities

were inclined

and the American naval and military authorview the situation in the Peking-Tientsin area

British
to

with heightened interest if not actual apprehension for the safety of

the many foreigners concentrated there.

The

British

sent

two

their northern base at the

to Tientsin.

battalions

town

of

chief-of-staff,

the north

was

in

command

officer.

believed to be similar to that which had

when

of their

accompanied by Viscount Gort, his

and an aviation reconnaisance

hai a year or so before,

to

Wei-Hai-Wei, and the second went

Major-General John Duncan, chief

forces in China, sailed for Tientsin

One proceeded

northward.

The danger

in

menaced Shang-

the revolution swept over the Yangtze

THE DRAGON STIRS

188

Valley and engulfed that

city.

the Peking-Tientsin area.

therefore,

large force,

was

sent

to

Great Britain, and United States, France

and Japan cooperated in this movement of troops and marines.

In these movements the U. S. Marines sent one regiment to Tientsin.

It

was

the 6th regiment, the

men

sailing

on board the transport

Smedley Butler, in command of the U. S.

Marines in China, returned from the north and arranged details of the
shift.
Acting Consul-General Clarence Gauss was transferred to TienHenderson.

tsin in

had

General

Cunningham, who
returning from a leave of

mid-June, former Consul-General Edwin

held

the

Shanghai

post

for

years,

S.

absence.

United States destroyers were concentrated at Chefoo,

These included the U. S.
their northern summer base below Tientsin.
six

Also,

which was already there, and five others. They were the
famous U. S. S. Noa, which fired during the "Nanking Incident" more
S. Hurlbert,

than a year before; the Paul Jones, the Preble, the Preston and the
Pruitt.

The

entire outlook of the Chinese revolution turned northward, as

Men
a result of optimistic reports from both Nanking and Hankow.
at both revolutionary centers claimed victories all along the lines of
the two routes of attack toward Peking, the goal for so
this surge

toward power over

all

China.

One

line of

many

years in

march was north

from Hankow along the inland railroad to Peking: the other was up
from Nanking, through Shantung Province, along the sea coast into
Tientsin and thence to Peking, less than 100 miles away.
Marshal

Feng Yu-hsiang's drive around Chengchow

was apparently progressing favorably and

in the central-China route,

the

Manchu

troops

forcing the Northerners were bottled up beyond Kung-hsien

rein-

on that

salient.

The Kuomintang men appeared

and

also to

have buried the hatchet at

to be determined to

go ahead with the battle for Peking without further internal squabbles.
Nanking and Hankow seemed to be

last

in accord as far as

the northern expedition

was concerned.

pronouncement was issued by the National Government at Nanking seeking to clear up once and for all the "Nanking outrages" of
the previous year.
The British authorities conducted unofficial conversations with them and a public statement on that troublesome incident in the revolution

was the

result.

settlement, at least as far

THE

MARINES GET GOING

189

were concerned, was finally arranged.

A Settlement
Commission of Chinese and foreigners was eventually appointed to
arrange the cash payments to be made.
as

British

the

It

was generally

believed then in official circles in

China that the

reason for the concentration of a large foreign defense force in or near

Tientsin was the protection of foreign lives and property in the event

The whole move was as much against

danger from Northern Chinese troops who had to flee, as against the
victorious and advancing Southerners in the Kuomintang Army.
of a Northern troop debacle.

was evinced

Shanghai over President Coolidge's

approval of the State Department's plan in 1928 to remove our Legation from Peking to some point on the coast, doubtless Tientsin.
The

High

local

interest

reaction

certain

was varied

in

in

however, and

the extreme,

Americans as well as British were inclined

to

found that

criticize

what

they regarded as a further indication of Washington's refusal to take

a "firm stand" for the protection of American interests in China.
Still

Washington was eminently correct, even

admitting that there seemed to be very little

others tended to the view that

one high British official

use in maintaining the Legations in Peking when there was apparently
no effort made by the Chinese in power there toward the maintenance
of a civil

form

of government.

R. Y. Blakely, in command of our light cruiser

squadron on the China coast, sailed aboard the cruiser Richmond, and
as the ranking naval officer was in command of the naval and marine

Rear-Admiral

J.

Reports persisted that the British would send at

four battalions north.
Their headquarters, however, insisted only

forces at Tientsin.
least

two would be dispatched.

This was done.

Meanwhile, a Japanese force of 2000

Tsingtao in Shantung Province.

men

Reports

arrived at the port of

indicated

that

feeling

was

running high against Japan's returning to Shantung, and demonstrations among the Chinese showed a renewed popular antipathy toward
this

sudden move.

The

interior sectors appeared quiet.

headquarters

One

dispatch from Hankow*,

for that salient, asserted that Marshal

Feng Yu-hsiang

Loyang, which seemed probable in view of

the stiff fighting in that area for days.
Another telegram from there
advised that Chinese Communists in the towns of Changsha, Singtan,

had reported

his capture of

THE DRAGON STIRS

190

Yiyang, Ping-kiang, Changteh and Linyang had been ousted by the

Cantonese troops, who then proceeded to form unions.

Our

coastal

packet

nosed past Tangku

Bar three days

after

we

Shanghai, in early June and we tied up alongside Tangku, port of

There
Tientsin some eighteen miles down the Hai-ho River on the sea

left

considerable fighting going on between the coast and Tientsin

as the Kuomintang forces pushed on after the rapidly fleeing Northern

was

still

who were

As

a result, there was

no apparent way to get up river to Tientsin, and once there, there was
no way to get on over to Peking, about ninety miles further inland in
troops,

leaving in a dispirited rout.

what was then Chihli Province, now called Hopei.

A young Dutchman, Richard Breitenstein, and

went ashore

to

Train service at the stareconnoiter, there being nothing else to do

none knew when or if a train would
tion was dished for the moment

Some United

run.

States Marines were

down

for the mail,

however,
that there was a U. S.

and they heard of our plight.

One told me
Marine aviation base nearby, stationed opposite the

local

Standard Oil

plant on the seacoast.

Without delay we walked over there, a short distance. There were

a dozen or more Marine airplanes at that post then, and they proved
a lifesaver.
We arranged to fly to Tientsin a flight which took about
twenty minutes, directly across the clashing lines firing at one another
below.
We flew in an open ship, some 2,500 feet up, and although we
got a good view of that sector in action, the Marine flier and I were

We

saw
high enough to be out of gunshot range and perfectly safe.
a Japanese destroyer in the Hai-ho replying to shots from the banks

The

plane

made

available

to

me was an amphibian which had

to

We took off from

go up to headquarters anyway, and I was in luck.
the Hai-ho ("ho" means river in North China) at Tangku and less
than a half hour later landed on the Race Course outside Tientsin.
I thanked the Marine flier, a Captain, and
got a taxi in to town.
could not get up to Peking for several days.
So I
registered at the Astor Hotel, bathed and turned in, glad of a bed

There,

after

found

sleeping

Shanghai.

fitfully

and

fully

clothed

on deck chairs since leaving

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIN

15

MY

in

was on June 10 of that strange month

1928, two days after Peking had been taken over by Gen-

arrival in Tientsin

Yen

Northern governor in Shansi

Province nearby, but allied with the Kuomintang.
The ex-coolie who
became Governor of Shantung, Marshal Chang Chung-chang, was still
holding Tientsin, but he, too, had to flee within the week, and his
Some fled, but in the main they
troops went over to the victors.
eral

Hsi-san,

merely recognized a new

The man who

himself

chieftain.

faced but stern military man whose

General
Kuomintang Revolution.

Fu

Tso-yi, a moontroops were loyal to him and the

Fu was named the new Defense

occupied Tientsin was General

went out in the native city around the foreign

concessions of Tientsin to see him the next day.
His aims were not
anti-foreign, he said, and his troops were told to respect foreign property there.
Certainly no one sought to harm me in the trip to the
General's
"yamen," or headquarters, through the narrow native
Commissioner, and

avenues.

The Commissioner

did

not

know whether

the

victorious

march

would continue then to press on past the Great Wall and into ManNone
churia, where old Marshal Chang Tso-lin had just been killed.
in Tientsin then knew or would comment on this part of the revolution; they seemed to feel, however, that holding Peking and Tientsin
would keep their troops occupied for the next few months. There was
still some little fighting going on in the outskirts of Tientsin, and the
sound of shooting could often be heard.
touring the foreign defenses late one night, or just before
dawn, while distant rifle fire was audible but nothing of importance
occurred within the concession area.
Nothing but the usual round of
I

recall

unbridled

French,

gaiety

with

which

Germans, and Russians

the

foreigners

Americans,

British,

sought an outlet from the idleness

191

THE DRAGON STIRS

192

They danced here and there

in the halls
rather tawdry when compared to the more luxurious
and most of them spent
places for which Shanghai has become known
always forced on commerce by warfare.

hours at numerous Chinese gambling houses, or the one run by an

American peroxide blonde of uncertain vintage and virtue in what

had been the old German Concession there. It ran wide open, and I
was led astray one night long enough to try a fling with the always
or
fascinating little ivory ball in roulette, where I won $200 Mex.,
about $95 in U. S. currency at that time.

was

It

week, so

still

impossible to get through to

I left for

York Times

Manchuria.

The

local

Peking

at

the

end of a

correspondent for The

New

on from Tientsin, and his chief, Hallett

Abend, then a part-time man in North China who within a few months

was

to

then

succeed

me

carried

in

Asia with headquarters at

all

Shanghai, was

The strange manner in

Peking angle out from there.
which Marshal Chang Tso-lin had died intrigued me, in any case, so
getting

the

went to Mukden

what was occurring across Peichihli Bay

there.
My companion, Breitenstein, went along and in mid-June we
landed from a Japanese vessel at the Japanese-controlled city of Dairen
I

ar the tip of the

to

see

Manchurian peninsula.

Dairen was a modern

of China.

The Japanese

and peaceful after the chaos

up from little or nothing and have

city, calm,

built

it

quiet

South Manchuria Railway headquarters there.

They
were proud of their work not only in Dairen but in all Southern Manchuria which they then controlled
and in all fairness, I must say here
their

that

powerful

they had, and have,

a right to be proud.

industry and customary peacetime pursuits

was

The atmosphere
all

of

but overwhelming

one just fresh from the wars of China.

To find out what was back of all this and what the Japanese intended to do if the men in the Chinese Kuomintang tried to push on
to

He was Henry W.
Manchuria, I sought out an old friend.
Kinney, an adviser to the South Manchuria Railway, whom I had
into

known

years before in Tokyo.

Kinney, a writer, traveller, editor and
erstwhile associate of the late Jack London when the two were residents of Honolulu earlier in this century, knew all the answers.
But

he knew also that they would sound better in America if they came
from a Japanese. So he introduced me to Mr. Yosuke Matsuoka, then
vice-president of the S.

M. R.

in Dairen,

a Japanese diplomat educated

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIN

United

the

in

Matsuoka-San

States.

subsequently

193

became

world

famous as the head of the Japanese delegation to the League of Nations which walked out of that august assembly some years ago.
In
the

summer

1940 he became Foreign Minister in Tokyo.

of

high degree of interest approaching anxiety marked the Japanese

attitude

as

indications

increased

that

the

victorious

Nationalists

did

not intend to stop with the capture of Peking, but were already laying
plans for an onward push into China's Three Eastern Provinces, or

Manchuria.

Reports published widely in the Japanese press in Dairen

in 1928 outlined the Southerners' contemplated offensive, and I found
apparent that preparations were under way at all strategic points to
meet the crisis which was feared to be imminent.
Of course, it failed
it

to materialize.

Japan had definitely determined not to permit anything to disrupt

the peace and order of Manchuria, determination made clear by a frank
declaration to me by Matsuoka.
The opinion prevailed that Japan was
facing the most critical situation in her occupation of Manchuria since

War

proceeded on what
was generally regarded as a sane program to offset the possibilities of
civil war entering the Three Eastern Provinces.
the Russo-Japanese

"Our

19Q4--05,

policy, frankly, is peace at

but

officials

any price," said Matsuoka.

"We

our declaration not to permit either

or Nanking to carry the fighting into Manchuria,
If they

intend to reiterate,

Mukden

in

if

necessary,

are able to get together and settle their political differences peacefully,
all

if

right

not,

we

door at Shanhaikwan (at the eastand not permit the Southern armies to

shall close the

ern end of the Great Wall)

pass."

Matsuoka had been long

among

in the

Foreign Office in Tokyo and was

those closest to the late Baron Tanaka, the Premier, although

he then held no

a protectorate
I asked Matsuoka.

that

"Isn't

Mukden?"

political post.

virtually

over

whoever

is

in

power

in

"We will not peryou will/' he replied.

mit war to disturb Manchuria, where the people are peaceful and prosWe intend to assure peace at any price in Manchuria, which
perous.
"Call

is

it

a protectorate

if

our old and long established policy.

"I admit that this is liable to put us in an embarrassing position.

THE DRAGON STIRS

194

We

do not

certainly

criticism

to the

to

desire

Chinese

all

politics,

the

contrary notwithstanding."

Matsuoka said he believed

when

in

interfere

he was expressing Tokyo's policy

he declared that no Southern troops would be permitted to pass

Shanhaikwan

there

if

was any

that

fighting in the offing.

Nanking's program then to push on

in

further

conquests beyond

Peking, as published in the Japanese press, was to follow this plan:

In the first line of attack under General Chiang Kai-shek, his troops

would advance to Shanhaikwan along the Peking-Mukden Railway via

Tientsin.
A second group under Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang would
start for the same destination via Tungchow, Yutien and Fengjun,

Feng being

in

men and

the middle sector between Chiang's

those

of

Yen Hsi-san, Governor of Shansi Province and Peking's new

ruler, who was directing the third advance via Jehol Province, north
Another significant feature was seen in the participation
of the Wall
of General Pei Chung-hsi, the man who captured Shanghai, later fell
General

out with Chiang Kai-shek, went to Wuhan and was then in Peking.
This leader of the Kwangsi group had long been a disturbing element
within the Kuomintang.

General Pei was said to be leading a fourth

expeditionary force against the north in the general direction of Chiefenchow, the strategy apparently being to have his army ready to reinforce any others in the event that that should be necessary.
"If they get in the vicinity of
to surrender," said
this

we

Matsuoka,

shall absolutely

There are times when

Shanhaikwan and Mukden refuses

"it will

mean

We

not permit.
a firm attitude

is

civil

shall

war
stop

essential,

in

Manchuria and

them
and

at the door.

this

is

one of

We

do not want to help any faction within China, but we have

got to protect the peace of Manchuria."
Matsuoka was unusually frank and outspoken as he replied to my
them.

queries.

"We

Asked why he was so emphatic, he reiterated:

must protect our interests in Manchuria."

Then he proceeded with

"Naturally
here," he said.

we

this

is

significant statement.

"However, we might as well admit that Manchuria

true.

embarrassment, but
are as they are.

and

consider our interests enough reason for our action

strategically vital to
cally,

his frank

is

it is our first line of defense.

Japan
GeographiThese are the facts which perhaps will cause us

we must

face the situation

and admit that things

be

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LlK

"But let me add that we do not want turmoil. We do
misunderstood.
We want peace in Manchuria. That

195
not want to
is

all."

Another thing which he feared might disturb that peace was the
probability that Chang Tso-lin, warlord of Manchuria and erstwhile
Northern Dictator, was dead.
Absolutely nobody with authority in
Even Matsuoka
Dairen would say yet whether he was dead or alive.
insisted that he could not ascertain the truth.

Hence, the impression was growing hourly as no news came from

Mukden other than rumors one way and the other concerning the warlord's

when

condition,
his train

that he

had succumbed to the wounds he suffered

was bombed

several days earlier as he

was

fleeing

from

Peking to Mukden. The whole bombing affair was surrounded by the

Those who should have known all about it professed
deepest mystery.
the most

complete ignorance, the Chinese blaming the Japanese and

the Japanese being inclined to intimate that Chinese blew up Chang

But nobody was making any definite statement. The

new alignment in Manchurian political affairs had a significant effect
Hence the tenseness surrounding the
on the Japanese position there.
Tso-lin's train.

bombing

of the old Marshal,

international

which contained the seeds of far-reaching

developments.

went on up

Mukden, where

found that young General Chang

Hsueh-liang, a capable youth then still in his twenties, had succeeded
his picturesque father as Governor of Fengtien and Dictator of ManI

churia.

Mukden

blems of China's
of

those

to

that mid-June
first

republic

was bright with

by that time

Three Eastern Provinces

ment of the advent

of

a new

There was a somber note

certainty that the old

five-barred flags,

em-

flying only in the capitals

celebrating

the

formal announce-

ruler.

in the

surface gaiety, however, born of

Marshal was dead despite the

official

pronounce-

was assuming the dictatorship because of his father's

critical condition.
There was a further reason for the strain of anxiety
beneath the populace's police-adjured jollity.
The political plots and

ment

that his son

counterplots pervading Manchuria's peaceful plains threatened

to

up-

root authority, and Chinese and Japanese alike regarded the situation

with concern.

Two

vital

Mystery enveloped Mukden.

questions that officially remained unanswered were

who

wrecked Chang Tso-lin's train and how? and was the Marshal dead?
Chang Tso-lin's death had not been officially announced by June 19.

THE DRAGON STIRS

196

However,

the son

had

tiffin

industrial Chinese, including persons closest

it

was understood

that

a group of
to the young General, and

in the native city that day with

a statement of

his

father's

death was

issued

shortly thereafter.

The Chinese were always thoroughly convinced that Japan was

The usual motive advanced was that Japan wanted to
responsible.
cause trouble in Manchuria so that

it

would be possible

annex the country without too much opposition abroad.

four years

This she did

later.

The Japanese
terior motives

in

authorities,

on the other hand, stanchly denied

Manchuria, the consular as well as military

persisting in the contention that the sole interest of

tain peace

her to

for

and

to assist the Chinese to

Japan was

become prosperous.

ul-

officers

to

main-

The Japa-

nese Consul-General, Mr. Hayashi, sought to get the Chinese to agree

to issue a joint statement on the bombing, but the Chinese refused.

The

indication

was

a joint inquiry
anyway, they would reject

that they did not desire

vinced that the Japanese did

it

for,

con-

efforts

to

prove otherwise.

The Chinese took no

action,

their

leaders

pointing

out

that

the

Japanese wanted them to start something to enable Japan to go ahead

and take Manchuria. Hence they shook puzzled heads, admitted strong
anti- Japanese feeling

was

increasing,

bide their time and handle the affair

at

and yet declared that they must

when times were less troublous

home.

Japan had a garrison of nearly 10,000 men in Mukden then, and

her total force in Manchuria was estimated at nearly 25,000, which
was enough to "enforce peace." Chinese Northern troops continued
to arrive

from the south on the Peking-Mukden Railway

line,

jammed

with troop trains.

Chang Tso-lin left little rolling stock behind him.
Scores of the famous "Blue Express" cars of the Tientsin-Pukow line

were on the sidings at Mukden, as well as cars marked Peking, Hankow, etc. His denuding the railways of all cars hampered communications throughout China for months.
The whereabouts of Marshals Sun
Chuan-fang and Chang Chung-chang, Mukden's allied commanders,

was causing
of

speculation.

It

was believed

that they

were in the

vicinity

Shanhaikwan, and they were expected to retire safely to Dairen.

Chang Hsueh-liang had not formally assumed the mantle in suc-

ceeding his father as Governor of Fengtien Province, although in effect

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIN

his position

was the same

197

Japan was apparently

as that of his father.

content to permit the young General to assume his father's post,

al-

seemed quite patent that the Japanese, thoroughly incensed

over Chang Tso-lin's attitude in recent months, wanted a new line-up.
it

though

was among the reasons

This, incidentally,

the Japanese were behind

Chang

that

evict the

to

its

Japan long sought

make

to

certain concessions

for the Chinese belief that

Tso-lin's

old

assassination.

who was

Marshal,

Japan was said to

They

said

unwilling

desire.

Foreign experts who visited the scene of the disaster soon after
occurrence agreed that there must have been at least ISO pounds

mine

in the

of explosive

Manchuria Railway, and

laid

that

of the bridge of the South

must have taken several hours to lay

in the pier
it

Hence, the Japanese soldiers who were guarding the site were
deemed to have been at least "strangely negligent." The Japanese reit.

guarded their own line below the bridge, where

the Japanese were stationed.
But the Chinese asserted that they were
not permitted to send guards within the Japanese railway zone and
plied that the Chinese

had none

there.

man on

the train

guards and that the Japanese

minutes after the explosion.

On

June 20,

its

chief

goals

not

that

appear

he saw no
until

Chinese

about

twenty

with young Marshal Chang

said he intended to pursue a policy having among

I talked for the first time

He

Hsueh-liang.

did

said

the

eradication

of

the

scourge of war in these three

troubled eastern provinces of China.

Following the early institution of an era of economic development,

he hoped to encourage the investment of American capital in Manchuria.

would welcome

"I
ity/'

said the

capital

financial aid

in

basis of equal-

"I would be best pleased

young Marshal.

were invested

from abroad on the

Manchuria.

However,

if

American

do not intend to

Foreign corporations coming into our

grant further special privileges.
that is, half
country must be willing to agree to equality of control
Chinese

and

half

nationals

of

whatever

foreign

countries

organize

companies here."
This was similar to the old arrangement for the Chinese Eastern
Railway, which was essentially Russian until bought by Japan.

The
on June

youthful successor to
4,

1928,

Chang

Tso-lin,

the day his father's train

twenty-seven years old

was dynamited, issued a

THEDRAGONSTIRS

198

formal proclamation the next day giving the details of his policies, but
in this first interview he outlined in advance to The New York Times
correspondent the chief policies of his Government.
declined to discuss the attitude of Japan but felt Tokyo's show
He believed it
of force did not represent the attitude of the people.

He

was

the result of the temporary ascendency of a certain clique in the

Government, which he hoped was a passing phase, and that eventually

he would be able to treat with Japan on a basis of equality unhampered

He was evicted by Japan in 1931, however, fleeing
by special rights.
to Nanking.

The "}oung Marshal

He

was slender and

11

received

his

at

and serious mien added dignity

headquarters.
black mustache

military

His

energetic.

yet

pale,

me

thick,

to his frail youth.

"I shall issue a proclamation giving my aspirations for government

in detail," he said.
"They, briefly, are this I shall seek to end war.
:

have been ten years

to

all,

lift

my

China.

war and know

from our people.

this scourge

to act otherwise in
for

in

foreign policy.

Eventually,

we must

horrors.

its

hope

want,

not be forced

shall

demand equal treatment

I shall

outlook.

want our people

concentrate on the development of Manchuria and look

outward,

expand now
from within.
fct

which

am
is

of

abolish the unequal treaties.

"At home, we must reorganize our

not

first

to

to

ourselves,

There is no need of our seeking to

development.
or encroach on other parts of China.
must build
for

We

particularly

interested

another vital point.

My

in

the

development

father left

me

of

education,

In

$10,000,000.

my

me

donate every cent to an educational

proclamation you
bureau to be administered wisely, the beginning of universal education
This is highly essential to the future peacethroughout our provinces.
will

ful

see

development of our country.

"Regarding the Nationalists, we are ready to

treat

with them on

In fact, we are already

a basis of equality.
conducting negotiations,
but they are at a standstill for the present, due to the lack of

unity
are
to
discuss a
they
ready
shall do so, but talk peace only as
equals.

within the National Government.

new alignment with

If they

rally

we

us,

we

seek to exclude us and

will not

When

make peace on

their

have anything to do with them.

own terms
hope that

natu-

will not

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIN

199

occur and that the Nationalists will establish unity and enable us to
make terms.
ki

For example, General Yen HsiMeantime, they are unreliable.

san came to Peking and told us how he would guarantee the safe
our garrison.
The Commander left in charge a small
When our
army to maintain peace in Peking until the turn-over.
General departed, his men met Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang's troops between Peking and Tientsin and were disarmed.
This disgraceful
of

departure

breach of faith leaves us doubting that they trust each other.

'These things
is

program

will

only tentative and

nothing obstructs
unforeseen occurs

its
I

to

strive

to

subject

achievement,

You must

accomplish.

but

subsequent events.

in

the

do not want yon to think

only strive for these goals.

The main

realize

object

is

event

me

that

the

hope

something
I can

not frank.

to establish faith in

my

regime.
"I

frankly

The

admit the problem.

Marshal said that

But

Marshals

this

outlines

my

aim."

life's

Sun
given him

Chang Chung-chang and

with him, Sun commanding the troops

by young Chang; and Chang Chung-chang with the remnants of his

Chuan-fang were

still

Shantung army.

A
was

few days

later

went north to Harbin.

Northern Manchuria

with anxiety as the people in the Three Eastern Provinces

awaited the solution of the shifting political situation caused by the
astir

capture of Peking by the Nationalists and the dramatic death of Marshal

Chang

Tso-lin.

Conversations

with

well-informed

persons

indicated

at

least

two

namely, that the provinces of Kirin and Hailunkiang were

determined to end control by a dictatorship in Mukden no matter
things,

under whom, but particularly under young Marshal Chang Hsuehliang; and that it was believed that Manchuria soon would join a
National Federation of China under a Manchurian Central Executive

Committee form

The

of

attitude

government with the

of

Kirin

was

capital

particularly

remaining at Mukden.

adamant

against

con-

tinuation of the old order of things as far as maintenance of a dictator-

un g Marshal" was concerned, the position

Chang Hsueh-liang were a suitable ruler for

ship under the "y

of

being that

his

if

people of Fengtien Province

it

was

satisfactory

to

Kirin

own

Kirin that he rule

THE DRAGON STIRS

200
there, but they

would not admit

his right to dictate affairs

outside of

Fengtien.

Observers in close touch with

were

watching the
conversations with the National Government at Nanking, and the imaffairs

intently

was growing that a tentative agreement had already been

reached under which Manchuria would retain much of its old autonomy
but would join the Nationalists as part of a federation agreement.
pression

While public opinion

This they did, under the "young Marshal."
regarded a change to this system with doubt, its adoption was generally seen as a progressive move toward eventual unity and the ending
of internal political strife which otherwise,

it

was

might con-

feared,

tinue indefinitely.

The

attitude of

Japan toward such agreements was regarded as a

probable obstruction, however.

intended to interfere as long
affairs

was

The Japanese

peacefully.

still

Japanese in authority denied that they

as the Chinese settled their political

unanimous

in

military high
it

declaring

did not

command

intend

Mukden

at

exceed treaty

to

hence the opinion was gaining ground that Japan was willing
to permit Manchuria to try the Nationalist experiment as long as her
rights,

rights

were unimpaired and peace was preserved.

In

fact,

just

before leaving

Mukden,

received

a communication

from Yosuke Matsuoka, saying that he desired to clear up his attitude

on a ''protectorate" there. He considered the use of the word unforwish to emphasize that neither I nor any other
responsible Japanese desires nor contemplates a Japanese protectorate
over Manchuria."
Matsuoka's idea was to maintain peace in Mantunate,

adding:

"I

churia by preventing the armies of either side from fighting and if this
were construed as protecting any interests it could not be helped but
as far as the Tokyo Government formally announcing any intention
;

of setting
it

up a protectorate

in the

League of Nations

he said

sense,

was simply untrue.

The
hension.

Chinese,

nevertheless,

Authorities in

approaching

all

submissiveness

regarded

quarters
until

Japan's

counselled

domestic

moves
a policy

political

with
of

affairs

appre-

calmness
subsided.

There had been what was regarded as a strange anti-Soviet campaign in the native city in Harbin. Students were circulating pamphlets
in

which two theories were advanced

the Chinese were

all

one,

that

the Japanese,

whom

ready to blame for anything, were trying to arouse

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIK

trouble,

and the

other, that the National

backing the movement.

Soviet

Government

adherents

in

201

Nanking was
North Manchuria were
at

keeping quiet and not entering the political field on one side or the
other, although I found them keeping in particularly close touch with
a Japanese Manchurian colonization plan.

TOKYO'S DILEMMA

16

again in Mukden toward the end of that June, I came to

the conclusion that Japan was fighting with her back to the

BACK

Great Wall of China.

While on the surface all was calm and the Chinese

officially

ex-

pressed their appreciation of the manner in which Japan's firm policy

in Manchuria had maintained peace while the rest of China suffered

seemingly interminable civil war, it was increasingly

apparent to me even then that great forces were moving which eventually would tend to force the Japanese either to occupy Manchuria
the agonies

of

and put an end

doubt, or withdraw her claims to control and

It was doubtful in the extreme that Tokyo would

to

special privileges.

Therefore, the natural tendency

on the part of the Chinese was to anticipate that Japan intended to do
everything in her power more firmly to implant her control there.
listen at all to this

latter alternative.

Whether that attempt was to take the form of a protectorate or

whether it was the intention of the War Office cabinet in Tokyo to
proceed with a bold program of annexation were among the continThe
gencies secretly discussed in the Manchurian capital in 1928.
Japanese in positions of authority were frankly ready to admit, doubtless with the approval of their Premier, Baron Tanaka, that Japan
intended to protect these provinces from attack.
The Japanese slogan

remained "Peace at any price," in Manchuria, and they were ready to

stand behind that policy to the limit.

Whether

that constituted establishing a protectorate in effect over

whoever happened to be in power in Mukden was not, the Japanese
It was their avowed intention to
explained to me, their business.
in
order
maintain peace and
Even the
Manchuria, come what might.

Chinese could not but see the wisdom of such a policy, although in
Mukden I heard now and then some Chinese remark that this public
expression on the part

of

Japan was an insult to the integrity and

202

TOKYO'S DILEMMA
ability

of

the

Chinese

to

handle

203

own affairsa

their

"breach

of

sovereignty," to use an overworked term.

Japan had a number of strong reasons for her stand in Manchuria,

based fundamentally on these three first, she had gained special rights,
at least in South Manchuria, by right of conquest from the Russians,
:

and the economic development of the country; second, Manchuria was

her first line of defense in case of war; and third, Japan, with a
and forcing the
Empire to become an industrial nation, needed not only a sure market
for her manufactures but a place to which her nationals could easily
rapidly

increasing

population

into

moving

her

cities

migrate.

Considerable criticism has been

at

leveled

the Japanese for their

attempts to keep Manchuria separate from the rest of China and their

Three Eastern Provinces, or at least South

Manchuria (including Fengtien and most of Kirin province) as a
special preserve for Japanese interests.
Again, it must be remembered

alleged desire to keep the

that

the

human manner, and

Japanese acted in a highly

that

many

another nation in similar circumstances might be expected to do likewise.

Naturally, that does not prevent the Chinese since the advent

Manchukuo

from feeling that the time has come for them

to regain control of their own country and to throw off what they
of

in 1931-32

Thus, the natural

regard as shackles imposed by a foreign nation.
ambitions of two peoples directly opposed to each other, met first on
The death struggle soon
the fertile, peaceful acres of Manchuria.
spread.

The road from

was now open at last, and the

Kuomintang chieftains was about to reach

Tientsin to Peking

"Big Four" conference of

a climax there.
It behooved

we

me

departed from Manchuria.

He
to our little touring band.

by the authorities

in

Mukden and

the

day

go

there,

to the

he belonged, in Tientsin.

This

we were

to

there to take a steamship across Peichihli

States Consul at the old

Manchu

at the

him back

I agreed to

Sixth Regiment headquarters where

is the way it occurred:

The morning of

and

end of June
Not, however, without adding another
was a U. S. Marine deserter nabbed
to

escort

leave

Bay

capital paid

The day previous I had had lunch with him

compound and bade him farewell

Mukden

for

to Tientsin, the

me

Dairen,

United

an unexpected

call.

in the pleasant consulate

THE DRAGON STIRS

204

But our Consul had had a shock

since then.

young chap

scarcely

within

out of his teens had been seized by the Japanese authorities

Railway Zone

their

The

Mukden.

at

youth, dressed in tramp-like civilian clothes, had no passport

His
or other identifying papers but claimed that he was an American.
first story was that he was off a freighter then in Dairen and, given

He said
overnight "shore-leave," had taken a train ride to Mukden.
he would be on his way back then but for the fact that he was abruptly
I never did disarrested.
Eventually, the Japanese or our Consul
wormed

out of the frightened youngster his true identity.

then quickly told his story, of how he had come to desert the IL S.

cover which

He

Marine Corps

at Tientsin, in time of a

war

in

North China

in

which

they might have been involved.

The

we came

"kid," as

over eighteen years old,

He

know our Marine

to

that

if

said he

he was not much

-for

was from the Middle West.

joined the Marines to see the world, but had found

at Tientsin pretty dull after so long

a time.

camp

Then he met

routine

a Russian,

he related, who told him he should not obey orders of "all those guys,"
the officers.
They had a few drinks, it seems, and the Marine "quit'

the service, joined with his pal, grabbed a train, and landed in jail at
Mukden a short time later. What happened to his Russian friend, I

never learned.

"But
tsin,"

will

problem

said the

Fm

So

my

how

to get

"We

Consul.

him back

to his

regiment in Tien-

have no funds for returning deserters.

you you are leaving for Tientsin

Dairen tonight, and sail back to China tomorrow.
it

putting

go to

is

to

up

at
I

noon,
can't

pay you now, but if you will advance this deserter's fare and meals,
you'll get some kind of a reward or pay from the Corps in Tientsin.

How

about it?"

There was no point in refusing, so I said: "Okay, but one thing

must be understood now. I'll pay his way and chaperone this lad, but
I

won't sleep with him handcuffed to

again tonight
of

my

let's

when

affair.

go.

If

How

The Consul

me

if

get

he really

him a room
is

my arm!
in

If

he wants to duck

Dairen that

is

strictly

none

ready to face the music and wants to go,

about that?"
agreed.

He

said there

would be no blame attached to

the Marine fled again after being placed in

my

custody.

TOKYO'S DILEMMA
"Have him here

"And by

at

noon for the Express down

to Dairen,"

name?"
Consul replied, and laughed.

said.

the way, what's this deserter's

"Budzinski/' our affable

an

He's

205

American,

all

but

right

that's

his

right

"It really

is.

name, believe

it

or not/'
'

With an unusual name of my own I had no trouble in believing it,

or that the lad was an American.
We already had picked up another
lad just out of Yale

whom we met
when

at

and making a world tour as a graduation present,

His name was Hermann.
Harbin.
The next day,

bought the four steamship tickets for our squadron trooping

across China even the Japanese man at the counter had to smile.
Who
I

chaps travelling together and named Hermann,

And we were all Gentiles,
Breitenstein, Misselwitz and Budzinski!
except Hermann, who was a Jew from New York.
at

wouldn't,

On

four

the train

we had no

down

to Dairen I talked with the boyish

Marine and

trouble in that quarter.

okay with me," I told him, "if you desert again when we hit
I'm going to give you five yen (about $2.50 then)
Dairen tonight.
for a meal or two and a room for the night, and it's up to you to be
"It's

on the boat when we

If you're not, I

sail.

won't

like

it,

but what do

you care?

And you

may

some one

You'll be free, free as any hunted man can be.

be free, so to speak, for five, ten or twenty years
but

arm

Uncle Sam's law will grab you again.

You don't want to go through life as a deserter, a hunted man, do

of these days the long

of

Make up your mind. Here's the money

when we sail for China tomorrow."
And he was there, glad to be sailing back to his
you?

no harm

and

I'll

look

outfit

for

you

There was

hope he got off light at headquarters.

All we could get on the Japanese vessel back was deck space again.
I had had my fill of deck space travel, but I had to get to Peking, so
we went. Although it was nearly July, that night at sea off North
China was one of the most chilling I ever spent anywhere. The next
in that Marine,

day on shore at Tientsin it was stifling, but we all nearly froze to

scant shelter from those icy blasts toward the
death on that tiny ship
Manchuria plains which we were leaving.

A DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KHAN

17

OWN

expedition" into the wild pastures of

Manchuria ended on a Sunday, when our steamer docked at

MY

I had
again sought out the Astor House Hotel.
The others
to "deliver" the Marine to the base then at Tientsin.

Tientsin.

first

"northern
I

went along
poor

to the hotel while I sought out the

devil, over to the Marine authorities

GHQ

to turn Budzinski,

day of July in North China,

Budzinski was
not too far from the oven known as the Gobi Desert.
willing enough to go along, as he had been ever since he was turned
over to me, and for a black sheep, or deserter, I must give him credit
In fact, he was glad to be back
for making no disturbance whatever.
where he could see his former "buddies," who at least talked his language, and he was quite prepared to take his medicine
But the United States Marine Corps gave us our difficulties on
That was just the trouble
that hot Sabbath.
No one
it was Sunday.
of authority was around.
The enlisted man on duty at the desk had
never heard of Budzinski, and could not be bothered.
Eventually a
non-commissioned officer heard the "walla- walla," or talk, in the outer
He had heard of a deserter some
office and put in an appearance.
weeks ago but never had heard of Budzinski, and was stumped for a
moment.
Then the brilliant non-com had an inspiration.
He said:
"Wait a minute," and called a Captain on the regimental telephone.
The Captain was not in. It was Sunday.
Idea number two: The
It

was

sergeant
right,"

hot, unbearably hot, that first

be there,
"Last night was Saturday night, you know."

telephoned the

he

said.

The Captain was

officer

there

at

his

in bed.

quarters.

"He'll

all

"Send them over, Sergeant," his

The Captain
Well, we went over.

voice sounded through the receiver.

said he didn't know, but he supposed he could put Budzinski in the
guardhouse until Monday when the Corps would start functioning
again.

That seemed

fair

enough.

It

206

was

all

we

could do, in any case,

DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KHAN

A
and

207

thanked the Captain, a likable young chap, and went on to the

hotel.

When
to

the next day I got our tickets for the haphazard train ride

Peking a Marine told

me

at the station that I

Mukden and

Budzinski's fare to Tientsin from

Dairen, by the "reward" due

to

his

way

regiment here."

to

Peking

owe

that

Eventually another

the cost

of

his night's lodging in

for "safely conducting a deserter back

solely to deliver this

more than double

feel I

me

would be repaid for

Marine was sent

"reward" to me.

found

it

was

and

still

Private Budzinski's return

young man some

the

all

of the

$50 I got.
In Peking, the heat of early July was even worse than in Tientsin.
It reminded me of Hankow far to the south, where one might expect
heat.
Even so, the ancient capital, visited for the first time, was really
a

treat.

For one
that

There was enough going on

make us

to

forget the

climate.

Kuomintang Revolution gathered there

"Big Four" Conference. They were Generalissimo

thing, the leaders of the

summer

for the

Chiang Kai-shek, Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, General Yen Hsi-san,

Governor of Shansi Province, and General Li Chung-jen, a southerner
from Kwangsi Province who had been one of the foremost Generals in
the field during the capture of Peking.

Peking

fell

to the

Kuomintang Revolution on June

troops loyal to General

was

peaceful, for the

The conference
demobilize

Yen Hsi-san

occupied the

Northern troops had

did

little

but

China's vast armed

agree

forces.

city.

8,

1928,

when

Their entrance

fled.

that

the

next

move was

to

The leaders decided that a

The "young Marshal," son

Manchurian expedition was unnecessary.

of the late Marshal Chang Tso-lin, was all for the Kuomintang Revolution and the Three People's Principles, and the red emblem of the

Kuomintang with its white sun on a field of light blue in the

upper left hand corner flew all over Manchuria before the year ended.
All

was

well with the world, as these "Big

they conferred for awhile and went home.

Four" saw

it

then

and

Demobilization and the work

were the things to achieve next, they decided.

They
but those two things have yet to be accomplished.
Neither

of reconstruction

were right
was possible then or now for many reasons, including incessant
within the Kuomintang

The embalmed body

first,

strife

followed by the invasion of warring Japan.

of the late

Dr. Sun Yat-sen was entombed at

that time in a temple shrine outside Peking, awaiting the day

when

it

THE DRAGON STIRS

208

should be buried permanently by his beloved Kuomintang followers in

a Mausoleum which they had constructed on Purple Mountain outside
At
the capital of the "new China" which he envisaged, at Nanking.

Peking that
110 degrees

fetid

at

the daily temperature at the hotel

July

noon

was around

took a rickshaw out to the temporary resting

It was a
where the Northerners kept Dr. Sun's body.
beautiful spot.
The shrine was high up at the top of an old temple.
Soldiers of the Kuomintang were on guard there.
However, troops

place to

see

paid no appreciable attention to me as I walked alone across the flagged

courtyards to the long flight of stone steps leading upward to the vault.

Sun was visible within the dimly lighted vault, above

the great man's casket.
The casket was of metal, sent as a gift by the
Moscow Government; Dr. Sun was their friend and associate. The
portrait of Dr.

two

on guard would not permit me to enter the "holy of

but they were good-natured and had no objections to my

soldiers

holies/'

peering into the gloom within, dark as a cavern after the sunlight outside.
The next time, and the last, that I was to see Dr. Sun's casket

was when

saw the dark, embalmed body of the Tsung-li, or leader,

the day before the State funeral and entombment in a final restingI

place outside

Nanking a year

later.

That Fourth of July the United

MacMurray, gave
Like

tail party.

guests of

all

States

the customary Independence

all

Peking

social affairs,

Day

John

all

remember

in

American

and the party was as gay

history), milled about in genial camaraderie

as the Chinese revolutionary victors

(at

The
whom we

function.

nations, including our cousins the British

to

Van A.

reception and cock-

was a gala

it

were angry when that day became a day

In

Minister,

around the Legation Compound.

was

celebrating another revolution for freedom.

party was but one of the sidelights of the revolution in China.

fact, it

The
The whirl

of

Peking

went

on

apace.

The

night

clubs,

somewhat

tawdry affairs at best, and the hotel roof dances went on and on and
on.
Within a week I had seen enough of this, of temples, of quaint old
Peking-style homes with "moon-gate" apertures in every garden wall,
of the *'Big Four" Conference
of it all.
I left.
train to Hankow

was a

possibility for a while,

coastal steamer back to

The summer
their

of

but that idea

fell

through and I took a

Shanghai.

1928 found the

men

at

Nanking

Kuomintang Revolution and of plans

for

full of victory in

a yet greater China.

DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KHAN

209

They had got used to traveling at revolutionary speed and dreamed of

a unity that would encompass all Asia.
The dreams were fine and the
conception remains a grand idea, but the Nanking victors forgot the
apathy with which the mass of humanity views a new thought.
It was a dream, however, that rivaled the deeds of Genghis Khan.
The dream was of a great nation that, stretching far across almost all
counts

Asia,

within

borders

its

not

only

what

is

known

as

China

Proper (a vast area in itself) but the provinces in Manchuria, Inner

In the National Government there
and Outer Mongolia, and Tibet.
was formed a Committee on Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs.
It included

men who

are

well

acquainted

with

the

countries

bordering

China

Proper and who have visited these wild hinterlands of Asia, even some
who have lived among the nomadic peoples who populate the plains
and plateaux beyond the Great Wall and out to the West where the

Yangtze River begins.

Of

course these

men have made

progress in the realization of

their dream.
Communications into these backlands are as primitive
today, in the main, as in the time seven centuries ago when Genghis
little

Khan's hordes swept across Asia and started the first "pony express."
There isn't even a vestige of that "pony express" in existence.
Occasionally caravans draw out of Peking, through the mountain passes and

up

into the plateaux beyond, taking

live as

their ancestors

lived.

goods to the aboriginal tribes that

Occasionally horse traders go back into

and bring out droves of Mongolian ponies or horses from

But commerce is lax, and the task of uniting these far places

these places
Tibet.

under one government remains extremely

The

obstacles are not

all

natural.

It

difficult.

may be

recalled that

Mongolia was for a time a member of the Soviet Union.

The

Outer

influence

of Russia has long been strong in this country, adjacent to Siberia

forming a second

if

not

first line of

defense in case of another

and

war with

Hence, the Nationalists' plans in this direction will have to

recognize the Russian problems before much progress can be expected.

Japan.

The Mongols

strong Chinese government.

their

coming into a federation with a

But they are under strong pressure from

are not entirely averse to

Russian neighbors.

Several years ago the Mongols staged an uprising and declared

themselves a democratic state, and the "government" at once declared
the Mongolian princes'

titles

void.

delegation from Charhar, north-

THE DRAGON STIRS

210

west of Peking, was sent to Nanking and the question of uniting with
the Nationalists was discussed.
The Mongolians presented a lengthy

development of their obsolete but apparently still

effective form of government.
In it, they appealed for autonomous rule
The appeal was
under a Branch Political Council from Nanking.
petition tracing the

Committee on Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs. But the

point is that the Mongols, to all intents and purposes, have

referred to the
significant

been ready to unite with Nanking.

How practical such a union might
prove is a question, but it is a move toward the goal of which the men

under Chiang Kai-shek once dreamed

Here are
gation

the

essential

proposals

suggested

by the

Mongol

dele-

1.

The

Mongol

clans

pledge

allegiance

Government and place themselves under the

to

the

Nationalist

jurisdiction

of

the

Kuomintang.
2.

In

of the present tittung and hsien

lieu

government the clans

of

shall

(district)

system

become the administrative

unit,

each clan electing its own representative to a Branch Political

The Council shall be under the direct control of the
Council.
Central Political Council in Nanking but shall not be responsible
to

any intermediary organ.

3.

Lands

illegally

seized from the clans

by the military

shall

be granted the right to police their

own

be returned to the original owners.

4.

The

clans

shall

territory.

These proposals sounded, in a way, like a suit for peace rather

than an offer then to join Nanking.
However, either way, once
accepted and working, Inner Mongolia would at least acknowledge the

The leaders of China still plan to bring

government.
Tibet and Mongolia under their flag, possibly as states adhering to the
rule

of

that

National Government, but at least part of a United China.

The Mongolian

delegation

declared

they

were

ready

to

fly

the

and participate in the National Government then at

As a result of this and of the program in the minds of the

Nationalist flag

Nanking.

nen
:>n

Nanking an effort was made to make some sort of formal start

The Nanking Governbringing Tibet and the Mongolians into line.
in

ment announced a series of regulations governing the organization and

DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KUAN

Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs

regime.
(The "Nanking Government"
of

functions

National

the

Chungking.)
This committee,

am

211

Committee

now

in

functions

the
at

something akin to the Indian Affairs

There is a difference, to be sure, at the
Committee in Washington.
very start, for Tibet and Inner and Outer Mongolia are far from
But the duties of the new combeing under the control of Nanking.
I

told, is

mittee have to do with the formation of a system whereby the com-

under and with the approval of the National Government,

can set up a civil administration throughout Tibet and

mittee, acting

eventually

Mongolia, subordinate to Nanking yet functioning with a large degree

of autonomy as far as "state rights" are concerned.
The regulations

extend over Mongolia

provide that, aside from a

set forth that the committee's jurisdiction ''shall

and Tibet only," and in the second article

chairman and vice-chairman, the committee

shall

include

"from nine

members, appointed by the National Government

recommendation of the Chairman of the Executive Yuan."
to

eleven

The Executive Yuan was one

on

of the five "yuan," or Councils,

the

which

handled the business of Government at Nanking.

The Committee, in
the Government's announcement of its formation, was admonished to
begin at

once on steady work looking to the fulfilment of the vast

expansion the leaders in Nanking hoped to see realized.

The body met at least once a week in formal session and in the meantime the sub-divisions, such as the Secretariat of the Committee, the

program

of

Mongolian Affairs Office and the Tibetan Affairs Office, carried on

the daily routine of carrying out the ideas and projects of the committee as a whole.

Until

emblem

1931
despite

Manchuria flew the Kuomintang, or National Party,

opposition

result in the execution of

Chang Hseuh-liang,

in

there

two

among

the

leaders

so

severe

as

to

The young governor, Marshal

statement explaining their summary

of them.

a public

There were
execution, declared they opposed joining with Nanking.
other considerations, including the intimation they had plotted to overthrow the Mukden regime and extend greater privileges to Japan in
Manchuria, and the allegation that one of them misappropriated money
in connection with his duties as

head of the Mukden arsenal.

Provinces in interior China also are yet to be brought into line

These include Yunnan on the border of Burma, Szechuan
definitely.

THE DRAGON STIRS

212

There
west of Hankow, Kansu and Sinkiang in the northwest.
will doubtless be long years of border warfare, during which unsubjust

jected bands of jobless men, erstwhile soldiers perhaps

in

the armies

There will,
prey on the countryside.
it is
admitted, be years of guerrilla fighting of a desultory but irritating
sort, which lack of railways and motor roads and communications

North or South,

of China,

generally will

make

will

difficult

Jameses and the Cole Youngers

China for many a tedious year

of

had

was

charge of

this

for them, perhaps,

The

in

mind

There

of suppression.

first

will

West
What the men

the border lands

that

is

granted.

be the Jesse

to

the

of

in

getting a start on their long and,

never-ending plan.

criticism that this is hardly the time to think of seeking further

is

expansion

But

perhaps well grounded.

Nanking Chinese, now

it

is

difficult to

convince the

They saw the

Chungking of that fact.
ten years from a tiny uprising around Canton to a

revolution

grow in
nationwide movement

in

The armies from Canton, Russian

guided, with

propaganda and a sick North as their allies, marched with comparative

ease across the entire face of China in less than two years and, in a
measure, unified the nation.

It is not difficult, then, for

them

to

dream

of accomplishing something similar in their lifetime for almost all Asia.

There
it

is

no

telling the

outcome of

must be admitted that the scope

to

to

admire,

pique

the

that

their labors,

of their scheme alone

imagination.

It

is

an

But

certain.

is

is

interesting

something
if

not

currently important phase of the activities of the Chungking Govern-

ment,

Divergence in the spoken language

is

one of the biggest obstacles

The Ministry of
Europe.
Education in the National Government has a program to popularize

to

unity

in

the use of
of

all

Asiatic

countries,

Mandarin as the

China.

Mandarin

the

in

official

as

in

and, eventually, the only language

The word "mandarin" means

the old

days was a magistrate.

official,

in

Chinese.

Hence, the Mandarin

language was the official court language.

Whenever a man of prominence in China makes an address he
Otherwise his audience might think
prefers to speak in Mandarin
him uneducated and unworthy of his high office.
Even students in
high schools and colleges in Shanghai and the south of China do not

speak Mandarin, although the majority of them

understand in a general way when spoken to in the
all

doubtless
official

can

tongue.

DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KHAN

A
It is also

a fact that

when speaking

universities

of

China

many

talk

in

students returning to China from American

other students from a different section

to

Now

English.

own tongue

or speak Mandarin

to note that

when

they do

213

and then they may lapse

if

they are able, but

it

is

into their

interesting

they almost invariably accompany their

words with a drawing of the Chinese character in the air or on some
convenient surface.

The written
The characters,
meaning

language,
that

various

in

is,

this

of

are the same.

sections

of

is

For example, many

the

country that differ from

the

but these are comparatively few.

The use of "pidgin English"

lower classes.

same throughout China.

There may be some shades of

is

course,

well

nigh

universal

of the servants

others,

the

among

on board the trans-

These Chinese "boys" may come from any

when, as often occurs, a Shanghai "boy" wants

Pacific liners are Chinese.

And

section of China.
to

in

go on an errand while his ship is in port in Hongkong, he speaks

This peculiar and picturesque jargon has grown
"pidgin English."

up along the China coast

in the past century.

a result only of the Chinese

efforts to learn a useful brand of English.
It has grown out of efforts
It

is

as

not,

is

generally

supposed,

on each side to reach some spoken method of expression readily comto

prehensible

the

other.

The

expressions

are

made by

the

use

of

But the form

English words or perversions of English words, true.
in the main is a direct translation of the Chinese expression for the

For example,

same meaning.

if

one wants a rickshaw he

tells

the

Chinese boy something like this: "My wantchee one piecie rickshaw."
Now that is not as far from what the Chinese would say in his own
This "language" has used English as
language as one might think.
its

on a substructure of Chinese grammatical construction.

The problem of teaching the Chinese masses to speak a new lan-

basis

guage

and that

are probably as

languages

in

woman and
language.
cation there
in

By

is

what Mandarin

many

Europe.
child

in

to

is

speak English, or any other one

even be easier because the standard of edu-

Europe

That might
is

them

a big one.
There
languages, or "dialects," in China as there are
It is almost like trying to teach every man,
is

to

infinitely higher, there are public school

systems already

operation and the public generally has learned to read and

write.

far the greater part of the Chinese people cannot even read

and

THE DRAGON STIRS

214

start

Education

felt.

write.

must be made, however, authorities in the Ministry of

Hence, a National Language Unification Preparatory

Committee has been appointed.

SOME AMERICANS

18

RECORD

WHO WERE

THERE

which we are discussing

would be complete without a chapter devoted to the story of
of the Americans and Englishmen who were then in positions

NO

of these

stirring

years

of authority in China.

This

resume of the

of

activities

those leaders

of

men

carries

us

back for a brief moment to the somber passing of a Marine officer,

who died by his own hand. The tragic death in Shanghai of Colonel
Charles Sanderson Hill, commanding officer of the 4th Regiment of
the United States Marines, removed one of the most brilliant figures

branch of the American

in this

service.

Colonel Hill was found dead

Regimental Headquarters Mess in the French ConIn

cession, at 8:28 on the morning of Monday, September 5, 1927.
his right hand was an automatic pistol
bullet through the brain
in his

bedroom

at

had caused death.

Apparently the barrel of the service weapon had
been placed in his mouth and the pistol discharged.
Colonel Hill had not been in good health since his arrival the
preceding February in command of the first contingent of American
Marines to come out to China in the emergency.
Despondency borhis
constant
indisposition, was, the
dering on melancholia, induced by
the
motive
for
his
suicide.
official report said,
apparent
His death was a distinct shock to Shanghai, where the commander
had become most popular during his comparatively short residence.
He had been active in the life of the foreign community and his jovial
good nature at the clubs and elsewhere had won him a host of real
Colonel Hill refused to cease work, and
he appeared through the heat of August at his office at Marine head-

friends.

Despite his

illness,

quarters every day up to the

The Monday morning

last.

of his death Colonel Hill arose as usual,

had

breakfast with the American naval medical officer attached to the 4th

Regiment, and went back upstairs.

his

bed, he placed

his pistol in his

In

full

mouth and

215

uniform,
fired.

standing beside

The doctor heard

THE DRAGON STIRS

216
his

body

on

the

fall

floor

and rushed
dead.

room

into the

Lieut.-Colonel

find the

to

D.

F.

commander

who

Kilgore,

lying

succeeded

Colonel Hill as commanding officer, telephoned me shortly after eleven

o'clock that morning.
"I wish you would come out to Headquarters
as soon as possible," he said.

"Colonel Hill died this morning/'

Colonel Charles Sanderson Hill was a graduate both of Annapolis

and West Point, and was regarded as one of the best schooled officers
in the service.
His career was outstanding in many ways, and it was

rumored

that

he was

Brigadier-General
Colonel Hill took

shortly

to

been

have

During his long

an active part in

raised

service

various

in

to

the

rank

the

Marine

campaigns,

of

Corps,

including

Boxer Rebellion, in the Philippines, in the

Spanish-American War, and overseas duty during the World War.
Prior to the Spanish- American War, he had served as a naval cadet.

service in China during the

In April, 1899, he accepted a commission in the United States Marine

Corps.

During the Boxer Rebellion, Colonel

Chinese waters

After service in the

Hill

served

Philippines

aboard

he became

ship

in

Marine

Fleet Officer in the Pacific Fleet, taking an active part in the campaign
in Nicaragua in 1912.
During the World War Colonel Hill was

attached to the Allied armies as an observer in France, a post at which

After the war, he was Commanding Officer of the
he won praise.

Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, from 1923 to 1926.

He
was transferred to San Diego as Commander of the 4th Regiment, and
came to China with them.
*
*
*

With

the appointment early in 1929 of

Mr. F.

W.

Maze, formerly
at
of
as
Commissioner
Customs
Shanghai,
Inspector-General of Customs, the Inspectorate-General was removed from Peking to Nanking.

The

Salt

Gabelle offices were closed

in

Peking some months before

and naturally the Chinese Government administrative offices in Peking

under the old regimes were closed when Peking fell.
The Nanking

Government determined
well as in

name with

The appointment

to

make

the

new

capital the capital in fact as

the shortest possible delay.

of Mr.
Maze, who is British

and

now

Sir

Maze, did not come as a surprise, although it was not

generally known that his succession to Mr. A, H. F, Edwardes, also
There had been something of a fight
British, would come so quickly,
Frederick

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

217

on between what became known as the Maze and the Edwardes

Edwardes was appointed Acting

Customs Administration.

tions in the

fac-

Inspector-General in February of 1927, succeeding Sir Francis Aglen

who was ousted by the late Marshal Chang Tso-lin, then in power in

His appointment was for one year.

Peking.

continued because of the continuance of the

had expired, but he

war and its attendant

It

civil

disturbed conditions throughout the country.

Following the
attention to

fall

of

Peking, the National Government turned

of state.

affairs

One

of the problems

was the

status

its

of

Mr. Edwardes and the possible appointment of a successor. Mr. Maze,

it was known, was friendly toward the new
Government while there

some who

were

felt,

perhaps,

that

Mr.

might not work so well with the

efficient,

while

Edwardes,
Ministry

of

doubtless

Finance

in

Nanking.

Whatever

more or

the

opinions

less acute, the fact

were that caused the problem to become

remains that Mr. Edwardes' re-appointment

or dismissal was held up for months pending a definite decision. Then

in the autumn of 1928 came announcement of the Ministry of Finance

Mr. Maze was

appointment as "officiating" Inspector-General.
given an associate position in the Customs at the same time, while
It was bruited about then
continuing as Commissioner in Shanghai.
of his

that

this

and that

was merely a "face-saving" proposition for Mr. Edwardes,

he would soon have to resign.
He did, and in his note of

resignation issued just before the end of the year, he deplored the dual
control.

Mr. Maze was appointed almost at once, as had been expected, and,
probably acting on instructions from Finance Minister T. V. Soong,
ordered the removal of the Administration
functioned

in

Shanghai

buildings in the

new

Inspectorate-General

circles.

like

Office space

many

other

was

at

divisions

of

Nanking.
adequate

They
office

a premium and the

of the Government

it

appointment was regarded with satisfaction in

There was some indication at the time of his elevation

of a century and

most

capital

construction

could there and in Nanking.

had been in the Customs service for more than a quarter

functioned as best

Mr. Maze

pending

the

offices to

his

to chief of the service that, inasmuch as he might be expected to retire

in two years or so, he was given the office as a temporary compromise.

This was

officially

denied.

THE DRAGON STIRS

218

was known, however,

It

regain complete control

rumor

would be forthcoming

The Administration was

date.

Hence, the

Customs Administration.

of the

persisted that efforts to this end

distant

sixty

National Government aspired to

that the

established

originally

at

no

some

ago as a means of safeguarding the great foreign debts

on the Customs.
The Powers interested, chiefly Britain,

years

secured

Japan and France, can hardly be expected to give up

as

supervision

long as

However,

tariffs.

it

are

there

would not

outstanding

be

loans

surprising

to

form of

this

on

secured
see

the

the

Customs

Inspectorate-Generalship go to a Chinese in the next few years

*
*
*

new

era

was launched

in

February,

1929,

in

China's

long dis-

turbed financial situation with the arrival of a commission of sixteen

American economic experts headed by

Prof.

Edwin Walter Kemmerer,

"money-doctor," to seek to stabilize the varied currency of the

The comnation and possibly to change the silver standard to gold.
the

mission included numerous prominent Americans noted for their knowl-

edge of banking, budgeting,

currency,

The group was among many

with

similar

and financing problems.

commissions which were then
fiscal

American energy aiding the National

sanely with

its

to

proceed
ambitious schemes to renovate the war-torn and back-

ward country on modern

Professor

Government

lines.

Kemmerer had

not

much

upon landing other than

to remark, "A doctor is unable to diagnose the patient prior to an
examination," but he added that he intended to get to work immediately.

of that

He

to say

conferred with the Finance Minister, T. V.

day and also with the Railways Minister, Sun-Fo.

Soong, most

The

mild-

mannered but energetic professor in his early fifties, who has revived
the dying finances of numerous nations during his remarkable career,
was noncommittal concerning the aims of the commission but he
seemed most eager to start work on the task for which Princeton
University allowed him to be absent for a year from the chair of
economics.

The

assignment was the centralizing of Federal control of

China's revenues, to be followed by establishing a uniform currency
of the same exchange value throughout the country.
The third task

was

chief

to abolish the tael system,

of pure silver,

known

which

the custom of using one ounce

as the tael, as the basis of
exchange, causing a
is

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

219

when changing foreign currency into any Chinese

versa.
The Commission outlined a budget on the prac-

double transaction

money or

vice

revenues which covered construction projects of

scope and which was designed to repay the numerous foreign
of current

basis

tical

vast
loans

China

to

in

the

shortest

Prominent members

Young, expert
the

in

of

Dr.

finance;
to

the

who

City

W. B

resigned as economic adviser to

States

West

Poland,

Benjamin B.

United

Boston

Cleveland,

National

were Dr. Arthur Nichols

the commission

public credit,

Universities, tax expert;

expert

period.

Department; Dr. Oliver C. Lockhart,

State

railway

possible

Wallace,

Tariff

and Buffalo

Cornell

Point, N. Y., expert in

for

Commission;

some years
Dr.

Frederick

Richard

Bank,

W.

A.

budget expert; F. B. Lynch of the

on banking methods; William Watson,

University,

expert

formerly of the faculty of Syracuse University, specialist in

trol;

special

Bonneville,

the

of

formerly

United

fiscal

States

con-

Com-

merce Department, expert in fiscal control; Edward F. Feely of New

York, consultant on export trade financing general secretary of the
3

commission,

and Dr.

and

Harvard

W.

Frank
of

professor

Other members included the

Fetter,

economics
staff

and

graduate

at

of

Princeton,

their families,

Princeton

and

undersecretary.

and some remained

longer than a year.

The

American

or experts, impressed foreigners

as well as the Chinese with the determination of Nanking to proceed

on

influx of

what,

visions

less

of

year

dreamers and

played in the

Kemmerer

than

rebuilding

advisers,

China caused

stressed the fact that

considered

The predominant

idealists.

of

were

earlier,

all

increasing

members

of the

the

impractical

part

Americans

comment.

Dr.

commission for-

merly connected with the Washington Government had severed their

official connections prior to coming to China; hence, the commission

was

unofficial.

There was no semblance

support whatsoever.

of

American governmental

Henry L

Stimson and John Van A. MacMurray, then

American Minister, were guests of Dr. C. T. Wang, former Foreign
Minister of the National Government, and Dr. H. H. Kung, later
Colonel

Minister of Finance, at an informal private dinner in Shanghai in the

spring of 1929.
Among the other guests, aside from American officials,

were other Cabinet members and some

Chinese friends in high

official

positions.

of

Colonel

Stimson's

THE DRAGON STIRS

220

The

function

of the others

was

Mrs. Stimson and the wives

entirely unofficial.

were present and there were no speeches, the Governor-

General of the Philippines declining

officially

to discuss his future or

somewhat hurried journey to WashingHe conferred with Mr. MacMurray

State.
before the dinner, but both officials insisted that their meeting was
purely personal and was not related to Colonel Stimson's probable
any other problems during
ton to become Secretary of

his

America's policy toward China from Washington, the

Colonel explaining that he was naturally interested in Chinese affairs
of

direction

but, for the present at least, purely as Governor-General of the Philip-

pines and an American citizen.

"You

are meeting

me

as the Governor-General of the Philippines,"

Colonel Stimson told me.

"I

am

positively unable to affirm the

rumors

So far as the
appointment to the Cabinet in any post whatever.
Philippines are concerned, the past year is generally considered to have

of

my

made

history in our relations with the islands, which

me and

fying to

to

in

others

my

administration.

is

highly grati-

believe

the

that

expressed attitude of the Filipino leaders, the desire to cooperate with

the American administration of the islands is entirely sincere.
During

we have

the year

long

built the

remain and grow.

framework

of this policy

That the old opposition

which
is

hope

will

fading away

is

reasonably clear in the great developments along these lines."

Mr. MacMurray
no

said that his visit to

Nanking and Shanghai had

political importance.

"Its

only

possible

inquiry into

certain phases

law, which

wish to

to

relation
of

public

affairs,"

he

Nanking's new trademark

I did not discuss politics

clarify.

said,

my

visit

was primarily

with Dr.

Nanking recently, and

some time but was unable

for

When

the late

Most

have

forces

*
Bristol,

commander-in-chief of the

Far East for two years,

summer of 1929, he left behind

in

the

remarkably large and strikingly sincere

among

of the other Ministers

had been planning a similar journey

to leave Peking until now."

departed for Washington at the end of

a

The

to.

Admiral Mark L.

American Naval and Marine

Wang

to acquaint myself personally with

the progress of affairs at Nanking.

visited

my

registration

or any one else yesterday at Nanking, and did not intend

purpose of

"was

circle

of

friends

the foreigners throughout the Orient, but Chinese of

not
all

only

walks

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

of

The naval

life.

came

officer-diplomat

to

arriving late in August, 1927, and taking over

China

command

221

from

Turkey,

of the Asiatic

Station on September 9 of that year from Admiral C. S. Williams.

to be sure, been

There have,

no unpopular men who have held

this

high post in the American Navy, but it is perhaps not incorrect to say
that with the advent of Admiral Bristol's assumption of command a
still

more

cordial relationship

between the head

existed

our pro-

of

and the business men, American missionaries and

others who went out to the east to broaden the scope of our commerce

tective forces there

and

made

Bristol

know

who were

Chinese

the

very

Admiral

beginning,

apparent he wanted to meet the business men, to get

it

their views, to

From

world.

the

in

civilization

He

their problems.

likewise wanted to meet the

directing the destinies

of their

He met

country.

men

conducting the Nationalist revolution in Shanghai, and later

he went north and in Peking and elsewhere met the men who were
the

then combating the Southern forces.

He wanted
to

go about

his

first.

and

later

to get at

The sojourn

it.

He

sides of the situation.

all

Admiral

of the

And

he knew

in Asiatic waters

how

was not

China as an ensign nearly fifty years ago

served on the Yangtze Patrol and was in China at the out-

break of the

went out

to

revolution in

first

overthrown and the

when

1911,

the

Manchu Dynasty was

attempts at a Republic were ineffectively but

first

Furthermore, his experience as the American High

Commissioner in Turkey, during a strikingly similar period when that

persistently

made.

bilitation

War

went through a period of national rehaand governmental reform, stood the Admiral in good stead

country after the Great

in China.

Guided by
study

of

Bristol

affairs

experiences

formed the conviction

would emerge

word or

Near East following a careful

as they were when he arrived in China, Admiral

his

act,

victorious.

He

in

the

that

the

Nationalist

forces

in

China

naturally could take no sides either in

but there was a tendency in his attitude to lean toward

the Nationalists as the better force toward progress for the people of
He made it a point never to prophesy. Nevertheless,
the country.
his

sensing

of

the

trend

of

events

was

as

accurate

a barometer

as

And he was able to judge

could be desired, as things turned out.
rather better than other observers because of his cordial attitude
toward the Chinese who could give him information concerning what

THE DRAGON STIRS

222

was happening in this or that faction in the revolution or in the North.

Admiral Bristol served in the Asiatic Station at a time when it
So among the first things he
was highly important to keep posted.
did was to get acquainted personally with such men as the late Dr.
Foreign Minister in the Nanking Government, Dr.
C. T. Wang, then not officially in politics but later Foreign Minister
at Nanking and once Ambassador in Washington, General Chiang
C.

C.

Wu,

then

Kai-shek, and

others.

met these men, talked with them, and learned much from this
The meetings always were purely unofficial, to be
personal contact.

He

The land was

Washington had not then recognized Nanking.
divided by civil war.
It was a time requiring diplomatic procedure
indeed to meet the men on both sides with equal tact and interested
sure.

There was never then nor has there ever been any reason
to think Admiral Bristol, by meeting men in the first Nanking Govern-

friendship.

Nor by discussing affairs

ment, lent even moral aid to that cause.
with the men in Peking did he have any notion of influencing them
one way or the other.
got

He was

merely seeking information, and he

it.

And

There was for a while somehe got some criticism, as well.

thing of a feeling that the Admiral was not entirely discreet in meeting
It was said in various circles
the men leading a revolutionary cause.

would cause trouble by such actions

that perhaps he

His friendship

toward the Chinese, whatever their politics, aroused a certain antipathy

among those foreigners who were not able to see the slightest change

His advice

never given as advice but merely as opinion

in friendly conversations with American residents
that the foreigners
should get better acquainted with the Chinese, accepting them socially
in

China.

to a greater degree

and treating them as

equals, brought heated argu-

a changed attitude now, and those who criticized

came to admit the Admiral's foresighted policy was correct.
ments.

But there

The Admiral

is

sat in the

American Club

in

Shanghai one evening

and discussed things with a group of American observers well

Now it was very bad form to quote the
versed in Chinese affairs.
recall

Admiral.

He

declared

the

day he

arrived

that

he

would

not

be

quoted then or any other time on any subject, and he also said if he
were quoted he would deny anything in print as coming from him.
He would discuss any subject at length, get the views of those he was

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

own

223

and then, if a newspaperman be

present, he would say in parting: "Use anything you've got from me
These talks
as a background if you want, but you can't quote me.
talking with, give his

are just for our

own

opinions

They work both ways.

information.

something from you and you may get something from me, and
But don't quote me."
both understand the situation better.

So no one ever

may get
we may

But now perhaps a word or two the Admiral

did.

The "observers"
might not be considered lese majeste.
referred to above included two war correspondents, one man travelling
then

said

China gathering material for a book, the American publisher of one

of the largest Chinese newspapers in the nation, the Admiral's Chiefin

Kenneth Castleman, a banker, and two or three men

directing large American commercial interests, who kept up on political
events more than was customary.
of-Staff,

Capt.

The conversation was

up the military phase of the revolution; the

mentioned, and the effect of this strategic

Hankow.

One man,

Someone brought
capture of Shanghai was
move on the regime at

general for the most part.

the

writer

of

books,

related

his

experiences

few weeks previously with bandits on the Yangtze River. He lost his
wallet and all his ready cash, and his wife lost her jewelry, but the

who boarded

bandits, or pirates,

harm.

killed

They

the river steamer, did

them no bodily

one or two Chinese in their excitement, however,

and shot an American from Hankow through the

leg for

no apparent

reason.

The

relations of foreigners with the Chinese

one wondered whether

been done

now

all

we

was mentioned.

should admit them to our clubs.

over China, a revolutionary change.

Some-

This has

The Admiral

said:

"I think

by

all

it

means.

a splendid
If

we

idea.

We

should admit them to the clubs,

treat these people as equals, they will not fail to

react to our friendship.

be dispelled.
nation today
that

The

we

This conception of our superiority has got to

There are Chinese gentlemen in the Government of this

who

are by no

means our

inferiors.

It is

true,

grant,

see countless thousands of inferior Chinese in our daily lives.

coolies,

has produced

the lower classes,

some great

are our

scholars

inferiors.

and statesmen.

The Chinese
There

is

race

a great

change going on in China today, and the wave of nationalism sweeping

the country is going to result in even greater changes.

THE DRAGON STIRS

224
"It

cannot

may

take

even

some

time,

appreciate

Chinese people.

We

it

facing

all

There are problems that we

the leaders who want to unify the

is

realize

true.

the

language

difficulty,

the

lack

of

the mass of Chinese, the lack of ready communications

which keep the Chinese apart not only from the world but from themselves.
These are vast obstacles, but it is possible for the leaders of

education

among

the Chinese eventually to overcome them.

"I think a great step has been taken in this country in the past

two years toward awakening a

great nation.

It is

wrong

to

deny that

If we understand that and admit the Chinese

change is occurring.
those who are educated
to our clubs and treat them socially as equals

Chinese gentlemen and gentlewomen

now

that

"This

we must
spirit

phenomenon.

It

experience with

swept Europe after

in

by no means a new
the war and I had a personal

consciousness

national

is

Turkey before coming

China are very, very similar

The

here.

all

in

special rights of foreigners,

the rising influence of a race consciousness are

in

The changes

to the changes that took place in Turkey.

abolition of consular jurisdiction, of

and sentiment

have learned a lesson

will

learn sooner or later.

of

it

we

all

China and among the Chinese.

similar to the events

We

much
Great War.

could learn

by studying the history of Turkey's development since the

It is futile to deny similar changes are occurring in this

country

today."

That, briefly,

was Admiral

Bristol's

credo

on China.

It

was,

might add, the opinion of most well informed persons living in the east
then.
Neither he nor they denied that the change to real unity will
still require time.
Perhaps this unity will eventually be in the form
each even more nearly autonomous than at
similar in a way to the Federation of German States

of a federation of states
first

planned

welded into a nation

than a century ago by Bismarck.

The Chinese that live in the hinterlands of Asia and millions
less

the illiterate living along the Pacific coast

meaning of the programs of their leaders.

know

all

They

are content to con-

too

sider their family as the unit, their village as their home,

ince as their universe.

They

will

little

of

the

their prov-

be loyal to their family and patriotic

in a varying degree to their native place

idea of a nation will take time to sink

Admiral Bristol had gained on

of

in.

and
It

their province.

was

But the

this conception that

his last sojourn in the east.

His judg-

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

ment,

is

it

now

agreed,

generally

was

correct.

He

225

understood

the

problems but firmly believed the traditional American policy of altruism

and friendship would continue to prove best and that the Chinese

would eventually prove themselves not unworthy of that policy.

The social affairs on board the flagship U. S. S. Pittsburgh given
by the Admiral and Mrs. Bristol, who is an entirely charming hostess,
stand out as particularly memorable

Commander-in-Chief s residence

features

of

another

side

of

the

Chinese as well as Americans

there.

and many

persons of other nationalities in that cosmopolitan port

the tea dances under the vari-colored awning aft on the

attended

and the occasional formal evening balls on the spacious flagafter deck.
His cordial geniality and Mrs. Bristol's graciousness

cruiser
ship's

widened their

Admiral

circle of friends

each

visit.

Bristol's close touch with the Chinese

commanders

of other defense forces in Shanghai.

was extended

He was

to the

particularly

friendly with

Major-General Sir John Duncan, formerly head of the

The General was a frequent visitor
British Shanghai Defense Force.

at

the

Bristol

in

residence

Shanghai

and

this

close

contact

social

understanding that made the solution of

defense problems easier than any formal discussion of similar questions
*
*
*
could have done.

brought

about

mutual

Julean Arnold, the American commercial attache in Peiping, who

returned in May 1929 from an extensive tour through Kwangsi Province

and south into Yunnan, said upon

his

arrival

in

Shanghai that

war with Kwangtung Province around Canton, the people

Kwangsi were not suffering appreciably and that good roads were

despite a
of

being built in
"I

many

travelled

sections of the province.

more than a thousand miles by motor

Kwangsi," Mr. Arnold

new highways

all

said,

the time,

"over excellent roads.

and while

it

car

through

are building

They
may be some years before

up this province, the highways and

carry an increasing amount of the farmers' goods to the
railroads have opened

rivers will
east

coast

markets."

Mr. Arnold said he

travelled virtually

alone,

without a guard of

any kind, and had no trouble anywhere along the route.

"foreign food" along nor any water bags or bottles of
to drink.

He

he got "a

bit fed

it,*'

carried

distilled

no

water

whole time, and while he admitted

he said he had not worried about his

ate Chinese food the

up with

He

THE DRAGON STIRS

226
on

health

this

Few

account.

if

any foreigners

the

in

Pacific

coast

China eat Chinese food unless they know where

is prepared and how.
it
Typhoid fever and dysentery are all too
prevalent to take many chances on the sanitation of a Chinese rescities

and elsewhere

in

It is particularly dantaurant even in the foreign concession areas.

gerous at certain seasons of the year to eat green vegetables grown

in

China because the Chinese

fertilize their

truck gardens with

human

"I ate anything and

a custom throughout the Far East.
"Get tough, I
everything as we went along," Mr. Arnold admitted.
I've had no ill effects
guess, after thirty years out in this country.

"night

soil/'

jet"
Mr. Arnold said he noticed
"It

was

as

peaceful

mile

for

little

after

trouble throughout the province.

mile

of

fertile

farm land as the

middle west at home/' he said.

"One gets the feeling of being terribly
No news of the
out of touch back in the hinterlands of China.
developments in Nanking or abroad reached us for days at a time.
Rather a good thing, at that, to get away from the news of turmoil
for awhile, I think.

The people down

there didn't seem to

happened in Nanking or Shanghai or anywhere

had good crops and were not molested."
Bandits in Kwangsi were few, Mr. Arnold

were not unknown, but added

heard

He

of.

that section of

of

politicians

Canton

else

said.

that only occasionally

mind what

as long as they

He
were

said
their

they
raids

most optimistic picture of affairs in

China, from which had arisen in recent months a group
known as the "Kwangsi clique" who were menacing
painted

and were

all

in all a

planning to overthrow the Nanking

Government, forming a combine with the "Christian General."
said

"The roads system

"They have highways

to

be

nothing short of excellent," Mr. Arnold added.

crossing the province that intersect with high-

is

ways running north and

south,

and one can drive

to almost

any im-

portant spot in the province by motor.

"Another feature of the new transportation system is the organization of numerous bus lines that run every direction.
They are
buying more buses all the time, most of them from the United States.
This is true in other provinces, to be sure, but the
development in

Kwangsi

is

particularly

significant

at this

time.

One may

ride

one end to the other of the province on these lines in

safety."
Telephone lines have been laid out and put into operation,

from

Mr.

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

Arnold

"The long

said.

distance

"You can

truly remarkable/' he commented.

service

telephone

of

Central

strange

is

stop

an

at

inn.

find

to

what has been considered a warlike, backward

back from

Kwangsi

anywhere along the

a town two or three hundred

main highway and telephone ahead to

miles away and reserve a room for the night
is perfect.
I was most pleasantly surprised

Safely

in

227

this

district

The

service

progress

in

of China/'

among

experiences

the

nomadic

tribes

Kermit Roosevelt passed through Shanghai late in

Success crowned what for a time seemed to be a futile

Asia,

May, 1929.

panda, under the auspices of the Field

Museum in Chicago, undertaken by Kermit and his brother Theodore
in another chapter of their explorations of little-visited corners of the

hunting trip

for

the

giant

earth.

Journeying overland from Rangoon through Burma and thence

across the southwestern top of China into Tibet, scouring mountains,
valleys and snow-clad highlands in quest of the beast which lured them

on

their

dangerous sporting mission, the Roosevelt party

much

after

weeks

a giant
They turned toward China once more from Tibet and in what
panda.
is known as the Independent Lola country, a tiny state bordering on
of fruitless tracking despaired of sighting,

Tibet

and

China

adjacent

to

Szechuan

less shooting,

Province,

they

found

their

quarry.

Nearly six months from the time they departed with Kashmir
guides and carriers from the familiar hill country, Kermit, with the
spoils of the chase,

remained at

was en route

Saigon for

several

to America, while

weeks

to

Colonel Roosevelt

continue

the

hunting

ex-

pedition in less sequestered tracts.

partner had not got hold of me

back to work/' Kermit told me at tiffin. "My brother

"I would be with

and dragged

me

him

yet

if

my

The other foreign memremaining at Saigon with Suydam Cutting.

ber of the party, Herbert Stevens, a bird specialist, is coming out via
is

Szechuan and the Yangtze River.

should reach here in a few weeks."

He

is

now

about at Chengtu and

Discussing his trip, Mr. Roosevelt said: "We

Burma, on the border of China on December 20.

left

My

Shamo

Village,

brother, Cutting

and myself, together with the Kashmir carriers, went by mule train
overland to Yunnan, thence into Tibet, where for weeks we wandered

THE DRAGON STIRS

228

But we were unsuccessful, days of

panda.
Finally we turned west and southward
tracking getting us nowhere.
and thence
again, reaching the border of China in Szechuan Province,
in

search of

the

giant

went south through the Independent Lola country. Here, one morning
following a rather heavy snowfall, we found panda tracks.
"We were extremely lucky, as a matter of fact, for after only four
hours of tracking we discovered the beast taking its noonday siesta.
My brother and I approached carefully, fired simultaneously and got
him.
The Lola runners with us refused to bring the animal into their
It

village.

them.

seems the giant panda

was amusing

It

conducted

is

find they

later to

Lola people never harm the panda.

seen one.

"The

beast

was a

beautiful

Most

minor deity among

had called in a priest who

and drive

rites to purify the tribe

of

sort

off

avenging

The

we met had never

of those

specimen,

spirits.

weighing

more than 200

pounds and measuring nearly seven feet in length. It had a thick coat
of fur with black and white splotches and a white head with black
a black

eyeglasses,

fringe

of

around the

hair

eyes.

The animal

is

believed to belong to the bear family, but, unlike bears, never hibernate and, furthermore, has forty-two teeth instead of forty.
Otherwise,
it

is

similar to the bear species.

'The panda
provided in

its

exclusively on

lives

native

haunts,

bamboo

shoots,

which are the high

which are amply

altitudes,

ranging

from 8,000 to 14,000 feet. It always stays among thick bamboo forests
Its habits are bearlike, but scientists can
and is very fond of honey.
determine from this specimen that

He

it

has a definite classification."

described the Lolas as amiable people, similar to the

American

Although the country through which the party

walked for hundreds of miles is one of the wildest parts of Asia and
Indians in

is

many ways.

infested with bandits,

any kind and that

the

Mr. Roosevelt
people

said he

everywhere

had not met trouble of

were

most friendly

and

cordial.

"When we

entered the Lola country," he said,

entertained us, and

when we

"the chief of the

he sent his son along to

assure us safe conduct as far as the next village.
In this manner we
first village

were carried through

ot the

Chinese

this tiny friendly

when we

to this country."

left

state,

much

to the

told the tale of our experiences

amazement

on returning

THE DRAGON LEARNS TO FLY

19

* THE dragon of China, slowly awakening from a long slumber

so long that it makes Rip van Winkle's sleep seem like a nap1^

shook himself and tried his wings.

In the past few years the
He had earlier made divers vain attempts
dragon has learned to fly.
but now the beast took to the air with a great whirring and roar.
The Chinese people, in other words, given a breathing spell for peacetime pursuits in 1928-29 learned the Occident's use of the air as a

medium

This was one of the most revolutionary peacetime

strike Asia, and the Chinese took to the air with

for travel.

reforms

yet

to

amazing avidity. There had been flights by Chinese pilots in the past,
to be sure; but it was not until the Kuomintang Revolution swept
north on Peiping that it became anything like the vital factor in Chinese
daily

life

that

it

has since become.

American aviation

interests

were

in the

van

of the "foreign devils"

who

taught the Chinese the use of the airplane in recent years.

They
were the pioneers in a practical way, and the American-owned Clipper
flying boats led the

way

in blazing this

Their
great trail for China.
route
on
the
intervals
regular

1935-36 at
great airships
across the broad Pacific to Manila, and they got permission from the
Portuguese Government at Lisbon to alight in waters off the Porfirst

flew in

The British in the

tuguese concession of Macao, in south China.
beginning refused permission to alight off their Crown Colony of HongConnections are made from Macao
kong, but that also was granted.
and Hongkong with air lines now criss-crossing China. Trans-Pacific
passengers land there and can

take

a Chinese-controlled commercial

passenger plane north.

This air service between California and China is one of the most
inspiring aerial steps to annihilate space and time in the history of
carrying only air mail and crew, was made
from Alameda, California, to Manila on November 22, 1935, the Clipper

mankind.

The

first flight,

229

THE DRAGON STIRS

230

returning December 2 of that year to her home base at the end of an

awe inspiring round trip across the vast stretches of open water. There

Hawaii, Midway, Wake Island and Guam, where modern

It is only
hotels have been completed for the tourist's overnight stop.

were stops

at

700 miles farther

a short

China from Manila

to

flight,

compared

to

the distance already covered.

In China
the

itself

are no

coolies

now

is

it

longer

possible to

surprised

at

fly

the

almost anywhere.
Even
sight or the sound of a

an indication of the great revolutionary strides which the peoples of the Dragon have made in recent
Until very recently a Chinese "junk*' or sailboat was the
years.

and

plane overhead

ordinary

mode

connecting

all

to Peiping in

Today there are regular air lines

One can fly from Shanghai
the major cities of China.
six hours
Formerly it took two days in good times on
of travel in Asia.

an express

the

Or one

fly

can

that, in itself, is

famed Blue Express, then the crack railway train.

whereas it took me five
to Hankow in four hours

days by steamer up-river and three days

down

in

1927.

Cheng-tu was formerly an outpost in Szechuan Province almost unreachable over the gorges of the Yangtze, rapid and dangerous at any
time above Hankow.
Now the flight from Shanghai is made in eight
hours.

It

is

made

several

times

a week

now

as

often

as

the

in-

The coolie still has to use the old style

creasing traffic will allow.
or at rare intervals, he takes a
"junk" on the rivers of his ancestors
The

train.

themselves.

At

prices

for

But there

flying

are above

his

reach,

in this

is

like

the

great progress
this point, I want to sketch the early days of aviation,

Chinese

first

started to

when

the

anything like a practical, serious way.

to do with aviation in China from the start.

fly

The Americans had much

airplanes

field.

in

Popular interest was piqued early by a flight nearly around the world
by two extraordinarily daring and capable fliers from Michigan in their
plane, the Pride oj Detroit.
They were Messrs. Brock and Schlee,
never forget the September evening in 1928 when they
appeared out of the south from Hongkong, and landed outside Shanghai.
All was prepared for a reception at the Race Course in the center

and

shall

Shanghai on Bubbling Well Road but they thought the oval too
small for a take-off and landed at Hunjao Airport at the city limits
instead, keeping us running back and forth like water-bugs for an hour.
of

Shanghai,

a city of

thrills

inured to war's

hysteria,

tingled

with

THE DRAGON LEARNS

excitement at the brief

visit

FLY

TO

231

whose world

of America's daring aviators

took them there for a single night's way-station pause early in

Word of the safe arrival of Schlee and Brock at
September 1928.

flight

Omura

near

Nagasaki, reached Shanghai

September 11, and was received with a real sense of
Village,

the

late
relief.

night

of

Telephones

newspapers and news agencies rang constantly late that afternoon

and evening, with thousands inquiring after the safety of the aviators
of all

whose

efficiency

arrival in

and daring captured popular imagination.

Japan despite

their failure to

Their safe

reach Tokyo, their goal, was

widely applauded.
An aftermath of enthusiasm followed Schlee and Brock as the public
awakened to the significance of the unusual flight.
While popular

was

acclaim

interested chiefly

in their

heroics,

a significant phase of

the universal plaudits was the hearty praise from aviation officers in
The British Royal Air
the Shanghai defense force of many nations.

Force

were deeply impressed and did not

officers

the achievement.

in

their pride

daring and

skill

unstintingly praised

declare

the

fliers'

from a professional viewpoint as indicating the progress

The

of aviation.

They

hesitate to

British airplane carrier officers sent congratulations,

asking the U. S. S. Pittsburgh: "Please convey to the pilots of the

Pride of Detroit the congratulations of the Argus on their very fine

performance."
Popular sentiment was

summed up in press comment which lauded

The Shanghai Times, a British-owned daily,

the Americans highly.

printed

an

editorial

acclaiming

ment/' and characterizing

it

as

the flight

as

"magnificent achieve-

"the most successful yet undertaken,"

The North China Daily News,

progress of aviation.
British, pointed to the importance of their non-stop flight from Hongkong to Shanghai, stating: "The Pride of Detroit has shown that it
indicating

tfie

of one day.
What all realize
possible to accomplish this in the space
in this performance is the great progress which airplanes and engines
is

have

made

in

recent

splendid calibre of the

years.

men who

One

appreciates

carry out these

more and more

flights.

We

may

the

well

our congratulations to the Pride of Detroit and her navigators

on their performance in reaching Shanghai, for it not only creates a
offer

record from
lishes

new

New York
local

to China, but

if

we

are not mistaken

long distance achievement."

the non-stop flight from Hongkong.

The

last

it

estab-

referred to

THE DRAGON STIRS

232

that Schlee and

(then American) pointed out
Brock flew virtually without assistance, remarking: "Mountains, forests
and oceans were found to be no bar to this flight around the world,"

The China

Press,

they have had no governmental aid either

continuing that "thus far,

But the most difficult

from our Army or Navy.
Prayers of
they must cross the Pacific Ocean.

millions

come

to

all

over the

off

portion of their flight.

This paper pointed out that

is

from Japan on this last and most

We wish them Godspeed."

world go with them as they take

awesome

stretch

it

had no desire to discourage Schlee

and Brock, but added that in the event that they returned safely to
Detroit, "judging from the many disasters, ocean flying might well be
curtailed for a while except when some great scientific object may be
attained.

Every

aviators to carry

them

the glory of being the

The

article

has

country

nor

ambitions

does

any

do

added a suggestion

or that stunt, what

this

for

scientific

research

brave

than merely

out, but unless the stake is higher

first to

lack

is

into

gained?"
aviation

problems of the upper air, ending: 'Then try for world records, but
The roads are too few and the milestones too many,
not just yet.

most of them yet unmarked graves."

By November

1928, popular interest in aviation in

creased by leaps and bounds.

One

the unprecedented flight of the

similar

to

that

in

which

of the

in-

most powerful influences was

Canton, a

Lindbergh

China had

flew

Ryan-Mahoney monoplane
the

Atlantic.

Piloted

by

Captain Chang Hui-chang of the Chinese Air Force, the Canton left
Canton early that fall and made a non-stop flight to Hankow, nearly
a thousand miles.

Captain Chang

left

there

and hopped

off

to

Nan-

At
king, varying his original intention to proceed directly to Peking.
the capital he was given a tremendous ovation.
The foreign as well as
the

Chinese press gave his

flight

wide

Captain "Chang next flew to Peking

publicity.

Again he was given a great

and dinners and receptions similar to those of air heroes in

the Occident were tendered him and his two companions
by the Chinese

ovation,

General

Yen

Hsi-san, governor of Shansi then in charge

of the Peking-Tientsin area, gave him a dinner
The aviators
party.
dignitaries.

were feted by the populace, and General Pei Chung-hsi also

gave Chang
a dinner.
He was the hero of the hour in Peking. Captain Chang
flew to Mukden, then capital of
Manchuria, prior to returning down

THE DRAGON LEARNS

FLY

TO

233

All along the way he

Shanghai and thence to Canton.
was heralded with enthusiasm and high acclaim.
The flight itself would not have been so extraordinary anywhere
the coast to

but in the Orient.

But

it

was an achievement

in China,

where aviation

then played so small a part in war or peace.

It is true there
was even then a Flying Corps under the War Office. But there were
still few planes in use and aside from rare occasions when they were
used to observe enemy positions, neither force in the Kuomintang

had

until

Revolution resorted to any sort of aerial warfare.

had the best aviation department then in China.

Mukden

possibly

There were more

100 airships at the Mukden airdrome and I saw their arsenal

branch there, constantly turning out new machines for which engines
than

Airplanes could be seen flying over Mukden

almost any day in summer; but even there they had been used but

were purchased abroad.

seldom in war, and no commercial lines had yet been attempted.

it is
vastly changed and modernized.

One
that

Today

of the aerial developments at Nanking was the announcement

Government was considering organization

the

aviation corporation.

Officials in the Ministries

dustry,

Commerce and Labor, and Finance

China.

The Government was

of a

of

Sino-German

War,

Interior,

In-

conferred on the subject.

Air lines to Europe were discussed as well as commercial routes in
also desirous of inaugurating a line con-

There was some question whether,

necting the capital and Kalgan.
under the agreement prohibiting the sale of arms and ammunition by
Americans to China, airplanes could be sold in that country.
result, most of the planes first in use were purchased in Europe.
ever,

the Canton was a

As a
How-

Ryan-Mahoney brougham monoplane with a

Wright whirlwind motor.

"It

is

opinion that American airplane motors are far superior

my
1

to all others/

Captain Chang

toric cross-country flight.

said,

just prior to

"They are

starting on his his-

'fool-proof for one thing.

And

I would like to see an assembly

they stand up better in a long run.
There will be
plant started in Canton, backed by American capital.

an increasing demand for airplanes in the near future as we establish

air mail and passenger services between our larger cities, and it costs

much

to ship a plane

An

assembly plant will be needed,

and I would like to see an American aviation company back of it."
too

American aviation

all set

interests

up.

hopped across the

Pacific,

and a new

THE DRAGON STIRS

234

was inaugurated in China's communications on April

when Minister Sun Fo, acting in his capacity as president of
era

19,

1929,

the China

National Aviation Corporation, signed a contract with Aviation ExThe latter under the
ploration, Inc., a subsidiary of the Curtiss group.
on three
agreed to carry mail for the National Government

agreement
trunk lines.

Experts said that the signing

one of the greatest

signing

took

this

important agreement opened

The
of commercial flying in the world.

fields

in

place

of

Nanking,

following

State

Council

meeting

during the afternoon to consider the proposals submitted some weeks

earlier.
Some objections were encountered at the outset of the negotiations against permitting foreign interests to handle a Government

These were overcome, however, by Nanking's somewhat naive organization of the corporation which ostensibly handled
mail contract.

the

mail

itself

which

but

sublet

the

ploration people, so that the effect

contract

was

to

the

precisely the

Ex-

Aviation

same.

were proposed immediately, one connecting Nanking and Peiping, the second linking Canton to Hankow, and the third
thus all interlocking.
It
linking Shanghai and Hankow via Nanking

Three trunk

was announced
Americans

lines

that

to train

would be established immediately by the

Chinese pilots and other personnel, the idea being
schools

employ Chinese wherever possible as soon as they were capable of

The American pilots were to be kept only as long as they
flying.

to

were

essential.

Major William B. Robertson

this formal

representing the American firm,

made

announcement:

This

will

be a Chinese service under control of the National

Government but with American management and operation for

the time being.
the

name

of

The

the

airplanes will display Chinese characters for

Chinese

Corporation

and the insignia of the

National Government

Aviation Exploration further receives the

privilege of engaging
in

the air

transportation

of

passengers and freight

on

its

own

account, and to manufacture planes and equipment in China.

It
is planned to form a new American
company with a capitalization
of several million

dollars

invited to participate.

(gold),

in

which the Chinese

will

be

Rapid communications are the urgent need

THE DRAGON LEARNS

of the
rail

moment

here.

or motor roads

It will

TO

FLY

235

take years to meet this

but by aviation

it is

demand by

hoped that China within

a few months will be on a parity with the other nations in air

communications.
competition was met during the weeks of strenuous
negotiations, as well as that from other American interests in China.
Shanghai was alive with aviators from abroad seeking to establish

European

lines in all directions.

while trying to "sell"

Major Robertson brought four

Nanking his mail contract idea.

planes to China

Their demon-

impressed the Chinese officials, particularly Mr. Sun Fo.

The Minister of Railways was enthusiastic after flying in one of these
strations

Nanking from Shanghai. He said many

commute to Nanking by air from Shanghai.

planes to

officials

might soon

In financing trie new lines, it was explained that the American

company had a guarantee from the Chinese government under the con-

pay to them of $1.50 (gold) a

pound to $4.50 (gold) a pound, depending on the size of the load
carried.
The Chinese also agreed to buy all aerial equipment from the
tract

stipulating

scale

sliding

of

Two American pilots, E. L. Sloniger

Aviation Exploration group.
and Al Caperton, were with Major Robertson and aided in training
Widespread opposition developed among Chinese aviaHowever, officials
organizations against the American contract.

Chinese
tion

of the

pilots.

American group

in Shanghai

were optimistic about the eventual

carrying out of the terms of their agreement.

It

provided that the service was to begin in six months, that the

provide the airplanes, pilots, and all other equipment and personnel, and that the Chinese were to provide hangars

Americans were

and

to

suitable landing fields along the routes proposed.

It

was further

provided that in the event the revenues from air mail on the lines was
insufficient to

meet the

rates agreed on, the

American company would

operate at a loss and take the Chinese company's promissory notes up

to $2,000,000.
It was agreed there was to be a minimum of 3,000
flying miles a

day when the

The Robertson group

lines

also

commenced.

offered to lend the

Chinese

Company

another $1,000,000 gold in cash for use in the securing of air fields,
construction of hangars and other expenses incidental to getting started.

Major Robertson returned

to

New York

to

arrange further

details.

THE DRAGON STIRS

236

The

contract

the

opposition to

real

propaganda spread by the Ministry

young
the

did

of

all

in its

power

Communications through the

of

to

sought

establish

its

lines

to obstruct the Railways Ministry's

memorandum was

result,

Railways,

so-called patriotic

This Ministry, through rivalry with

aviation groups in China.

Ministry

came from

and

first

program.

As

Nanking Government

submitted to the

Government Air Force demanding that the

This
contract be cancelled, causing no little furore but not much action.
memorandum, because it indicates the length to which this interby the members

of

the

Ministry fight was carried and because it indicates also the attitude
of the nationalistic young Chinese interested in developing their own
air lines,

given in brief below, the chief points being summarized.

is

are:

They

To

1.

country

allow foreign pilots to

is

fly

over important centers of the

a serious encroachment upon China's air defense.

With

the Corporation's branch offices scattered throughout

the country, America may send troops to various places on the
2.

pretense they are sent to those places for the protection of those
interests.
3.

want to open up new

Other countries

may

The American

Corporation's

also

air lines in

China.
4.

shipped

China

to

will

be

machines

exempted

from

which

payment

are
of

to

be

import

duties.
5.

The

Corporation

should

be

organized

and

financed

by

Chinese interests.
6.

The American

firms will receive

from $12,000

daily for their services, which compensation

7.

The Government should

is

to

$18,000

considered too high.

help develop local talent and not

which employs foreign pilots.

8. Secret contracts may have been signed by the
Corporation
with the American firm.
finance a corporation

These objections, while absurd

in

many

respects, represented never-

a formidable part of the opposition mentioned.

National Aviation Corporation answered them, pointing

theless

ample that
improper

flying

or

The Chinese

above foreign countries has never been

breach

of

sovereignty.

The

American

out

for

ex-

considered
pilots,

they

THE DRAGON LEARNS

pointed out, were in no
ington, in

any

case.

way connected with

It

was added

FLY

TO

237

Government

the

at

Wash-

that certain privileges were given

company because it was a Chinese Government outfit and for no

other reason, and it should prosper and be aided in every way because
the

Chinese
began as a Chinese project.
possible from the start, and eventually
it

demand no

To

others will be used.

pilots

were used as much as

when

the

meets

supply

get something

the

however,

started,

foreign pilots were hired by the Government's company.

Minister of Railways Sun Fo on June 19, 1929, formally declared

that the National Government's recent decision to place the airways

under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Communications would not

affect the contract with American interests.
Uncertainty, however,

marked

the

with the

situation

intimation

that

would be retarded further by a

This was a result

airways.

current

the

program

of the
sudden change
the
of the long and constant rivalry between
in

status

the Communications and the Railways ministries at Nanking,

Their

fight

further

affected

growing

radio

communications,

Railways Ministry seeking to control these as well as

taining to communications in any branch of government
tKe

inally

right

created

specially

handle radio,

to

Bureau

particularly

of

all

things per-

service.

Reconstruction was

abroad, and

the

Orig-

given the

signed an

agreement
was to furnish a

with the Radio Corporation of America.

The latter
new station under this understanding, meantime cooperating with the
Chinese

office in

Shanghai on dispatches through Manila

United

to the

States or elsewhere.

These

"growing

ascertained.

pains"

have

now

subsided,

as

far

The Chinese National Aviation Corporation

and so does the R.

A. in China, and dissension in

as

still

can

be

functions

latter years

seems

to have disappeared.

an old story
"see China first."

Aviation

coming
in

to

efforts

own

is

to teach

continent.

It

to the Chinese,

The

and as one

result they are

airplane will prove an undoubted aid

Chinese people to know themselves and their

also is a vast unifying force in Asia, where roads
the

are few and waterways are too slow for the pace of

life

in the

awak-

The expense is still prohibitive but in time the very

ening Orient.
bulk of the masses will conquer that financial obstacle, and prices will
be lowered so that thousands may fly where tens or hundreds do so
now.

THE DRAGON STIRS

238

The Chinese
at

are rapidly becoming "air minded."

bottom and gamblers

in

any

case.

So they

They are
fly

with

fatalists

unbridled

enthusiasm.
airship too has not only brought China into a more compact
in Asia, but has brought Asia and the Orient closer to America

The

mass
and Europe*
United

States

Clipper ships bring

will

week end.

we

in

the

know and understand the "inscrutable

Our grandchildren, if not we ourselves, will
over to Shanghai from New York for the

come

Oriental" before long.

think nothing of flying

China closer to home

to

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

20

ever

if

in

devout homage
RARELY
dawn
June

to

the

of

her

any
1,

man

1929.

Sun Yat-sen was the

mintang The People's Party
Dr.

history has China paid more

than she did to Dr. Sun Yat-sen

hectic

visionary man who founded the Kuoin China.

He grew up in Hawaii,

where his brushing against the Occidental conceptions of democracy

and equality gave birth to his revolutionary ideals for the peoples of
China, long oppressed not only by foreigners but by their own rapacious
governing class and by the war lords. These ideas in a monarchy such
as China at the start of this century, under a decadent and thoroughly

iManchu dynasty then ruling from the Dragon Throne at

No one had heard of such a thing
Peking were revolutionary indeed.
in the hinterland of China
no one wanted to hear of such a concept
at the Manchu Court in the days before the first revolution,
But Dr.
corrupt

Sun Yat-sen

heard.

He

returned to Canton and slowly began to teach this "insidious"

doctrine in his native land of South China.
The idea spread very
gradually, but it was one of the underlying causes of the overthrow
of the Manchu Dynasty in the original revolution against the Peking
throne in 1911.
These men fighting for freedom and democratic rule

succeeded, and the revolt was officially proclaimed to have overthrown

the Dragon Throne on February 7, 1912.

The

despised Manchu "Boy Emperor," whose name was then

Hsuan-T'ing, abdicated his right to power as the "Son of Heaven"
on that date, or rather, the old Dowager Empress did it for him, for
the

"ruler"

was but

seven

old

years

For he

and

even

more impotent as

again on the throne of his

ancestors in Hsinking (formerly Chang-chung) or "New Capital," in
This youth is the last of
Japan's "independent State" of Manchukuo.

"emperor" then than now.

"rules'*

the old

Manchu

the Great

Wall

up when the Manchu hordes swarmed over

1644 and conquered the Chinese peoples.

line,

in

set

239

THE DRAGON STIRS

240

The original revolution was a

The revolutionaries had a vast

military success but a political failure.

land

they had no idea what to do with

mitted to

live,

temporary power

but

The "Boy Emperor'* was

per-

in

it.

which some say was a

their

tactical

error.

Still,

even the

Chinese had qualms about murdering a child of seven years, especially

a boy-child, whom they all revere, and even more especially when that
boy-child might, on an off chance, really be the "Son of Heaven" and
inflict terrible catastrophes on the man who slew him.

So the "Boy Emperor" stayed put for a while in the heart of what
It now is about as "forwas then the Forbidden City at Peking.
bidden" as Coney Island and nearly as popular with tourists.
(I recall
Like the youth at the
going through it once in less than an hour.

Louvre,

think that with roller skates I could have cut the time in

In 1917, he was restored for three days in an abortive putsch,

was overthrown again, finally fled to the asylum of the Japanese Conhalf.)

cession in Tientsin, and

now

has been "restored" again by Japan in

Manchukuo.

War

up all over China as soon as the watchdogs of

the Dragon Throne were gone.
This gave Dr. Sun an entirely new
problem in his beloved but bemuddled China. The Flowery Kingdom
lords sprang

went haywire before he knew it.

The World War kept Europe and
most of America busy, and it was not until early in the 1920's that
nations began to bestir themselves about getting "back to

normalcy."

Dr. Sun was more than interested in that idea, so back to Canton he
went to begin anew his idea of a government "of the people, by the
people

and

for

the

people."

It

was

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address which Dr.

now
his

this

started

Abraham

Sun used as the germ

almost equally famous "Three People's Principles."

People's Party and

in

expression

new machinery

for

He

the

of his

organized

Kuomintang

Revolution against a newly despotic and corrupt "government" set up

at Peking.
The other Powers turned a deaf ear to his pleas for
assistance

including the very busy

men

at

Washington under the

President Harding's administration.

Dr. Sun found open arms at Moscow.

He

needed

help.

late

The

Russians offered men, money, and munitions 'of war, and Dr. Sun
.jumped at the chance to embrace their offer, even though it included

communal conception of the way toward a

common man. The Russian Advisorate, under our

ostensibly accepting their

better life for the

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

friend Mikal Borodin, flourished for a time.

old

resulted

pedition"

Revolution

and

left

with

revolutionary

rapidity.

241

The "northern exThe Kuomintang

the Pearl River at Canton in the late spring of 1926,

moving to the Yangtze Valley in 1927, captured Peking in

That is a record, in a
1928, two years after its inception.

after

June,

revolution of such magnitude.

The founder of the Revolution was only

sixty years old, but a very tired man when he went to Peking in a
last effort to prevent the necessity of a war to achieve his ends.
There,
But Dr. Sun had

died.

which was the cradle of the corrupt power

which he despised, he died, on March 12, 1925.
His embalmed body lay entombed for a time in a shrine atop an
in the citadel of the north

old temple outside Peiping.

body, and I saw

special process

frail

after his

death, in the casket in which

Nanking.

The

to

embalm the

in the State funeral rites four years

Doctor's

it

was used

it

now

lies

entombed, outside

State funeral rites began in the darkness before

dawn

The city of Nanking, ill-equipped to

June 1929.
shelter so many visitors, was crammed with humanity.
Many foreigners were there, and press 'correspondents flocked to the capital on
of the

first

day

of

that historic day.

Few

The
got any sleep the night of that May 31 in Nanking.
ritual began at three o'clock in the morning.
Lady Hay Drummond
Hay, an English woman writing her impressions of the event, Karl von
Wiegand, veteran American correspondent, and I stood around in a
barracks-like building

most

of the night after twelve o'clock waiting for

Then we went over to the place where the

were beginning.
Only Party members were allowed inside.

something to happen.
services

The

us stood outside waiting for the long procession to start to

the newly completed mausoleum on Purple Mountain, past the ancient
rest of

Ming tombs, ten miles outside the

The funeral procession started

city walls.

just as light

began

to

show

in the

was deadly slow and took hours to reach the shrine, where
entombment took place at high noon. Dr. Sun's body was placed in a
east.

It

hearse at the end of the long line of devout followers.

Along a new
highway especially constructed for the purpose, the cortege moved
through the valley of the Yangtze,

The

funeral proceeded at so slow a pace that I decided to go back

to the hotel

and write a cable

to the

Times about

its

start,

then pick

THE DRAGON STIRS

242
it

up again by motor car

and

early

am

mausoleum.

at the base of the

This

did,

going to give you those paragraphs as written there in the

morning hush

of

High on the

June

1929.

1,

side of Purple Mountain, far

from the busy rush

a new nation or the sound of guns in recurrent revolution, the

body of Dr. Sun Yat-sen lies enshrined tonight in its final restof

ing place at the spot where the dead Leader often, in

pressed his cherished desire to be buried.

life,

ex-

began in solemn ceremony before dawn in the

Central Party Headquarters auditorium where the body has lain

The

final rites

in state for the past three days.

noon with the formal lowering

The

funeral closed shortly after

of the great bronze casket into its

sunken crypt.
Outside, the sun made bright the blue and white
granite and marble mausoleum which stood splendid above the

Yangtze

lowlands.

fertile

beyond the high-roofed Memorial Hall and past the

bronze doors the Tsitng-li's body lies peacefully below

Inside,

huge

domed

walls in a soft twilight which in daytime filters gently in

Here only a chosen few

through tiny stained glass windows.
gathered with bowed heads at the entombment of the Leader's
These were
passed forever from human sight.
the members of Dr. Sun's immediate family and his closest followers, who had been allowed to be near him during the memoframe as

frail

rial

it

Mme.
aide

the

dim-lit

auditorium

They included the widow,

day broke over the capital.
Sun Yat-sen the only son of the founder of the Kuomin-

before

tang,

dawn within

at

mourning ceremony

Mr. Sun Fo; Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, his erstwhile

and a comparatively few others close through blood relation-

ships or political association.

few moments

down

later

this

little

group slowly retraced their

sweeping granite staircase and departed

along the broad highway which like a ribbon, when viewed from
the heights of the mountainside tomb, connects the shrine through
steps

the old
All

the

long,

Nanking

city walls

through

the

night

truly striking program.

The whole

of

It

Nationalist

with the distant new capital of China.

preparations

had

was the climax

China had

continued

for

the

of years of planning.

spent

week

in

official

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

The wars

moment were

243

and the
continent has been at peace since the funeral train departed from
Peking last Monday carrying the body of Dr. Sun Yat-sen from

mourning.

for

the

forgotten

temporary tomb outside the ancient capital southward half

way across China to Nanking. For days, all Nanking incoming
trains and river steamers have been crowded with persons from
its

all

corners of the land.

the

State entombment.

Diplomatic missions of virtually every

nation on friendly relations with the new China arrived to attend

Long

before dawn, soldiers, sailors,

Boy

Scouts, Girl Guides,

gendarmes and regular police joined in seeking

the great throngs which filled the capital for

to handle quietly
this

event.

The

people in a great, long procession marched afoot the miles between the auditorium in the heart of Nanking and the mauso-

leum along the new Chungshan highway over which the cortege
moved at a snail-like pace. This procession began just at dawn
as the hearse moved into place toward the end of the line of the
living stretching nearly two miles ahead,

Madame Sun

(the second), just back from Europe

to attend the funeral services for her dead husband, stood alone

Yat-sen

Dressed in austere black, she walked by the

himself about her own
side of her husband's son, Mr. Sun Fo
and was seen to be weeping silently at this renewal of faith
age

and unsupported.

were her two sisters, Mme.

These and other
Chiang Kai-shek and Mme. H. H. Rung.
members of the immediate family were hidden behind a blacksheeted shield while they walked from the auditorium in a place
set aside for them just back of the hearse in which the casket
in

her

husband.

With her

also

was draped in a flag of the new republic under the

Kuomintang.
Through the warm spring sunshine of the early June morning,
members of the Cabinet, high Chinese officials, foreign envoys,
soldiers and others marched in the long trek toward the mausoGuns in forts atop Lion
leum
Chinese bands played the dirge.
Hill outside the walls boomed one hundred and one times in a
rested.

It

national salute of farewell.

the

funeral

Like a giant dragon at

wound through

procession
throngs into the open countryside.

the

city's

last

silent

awake,

massed

THE DRAGON STIRS

244

The

procession

reached the base of

o'clock in the morning, at the

end

of

mausoleum at ten
hour march. Here the

the

a six

casket was unloaded and placed on a bright blue catafalque which

many silent coolies carried upward to the shrine within the

devout

rites,

the tomb, following elaborate and

At

enormous building above.

those persons especially invited to attend the funeral

past the crypt.

The city of Nanking observed three minutes of silence exactly
at high noon, and the rites were ended.

ceremony

filed

Immediately after Dr. Sun's funeral, the men at Nanking turned

toward beautifying their new capital. It needed it. Plans were drawn

up by Henry K. Murphy and Ernest

making Nanking one
old wall running
to be turned

At

first

even

felt

its

the

New

York, for

The
Yangtze was

beautiful capitals in the world.

way across the hills along the

modern boulevard encircling the city.

was supposed

it

most

Goodrich of

zigzag

into a

by

of the

P.

Chinese

that the wall

that

its

would have to

presence

would

It

go.

retard

the

was

city's

Hence it was proposed then that the wall be razed and

development.
the bricks used to pave new streets.
When Mr. Murphy, the architect
in the city planning program,

China early that February,

One of the first things he did was to

arrived in

he went at once to Nanking.

announce that he thought purely Chinese architecture should be used
throughout in designing the Capital's new public buildings and that
the battered old gray wall should be maintained at all costs.

Mr. Murphy
Leave it and we

"It is typical of China/'

mistake to tear

on

its

top, a

it

down.

most valuable asset

in every

said.

"It

would be a great

make a broad boulevard

way to the new city. The

will

wall will thus be useful and at the same time most attractive.

By no

means disturb

street,

If

it.

necessary,

put gates through

it

at every

but keep the wall."

So they kept the old wall at Nanking.

The capital, situated on the south bank of
a typical old Chinese
all

the

Yangtze River, was

a million population.
It rambled
along the countryside for miles, with vast open spaces within the

wall.

Elsewhere,

where the
fashion.

its

city of less than

narrow

citizens live
It

is

still

streets traverse thickly

packed and jammed together

not

pretty

city

today,

but

populated sections
in typical

the

Chinese

location

for

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

beautiful

modern metropolis

is

The low

ideal.

245

hills

behind the

city

roundly against the sky, and from the vantage of the Yangtze as
one glides past on a steamer the city is not without charm.
Mr. Goodrich, the engineer, originally went to China to work on

rise

three

in

tasks

struction

with

connection

Nanking city planning project,

and
the development of a port at
Nanking's port

Canton for ocean-going liners.

"I came out to China to assist

Mr. Goodrich

them a

recon-

These were the

program

the construction of

king/'

Government's

National

the

said

in

in talking

the planning

of

his

work

new Nan-

of the

there,

"and to give

practical plan for the construction of ports for ocean liners at

Mr. Murphy and myself are going

Canton and possibly at Nanking.
We are making
ahead first on the Nanking city planning program.
He knows more about that end of it
headway, as he will tell you.
than I do.

"As to
much they

Canton and Nanking, I cannot say yet how

but possibly it will run into millions of dollars.

the ports at
will

cost,

We

How

are
they intend to finance this work is none of our concern.
interested, to be sure, in the success of the enterprise, but I understand
at Tientsin they are

still

working on harbor improvements suggested

a plan laid down ten or twenty years ago.

"Our idea is to survey the situation as

we have

once

when

practical

down

the survey completed to lay

engineers,

in

and

work which

a line of

carried out, give Canton and

Nanking the most up-to-date

We will, I presume, proceed with this work of preports possible.
senting the Chinese Government with a practical engineering program
will,

these ports as

for

satisfactorily
will

be

done,

soon as the city planning program at Nanking

drawn
I

up.

believe,

The
by

actual

construction

construction

work

engineering

the

of

firms

is

ports

who

are

asked to bid on the projects as specified in the port plans I submit

to the
It

Government."

was estimated the construction

of the port at

Canton would cost

The port at Nanking would cost that much and

Minister Sun Fo, who was first in charge of this work
possibly more.
and who retained Mr. Murphy and Mr. Goodrich in America, said the
at least $10,000,000.

financing

schemes

covering

National Government revenues.

was strongly

in

would be backed by the

Mr. Murphy, an old visitor to China,

these

projects

favor of adhering as closely

as

possible

to

the

old

THE DRAGON STIRS

246
Chinese

style of architecture.

new western

with the

He

combine the old

criticized efforts to

combination was

ideas, not because that sort of

not a good idea but because, he said to me on this subject, the architects had gone about the combination in the wrong way.
"I became convinced," Mr. Murphy said, "that the chief difficulty

with the adaptations already made lay in the fact that their designers
had started out with foreign exteriors into which they had introduced
to a greater or less extent Chinese features, with the inevitable result

that the completed buildings remained essentially foreign.

"I decided we must start out with Chinese exteriors into which

we

would introduce only such foreign features as were needed to meet

Of the buildings now completed in the
some definite requirements.

Nanking and

at

group

Ginling College

occupied by Yenching University (at Peiping)

they are really Chinese.

"In

its

now

twenty or more

the

of

my

Chinese friends say

and surroundings Nanking has advantages

"In what other
in the world/' he added.

natural features

enjoyed by few capitals

capital can we find parallels for the Yangtze River on one side bearing
the commerce of two hundred million people, for the Lotus Lake on
other

the
as

the

with

picturesquely

center

park

terrain

rolling

its

of

wooded

suburban

residential

which adds so much

to

and

islands

the

its

possibilities

for

development,

architectural

the

possibilities

of the future thickly built portions of the city proper, for the

low

hills

bordering Nanking on the north and south, and for the culmination
of these hills at the west in Purple Mountain, rising 1400 feet in a
silhouette

of

individuality

over half

that

walls

of

of

Nanking

the

And when you

and character?

seventeen to eighteen

consists

of fields

nearly empty of buildings

was

And he

planning.

to adapt the best features

found in the

city

any

Siberia, visiting
their

of each to

wall

of

here afforded to

is

Mr. Murphy came out to China across Europe and

some twenty cities en route to Nanking. He studied

how

within the

square miles

kind you will realize how unusual an opportunity

achieve a city plan laid out almost on ideal lines."

with an eye to

consider

a great

city plans

the city he

traffic

artery

already to hand.

"Of

the

features

of

Nanking,"

he

said,

"the

most

the wonderful encircling city wall

rambling for twenty-two
undulating gently across the foothills of Purple Mountain,

striking
miles,

man-made

is

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

247

averaging forty or
more, and for long stretches rising to a majestic height of over sixty
occasionally

dropping

Many

hundreds

feet.

solid

granite

walls of

base,

to

twenty

feet

of years old,

the

Nanking are a

scene

of

in

height,

sturdily built of high bricks

countless

priceless heritage of

battles

for

the

above

city,

majesty and beauty

the

and

strong feeling when I arrived was the conviction that these

walls must not be lost as the price to be paid by Nanking for its

my

first

modernization.

"When

found the wall was nowhere

less

than ten feet wide at

top and measured over twenty-five feet wide for all but a short
stretch, with several miles of wall over forty feet wide and already
paved with stone, I clinched matters by proposing the use of the entire
the

an

elevated

motor

boulevard

twenty-two miles long with

ramps leading up at frequent intervals and with parking spaces and
refreshment stations where the wall widens out at each gate into a

wall

for

The accomplishment of this project will give

spacious plateau.
king one of the finest panoramic drives in the world."
Following the original

work on

the city plan

"fact-finding

itself,

survey,"

and Nanking slowly

Mr.
is

Nan-

Murphy began

becoming modern.

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

21

AT

the end of that

It

summer

Far East and came home.

already had "missed too many

I left the

was about time, for perhaps

foreigners along the China

Coast.
After more than five years spent in Japan, China, the Philipor
pines and Manchuria I left the Orient on September 1, 1929
rather, it was on that Sabbath day that I started to leave.
boats," as the old saying

It

is

among

But before leaving China let us look once more at the scene there.
was a hodge-podge of politico-military purposes and cross-purposes.

The

period of transition in so large a land peopled by so

That is
scattered races must last a generation or more.

many
why

widely
have

The dragon of China is not

volume The Dragon Stirs.
He is partly
but he is stirring in his sleep.
fully awake even now
awake and when his entire sinuous body comes to life, dawn will be

named

this

over.

That June,
pressing

Hsiang,

the

in

1929,

irrepressible

again.

He and

men

Nanking were engaged in sup"Christian General," Marshal Feng Yu-

the

the

at

younger

Generals

in

the

troublesome

Kwangsi Province clique were raising a rumpus up-country at Hankow. The newest breach within the Kuomintang had started in May,
before Dr. Sun Yat-sen's entombment at Nanking.
In looking through

The New York Times, I find this headline

on May 25: NANKING LINKS FENG TO RED PLOT.
Others during
those otherwise pleasant spring days related how Generalissimo Chiang

my

files

of dispatches

to

Nanking pleaded with Marshal Feng to "abide by peace"

how the fate of China hung on Feng's next step, and so on. This
rebellion was smothered, and by July, all seemed quiet on the Chinese
front.
But trouble with Soviet Russia was to occur again shortly,
This was not apparent at
marring my journey back to the States.
that time, so I went down to the Philippines.
There were several reasons for this.
One was that I had been
Kai-shek

at

248

PERSONAL PUBLICITY
my

filing

cabled dispatches to

there

copy"

to

Filipino

(chiefly

in

Manila,

The New

since

syndicate

of

via Manila, giving a "drop-

native

we began

newspapers

They were to pay the cable costs as far as

York Times to pay them from there on to New

Filipino

papers

did

not pay their

arrangement months before.

so I went to Manila
and did.

collect,

language

Tagalog).

But the

York.

New York

this

Another reason for going

Dwight F. Davis,
succeed Colonel

of

St.

Henry

just at

Louis,

that time

who had

It

was

share,

never had

was up

my

to

me

to

meeting with

recently been appointed to

L. Stimson as Governor-General of the Philip-

Mr. Davis was passing through Shanghai on his way

to Manila, so I got on the same ship and went along.
The genial
a splendid
donor of the Davis Cup for international tennis competition

pine Islands.

was a jovial ship's comsymbol of good will induced through sports

panion and we became rather well acquainted for such a short meeting
as that four-day boat ride.

due

paper in Manila, bade Governor

Davis and Senator Manuel Quezon (now President Quezon) farewell
at Malacanan Palace and went back to Shanghai, arriving in mid-July's
I collected the $2,000 or so

heat.

my

determined then to return to America.

In the few days which

packing my things preparatory to

the "big push/' trouble was brewing between Moscow and Nanking.
The Chinese raided the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin, in North
I spent in

The Russians controlled that line, which

Manchuria, about that time.
was connected with their trans-Siberian railroad from Vladivostok to
Moscow, and they didn't like this raid a bit.
They threatened to
invade Manchuria (as the Japanese did later) and there grew up a
warlike tension between the two nations.

My

troubles had just begun.

end of

had not been back

in

Shanghai a

which delayed my departure.

By the
got out of the hospital and on my feet again, it was nearly the
August, 1929. I cancelled a tentative passage on the O. S. K.

week when
time I

got dysentery,

Line via South Africa, and sought instead to get to Europe across
But a state approaching war existed in Manchuria by then.
Siberia.

go via Vladivostok and there were no Russian

consular officials in all China, not even in Manchuria, to provide me
I determined, nevertheless,
with the very much needed passport visa.
It

was necessary

to

go on up to Vladivostok, thence through the

to

Amur

Valley over the

THE DRAGON STIRS

250

Manchuria and down again, joining the trans-Siberian line

It was this route I took, without a
proper at the town of Chita.
Russian visa.
None could be obtained in China, but I relied on the
lop

of

was a good thing

It

so

many

years

filled

to be getting

with

so

to be a mistake,

That turned out

advice of a Soviet press colleague.

but he could not help it.

away

many

at last, after

away

really

occurring

rapidly

experiences.

These just happened, and they occurred to anyone who was in the Far
East then; but I must say events seemed to crowd on each other's
heels in those years.

had to go was that before I went to the

hospital one local Shanghai paper ran an item that I was leaving on
I went to the hospital instead
a boat via South Africa the next day.

One

other reason that

When

got out almost a

month

later,

at the

American Club and the

Columbia Country Club where I went with friends again to say fareOne paper ran a
well someone invariably said: "You still here?"
picture

of a

missionary

bespectacled

about that

time

with

my name

You may
and the caption that I was leaving the Orient.
and
imagine the comment, which included: "My, my, such a change
Of course there were many other sides
ill
less than a month, too!'*
under

it,

departure, but things like that bordering on the ridiculous

the lighter side left me with relish for the new adventure.
to

my

My

diary of the

way

in

you the complete picture

SUNDAY,
.

after

two

China

left

the best

is

of the "return of the native"

September

ABOARD THE
today

which

S.

S.

1,

to give

way

to

and

New

York.

left

China

1929:

MODESTA,

years, seven months.

from Tokyo on Sunday, Feb.

At Sea:
.

Arrived in Shang-

U. P. Today,
in a "Walla-walla" launch with Carolyn Converse and Victor
Keen of the New York Herald-Tribune, I came aboard the S. S.
Modesta, an Anglo-Danish steamer bound for Vladivostok- and
hai

across

Siberia

years here and

Had

6,

1927, for the

and Europe, and the Atlantic

home

Five

I'm glad to be on my way.

a farewell dinner at the Majestic Hotel last night, Vic
being
in

Japan

is

enough.

a quiet little affair Vic and Miss Chaplin, 'Gina

and Bruno Schwartz and Carolyn and myself.
Home at dawn
host

just

PERSONAL PUBLICITY
.

and so

hurried final packing

came

(A.P.)

to the

to the ship

Customs Jetty with

251
.

Morris Harris

us.

One

There are six other passengers, all Russians.

himself as a man who, Rover of Tass agency

introduced

would help
me get a visa at Vladivostok. Took a chance and came on this
Our
trip without a visa, wiring Walter Duranty at Moscow.
Captain is a Norwegian just out from Europe with an arms
shipment
long in South America, and sings the praises of
Rio de Janeiro. ... To bed early and very tired, after talking
.

with the Captain about the unfair

sidy, the beauties of Rio, etc.

Sunday.

said,

...

new U.

A/s

shipping subI arrived and left China on a

S.

MONDAY,

September 2:
at noon and after tea and toast in

Up

my

on deck to

cabin,

and read.
Ship's virtually deserted. The Modesto,
is a far cry from the Pres. Pierce which I came out on in 1924.
Tea at four and feeling a bit ill ... rolling quite a bit, but so
far not so bad.
My Russian shipmates assure me I'll have no
walk a

bit

trouble

landing at Vladivostok.

dinner

tonight

and

we

later

They played

sat

Ma

Jongg

after

and had a gay time in the

To bed rather late after much "Walla-walla,"

smoking room.
including an argument with our Captain as to the merits of the
He insisted it was the best, most expressive
English language
speech in the world, while I said it was one of the worst, lacking
the exactness of the French or even some Chinese languages.
.

TUESDAY,

We
their

prints

September 3:

are halfway to V., steaming peacefully across the Japan

Korea

Sea with
misty.

tiny

visible

off

our

port bow, low, gray,

Little fishing boats dot the flat surface of our ocean,
sails bellied to the slight breeze
appearing like the
plainly

by Japanese

artists.

The water

is

a gray-green again after

yesterday's peculiarly deep blue characteristic of the tropics.

And strangely enough, we ran into countless schools of tiny flying
.

fish

Never saw those but

after tiffin in

my

in the tropics before.

cabin, to read

Modern Chinese

On

deck today

Civilisation,

by

Dr. A. F. Legendre, translated by Elsie Martin Jones in Tokyo.

It is a very general plea for intervention in China by the Powers

THE DRAGON STIRS

252

but he, like others who're supposed to

no program.
Music on the Victrola
offers

this,

He

know and have suggested

the

in

provided also H. G. Wells

Mr.

me

On

deck for a breath of

night.

To my bunk

sea.

which

read until

off

at

ten

o'clock.

but a very cool, black

stars,

our port bow, very low in the

Sept. 4:

and

Britling

Through,

very lonely, somehow.

WEDNESDAY,
Mr.

Many

air.

dinner.

It

from the dining room

The Big Dipper

War

after

Sees

Britling

a book on Britain's going into the Great

the China-boy evicted

cabin

Captain's

had a

cool,

day of

pleasant

it.

like

Heavier clothing was comfortable on

monotdeck.
Getting rather restless and eager to get ashore,
onous trip, this.
Well, Vladivostok early tomorrow is one con-

Wells most of the time.

wondering about my visa. My Russian shipmates

are confident.
"sure no trouble," they say.
solation.

Still

THURSDAY,

We
my

it's

now

are
last,

Just as soon

in Vladivostok for the first time.

What

too.

beautiful

truly

Sept. 5:

natural

But a

a ramshackle town!

harbor,

landlocked,

hills

its

beautiful, a

rising

light

It has marvelous possibilities, but

green above the placid water.
The harbor
nothing's been done to beautify it or the town.

November and

freezes solid in
spring.

Hard

Rome!

And

case.

this

said

again
it's

to

Vlad.

we have no

is

you

like.

ice-free,

they say, until late

the

same

latitude

as

And

that's

no joke

in

about

visa today!

Because the authorities

"You must
if

realize

isn't

civilly

but just as

not come ashore without a visa.

We've heard

the Modesto, for you."

nothing.

So here

But

I sit alone

Cable

in

definitely

Moscow

the meantime,

with

my

thoughts,

a virtual prisoner on what is now my private yacht.

I should
have an answer one way or the other by Saturday to a cable I
sent

Moscow

again today through the

the Russian Dalbank,

Mr. Volchek

capable

who accompanied me

to the

of

Foreign Agent's

Or rather, I
Department of Passports.
He told my tale of woe and negotiated and
accompanied him.
He certainly was obliging, but I can't
finally told me the result
office

and the

Police

help feeling that

I'd

have done far better on

my

own, with a

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

253

pure but simple interpreter rather than a guardian.

drove to the F. A.'s
very kind of him.
.

We

was

it

Still,

office

in

an

ancient droshky over a rough, cobblestoned avenue badly in need

of repair and up a suburban-like lane down which small freshets

ran digging treacherous holes in the dirt road which caused us

to pitch about like a ship in a gale, and most perilously too.
damned clever, these
Made it and back without a mishap
.

And

so back to the ship for a late tiffin alone.

I got up early to go ashore, and the jolly old
Customs johnnies appeared at 10 a.m., instead of the advertised
five o'clock on the bulletin board!
They always do. ...

Ruskies, driving.
And a nap, for

They okayed my luggage without difficulty, but insisted on

God
locking up my files in one of my small travelling bags
knows where they've got it now; somewhere in Vlad. ... I
They may be reading all my cables, mail
hope it comes back.
.

stories,

et

al,

My

years to the Times.

state tonight; then he and the

for

Captain and

Mr.
Irwin Hansen, quite a remarkable fellow, went ashore for what
turned out to be a bit of a night out, rolling in with the dawn.
had dinner

And

in

so to bed.

first

officer,

FRIDAY,

Sept.
ever, as

6:

on Wednesday, thought Vladivostok

It's beastly, and if I
would be a consolation God only knows.

Why

did

don't get off this

ship before long I'll go mad.
Loading
and unloading interminable great boxes of tea all day and night!
For less than that I'd chuck this
No sleep ... no

NOTHING.

European tour and go right home, very angry.

Funny to
but these unending days and nights are
look back on, okay
the worst I've known.
.

SATURDAY,

7:

Sept.

Ashore today. Looks as though something has happened. A

flunky came aboard about four p.m. and after some trouble getting
an interpreter said that he had a pass permitting me to land at
Fine.
once and go anywhere I liked.
Also, he had a message
requiring

that

call

Passport Division,
they got

word

at

at

the

so-called

on Monday.
okay and that I get

nine a.m.

the visa

is

"Central

Control

My
it

Point/'

guess

Monday.

is

that

Fine

THE DRAGON STIRS

254
with one

fly in

the ointment

on the trans-Siberian

would a

rather

lot

line

The ten-day

week

insist I take the

may

they

Monday
a

wait

night

dead

here,

Express

Moscow, while

for

as

it

is,

for

the

be mighty dull,
from all accounts.
Rained all day but let up a bit about five
p.m., and with Captain Jorgensen, our skipper, and one bag, went
ashore.
Registered at the Versailles Hotel on the main

Bristols.

may

Not too

street.

trip across otherwise

bad, but no Ritz at that.

Room

at

rubles

five

We

a day, with a bath of sorts down the corridor.

ordered
and while a
dinner in the room
only way, no dining room
Chinese boy got me some rubles for my Mex. dollars and fixed
the chow,

we took a

Met

stroll.

Capt.

C.

the

of

S.

S.

Arica,

another Norwegian skipper, on the corner, with his "little wife,"

a rather sweet though sad Russian girl, and the four of us back

This came slowly, but in immense

the boy had put a whole chicken in for chicken soup
for

to the Versailles

quantities

Talked

until

midnight.

SUNDAY,

chow.

Sept.

8:

week yesterday

getically

me

told

this

had a proper bath

since I

Sabbath

bright

morn,

the boy apolo-

"Velly

sorry,

no

bath today
tomorrow can do." And so another
holiday
of these towel and "sponge baths."
Even when I get to it, from
what I've seen, this hotel tub is no dream. Even so, I feel better
.

today than in

weeks.

great blue sky.

Cool,

tiffin-tea

sparkling
of

the inevitable

brown bread

my

Decided to leave

sorts,

day,

not

cloud

in

with soft-boiled eggs and

heavy stuff, all that's available here now) and with Mrs. M., a Russian woman among our
Modesta passengers en route to Moscow, to the ship to see about
luggage.

(horrible,

it

aboard until

I see

what happens

Ashore and a decision to go

Passport Office tomorrow.
excursion train into the country for the afternoon.
After

at the

by

forty minutes

by

train in a

crowded wooden-benched car crammed

with holiday crusaders along the coast of Amur Bay, off and into
the arms almost of Mr. Babinstov ( ?) , also a co-passenger, and
his brother

and wife who own a cottage

They asked us

to tea

at this

sea-side

through the green-wooded

cottage, and as pleasant a tea as could be imagined
-so

resort.

hills to their

"tea" being

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

255

and otherwise, and vodka, with steaming hot

which I'm getting to like imRussian tea in tall glasses after
It was chilly when we left to catch the 7:36 p.m.
mensely.
train back to Vladivostok.
We went to a Russian movie tonight
and had more tea and meat balls and
all Soviet propaganda
a sweet for dinner later.
So back to the hotel, and to bed which
cold meats, tinned

had to make.

It

MONDAY,

had not been touched since

my

having
cancel
.

to

bath.
his

got
it

He came

for

ticket

and he went on

train.

too

And

Moscow.

the Passport Division chap.

I did,
out an application blank.

when anything happens.

in

again to the hotel about six p.m.,

tonight's

to

town today on a
missed him at first

Got

Saw

fill

morning.

Sept. 9:

Judge Allman has come and gone.

Japanese steamer from Tsuruga and
taking

I left that

late

now

have no

still

visa.

No

word, but wanted

and

he'll

This uncertainty

is

phone

me

to

if

me
and

getting mighty old.

TUESDAY, Sept. 10:

My interpreter, a young
Russian parents,

and we went

American chap, strange to say, of

stranded alone here, came along about three

then
Gatesman, the Foreign Agent
to the Japanese Consulate to see about going to Japan tomorrow
to get a visa at Tsuruga, and return here with the Bristols and
in searcji of

take the same train.

No

can do. ... Got Gatesman on the

phone and finally made an appointment for ten a.m. tomorrow.

Sent Duranty another urgent cable.
Hope something happens
soon!
War rumors thick as flies at the coffee shops and elsewhere in town today.
Chinese may fight.
Battle going
.

on along the Manchurian border since the eighth, they say

also around Habarovsk.
Feel out of touch with everything
.

in

this

place,

idleness of

service

Soldiers

Looks

streets.

right now.

everywhere
ominous.
Hope

Got action today!

Sept.

Odd

feeling,

this

Recruiting hurriedly going on

singing, marching through the
it

not before I get across

WEDNESDAY,

for the first time in years.

mine

here now.

doesn't
if

hold

up

the

train

ever do get that visa.

11:

Met Gatesman

at

the office at

ten

a.m.

with Christensen of the Great Northern, and Gatesman had got

THE DRAGON STIRS

256

Moscow telling him to fix me up. He did a

and we went to the Passport Office and all was

a telegram from
lot of

telephoning

Filed another application, which Mr. C. wrote

apparently okay.
out in Russian, and paid twenty rubles and gave them a photo.
Get my passport back with the visa on Friday.
Tongue in

With

cheek until then, but believe it's finally fixed.

Paul to The Red Banner, a Communist sheet

Never walked so much or so

the Modesta.

my

all

life

...

To

She

at half-time.

Czar's

War.

far

then over to

in

one day

told

a cinema with

me

tonight she

M.

Mrs.

was a

in

No

...

tonight

in the

soldier

wounded nineteen times during the World

Remarkable woman. To bed early, very tired.
in 1915

army
.

Interpreter

over town on multifarious errands.

all

word from Duranty.

left

THURSDAY,

Sept.

12:

from Duranty in Moscow

on what grounds
intimating F. O. there refuses passport visa
God only knows.
After Gatesman's attitude yesterday and

More bad news.

doleful cable

urgent insistence at the Passport Office here that they give

me one at once, else he gets into trouble in Moscow, entirely inChristensen's for dinner tonight, and he and
explicable.
his

Horrdon were

still

noon tomorrow.

optimistic.

On

the

Am

strength

trunks in from the Modesta today.

supposed to get
of

all

May

my

visa at

moved
move them right

these

have to

things,

Splendid chow at C's, and later bridge for a

hours.
Everyone is certainly amiable and accom-

back tomorrow!
couple

of

modating.

FRIDAY

the 13th!;

Got the visa today!

With Mr. C. to the Passport Office at
noon and everything was okay. Got my U. S. currency changed
into rubles at the

To

Chosen Bank.

the

German Consulate where

I got a visa for

Germany good for one year. I'm

bound on Monday what a load off my mind.

TUESDAY,

Sept.

We're on the way

at a

little

place called

trans-Siberia

17:
to

Moscow, and

Red River

Habarovsk, after midnight on a

Sunday with Admiral and Mrs.

at the

moment are

Station, just a
cold,

few miles from

moonlit plain.

Bristol, just in

stalled

Had

from Japan

tiffin
.

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

257

Met Captain J. on
dinner and to the train at eleven p.m.
the way there.
Found two trunks cost me 166.50 rubles baggage
also

To Moscow,

fare!

alone

almost as

much

my own

as

rail-

That was a
road ticket and sleeping car, combined, to Berlin!
blow.
Finally all aboard at twelve midnight and ready to
go ... Christensen and Horrdon also down to see us off, and
.

two or three more.

Get
compartment so far.
a partner at Habarovsk.
Hope he's not got much baggage these
One likable chap on board is a
compartments are small.
Swedish engineer, long a resident of China, going home.
I'm alone in

my

FRIDAY,
Ought

to

20:

this

keep

Hour

terest.

Sept.

up every day

walking,

station

stops,

but not

much

of

in-

routine of eating,
hour of rolling prairie
exercise at the various
etc., getting a bit of

after

resting,

and

chats

with

the

other

restless

passengers.

Passed Chita today ... ran into "Nick," chap who barbered at
the American Club in Shanghai.
Stranded up here and can't get
back now, due to the war.
We're in
Country is different now.

More villages than through the

Siberia proper.
the rich yellow land cultivated, and fences all along.

Amur

Valley,

Before there

was nothing, hundreds of miles of hills, forests, no cultivation.

Trees turning
Dreary and cold. Had our first snow yesterday.
yellow and red in a profusion of fall colors along the Siberian
The moonlit
countryside; much like the middlewest at home.
up here are wonderful, clear. A full yellow harvest moon
comes up at dark, as we chase the reddening, setting sun into
the West toward Europe, and fills our yellow world with a soft
nights

light.

single,

The

forest

so

far,

trees

across

Six more

shadows.
we're there.

We

nearby along the tracks, or track

most
days

to

set the clock

of

Siberia

march

Moscow, and
back an hour a

by

like

it

is

black

when
day now, Moscow

I'll

be

glad

being six hours behind Chita.

MONDAY,
Uneventful

Improving

my

Sept. 23:

weekend, with our trip more than half over.

Russian the while, if any, with an ex-Colonel of

army, a somewhat attractive and very blonde ballet

dancer from Leningrad, and a Russian- Jew who speaks German

the Czar's

THE DRAGON STIRS

258

and

acts as interpreter for

which

is

no small

feat,

and some

of villages

ROM

Learned

me.

Marie

We

everything considered.

in Russian,

pass a

number

Take exercise
sour cream and butter; some roast

now and

sizeable cities

then.

and buy cheese,

The Admiral is an indefatiguable investigator of
chickens, too.
the station restaurants and invariably comes back laden with loot
We get to Moscow on Thursday.
the produce of the hamlet.
at every stop,

Happy

thought: a bath!

WEDNESDAY,

Sept. 25:

Through the Urals last night and into Europe today. Moscow
tomorrow morning.
Sent Duranty a wire asking him to get
reservations for me and the Bristols at the Grand Hotel there in

Moscow

there's

always

a Grand

Hotel

Bought a couple of trinkets

and the like, at a town called Sverdlovsk
seems!

every

town,

semi-precious

in

stones

Today

last night.

it

got

a wooden cigarette case at another station in a district famous

for

its

The

woodwork.

countryside

cultivated

millions

The

of

fir

Can't

now

is

realize

really

beautiful

night on train.
well kept up and

last

tonight's
.

not like the wild steppes of Siberia's plains

trees.

The world

is

still

safe

Santa Claus!

for

... got into

a routine, with tiffin daily at three p.m.
The nights came on
the days fled by in no time.
Moscow
amazingly fast
has been delightful

trip across

the ten days

in the morning, with pleasure

but

Europe from the Far

able trip to

all

it's

East.

been a quick and enjoy 1

In a way, I'm sorry it's

ending.

THURSDAY,

Sept.

26:

We

got to Moscow about ten thirty this morning and if it

hadn't been for Eugene Lyons of the U. P. we'd be at the station
He was there and fixed everything about luggage, etc.
yet!
Left

trunks at the station, and with Mrs. B. and lots of bags

(they were wise and took no trunks) took a taxi to the hotel.
I've not too bad a room, though with no bath attached, for ten

my

rubles a day.
at

Paris, en

ahead as

my room

we

Mrs. Buergin, wife

of

the

General Motors chief

route there, couldn't get a room, not

having wired
did, and as she wanted to take a bath I let her use

while I bathed in the rooms of Carroll Binder, of the

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

259

Chicago Daily News, who combines his office and rooms at the
hotel in one suite.
And while the trip was not bad, after that
bath I

felt

like

as hell, at least

Had

new man

after

again!

The day was

clear,

but cold

Shanghai's mild climate near the tropics.

with Binder, Deuss of I. N. S., and others.

Planned
to tour about town with the B's after tiffin, but missed them
tiffin

while trying to help Mrs. Buergin buy a ticket from the border
to Paris.
Tonight to the Moscow opera with the Bristols and
Binder.
Began at seven thirty and lasted until twelve thirty a.m.
!

Got our money's worth

there.

Opera House

is

a massive build-

Saw
opera singing excellent, especially choruses.
"Boris Godunov," Moussorgsky's opera of old Russian court ining

The B's and I had supper at one a.m., and after a dance
with "Ma" Bristol, to bed late and very tired.
Duranty was
in Berlin, returning from Paris.
Back on Sunday. The B's go
trigue.

to

Leningrad Saturday p.m.

I've

decided to go on to

Germany

on Sunday evening.

SATURDAY,
This

end we

Sept.

28:

a fascinating but fearfully depressing spot.

This week
have been seeing the sights in more or less tourist fashion,
is

we have

not had time to go into the museums, churches,

We've driven
factories, and the rest on the beaten tourist track.
about town, however, and seen these places at, so to speak, arm's
except

length.

The Kremlin

off the

Red Square we

"did" in about two

This is far from the record, which the

hours, or a little under
tourists are cutting down all the time.
Soon they'll be running
One must have a
sight-seeing buses through it in ten minutes
f

pass to get in here for the Kremlin is the seat of government.

In here one may view the windows of Lenin's study in the

Government building on the left, while "on your right, ladies

and gentlemen, is an old cannon," the chill voice of the professional guide drones on while an all-American party of at least
rather bored

gazes about the campus-like square

formed by ancient buildings, churches, Peter the Great's playand yawns.
The Kremlin, while not so hot, must
house, etc.,
thirty

citizens

have been really magnificent in its day: it still is a massively

with its gold-covered, mosque-like
church
place,
impressive

THE DRAGON STIRS

260

the square where

towers,

when Moscow was

emperors of

the

now guarded by Red

and lay buried

troops and machine guns.
ruled

crowned,

MONDAY,
Out
Poland

Soviet

30:

Sept.

Russia at

Soviet

of

where the Czars were

the place

the capital,

were christened

old

We

last.

crossed

the

border into

at Stolpce at ten a.m.

Met Duranty a moment on

his

return from "outside," as the

Moscow terms a visit

Then I had to dash for

correspondents or anyone else stationed in

to any country in the rest of Europe.

my

train

Berlin, going via

to

trains there,

tomb with

where
its

had a glimpse

perennial

My

wreath of honor.

Warsaw

for

of

a brief halt between

Unknown

their

and

flame

unquenched

train companions,

the

Soldier's

inevitable

one an Englishman and

the other a young American engineer, agreed that

it

was

great

now that we were out

men and women with smiling faces

not to have to talk in whispers any more,

of Russia.

and

silk

Russian

Here

It

Berlin and

the

cotton-clothed,

cheerless

appearing

girls so drear in their native setting.

my

stay longer in

Orient and

to see

after

stockings

shall

And

is.

skip

my

diary's

unexpected trip

down

to Paris

Germany and perhaps

its

affairs.

account

lengthy

planned to

when

of
I

my

doings

in

had planned to

write something then about the

sail

from Bremerhaven on the

North German Lloyd liner Stuttgart for a leisurely crossing to New

York, but events which I did not controlnor cared to particularly
after a five-year sojourn out East away from life as we know it in the
caused

Occident

me

to

weeks, but I

three

spend

sailed

at

FRIDAY, November

8:

delightful

last

weeks
from

in

Paris.

They were

Boulogne for home, and

wrote:

ABOARD THE
days from

New

S.S.

STUTTGART, At

Sea:

We're two

York, being due on Sunday, the 10th,

Saw all
I care to of Europe for now in the
past three weeks in Paris,
and after a week on board this slow packet I shall be ready to
Met an interesting German- American chap on
get back home.
board named H. P. ("Heinie") Lohmann, formerly with the

PERSONAL PUBLICITY
Standard

Knew many
out East.

in

Oil
of

Shanghai,

my

stock

261

broker

San Francisco.

in

and we talked of old times

excellent on the North Atlantic for

friends in China,

Weather so

far

Not a day of sea-sickness for me ...

time of year.
but we've rolled quite a bit several times
must be a better
this

or wiser sailor.

On

board the S. S. Stuttgart are a Mr. Lukes and his two

These
young daughters, Sarah and Susan, of Quincy, 111.
girls were at Christian College in Missouri when I went to the
.

Columbia there years ago

they knew
"Tige" Brown, "Unc" Benson, etc., very well. ... We also
had considerable to chat about from those days very distant to
State

University

at

us

... funny

coincidence.

My

We

all

diary

docked in

ends

abruptly

New York

with

that

remark,

"funny

coincidence."

a day or so later on November 10, 1929.

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

22

*HE

Japanese seized Manchuria's peaceful Three Eastern Provinces of China in the fall and winter of 1931-32 and restored the
"Boy Emperor" to the throne of his Manchu ancestors on March
an historical date in marking the Manchu invasion of China below

|
I

was on this date in 1644 that they began their

"Ching Dynasty" or "Pure" rule in Peking.
The "Boy Emperor" had been living in peaceful seclusion as a

the Great Wall.

"guest"

of

It

the Japanese

in

their

Concession at

Tientsin

several

for

He

years, since his precipitous flight from Peking's uncertainties.

in bodily danger there even before the Kuomintang Revolution,

with the aid of the Japanese he got away.

a case of out of the frying-pan and into the

been free

it

Still,

fire

was
and

was something
for he

has

of

never

since.

He was

a virtual prisoner at Tientsin.

Then when Japan

"pacified"

really became deadly serious in her plan there, he was

Chang-chung, now called Hsinking, the new capital in

Manchuria and
enthroned

at

northeastern Asia.

The "Boy Emperor" had no more to say about his being whisked
away from the calm of Tientsin to the maelstrom of Manchuria in
1932 than you

did.

It

was

for "the state," an

pure patriotism, that the youth, who had been

his overthrow in the original revolt against

Oriental conception of
for a time before

known

Dragon Throne as
Emperor Hsuan T'ing, became Emperor Kang-Teh.
Himself, he
preferred to be known as plain Mr Henry Pu-yi, and during his
"retirement" in Peking and later in Tientsin that was the cognomen
But one born as the "Son of Heaven," cannot be plain Mr.
he used.
anything for very long.

The

his

Orientals are funny that way.

If

you

are the Son of Heaven, you've got to be the Son of Heaven so that
the common people may have something to kow-tow to down here on
earth.

262

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

263

was no major complaint voiced by

the Manchus or the Chinese peoples when "Henry" became their new
That

the chief reason there

is

"ruler."

liked

They

The Emperor

it.

the

in

Orient

is

worshipped

The Japanese have the same conception in their

the Emperor Hirohito, whom they believe a direct
The Occidental races have an afSun Goddess.

as well as revered.

devout bowing to
descendant of the
filiated

religious

belief

often expressed in the "divine right

In the "restoration"

in

Manchuria March

1,

of kings."

1932, Japan grabbed

Manchuria as she had so long carefully planned

time, I was just getting settled in Washington.

to

do.

About

that

The

trouble

had

Japan reported the now historic "Mukden

Incident," when her South Manchuria Railway track on the border
of that city was said to have been torn up by Chinese.
Troops were
started before I got there.

rushed to the spot from

reaching there in a surprisingly

short time from the chief Manchurian base at Dairen.

The

all

quarters,

"incident" occurred on September

Mukden

the Japanese seized control of

tioned there and

reinforcements.

18,

In a few hours

1931.

with her railway guards

There was heavy

all

fighting

sta-

that

and far into the winter, but by spring the Japanese had everything
Their Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Kenunder control.
fall

kichi

Debuchi,

intention

daily

assured

our

Secretary

annexing Manchuria."

of

Colonel

of

State

they

Henry L

had

"no

Stimson pro-

fessed to believe his bland, ever-smiling assurances

In a way, the Honorable Mr. Debuchi

was right.
The men
"good scout"

Manchuria

in

so

many words.

They

short, rotund, smiling,

at

Tokyo
simply saw

Manchuria "wanted independence"

even the average American could understand.
people

in

pendence once not so long ago, too, and got

4

'the

people"
claimed their

ascended
with

it

his

from

We
it.

not

did
to

it

China

and

annex

that

the

phrase
wanted our inde-

Thus we

find

that

changed the name to Manchukuo and themselves pro-

new "independent State" the day that the "Boy Emperor"

new throne in Hsinking.
Tokyo had nothing to do

officially.

But

"unofficially"

well,

what do you think?

That day they (the people) with Japanese "advisers," gave young
Mr. Henry Pu-yi an Imperial announcement, or "Rescript," to read
while he prepared to sit down on his new throne.
It read that he
,

("we") was ascending the throne "in conformity with the wishes of
the people, and complying with the will of Heaven."
And the new

THE DRAGON STIRS

264

was born, Japan extended de jure recognition officially several

months later, in the Protocol of September 15, 1932, just a year after
the "Mukden incident"
which was rather fast moving in such a
State

game

of politics.

Early in January of 1932, the Japanese got into trouble down in

This first "Shanghai War" caused weeks of startling
Shanghai.
news again and it took Japan's troops rather longer than they had
anticipated to

quell

the

stubborn Chinese resistance led

famous Nineteenth Route

near

That

Shanghai.

outbreak

mouth

the

at

Army

began

by

the

now

Yangtze River
Chinese mob on

of the

when

January 18, 1932, attacked five Japanese in Shanghai, including two

Buddhist priests.
The Japanese sent a Marine patrol ashore to
"pacify" the situation, and the "war" was on.
all

Correspondents from
over the world flocked there again, including Will Rogers, Floyd

And

from Washington
to handle the tremendous volume of cabled dispatches pouring in from
Gibbons and scores of others.

the correspondents out there for

They kept me swamped day

was

recalled

The United Press

in,

Associations.

day out during that

"show"

in

The news poured in at all hours of

January and February of 1932.
the day and night.
On January 20, the Shanghai Municipal Council
Settlement proclaimed a "state of emergency"

in the International

Most

the foreign area.

in

of the fighting occurred in Chapei, the native

The League of NaChinese city toward Woosung and the Pacific.

tions was informed of the "virtual state of war" then existing.
There
was nothing "virtual" about it to the men in the firing lines!
The
Woosung-Chapei battle outside the Settlement lasted from February
20 to March 1, but the armistice ending that bloody affair was not
signed until

The

May

5,

1932.

had long been over by that time, however, and I

the White House in Washington, D. g, the March

fighting

went back

to

previous to the Shanghai armistice.

on

my

House
drama
it

return
to

to

America, and in

"cover"

the

had joined the United Press

1931 was assigned to the White
(I

Hoover Administration.)

The

"restoration"

Manchuria intrigued me, and what

meant to China and the future of the Orient.
It still is a strange
of the

"Boy Emperor"

in

piece in the tangled pattern of our times, and I

life

story here of this hapless

pawn

in

the

want

shifting

to

go into the

panorama

of the

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

Far East ... the unbelievable
if

he could help
This slender,

spectacles,

history of the

man who'd

265

not be king,

it.

stood

frail

in

his

youth,

the

Throne

face

yellow

Room

of

and pale behind

thin

Manchu

his

ancestors

at

Chang-chung, ancient capital of Manchuria, that spring day in

1932, and took the oath of office as nominal ruler of another shadowy
This was the new and synthetic Manchurian-Mongolian state
realm.
historic

Ankuo, "Land of Peace"

sponsored by Japan, vigorously rejected by China, and not recognized
of

what was

first

called for a brief time

diplomatically by the rest of the world.

of

Gongs sounded through the palace at one time gay with pageantry
Their sonorous, deep booming
another and more colorful day.

welled through

the

wintry streets

Manchuria, calling on

The

claimed.

all

9,

in

Chang-chung

to witness that a

was March

date

of

1932.

new

ruler

heart

the

of

had been pro-

This youth, the

last

to

sit

on the Dragon Throne of China in Peking, was recently returned

under Japanese guard to the fertile provinces of Manchuria and inaugurated by the Japanese as ruler of that land of his fathers.
Prisoner to all intents and purposes these past two decades in the
hands of the Japanese, Henry is now their unwilling puppet in Manforced

churia,

to

of

position

nominal power,

to

which

he

never

aspired.

The Japanese by a

man

bold military adventure had ejected one young

as a ruler of Manchuria and placed another in his stead.

By

paradox of fortune, the youth who was eliminated

is

man who,

major role
was poetic

at the beginning of this century, played a

overthrow of the Manchus who

that

the Japanese

Thus,

fantastically,

returned
at

now

It

reign again.

Henry Pu-yi

to

the son

semblance

of

the

in the

justice

of

power.
turn of the wheel which put them there,
Elizabeth (bizarre names which the Son of
the

Henry arid his wife,

Heaven chose for himself and

his

bride)

now

play at

ruling in

Manchurian provinces, much, be it repeated, against their

real names are Hsuan T'ing, the "Boy Emperor," and
One wife, the former Princess Kuo Chia Si, daughter

will.

Their

Number

his

of

the

a major-

under the old regime in Peiping.

He selected her, oddly
enough and little in his life is not odd through a beauty contest.
But more of that later.

general

Both Henry and

his

pretty

wife

would far

rather

go

abroad,

THE DRAGON STIRS

266

preferably to the United States, to live quietly as students than rule

the Manchus under the thumb of the Japanese.
Henry is thirty-seven
his tiny, beautifully aristocratic consort is hardly more than thirty.
;

modernized

are

They

movies, and have as their

the

speak English, go to
wish in life a desire to be left

the

of

rulers

first

Orient,

They have found once more, however,

alone.

that

life

for

man

unfortunate enough to have been ruler of the ancient Celestial Empire

of China

the presidential abode of

new

And

not that simple.

is

state,

Henry and

however unstable.

Elizabeth

courtyards are unkempt compared

Its

pomp and ceremony

with their

over

the

Great

There

of yesterday.

Wall

and

their

new

is

little

to

recall

Manchus marched southward,

the splendor of brighter days before the

swarmed

Chang-chung is now
the White House of

the palace at

conquered

China

to

only

be

absorbed themselves.

The

"throne room"

inauguration.
seal

of

Two

of

residence

was the scene

great golden seals were presented to

State and the Regent's seal.

small group

of

of

Henry

the

the

Chinese and

These
a few Mongolian princes gathered for the unreal ceremonies.
men, with the "aid" of Japanese advisers, also present, were responThe ceremony was brief.
show.
The youth
sible for the whole

He
greeted the audience and spoke a few words prepared for him.
The Son of Heaven had become
swore to uphold the new State.
(again oddly enough to stir his honorable ancestors in their ancient
a dictatorship, actually, held
tombs) head of a democracy of sorts
together by bayonets but based on the theory of eventually making

Ankuo

a democracy.

Henry Pu-yi has been flitting from throne to solitude

and back again.
Events of great moment occurred to him when he
All his

life,

was too young

three years old

to

understand what

when he ascended

it

was

all

Dragon Throne

the

He was

about.
in

only

He

Peking.
principalities but

was

chosen by the old Dowager Empress to succeed her nephew, the

Em-

was born merely the

peror

Kuang Hsu.

heir

The

to

one

three-year

of

China's

knew nothing of the

was accorded him and little of

old

infant

pageants and the acclaim that

the rest of the ceremony which was a picturesque part
nation as an Oriental potentate.
great

He was

of

his

coro-

a very small boy when he was first removed from the

The revolt against the Manchus succeeded
tottering Dragon Throne.
still

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

267

and only four years after his enthronement the "Boy EmHis abdication meant nothing to him at the time,
peror" resigned.
and he could have known nothing at the age of seven of the significance
in

1911,

away an empire had

Upon abdication, Hsuan T'mg became
that

his

signing

moated Forbidden

into

the

City

of

old

terraces

and

in

plain

There

City,

march

the

in

world

of

affairs.

Henry Pu-yi and

the

heart

Tartar

the

of

retired

gleaming yellow roofs, marble

palaces with their solemn Ming dynasty masonry,
surrounded

Peking,
stately

by

he studied and carried on.

Meanwhile the wife of Kuang Hsu, the uncle whom Henry succeeded as emperor, had come into the title of Dowager Empress.
She
held

this

At her

died.

was

post

left

at

time

the

of

abdication,

death, crafty Chin Fei,

head

as

the

of

women

the

but

thereafter

shortly

Kuang Hsu's

"golden concubine/'
in the Imperial household.
She was

supreme in deciding the life of the youth during the years

he lived in the Forbidden City, where even his own father and mother,

virtually

the Prince and Princess Chun, were not permitted.

The

influence of

concubine colored his early days and formed another part of the
weird pattern of his life.
this

The terms

He

of

Henry's

abdication

were

not

entirely

unpleasant.

Emperor and was guaranteed by the Republic

the same respect as was due a foreign sovereign.
He was to receive
$4,000,000 (silver) a year, which at the time was approximately
retained his

title

of

$2,000,000 in United States currency, as

public

for

confiscating his

rights

compensation from the Re-

and crown.

But he

rarely

got anything from the shifting cabinets at Peking, and had a

if

ever

difficult

time financially.

Henry
terms.
sell

The

also

retained

his

This kept his court

private

in the

property

under

the

Forbidden City going.

abdication

He

had to

a great deal of the timber and other valuable things to continue.

throne also received gifts from loyalists, and he managed to sub-

sist.

There was even a somewhat pathetic attempt

splendor of the old court

and went

life

at recapturing the

but the lamp of his fortunes

flickered

out.

The boy

lived

quietly

in

the

Forbidden

City

for

some

years,

knowing nothing whatever of the sinister intrigue going on all about

It
him after the revolution.
approached the surface innumerable
times,

and the outbreak

in

1917 which restored him to the throne on

THE DRAGON STIRS

268
the

brief

crest

of

its

was

tide

inevitable

but,

to

him,

complete

surprise.

The monarchy was reestablished for a fleeting moment, and President Feng Kuo-chang had to run for his life.
He chose the Dutch
The troops of the
His insecurity was short.
Legation as a refuge.
new Republic routed the Imperial forces three days later and the "Boy
Emperor" was again
Forbidden

City.

was some day

relegated forthwith to the inner confines

he think, perhaps,

Little did

He was

to be to him.

how

of the

forbidden that city

only thirteen years old then, and

doubtless unfettered by fancies of grandeur.

From

1917 until the

fall

of high intrigue, yet all about

seven years he never

left

of

1924,

Henry

in

lived

an atmosphere

him was apparently calm.

the Forbidden City so far as

During these

known, but

is

spent his days in study and in exercise of the sort possible inside the
The pretense of his court was maintained and he
palace grounds.

was fawned upon by the

back, reports from within

Now

courtiers.

and again he rode horse-

Other reports said the extent of this

exercise consisted of the boy's being set on a small Mongolian pony
which was then led slowly through the stone-flagged grounds by two
said.

careful attendants.

With

modern

Henry must have become more than

But it was essential and part of
"fed up" with his sequestered life.
his fate, for it must be remembered that within the ornate walls of
his

tendencies,

the Forbidden City he was

still

to

all

intents

and purposes the occu-

The

pant of the Dragon Throne and ruler of the Celestial Empire.

loyal

attendants,

the ladies

and gentlemen

of the

phantom

court,

the

eunuchs and the maidens could not bring themselves to think of him
otherwise.
Intrigue,

was,

for

some petty and some

example,

sincere,

tremendous

was

their

life

blood.

There

argument over whether the youth

should wear spectacles.

One faction in his court held that spectacles
had never been worn by any other emperor of the dynasty and that
the device certainly could not be necessary at this late date.
The

former Dowager Empress was most strenuous in her opposition to

the innovation.
But Henry, never strong, had become a constant
student.

ruled

He

that

spectacles

if

used his eyes day and night, reading.

court physician
the boy's sight were to be saved Henry had to use

whenever reading.

The

physician

settled

the

controversy,

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

269

hard feeling in the Imperial household.

It was their biggest problem in months.
Thus, drama, tragedy and tragic-comedy filled the life of Henry

but his decision caused no

Pu-yi,

without the

all

little

volition

slightest

on

his

He

part.

never

has

a dramatic, tragic or comic situation.

He would
run far from one or all three.
Yet always this youth has paid the
willed himself into

penalty of being the

One touch

An

1921.

last

of

tragedy
court
official

Son

of

which

Heaven.

remembers occurred

he

statement

reported

the

October

in

sudden

death

of

Princess Chun, his young and still pretty mother.

She died of opium
The Princess, the brief report set forth, had committed
poisoning.
suicide.
However that may be, her death came as a result of a quarrel

with Chin Fei, the "golden concubine" and,

as

have

said,

virtual

Empress Dowager. The reports of the quarrel were not clear as they
seeped from the jealously masked lives of the "court" in the heart of
Forbidden City.

the

The

it

trouble,

Fei looked with favor upon a matrimonial alliance between

a daughter of the
bination

to

The boy

son to

himself,

wanted to wed
aunt.

Still,

new

most ways

her

preferred

Chin

appeared, was over the selection of a bride.

it

his

being

President of China, certainly a strange

of

wed

The

thinking.

the

Yun

youth,

mother,

Liang,

com-

however,

her

nephew.

ideas about his marriage.

mother's younger

patient

youth's

daughter of

appears, also had

own

Henry and

he

sister,

said

he

in

He

other words, his

would abide by

his

mother's choice.

Chin Fei was not a

little

the end upset her schemes.

incensed at the turn of events which in

Bitter

words followed.

Prince and Prin-

Chun stood by their son. The quarrel continued for three livid
Then Princess Chun died suddenly. They said she had comdays.
The "Boy Emperor" left his seclusion for the first
mitted suicide.
cess

time to attend his mother's funeral

very pale that day and seemed

of sixteen.

As

frail

on October 31, 1921.

He was
and scarcely ten years old instead

the catafalque of his mother

was

rug of lambskin and bowed thrice toward the

ened, but maintained an air of utmost dignity.

Time passed and

lifted,

coffin.

he knelt on a

He was

fright-

Henry Pu-yi was again searching for

a wife.
He had his way this time. There was no meeting with the
But a
girl, no courtship such as is known in the Western World.
before long

THE DRAGON STIRS

270

made

departure that was even more startling was

in

his

selection

of

a bride.

Henry held a beauty contest! He ordered the twelve most beautiful Manchu princesses in China to have their photographs taken and
sent to him.
The youth, Imperial judge of this remarkable array of
Oriental pulchritude, at last ended the suspense by choosing Princess
Kuo Chia-si. Her family was obscure but of princely Manchu blood.
The match was regarded as a love affair. Descriptions of the Princess

She is
Manchu girl in the world.
small and slender.
Being a Manchu she does not bind her feet which,
The "Girl Empress," is quite modern
however, are naturally small.
said

in

she was the most beautiful

one respect for

uses

(and

this

also because

is

cosmetics, including rouge,

The law

of

Manchu)

she

only

Manchu may

freely.

the

Ching dynasty
become the wife of an Emperor.

The Empress has

is

she

rules

that

hair of the jet-black sort so prized in the Orient.

It is doubtful that
long and luxuriant, reaching to her knees.
she would bob it even were she to come to America some day, as she

It

is

wants to do.

Her

aquiline.

Her

features

eyes

sheltering heavy

are

lashes.

exaggerated angle

are

large

They

common

well formed,

the

nose

and brown, gazing out

are not

to Orientals.

slanting,

Her

at

face

is

She would be charming anywhere,

Oriental standards is more than beautiful.
rounded

chin.

being almost
from beneath

least

not

on the

oval, with softly

and

judged

by

In the early hours before dawn of December 1, 1922, they were

married.
Such pomp and splendor are seldom seen anywhere.
The
princess came to her lover carried over the yellow-sanded, narrow

Peking through the Great East Gate into the Forbidden

Yellow lanterns flickered in the darkness and a yellow moon
City.
on the wane peered down with half an eye at the exotic proceedings.
streets

From

of

atop the dragon chair of yellow

silk in

which she rode a Golden

symbol of the Empress of China, spread its great wings.

She sat behind drawn curtains that her face might be veiled demurely
Phoenix,

from the public gaze.

Thirty-two sturdy

men

carried her from her father's house to the

Golden sand along the way, yellow silk everywhere

the "royal purple" of China
an event of such magnificence

Imperial palace.

yellow is
could take place

only

in

ancient

Peking.

few blocks away, the

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

in observance of the

The marriage
"Boy Emperor"
and she on the
and pieces

sat

Andrew's

St.

ball.

The

themselves were simple.

rites

Princess and her

by side on the Dragon Bed, he on the left

They exchanged golden cups containing wine

side

right.

of soft

modern dance orchestra

reveled to the strains of a

still

foreign colony

271

The

wheat bread.

symbolic of long

ritual is

life

and

a blessing on posterity.
Their honeymoon was spent in the confines
of the Forbidden City, the extent then of his lost empire.

Henry Pu-yi
English

He

history.

name he took

had a British

as

result

of

his

study

of

and one day on impulse

tutor,

name should no longer be Hsuan T'ing. He

of Henry after one of his favorite English kings.
He
and Henry and Elizabeth,
wife the name of Elizabeth

Henry decreed
took the name
his

gave

the

is

that his

strangely enough, ruled in the Forbidden

of the Republic

City as long as the leaders

permitted.

"Henry" seems
Imperial name and

to

suit

title,

this

He

diffident
is

youth much better

serious

than his

young man, rather

nice

looking, always shy with strangers; he has his hair cut western style,

brushed back
to

in

stiff

pompadour, and has an

Henry and

be extremely friendly with everyone

happily for nearly two years before the

air of always

skein

tangled

his

of

striving

bride
their

lived

queer

lives caught them up again and whisked them off on new adveniures.
It was in the autumn o
1924 that Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, the
so-called "Christian General," turned on his own chieftain and with

characteristic

was no

there

up by

his

gesture
place for

own

Emperor" and
into

captured

emperors of

bootstraps, Marshal
his

bride once

the Japanese Legation.

The

Japanese,

In

Peking.

any

Feng

and for

Even

however, by

sort.

philosophy
Himself a peasant pulled
rigorous

set out to eliminate the

"Boy

Henry and Elizabeth fled

asylum was none too secure.

all

this

that

his

time

saw

in

Henry a

valuable

pawn for their own maneuverings in the political intrigue in the East.
They decided to get him out of Peking,
The shifting of the pawn began when the Japanese spirited Henry
Quarter in Peking on February 24, 1925, and
hurried him before dawn on the road to Tientsin,
It was dark when
out

of

the

Legation

they started.

Peking

slept.

light flickered

and was gone as a man

uniform snuffed his tiny lantern and slipped cautiously across the
terrace to a waiting motor car.
"All ready," he whispered in Japain

THE DRAGON STIRS

272

The man

nese.

and,

someone

The

other

retraced

his

steps

door whence he had come, spoke in low tones to

the

opening

wheel nodded.

at the

inside.

a group of three or four filed silently out and

followed their guide to the machine.
Through the gateway and down

moment

later

the street, the car proceeded slowly through the Legation Quarter, on
They
through the black night which seems blacker just before dawn.

gathered speed as they fled in that early morning solitude, hurtling on

through the Tartar City and, more slowly now, on until the gates of

Peking were reached.

They had no trouble

The

there.

gates opened

for the day

they

fled past and on

are locked every night, even now
An uneventful trip over some eighty miles of
to the open highway.

and the machine

wretched roads, and the "Boy Emperor" had arrived

at

Tientsin and

safety.

The "Boy Emperor" was guarded closely and his life kept a deep
It was even somewhat presumptuous to insist that
secret at Tientsin.
he actually was there.
Some doubted it, and he was a phantom figure
Even persons who
after his mysterious flight from the old capital
were

seemed not to have any clear notion as

American army captain, now back in the

living in Tientsin then

to just

where he was.

United

States,

An

who had

been on duty in Tientsin with the

15th

In-

toward Henry Pu-yi.

the Oriental service had just reached

fantry, represented the typical foreigners' attitude

An

American transport

in

Nagasaki, in southern Japan, and the officer was one of two in charge
of the shore-leave watch.
Some of the men might get lost in Nagasaki.
It is a beguiling city, although nearly deserted now as far as

was there on a holiday at the time.

At the Nagasaki Club, essentially British, we were guests

foreigners are concerned.

United States army quartermaster stationed there.

using thd Club as their headquarters.

"How
The
was

in

good

not

British

the

Boy Emperor?"

captain had heard

about the
did

is

health.

city,

know

that
just

Concession,

attention to

Henry.

But
is

of

then,

officers

Henry.

He was

quite

thought.

of

were

sure the youth

He

drove

officer

really

nobody ever saw him much.

what part

the

asked.

in the foreign concessions,

he

The

of

but the

town the deposed ruler lived in.

But after all, nobody paid much

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

"He

amount

doesn't

much," the

to

Captain

273

commented, and he

appeared bored with the subject.

was

say further about that.

Henry at the
time, at least on the ominously calm surface of things, did not appear
"
The king was dead, it seemed. Yet very much
to "amount to much
Well,

there

little

to

The Japanese wanted him for high

developments showed.
schemes and he was swept along toward his strange destiny.
It was about this time that leaders in the new regime at Peking

alive,

as

demanded Henry's execution

strange

that

they

as a

menace

to the

new

It

State.

should fear this studious youth and

see

in

seemed

him a

powerful enemy; yet they may have had inklings of the dreams of the
The Republic's
monarchists which centered around his frail figure.
orators

denounced Henry as a schemer and a

traitor

and demanded

Henry, for his small part, reiterated that he never

wanted to be emperor again. But the radicals declared that he was an
his

surrender.

ingrate

and

seemed

plausible,

had attempted to assume the throne.

It hardly
this avowed fear of his potential power.
Yet here is

that he

the telegram circulated by the Peking government at the time, in the

spring of

1926:

"WHEREAS

WITH THE ESPECIALLY LENIENT

TREATMENT METED OUT TO HIM BY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT, DID
ONCE ATTEMPT TO RESTORE THE IMPERIAL REGIME AND IS NOW TRYING
TO ATTAIN HIS AIM AS IS SHOWN BY HIS SECRET DEPARTURE FROM
PEKING AND BY nis ASSUMPTION OF THE TITLE OF 'EMPEROR/ AND
"IN VIEW OF ALL THE EVIDENCE THAT HE IS CONSPIRING AGAINST
THE EXISTING REGIME,
"THEREFORE, THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE STEPS FOR THE
IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION OF HIS ESPECIALLY FAVORABLE TREATMENT
AND, IN ORDER TO NIP IMPERIALISTIC INTRIGUE IN THE BUD, DEMAND
THE SURRENDER OF THE 'EMPEROR' WITH A VIEW TO HIS EXECUTION,
TOGETHER WITH THAT OF HIS FOLLOWING, ON THE CHARGE OF HIGH
PU-YI,

DISSATISFIED

TREASON."

There was some truth

Emperor," as

have

said,

in

the charges in the telegram.

was

is

is

Dragon Throne
And he had nothing to do with that

actually returned to the

in 1917, but only for three days.

Furthermore, he actually

The "Boy

called

"Emperor," as

in

this

doubtful, however, that he thinks of himself in that way.

article.

It

It

merely

THE DRAGON STIRS

274

a term, rather than a

is

which presents

title,

describing him, but otherwise

is

most readily when

itself

meaningless.

Meanwhile, the Japanese held him practically incommunicado.

tried to see

red

old

him

brick,

politely but

in Tientsin in the

it

was not

protected jealously from

life,

The
the

by

secretary at the

was

he

Henry
new
his
by

possible.

outsiders

all

of 1928.

which

house in

western-style

firmly that

summer

living

lived

insisted

a secluded

masters.

years dragged on while Henry and Elizabeth built air-castles

Their money
sea and hoped for a chance to go abroad.

dwindled.

Gifts

from

Manchus and

loyal

others once affluent at the

Cathay were far smaller and less frequent.

The courtiers themselves found the new order hard and faced personal

pompous court

In the end, these

privation.
all

of ancient

but dependent on an alien host when

wore

gilt

off his

prisoner.

The

rapidly.

moved

Manchuria.

to

The

cage with the passing years.

The Japanese bided their

coming too much of a burden.
him

and Henry was

practically ceased

gifts

They

treated

Some

time.

They

him

felt

Henry was

that

continued, nevertheless, to hold

well, but their respect for

Oriental spits on a

be-

fallen idol.

him ebbed

They remained

cordial

but not too polite to their fallen Imperial hostage.

few years ago, for example, Henry let it be known that he intended to visit Japan.
Notice was promptly given that he would be
received only as an ordinary citizen, and that he would have to stop at
hotels wherever he went.
at least

Or
to

if

some pretense

in

Henry had expected better treatment with

Japan that he was a person of royal lineage.

he personally did not

him

did.

Tokyo,

feel so strongly

however,

was

and Henry cancelled the

regime
Civil

at

on the point, persons close

peace

with

the

new

Peiping

trip.

war swirled around about him

in the last

few years while he

men of the race he

looked on, helpless, as usual.

Chinese war lords,
and his Manchu ancestors had ruled, tore at each

other's

throats.

Their armies battled up and down China.

These men, some of them
patriotic in a sense but the majority of them out for loot and glory,
are the sanguine aftermath of the generation that overthrew the

Throne.

They disrupted a form

1 '

Emperor
a

man

scuttling for cover.

Dragon

government and sent the "Boy

They came into power before they had
of

or a system sufficiently strong to replace the

Son of Heaven

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

an

infant,

yet a symbol,

Henry

fled

275

even a religion
that held the vast, loosely
knit Celestial Empire together with some semblance of unity.
for his

they were ready, and

The Japanese saved

life.

now have

him, held him until

Manchuria which Tokyo controls.

And not once
amazing years has Henry had a word to say about it.
in

state

What

The

into decay.

China

war.

future?

the

of

is

halted in their

The

ancient

glory

of

Peiping

bustling commercial port of Shanghai

clutching for

power long enough

in

falls

lies

a bankrupt nation in more ways than one.

mad

new

placed him at the head of the

these

rapidly

wasted by

The

factions

to present a semi-

united front toward the Japanese at Shanghai but their bitter enmities

smoulder, ready as this

still

is

written to burst again into flame and

Chinese armies once more on the march.

set

The Chinese

peoples are tiring of the ineffectual attempts year after

year to be ruled by Western civilization's conception of equality and a

republican form of government.

many

like

They

are beginning to feel that

it

is

other novelties invented by the "foreign barbarians" outside

None can

the Great Wall.

Nevertheless,

it

is

what they will do, these Chinese.

as Kismet that they are going to settle

foretell

as certain

one way or another one day.

The Chinese wait a long time. They suffer untold miseries.

this business

But

end they usually separate the wheat from the chaff rather well.
The Chinese, pacific peoples really, want peace.
They had centuries

in the

of peace

until

the

revolution of

1911

overthrew the Manchus.

And

a thought which comes to the countless millions now crushed

under the painful and costly heel of militarism.

that

the

is

The Japanese
war lord type

seized

advantage of

of ruler of China.

this

rising

The move

in

tide

of

hatred

for

Manchuria was but

Japan has puppets in erstwhile popular factions among the Chinese to build a stable government once more
below the Great Wall of China. The monarchists also are active again.
the forerunner of a greater plan.

They and the Japanese, vague rumors of intrigue relate, may join
forces to place Henry Pu-yi once more on the Dragon Throne in
beat the drums of his
Tum-ta-ta-tum-tum, tum-ta-ta-tum
Peiping.
curious destiny.

Yet none now can answer the query

Will the twisted impulses of the East restore the "Boy Emperor"
to his Peking throne as a man?

THE ROAD AHEAD

23

men

of

since

their

comparatively easy
seizure of Manchuria in 1931-32, proceeded with ever increasing

THE

sturdy

little

Japan,

speed and amazing success toward achieving their age-old amThe

bition
to conquer and maintain complete control over all China.

campaign was planned in Tokyo for years.

There was nothing new, then, when the second "undeclared war"
in the Shanghai area broke out in the summer of 1937, and Japan
moved in.
The only thing really unexpected was the actual date
for the Chinese leaders at Nanking and elsewhere had long expected
the Japanese to attack in their next move of aggression on the continent of Asia.
None, of course, knew just when or where the attack
would occur.
Nor did the Japanese themselves know these specific
details while they

were playing

their wily waiting

game.

I must,

how-

grant in all fairness, that the ambition of the Japanese is only

human too human. Admitted, the details of their armed action are
ever,

more inhuman and horrible than otherwise

but armed men
commit excesses on any part of this globe's surface, and the Japanese
are no exception.
A man in battle is literally mad regardless of race.
Naturally, I do not contend that the "undeclared war" is fair to
China.
In fact, ever since I first set foot on Chinese soil more than
too often

a decade ago I have been considered pro-Chinese.

either.

am

"pro-" nothing.

am

hardly that,

plead guilty only to being a

realist.

From

this purely objective point of view, I must admit that the

themselves
Chinese
are largely to blame for their own plight.
They

become united and stay that way.

At the
are
united.
But
moment, yes, they
only against a common foe, Japan,
the despised little island neighbor off their long and rich coastline
simply

cannot

seem

to

there in the Pacific.

They fight shoulder-to-shoulder against this inwho mows down the stubborn soldiers of "Free China" and

vader,
has set up a puppet regime controlled from Tokyo.

276

This regime would,

THE ROAD AHEAD

277

the Japanese insist, enforce peace in the Orient, with Japan as chiefof-police.

But

Japan be defeated, let Japan for any reason on earth withdraw her persistent and fanatic soldiery from China, and the Chinese
let

in less time than

throats

takes to get this into print, will be at each other's

it

an

with

again

even

fought the troops from Dai

are legion here and abroad

more

the

he

My

Nippon,

vengeance than they have

and they
Chinese friends

say that

will

biased, possibly even pro-Japanese.

or

bitter

When

in

this

one

view

am

unfair,

not entirely on one

is

himself

suddenly regarded as
"pro-" the other side in any cause, politics or war, love or hate
you
name it
I simply state again that I am a friend of China, seeing her
faults as well as her virtues.
side

other,

is

likely

to

find

I want, for that matter, the

myself want China to be united.
whole of our unsettled world to be united
but as long as human
nature is constituted as it is, heaven help us if we don't have police in
I

our

cities

check crime, and

to

soldiers

on

all

frontiers

to

avert

in-

vasion.

The second "undeclared war" on the Shanghai front began August

The Japanese were not looking for it at that moment, but
9, 1937.
What Japan wanted most at that time was peace
they were ready.
below the Yellow River, in North-Central China, to permit her to get
on with her program of setting up yet another "independent" and

"autonomous"

state

in

provinces extending below the Great

But another
Shansi, Suiyuan and Chahar.

the

Wall

five

Shantung, Hopei,
"incident" occurred in the

Shanghai area and the second battle of

The first Shanghai war was
Shanghai, the showdown, was under way.
won by Japan and settled by a truce in 1932, when the Nineteenth

Route

Army was

finally

routed by the Japanese and fled south.

cidentally, these brave Chinese fighters

the "saviors

of

to start a civil

who were

Shanghai," a year later were

war

against the Central

In-

hailed for a time as

themselves

Government

at

threatening

Nanking.

Only

hurried conferences and probably the use of "silver bullets"

as

is

customary there, prevented that

coming

critical

(money),
brotherly quarrel from be-

little

within China's vast domain.

Japan seems now to have gone far toward permanently achieving

her goal

the control of

all

Chiang Kai-shek, founder

China, with the destruction of Generalissimo

of

the

Central

Government

at

Nanking

in

THE DRAGON STIRS

278

General Chiang was all along for conciliation, no matter how

far Tokyo went in her demands, and therefore was denounced as a
spineless puppet of Tokyo, a traitor to his trust as leader of the New
1927.

China.

General Chiang merely knew that China could not fight a winning

equipped and better trained Japanese troops on

land and sea and in the air.
The General favored letting them take
fight against the better

Nanking and Shanghai untouched.

the five northern provinces, leaving

a comparatively few years there might be a

chance to start a revolution in the north against the Japanese and win
back China's lost territories.
But his hotheaded underlings wanted to
believe he felt that

in

fight.

The Japanese accommodated them

General

losses

heavy

predicted,

for

and
China.

foreign interests in Shanghai and elsewhere.

are not popular now.

me make

Let
or
in

the

as

crossed

Japan

As

was

result

the

many

a result, the Japanese

are the bete noir of the present.

one prediction: I do not think the United

They

any other power on earth

her march on the Chinese,

is

at

going to go

home

to

war

or

to

else.

States,

Japan
There will

stop

anywhere
There will be high indignation,
be boycotts and more boycotts, yes.
ill-feeling, sentimental uprisings of an outraged Western world here

and

there.

Far

East

interests

Of
the

to

die

for

the

not going to send young

is

temporary

protection

of

men

our

into

the

commercial

out there.

course,

beginning

stronghold

in

Rome and
in

the

the

Communism

Berlin were in sympathy with

War.

Second

Far East

of

Tokyo from

Japan as the
Fascism
a bulwark

They regarded

the

of

tenets

the Orient, as they themselves are in Europe.

Chinese, then, had a lost cause as far as world action was con-

against

The

But Uncle Sam

cerned.

in

The League

of

Nations

was impotent.

It

lost

prestige

in

conquest of Ethiopia, before that, when Japan annexed

In fact, it was the League's failure to back up China
Manchuria.
then that gave Premier Mussolini much of his feeling of security when
the

Italian

he decided to acquire Ethiopia.

World sentiment is another story.
ample, sentiment was

for

the

ordinarily for the under-dog,

and

the Japan-China war.

all

In the United States, for ex-

Sentiment in America

is

was even more so than usual

in

Chinese.
it

But world action

nil.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Japan was "very sorry" for
Uncle Sam's, around Shanghai.

279

on foreign toes, including

But nothing was done, aside from

stepping

Japan's paying a small indemnity for foreigners killed in the war zone.
Japan began her long-conceived program of aggression at the
The first war
expense of China toward the end of the last century.
between Japan and China occurred in 1894-95.
Japan took over the

Formosa

It is a semiTaiwan, in Japanese, now).

tropical isle below Japan, toward the Philippines and was inhabited
Then Tokyo forced
largely by savage headhunters in the interior.

island of

(called

Chinese to make Korea a temporarily autonomous nation which

Japan took over ten years or so later, naming a Japanese governorthe

The next step was the Russo1904-05, which Japan also won
again probably by
"silver bullets" among the Russian troops of the old

general at the Korean capital of Seoul.

Japanese

War

of

the lavish use of

Czarist regime, fighting on the

home.

Japan seized control

Zone north

of

Manchurian plains far from Olga and

South Manchuria and took its Railway

as far as the halfway

as Hsinking, and

made

capital of

mark at Chang-chung, now known

Manchukuo in 1932.

Ten years after that Russo-Japanese War ended, while the world
was busy with the Great War in Europe, Tokyo made her now
notorious Twenty-one Demands on a supine China, powerless to resist.
The "demands'' were discovered by an alert United States press service

He gave their text to the

correspondent in Peking, Frederick Moore.
astounded world. The uproar was so terrific even during the European
war that Japan backed down and bided her time.
She even signed the Nine-Power Treaty in 1921-22 at the Washington Conference called by Charles Evans Hughes, then Secretary of
State.

The

the famous

pact "guaranteed"

"Open Door"

the

territorial

integrity

policy of equal economic

of

China and

opportunity there.

Japan withdrew her forces from Shantung Province, occupied as her

war when she stepped into the German-controlled port of

But not for long.
Japan went back into Shantung again
Tsingtao.
when the Kuomintang Revolution led by Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek and inspired by the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen, swept north across
spoils

of

China from Canton

in

1927-28.

General

Chiang once told

me

that

Japan's occupation in 1927 of Tsinan-fu, capital of Shantung Province,

had held back the Chinese revolutionary armies and delayed their
The Japanese subsequently withdrew
capture of Peking for a year.

THE DRAGON STIRS

280

but in the present

again

war

to

finish she

renewed her campaign

in

Shantung, especially at Tsingtao and Tsinan-fu.

But China herself, after the Kuomintang (People's Party) Revolution had captured Peking from the northern war lords, was soon
divided

among her own

current

insurrections

factions

within

the

as

again,

Party,

revolt

was

only

quelled,

for

Nanking

fall of

to

re-

the

Wuhan

Peking

in 1928.

with

beginning

Rebellion up the Yangtze River shortly after the

The

There were

always.

other

find

factions

up and taking arms against the newly formed Central

Government there.
The Chinese Communists continued a thorn in
the side of Chiang Kai-shek, as well, even to the present.
Unity was
springing

far

from achieved.

The Japanese took cognizance of this and of

depression spreading among the western nations
1931 began the seizure of Manchuria.

world economic

the

and

in

the

fall

She "restored" the "Boy

peror" to the throne of his ancestors at Hsinking in the

of

Em-

Spring of

and crowned him Emperor Kang-Teh there on March 1, 1934.

Then, on one pretext or another, she moved into Jehol Province, north
The conquest there was equally simple, with little
of the Great Wall.
1932,

or no opposition by the Chinese.

Jehol was added to
another province in that new buffer State.

Japan's next

regime in these

move was to
two provinces

Manchukuo

as

up the Hopei-Chahar autonomous

overlapping the Great Wall into Inner
set

This area was demilitarized, China keeping a soMongolia, in 1935.

called Peace Preservation Corps of soldier-police in the vicinity; and

Japan had the makings of yet another "independent" State in North

China adjacent to her puppet state of Manchukuo, a buffer against
possible attack from Soviet Russia.
Japan feared Moscow more than
the Chinese, and does now.

The Tokyo campaign

Peiping-

to use the

1935 and until the start of fighting near

in

revised spelling of the ancient capital

was made

an "autonomous State" composed of the five provinces

the Yellow River.
An "incident" was the immediate cause

to get control of

down
of

to

the

outbreak

of

fighting.

Causing

"incidents"

has

been one

of

Japan's most frequent methods of providing a pretext for warfare in

Asia.
The "incident" occurred on July 7, 1937, during and after night

maneuvers by Japanese troops

They

clashed

with

Chinese

in

in

the

the

demilitarized

zone

Peace Preservation

in

Corps

Hopei.
in

the

THE ROAD AHEAD

281

Marco Polo Bridge about nine miles outside

and the war was on, though not "declared."

vicinity of the

of Peiping

Japan wanted to keep the fighting

achieve her
believe

new "independent

later,

there

and the second Battle

of

walls

North China and

but another

occurred in the

"incident"

unexpected

a month

State"

in

localized

the

this

time I

zone about

Shanghai

Shanghai began August

9,

Japanese naval officer in their Yangtze Patrol led a landing

near the International Settlement, ostensibly searching for a

1937.

party

The

landing party tried to force an entrance into

clash occurred with
Hungjao Military Airdrome outside Shanghai.
Chinese defense troops there, the officer of Japan was killed, and other

missing Japanese.

And

troops wounded.

The

fighting in

the

second Shanghai war began.

North China

in the Peiping-Tientsin area

was soon

overshadowed by the Shanghai warfare.

Foreigners, including hundreds of American women and children, were evacuated from Shanghai.

Some were

killed,

many

ments by both sides

suffered

wounds

in the air raids

at the start of the clash.

President

Hoover was

fighting.

(She

and bombard-

The American steamship

bombarded, but not badly damaged, in the

went on the rocks off Formosa, when American

later

mercantile shipping began a voluntary boycott of Shanghai as a port

of call during the height of the fighting, and was pounded to pieces.

The Japanese rushed reinHer passengers and crew were saved.)

After
forcements to their naval and army forces already at Shanghai.
weeks

of

severe

artillery

bombardment and

air

attacks

on the

city,

including the International Settlement and the French Concession, the

Chinese troops withdrew.
Shanghai was a prize of war for the Japa-

nese

her greatest victory in

the

generation-old

campaign

The Japanese immediately marched westward up

toward Nanking and,

after

little

in

China.

the Yangtze River

or no opposition at Soochow on the

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek fled in an

way, captured the Capital.
beautiful and most
airplane with his wife, the former Mei-ling Soong
The Government which Chiang had
influential woman in China.

formed

1927 had already evacuated Nanking, scattering to

field-headquarters type of wartime Government was set

in April of

the west.

up temporarily at Hankow, 600 miles up the Yangtze in the interior of

China with the more permanent capital established at Chungking,
in Szechuan Province, on the border of Tibet.
Japan continued

her

ruthless

campaign

to

subjugate

all

China.

THE DRAGON STIRS

282

Troops seized Canton

far to the

In

south.

Shantung, they captured

Tsingtao, chief port of their old stronghold there, and Tsinan-fu, the

"mopping-up" drive followed, with Hankow one major

The United States Embassy at Nanking, headed by Ambasobjective.
sador Nelson T. Johnson, moved to Hankow and then to Chungking

capital.

with the Central Government,

In Shanghai, fighting ceased and the city began to look to repairing

the incredible damage done by weeks of artillery and aerial bombard-

The loss
The doom of
was sounded by

ments.

of lives and property was tremendous.

man

the white

as a

little

the Japanese action in

tin

god

in

The

China.

the Far East

prestige of the

The victory of
the Occidental world had long been fading.
a new mileJapan in and around Shanghai was the finishing touch
stone in their advance upon the long-sought objective: "Asia for the

men from

Asiatics!"

At

member

Tokyo voiced

Nippon.

He

in

He

the height

was the

the

of

the

Home

Shanghai

general

Minister,

conflict

Government

one

among leaders of Dai

Admiral Nobumasa Suyetsugu.
feeling

frankly asserted in a public statement in the press of Japan that

the "white races should not carry on trade in the Orient based solely

on

their

own

He

self-interest."

upon what he called "the

from white supremacy.

insisted

that

world peace depended

liberation" of the colored races

of the earth

In Shanghai, one of the first practical applications of this attempt

to eradicate the white man's influence in the Orient was the immediate

demand

that Japan be granted control of the Municipal Council ruling

the International Settlement there.

since

its

inception in the past century, by the British

and Japanese members; and,

admitted to

sit

maintained,

in

either

The Council had been

in the last decade, with

as regular voting

pressing

was not

serious

these
in

its

members

of this body.

demands, that
desire

to

with American

Chinese at

last

The Japanese

apparently

protect

controlled

the

Japanese

Council

lives

and

property within the International Settlement from "acts of outrage"

by the Chinese, was unable to give adequate protection to the Japanese
residents, numbering thousands there.
Cornell

S.

Franklin,

an American, was Chairman

of

the

Council

He sought to mediate, taking

during the troubled years of 1937-38.
the Japanese demands for control under consideration.
The peace terms which Tokyo

will lay

down

after the

"undeclared

THEROADAHEAD
war"

China are

in

One

enough.
as

still

nebulous.

They

will doubtless be

the

Japanese
ambitions in China."

violating

territorial

of the fighting
1

bloc

known soon

widely circulated report said the terms would be "such

would make China completely subservient

nically

283

official

to

assertion

Japan without techthat

Japan

has

NO

Another current report at the height

said the Japanese "extremists" demanded:

Manchukuo and formation

among China, Japan and Manchukuo.
Recognition of

of

an economic

Formation of autonomous, anti-Communist administrations

in North China and Inner Mongolia, both under Japanese "protection" but controlling all their own taxes and customs revenues.

Appointment of a Japanese Inspector-General of Customs

China, and of Japanese advisers in all national and provincial
3

in

departments; and revision of Chinese tariffs to promote an exchange of Japanese manfactures against Chinese raw materials,
4

Generalissimo

Japanese

President

Communist
5

Chiang Kai-shek to step aside for a proof

China, and China to join the anti-

Germany and
from possessing an army

bloc comprising Japan,

China

to

refrain

Italy.

or air force of

warplanes; a special Peace Preservation Corps to be formed for

internal police functions; and all commercial air services to be

managed by Japan,

the Chinese airlines to get their planes from

Japanese plants.

Some

sound strangely like those included in the

original Twenty-one Demands mentioned above.
Aquiescence by China
certainly would give Tokyo complete control of that country, as the
of these five points

And the Open Door of equal economic

Japanese have long desired.
opportunity, long a major plank in the United States policy toward the
would swing shut with a bang.
The United States became involved in the Shanghai warfare when
the Japanese sunk the U. S. S. Panay, a gunboat on our Yangtze River
She was evacuating men, women and children from Nanking
patrol.
Orient,

on

Sunday,

December

12,

1937.

Japanese

warplanes

repeatedly

dropped aerial bombs on the doomed warship, and she went to the
At least three people were killed in that "incident" two
bottom.

Americans and one

wise

were bombed

Three Standard Oil tankers nearby likethe air raid and sunk in the deep Yangtze.

Italian.

in

THE DRAGON STIRS

284

The Japanese planes attacked while the Panay and the oil tankers
All were plainly
were sailing away from the war zone at Nanking.
marked with American flags. The Panay of course flew her United
In addition, she had others stretched on
her deck awnings plainly visible to the Japanese military airmen.
President Roosevelt, through Secretary of State Hull at WashStates flag from her mast.

on a

ington, insisted
of

tition

this

British

assurances have proved

tragedy. Japan's

gunboats likewise

These included the

British

On

were bombarded by

of

the

What happens

patriotic,

He

hour

the

twentieth

if

at

you

time

next

is

insist,

for

just

Certainly,

man

of

to
I

peace,

and,

Japanese
the

raids.

of

Bee,

S.

and

in

killed

the

others

the

Battle

International

the

nice

value.

little

killed

in

repe-

funerals.

now, even probably to the

pleasant

think

Hirohito

Emperor

but

his

ambitious,

or

leaders in the military clique see in the present

to

Japan
not

if

century,

They got

unknown

is

were

sector

their

in

was

least

soldiers

British

landing

command.

high

Tokyo.

sailor

But nothing happened

Settlement.

Japanese

shore,

M.

Ladybird and H.

S.

British

shells

by

Shanghai

M.

One

patrol.

were wounded.

in

explanation and assurances against a

the ill-fated Panay, subjected to machine-gun fire after

like

of

full

all

emerge as
history.

the

And

greatest

they

are

out

the

of

power

see

to

it

through to the bitter end, regardless of cost in money, men or friendOne

ship in the once feared and long admired Western world.
omnipresent enemy to Japan is Soviet Russia.
Japan wanted Manchuria in 1931-32 almost as much for a buffer state against Russia
as

for

the

natural

resources

million potential purchasers

wants

another

and

the

controlled

market

of

thirty

which that swift conquest offered

And

puppet State surrounding or

bordering on Manchukuo, one which she can control and which will
be another buffer against the Soviet Union, if and when the clash

Tokyo

"independent*

comes.

There also remains Outer Mongolia.

adjacent to China, Inner Mongolia and

This

sparsely

Siberia,

has

settled
long-

area

been

The Mongol
Republic virtually under Moscow's control
leaders from time to time avow their independence and even their
Soviet

occasional adherence to China

but the influence of

Moscow

remains

strong.

The Japanese

military

leaders

would

like

to

stop

Communism

THE ROAD AHEAD

from

filtering

into

and thence across the bay to their island

For there
by the Sun Goddess herself.

China,

empire founded, they say,

has long been unrest within the
as

movement,

dustrial revolution in

and internal revolution,

the

fight

addled

world

down
is

seek to penetrate

Whether

the

Throne

naturally

is

whether
that

the

show

It is

who

my

section

their

date

traced

is

still

and

for supremacy on the mainland of Asia

and

first,

volume,

at

have tried

And

perspective.

happened out

Emperor"
little
1

men

second

to present

them

in

there,

completing
I

believe

we

It

writing.

the

doubtful

is

puppet-strings

know.

themselves

surface

behind

in

the political

the pattern
desire

Japan's

inevitably at China's expense

are
in

this
shall

In this
comprehended.
clear focus with an unbiased
of

intimately

told

tale

here

now

that

say

how

the

it

"Boy

"going to town" on the backs of the sturdy, implacable

from Dai Nippon and the town to which he is going is
is

The date?

Some March 1 before too long an historic day

the lives of the Manchu emperors, as we now know.
There are Chinese also who feel that their land could do worse

'eking.

in

Russia's

Soviet

if

in

be restored to his Dragon

motives

the

come

particularly

move is not far down

The move appears logical when

accurately

to

devoted to things of the

pulling

world's

the

of

this

best,

conviction that such a

horizon in North China.

to

are

is

will

at

conjectural

Japanese

at

which

"Boy Emperor"

home

China.

of

business

lane

along that

at

principles

twisting avenue of the years

the

an awak-

doctrines
its

in-

to get well

such

Union and

labor

The

there,

just

Communist

Soviet

Wall

dangerous

Orient.

fearing

chieftains,

with their backs to the Great

an

The

Nippon.

nonetheless

is

ening and possible eventual spread of

Crystal-gazing

of

Japan has been too recent for labor

But the military

organized.

boundaries

almost inarticulate,

yet

285

than return to the ways of their ancestors and try again to rule

China from a strong central government

way

of

before
'Jhis

life
its

so far has

the Orient.

in

of

is

inevitable.

mankind.

It

Peking.
It

will

and everywhere
is
an immutable

ultimate victory there,

victory

progress

failed

at

The democratic
need more time

else
fact

all

in
in

our
the

world.
painful

INDEX

BEND,

Bolshevik

192

Hallett

92
Richard
W.
Bonneyille,

55
dams, John Quincy
217
glen, Sir Francis
125
Vgrarian Revolution"
Hied Army of Defense
21,23
20,
22,
23,
25,
35, 37-47, 49-52, 54-59,
68-70, 72-75, 79, 80, 84,
88-91,94-96, 98-101, 104-107, 109, 110,
113, 118, 121, 127-130, 135, 138, 141,
145, 160, 167, 168, 170, 178-180, 182,
184, 187, 189, 191, 192, 197, 204, 205,
208, 213, 215, 218-223, 225, 227, 228238, 240, 241, 245, 249, 255, 259, 260,
263, 264, 270, 272, 278, 281-284
merican Church Mission 176, 177
merican Club
18, 19, 22, 61, 121, 222,
250, 257

28-30,
61-64,

34,
66,

merican Northern Preshylerian Mis36

sion
170
merican University Club
moy 56
nhwei
147
216
nnapolis
16
rabs
rizona
82
-104-106, 225, 226
14, 15, 33, 52, 54, 67, 96,
144, 159, 160, 166, 174, 175, 177, 184,
192,
209, 212, 221, 222, 224,
186,
227-230, 237, 238, 262, 276, 280, 282,

mold, Julean
sia

12,

285
ssociated
tlantic

Press

251
250, 261

Ocean

uslraha, Australian

ALTIMORE
aptist

Church
136,

inder,

Carroll

27, 28

135, 136, 176, 183, 184

259, 260,
258, 259

Rear-Adm

J.

90, 96-100,
144, 150, 151,

-209
45,

58,

46
216

20, 239, 240, 262-265,

267, 268, 271-275, 280, 285
Breitenstein, Richard
190, 192, 205
Mark L. 62, 220-225,
Bristol, Aclm

254-256, 258, 259

Mark L

Mrs

Bristol,

225, 256,

258,

259
Britain, British

21, 22, 26, 28, 29, 31,

33, 38, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 56, 58,
59, 61-63, 66, 68, 69, 72, 73, 75-81,
84, 88, 94, 96, 99-101, 128, 145, 167,
170, 179, 183, 187-189, 191, 208, 216,
218, 225, 229, 231, 252, 271, 272,

282, 284
British and

American Tobacco Company 76, 136

Brooklyn Eagle >134
179
Bryan, William Jennings
Buddhism
Buddha,
112, 134, 174, 178,
181, 264
Buffalo University

Burma

219
227

129, 211,

84,

CALIFORNIA
97

J.

Canada
Canton,

Smedley D.

63, 64,

140,

229

79
184

Cantonese

13, 17-26, 32, 47,

52, 54, 57-59, 67, 69, 70, 77, 78,
116,
135,
82, 84, 96,
98,
125,
166-173, 186, 190, 212; 225, 226, 232234, 239-241, 245, 279, 282

278

ingham, Senator Hiram

104,
127, 128
104, 106
ingham, Woodbridge
Y.
72
inghampton,
lakely,

131,

"Boy Emperor"

Camm,

66,

19,

Boston University
Bowen, Dr. A. J.
"Boxer" Rebellion

75

188

55

257,

Mikal

115, 119, 122-129,

159, 241
Boston 54, 77

Butler, Brig.-Gcn.

erg (see also Borodin, Mikal)

erlm

219

Madame M.

Borodin,
Borodin,

American

merica,

22, 79,

49,
80,
106,

Canton Christian College 176

223
Castleman, Capt. Kenneth

Y.-^63, 189

Catholic

287

176,

185

THE DRAGON STIRS

288
Central America

99

1 14,
Christianity
116,
182-185
174-180,
Christ of the Indian Road
174

157,

Chungking

282

Christian,

Chang Cheng-yi, Rev

183

Chang-chung
239, 262, 265, 266, 279
Chang Chung-chang, Marshal 71, 83,

211,

33,

14,

109
Cleveland, Dr. Frederick

Chang Hsueh-hang, Gen

Chang Hui-chang, Capt
Chang sha 189
85
Chang Shen-tse, Gen
Chang Tso-lm 59, 83, 84,

Communist,

132,
199,

143, 186,
207, 217

187,

195-199, 211
232,

233

93, 98,

192,

191,

111,

195-197,

129,

145

127-129,

Cheng Chien, Gen -41-43, 48, 85

Chengchow-27, 28, 123-125, 129-131,

33,

144,

125,

158,

159, 165,

189,

256, 278, 280, 283-285

170,

167, 168,

Confucius, Confucianism

34,

116,

146,

123,

77,

119,

148-156,
171,

178,

114, 174, 178

Church

Congregational

109,

219

111,

100,

131,

281,

Communism

81-85, 91, 95, 98,

Chapei 264
thekiang Provmc<^-83, 131, 132, 147
Chen, Eugene-30, 31, 35, 42, 49, 85,
90, 92-96,

212,

Chu, Paul

147, 154, 191, 196, 199

Chang Fa-kwei, Gen. 168, 169

182,

184

184

Archbishop
250
Converse, Carolyn
Constantini,

189
Coolidgc, Calvin
Cornell University
219

Cunningham, Edwin S
Cutting,

188

227

Suydam

188

Chengtu 227, 230

141
Chiang Chmg-pang
14, 23,
Chiang Kai-shek
48,
98,

59,

65,

103,

79,

78,

DAIREN

187, 192, 193, 195, 196, 203205, 207, 263

28,

81-85, 93,

30,

94,

106-108,

110-119, 123,
144-146, 152, 154,

33,

96,

125157-

128,

131-141,

160,

167-169, 171, 176, 184, 194, 207,

222, 242, 248, 277-281, 283

210,

Chicago 97, 130

Chicago Daily News
Chicago Tribunc-~23,

259
104,

Chicago, University of
Chief enchow

39,

41,

46,

47,

103-107,

122-127, 129-139,
155-189, 192-198, 200,
119,

255,

36,

42

18-22,
49,

24-35,

52-72, 74,
116-

109-114,

144-153,
202-213, 215,
,142,

218-240, 242-246, 248-252,

261-266, 270, 273-285

255,

62,

256,

China Press 232

Chinese Central Government

113,

136,

85,

141, 166, 212, 213, 224,

246, 249-251,
253, 257, 258, 260, 278, 279

233, 235, 238, 240, 243,

Doctrine of

Extra-Tcrritoriality,
58, 96, 145

FASCISM

56,

278

Edward F. 219
Fenghwa 133, 134
Fenghwa River 136
Feely,

14,

59,

280, 282

Chinese Eastern Railway

187, 249
Chinese National Aviaton Corporation
234-237
Chinese Republic
156, 267,
58,
147,
268, 271, 273
166
Chinese Turkestan
268
Chin Fei
267,
72-75

104,

254,

257,

Chmkiang

251,

66,

61,

122
William
216, 217
Edwardes, A H.
278
Ethiopia
Europe, European
54, 55, 59-61,

EDDY,

85

42,

77-88, 91-101,

216,

Duranty, Walter
258-360

121

130

190

Chihli-Shantung Army
Chi-ko
132-134, 138
Chinese-11-16,
China,
37,

194

Chien Tsu-min
Chihli

249
Davis, Dwight F
H.
Col
60, 61
Davis,
Davis, JohnK
34, 35, 51
Kenkichi
263
Debuchi,
Detroit
230-232
90,
Disraeli
16
Duncan, Maj.-Gen. Sir John
187, 225

194
Fengjun
Feng Kuo-chang

268

Fengtien Province

131,

195,

196,

199,

200, 203

Feng Yu-hsiang
107,

111,

128-130,

28,

114-117,

159-166,

207, 248, 271

93,

103,

123,

125,

126,

189,

194,

199,

59,

119,
188,

83,

INDEX

Dr Frank
Museum 227

Fetter,

Field

"Forbidden City"

219

11, 240, 267-271

128,

20, 22, 23, 30, 40, 58,

Li Chi

112

Gen

GAUSS,

Clarence

97,

90,

282

233, 256, 259,

H&uchow-fu
58,

260, 279,

78,

69,

191,

135,

192,

283

for

Women

-36,

43,

194, 202, 209, 239, 262, 266,

193,

275,

277, 280,

Guam

64, 230

285

255-257

Hang chow 153

Hankow-12, 23,
104,

116,

145,

150,

166, 169,

207,

87-97,

119-131,

103,

196,

208,

176,

211,

99-101,

141,

144,

178, 188,

189,

138,

223,

230,

232,

234, 248, 281, 282

Hankow Club 90, 100

Hankow Uerdd-W, 100
Hankow Race Club 90, 100
Han River 87
253
Hansen, Irwm
Hanyang

88

Harbin 22, 199, 200, 205, 249

240
Harding, Warren G.
251
Harris, Morris
Harvard University 219
Hawaii 230, 239
Hay, Lady Hay Drummond 241

Henry Pu-yi (see also Hsuan-Ting

and the "Boy Emperor")
20, 262,
263, 265-275

Hupeh

Hu

96,

147,

109-113,

107,

140

279

114,

148,

147,

153,

41

1NJDIA-46,

21,

Indiana

153

148,

Yao-tau

174

97

International News Service

259
International Settlement
20, 22, 23, 25,

44,

85,

271

284

95,

85,

JAPAN,

28, 31, 33, 35, 65, 66,

77-83,

75,

267,

Hughes, Charles Evans

Hull, Cordell

284

26, 30, 263, 281, 282,

Hai-ho River
190
199
Hailunkiang

69,

280

Italy, Italian-40, 63, 278,

HABAROVSK

68,

103,

28,

279,

265,

178

44, 105, 246

16
Gladstone
P 244, 245
Ernest
Goodrich,
187
Viscount
Gort,
Great Wall of Chma-11, 27, 52, 186,

191,

124,

85

118, 123-125,

117,

Hunan

264

Gibbons, Floyd
Ginling College

Hongkong

Hsu-chien, George

28,

123,

168
169, 213, 229-231

Honolulu 97, 122, 192

Hoover, Herbert^264
Hopei
190, 277, 280
H -48; 89
Hough, Rear-Adm.

115,
22,

93,

83,

163-165,

161,

129,

188

115,

100,

215, 216

177

J.

Hsiakwan 38, 48, 74

Hsmking 239, 262, 263,
Hsuan T'mg 239, 262,

191

Genghis Khan 209

Germany, German
224,

135,

188, 191, 215, 216, 218, 251, 281

Tso-yi,

88,

115,

101,

100,

Franklin, Cornell S
Fuad Bey 119
Fukien
82, 147, 153

Fu
Fu

Hollander,

Honan Province-^,

63, 66, 88, 90, 94,

157,

Col

Charles Sanderson
Hirohito-16, 263, 284
Hobart, E. T -34, 37, 44, 49
Hill,

Fong Sec, Dr. 135

Formosa 279, 281
Foochow 56
France, French

289

Japanese
60,

48,

62,

11,

75,

104,

111,

113,

157,

162,

167, 174,

118,

283
16-23,

13,

80,

84,

132, 133,

88,

40,
100,

136, 140,

180, 186-190,

192-

198, 200-205, 207, 209, 211, 218, 231,

232, 239, 240, 248-251, 255, 256, 262-

266, 271-285
194, 280
179
Jerusalem
Johnson, Ambassador Nelson T,
251
Jones, Elsie Martin
Jones, Lieut. Stanley A.
53, 60

Jehol

KALTENBORN,
Kang-Teh

H. V.-134, 137-139

262, 280

112
Kansas
Kansu-163, 166,
Kashmir 227

Keen, Victor

197,

212

250

Kemmerer, Prof. Edwin Walter

219

Kiangkow

137,

141

Kiangsi-49, 147
Kiangsu
103, 107, 163
Kilgore,

282

Lieut-Col.

F.

D.

215

218,

THE DRAGON STIRS

290

Km-han Railway

132, 157

33,

MACAO

Kuo Chia

Si

157,

Ma

265,

221,

263, 279,

Manchuria

243

20, 30-33, 52, 53,

144-159, 161, 162, 167, 169, 170,

186-192, 194, 203, 207, 208, 210, 211,
229, 233, 239-243, 248, 262, 279, 280
Kuo Sung-lin 111

Kwangsi-132, 194, 207,

Kwangtung-^1, 82, 225
Kwantung 153, 168
Kweichow 82, 85, 147

225, 226,

248

Merle 112, 113

of Nations
129, 193, 200, 264,

LAVOY,
278

251
Legendre, Dr. A. F.
Lenin
259
Leningrad 259
Li Chung-jen, Gen
112, 207
Z
85
-80-83,
Lieu,
240
Lincoln, Abraham
Charles
232
Lindbergh,

Lin Sen~-33
Linyang 190
Lisbon 229
177
Littell, John

265,

266,

270,

20,

280,

186,

203,

239,

240,

283,

284

20, 22, 59, 93, 111, 131, 162,

187,

Mandarin 12, 49, 67, 144, 212, 213

Manila-64, 172, 229, 230, 237, 249
Marco Polo 132
Matsuoka, Yosuke
192-195, 200
Maze, Sir Frederick 216, 217
79
Mecklenburgh, H. L
Methodist Episcopal Church
157, 176,
180,

183,

184

Mexico, Mexican 90-92, 99, 192, 254

185
Miami, Fla.
Michigan-<82, 122, 230
"Middle Kingdom"-! 1, 27
Midway Island 230
Mississippi River
66, 70, 87, 88
Missouri
261
261
Missouri, University of
Modern Chinese Civilization 251

Mongolia

96, 123, 209-211,

268, 280, 283, 284

265,

266,

Moore, Frederick F.-66, 279

Moscow
99,

103,

20,

28, 33, 66, 91, 92, 96, 97,

119,

111,

123,

125,

144,

145,

169-171, 208, 240, 249-252, 254260, 280, 284

167,

259

Moussorgsky

P.
Lockhart, Col
86, 89, 129, 176
219
Lockhart, Dr. 0.
116, 117
Loh, Maj.-Gen David

Lola

263,

191-203, 205-207, 209, 211,

232, 248-250, 255, 262-265, 274-276,
278-280, 284

140,

Lohmann, H. P.

186, 188, 203,

145,

58,

262,

Manchukuo

66, 79-82, 90, 92, 95, 96, 99, 101, 103,

110, 114-116, 119, 124, 130, 132, 133,

League

11, 20,

239,

274, 275, 285

270

18,

219,

112

Ho-chow, Maj.-Gen

Manchu

186,

Kuominchun 145
Kuormntang17,

208,

220

Kirin-199, 203
59
Koo, Dr. Wellington
Korea 180, 251, 279
169
Koslovsky, B.
Kremlin 259
Kuang Hsu 266, 267
162, 169, 219
Kung, Dr. H. H.

Kung, Mme H
Kung-hsien 188

229

MacMurray, John Van A.

17

Rudyard

Kipling,

258

Lyons, Eugene

Kinkiang 80, 81
192
Kinney, H. W.

260

Br. BritUng Sees It

Through

Mukden

186,

83,

111,

187,

2$2
192-196,

199, 200, 202-204, 207, 211, 232, 233,

263, 264

Mussolini

278

227, 228

London

NANCE,

170
192
London, Jack
70,

London Times
Lo Pa Hong
Loyang 189

185

Lukes, Sarah
Lukes, Susan

261
261

28,

Lunghai Railway
Lutheran Church
219
Lynch, F. B.

Walter Buckner

Dr.

180-

182

Nance, Mrs. Walter Buckner

121

Nanking-14,

23, 25, 29, 30,

.181,

182

32-35, 42,

45, 46, 48-50, 62, 65, 68, 71-76, 78, 79,

83, 85, 93-96, 98, 101, 103-107, 110,

116-119, 123,
111,

122,

166
176

124,

126-129,

134,

144-

147,

151, 157, 158, 160, 161, 165-167,

169-171, 178, 180, 182, 184, 188, 193,

194,

198, 200, 201, 208-212, 216, 217,

INDEX
241220,
222, 226,
232-237,
276-278, 280-284
"Nanking Incident" 29, 31-35, 42, 51,
219,
249,

62, 63, 92, 95, 105, 127, 129, 188

38

Nanking Theological Seminary

Nanking, Treaty

32, 35, 36, 45, 47,

49, 105, 106
219
National City Bank
179
National Christian Council
Nationalist
20, 23, 24, 27, 30, 34-50,
71-73,

75,

79-81, 83,

77,

117,

116,

124,

140,

135,

90,

87,

107,

92-94, 96, 98, 100, 104, 106,

114,

113,
146,

151, 155, 156, 162, 167, 169, 177, 178,

182,

News Agency

Nationalist

New York-19,
95,

260,

21,

29,

97
68, 90,

54, 66,

219, 231, 235, 238, 244, 249, 250,

Nicaragua -99, 216

Dr. Aage Kaarup
Nine-Power Treaty 279

135,

134-139,

132,

Army

107

104,

43, 44,

113, 114,

117, 125, 147, 188-190, 196, 207

OLONGAPO-64
Outer Mongolia

279, 283

123, 209, 211,

Paris
Pearl

Gen

Tsien-tsai,
136,

258-260

River

170,

Peichihli

Bay

276

112-114

Gen.

225,

113,

112,

Peiping (see also Peking)

176,

216,

186, 241
187, 192, 203

Pei Chung-hsi,
232
160,

284

213,

104,

224, 225, 229, 232, 233, 264,

Pang

194,

11, 20, 144,

230,

229,

234, 241,
246, 265, 274, 275, 280, 281, 285
Peking (see also Peiping)
11, 32, 33,

57-59,

66,

83,

93,

94,

107,

113,

123,

125-128, 132, 133,

150,

157,

160,

164,

166,

275,

279,

280,

Pukow

218, 219

130

123,

97
183,

185
110,

112,

RADIO Corporation of America

27
Rangoon
Red Banner, The -256
Red Swastika Society-41, 48
106
Reisner, John

237

43,

38,

Manuel

QUEZON,

249

261

Tai-chi

170

Richardson, Dr. Donald

Frank-28,

W.

45

122,

121,

129,

251
Rio de Janeiro
Roberts, Rev. W. P.-47
Robertson, Maj. William B.
Rocky Mountains 82
264
Rogers, Will
Rome 252, 278
284
Roosevelt, Franklin D
228
Kermit
227,
Roosevelt,
227
Roosevelt, Theodore

Roots, Bishop L.
Rowe, Dr. Harry
Russia, Russian
58-60, 66, 69,

144,

145,

96-98,

186-196, 199,

108,

75,

72,

196

127,

119,

111,

285

Peking-Mukden Railway
Felling, H. C.-70-72, 77
Pengpu 68, 72

176, 182-184

97,

176,

109,

203, 205, 207-210, 216, 217, 220-222,

232, 239-241, 243, 262, 265-267, 270273,

Prohme, Rayna
Prohme, William

Riley,

Ocean-i54,

104, 105, 107, 110,

121

Powell, J. B.-23
Presbyterian Church
Princeton University

Quo

142

19, 21, 24-26,

Open Door Policy

220,

190
Ping-kiang
Poland 260
Poland, W. B-219
Pope Pius XI
184, 185
Port Arthur
187
229
Portugal

Quincy, III

66, 71, 72, 75-77, 93, 96, 98,

PACIFIC

113, 118, 119,

118,

Nielsen,

Ningpo-56,

216,

172,

Puchen-43

198, 241, 248, 249, 253

Northern

Pickens, Robert S.

Protestant

261

New York Herald Tribune--250

New York 7w~66, 74, 105,
192,

242

198-200, 209, 210, 221,

193,

Islands-3,

248, 249, 279

Nanking University

63,

119
Pennsylvania, University of
People's Tribune, T/t<?
97, 100, 123
Peter the Great
259
216
Philadelphia
Philippine

56

of

291

119,

130

234, 235

176-178

45

19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 47,

70,

123,

75,

125,

81,
126,

84, 88, 91,

128,

131,

169-172, 191,
197, 203, 204, 209, 212, 240, 248-252,
254-260, 279, 280, 284, 285
193
Russo-Japanese War
135,

144,

145,

151, 167,

111, 194, 196

SAIGON
St.

Louis

227
87,

249

THE DRAGON STIRS

292
San Diego 63,
San Francisco

Stownw

216
261

64,

146-153, 155, 156

Schwartz, Bruno

Shanghai

90,

17-26, 29-33, 48, 53, 56,

12,

57,

59-64,

66-68,

85,

93-95,

97,

109,

72,

71,

119,

132,

134,

135,

157,

160,

163, 166,

77,

100-102,

98,

116,

112,

Strother, Rev. E.

250

126,

140,

139,

82,

83,

104-106,
128,

142-147,

167, 169,

170,

131,
153,

172,

196,

Sun Fo-218,

Shanhaikwan
Shansi
277

194,

191,

207,

Sun Yat-sen, Dr

189,

191,

199,

137
Vincent
130
Sheean,
Shensi 83, 123, 147, 163, 166
174
Shintoism
Siam 16
Siberia
22, 66, 96, 110, 123, 129, 166,
209, 246, 249, 250, 254, 256-258, 284
189
Singtan
212
Sinkiang

Smith,
62

Lieut-Comm. Roy C

Smith,
Smith,

B M. 72,
Mrs B, M.

110,

150-152,

29,

30,

73

208,

239-244, 248,

Vat-sen,

Mmc

157,

Nobumasa

Rebellion
279

Taiwan

Tanaka, Baron

194,

Speers, Dr. James M.

Standard Oil Company

221

90,

45,

Ben

Stevens, Herbert

29,

227

46

29, 34, 38, 44,

105,

283
Staude, Lieut

242, 243

230,

181

202

193,

82,

125,

30

190,

261

178

174

Taoist

Tartar
11, 267, 272
Tass Agency
251
A
38
A.
Taylor,
Gen.
82, 85
Tcng Yen-tah,
Tennessee
180
55, 56
Terranova, Francis
136
Thomas, Dr
135,
Tibet
16, 66, 123, 209-211, 227, 281
Tientsin
43, 64, 68, 72, 186-192, 194,
245, 202,

111
119,

118,

132,

192-

198, 200, 202, 231, 250, 251, 263,

274-276,

263, 279

79,

147,

282
257

57,

Tangku
Tang Shen-tse, Gen

194,

179
Southern Presbyterian Mission
South Manchuria Railway
192, 197,

73,

97,

156, 207,

Trinidad
94
Tsinan
140

72,

82,

279

Soong, Mei-lmg
136, 157, 243, 281
T.
Soong,
V.-138, 139, 141, 157, 169,
217, 218
Southern Army
19, 21, 27, 29, 49, 72,

49,

79,

196, 199, 203-207, 232, 240,

271, 272, 274, 281

72

193,

58,

140, 145,

Ting Tuan-saio
Tokyo
14,
111,

46,

57,

133,

111,

"Socony House" 75
Soochow 180-182, 281
Soochow University 180, 182
157
"Soong Dynasty"

189,

243,

190

Shaowangmiao

186,

242,

124, 125,

TAIPING
132, 157, 184, 188,

237,

232,

277, 279, 280, 282

75,

235,

281

27, 28, 71, 83, 103, 107, 111-

Shantung
113,

111,

107,

234,

Sweden, Swedish
122,
219
Syracuse University
Szechuan
147, 184, 211, 227, 228,

154

196

194,

193,

147,

245

Sun

Shanghai Club 22
Shanghai Labor Union Corps
Shanghai Times
179, 231

73, 83,

199

Suyetsugu,

185,

219

179

Sun Chuan-fang, Marshal

281-284

182,

277

Suiyuan

187-190, 192,
194, 208, 212, 213, 215-217, 219-223,
225-227, 230, 231, 233-235, 237, 238,
249, 250, 257, 259, 261, 264, 275-279,
178-180,

176,

172, 219, 220,

Henry L

Mrs

Stimson,
100,

91,

L.

Henry

Stimson, Col.
249, 263

135,

Tsingtao

278-280, 282-285

189, 279, 280,

282

194

Tungcbow

Turkey
16, 62, 220, 221, 224
"Twenty-one Demands"- 279, 283

UNITED

Press-18,

264
United States

19,

66, 250, 258,

13, 19, 21, 22, 25, 27, 29,

33,

34,

52,

53,

55-60, 63,

87, 90,

94,

96,

98,

99,

30,

127,

146,

157,

170,

101,

75,

104,

86,

121,

182-184, 187, 188,

190, 192, 193, 203, 204, 206, 208, 215,

INDEX
216, 219, 226, 237, 238, 251, 266, 267,
272, 278, 279, 282-284

VATICAN

City

Vautrin, Minnie

36, 43,

Woosung

44
29

WAKEFIELD,

Dr. Paul
230

219,

220,

222,

240,

264, 279, 284

263,

Wuhu

Wu

68,

Pei-fu,

47

76-80,

169,

151, 194, 280

122

Marshal

59,

83,

YANG,

Prof. Y.

221

179

147

115,

Yangtze-kiang-^20,

182

27-32, 34, 57,

76-80,
62, 65-68, 70-72, 74,
83, 87-89,
23,

119,

121,

178,

187,

209, 221, 223, 227, 230, 241,

244-246, 264, 280, 281, 283

242,

92,

98,

122,

100-102,

131,

135,

105,

199,

108,

177,

149,

176,

246

107,

111,

191,

207, 232

190
Yiyang
Dr
Arthur Nichols
Young,

River
20, 22, 60
Rev.
Dr.
White,
Hugh
White Russian 26, 47, 70

222

173,

194,

Wei-Hai-Wei 187
252
Wells, H. G.
West Point 216, 219

Williams, Admiral C. S

45,

264

Yenching University
Yen Hsi-san, Marshal

Watson, William 219

von Weigand, Karl 241

Whangpoo

Walter

Wu, Dr. C C. 104, 119,

Wuchang 87
Wuhan-87, 122, 125, 126,

177

237,

143,

33, 35, 36, 43,

96, 99, 113, 216, 221, 224,

240, 252, 256, 279
79
Wortley, C, B,

219
Wallace, Dr. Benjamin B
Wan Chi-hsing 169
Wang Ching-wei 123, 168
Wang, Dr. C. T
219, 220, 222
of
Wanghai, Treaty
56, 57
Gen.
114-116
Wang Tien-pei,
Commander
69
Ward,
Warsaw 260
Washington, D. C. 99, 127, 128, 189,
211,

E-32,

J.

World War

165
Virginia
Vladivostok
110, 249-253, 255

Island

Williams, Dr.
106
Williams, Rev

185

Vernou, Capt. Wallace

Wake

293

Yuan Shi-kai 58
Yun Liang 269
Yunnan~S4, 129,

147, 211, 225,

Yutien

194
Yu-yao River

219

136, 137

227

A STUDY"

HISTORY

The Royal Institute* of IrftSr national si fain is

an t4tioftiHa& and non-potitical body, founded in
rp^o./x? tf&epterage and facilitate the scientific
study of international questions*
The Institute, us such, ts precluded by */
rules from eseprcssitqr fin opinion on
<my aspect of
international affairs; opinion? expressed in this
hook are, therefore, purely

A STUDf 6F

HIST OR Y
BY

ARNOLD

TOYNBEE

J.

Director of Studies in the Royal Institute

of International Affairs
Research Professor of International History
in the University of London
(both on the Sir Daniel Stevenson Foundation)

'Work
*

Nox

ruit,

while

Aenca

day
JOHN

it is

ix.

'
.

AENEID
*

.'

VI,

539

Thought shall be the harder,

Heart the keener,
Mood shall be the more,
As our might lessens.'
THE LAY OF THE BATTLE OF MALDON

VOLUME

II

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD
:

Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute

of International Affairs

*934

"

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS
AMKN HOUSE,

K.C T 4
Kdmburtfh Glasgow
Leipzig New York Toronto
Melbourne Capetown liombay
Calcutta Madras Shanghai
I-oncion

HUMPHREY MILKOKD
PUDLISXIFU TO THK
UNIVJ KSITY

CONTENTS
VOLUME
II.

....
....

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

D.

I.

II

KoAa
The Return of Nature
In Central America
In Ceylon
In the North Arabian Desert
Xa\errd rd

On
In

On

Easter Island

New

England

the Roman
Perfida Capua

.....
.....

Campagna
.

The Temptations of Odysseus

The Flesh Pots of Egypt
The Doasyoulikes

12
15

24

.25

Plan of Operations
The Yellow River and the Yangtse
.

Chimu and Valparaiso

Lowlands and Highlands in Guatemala
The Aegean Coasts and their Continental Hinterlands
Attica and Boeotia
ChalcidicS and Boeotia
Byzantium and Calchedon
Aegina and Argos
Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines
Lebanon and Jabal Ansariyah
Brandenburg and the Rhineland
Austria and Lombardy
*The Black Country' and 'The Home Counties'
The Struggle for North America
.

31
31
31

-33
34
-36
-37
.42
-43
.48
49
-55
-57

.16
.18
.22

WIE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

II.

...-9

...
.

58

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

The Testimony of Philosophy, Mythology, and
The Testimony of the 'Related* Civilizations
The Special Stimulus of Migration Overseas

IH.

IV.

V.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

'Marches' and 'Interiors
In the Egyptiac World
In the Sinic World
In the Far Eastern World
In the Hindu World
In the Sumeric and Babylonic Worlds
In the Syriac World

Religion

-65
-73
73

-74
.84
.

IOO

.112
.-112

60

'.

.112
"S
.119
x7
*33
-

*37

CONTENTS

vi

In the Iranic World over against Eurasia

In the Iranic World over against Orthodox Christendom
.
In Russian Orthodox Christendom
In Japan
In the Minoan and Hellenic Worlds
In the Western World over against the Continental European
Barbarians
In the Western World over against Muscovy
In the Western World over against the Ottoman Empire
In the Western World over against the Far Western Christendom
In the Western World over against Scandinavia
In the Western World over against the Syriae World in the Ihcnan
Peninsula
In the Andean and Central American Worlds
.

....

.....
.....
......
........
......
.

VI.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

The Nature
Migration
Slavery
Caste

of the Stimulus

TheQazfinlis
The Levantines

.......
......
.....
,

The Jews, Parsees, Nestonans, Monophysites, and Monoihelctes

The Ashkenazim, Scphardim, Dtfnme, and Mnrranos

Fossils in Fastnesses
VII. TIIE

GOLDEN MEAN

The Law

How

of Compensations

a Challenge proved Excessive

Comparisons in Three Terms
is

Greenland
Massachusetts
Maine

Norway
Dixie
Brazil

The

Iceland

La

Pacific

Votyaks

Plata

Patagonia

Lapps

.....
.

Achaeans
Teutons
Celts
The Abortive Far Western Christian Civilization
.

The Abortive Scandinavian Civilization

The Impact of Islam upon the Christendoms
The Abortive Far Eastern Christian Civilization
.

Miscarriages and Births of Civilizations in Syria

go

*94

202
206
2o8

213
216
220
222

230
234
240
248
250

259
259
274

.200

Reactions to Changes of Climate

,
Scotland
Ulster
Appalachia
Reactions to the Ravages of War
Chinese Reactions to the Challenge of Emigration
Slavs

177
i

.251
.252
.254
-255

Seaboard of South America

Magyars

174

.228

Nabobs and Sahibs

Emancipated Nonconformists
Emancipated Ra'lyeh
Assimilationists and Zionists
Isma'ilis and Imamls

166

.208
.212
.

Religious Discrimination
The Phanariots

144
1 50
154
158
159

291
293

296
297
300
30*
309
313
3x5
315
322

.340

-3^5

360
369

CONTENTS
II.

Annex:

vii

Ground* less fertile than 'New

Intrinsically or by Accident?
v Annex: Historic Sieges and their After-effects

ill

Is

vi

Annex; Jews

vn Annex

Ground'

'Old

395

400

.....

in Fastnesses

Ellsworth
of his
Huntington's
Application
Chmate-and-Civihzation Theory to the Histories
of the Mayan and Yucatec Civilizations in Central
America, and to the History of the Synac Civilization in the Oases of the North Arabian Steppe
.

Annex

II:

The Three-Cornered

Relation

III:

between the

The

Extinction of the Far

in Ireland

Annex IV: The

.421

Western Christian Culture

Forfeited Birthright of the Abortive Far Western

Christian Civilization

Annex V: The Resemblance between

424
427

the Abortive Scandinavian

Civilization and the Hellenic Civilization

Annex VI: The

413

Roman

......
....

Church, England, and Ireland

Annex

402

I: Dr.

434

Forfeited Birthright of the Abortive Scandinavian

......

Civilization

Annex VII: The Lost Opportunities

'Osmanlis

.438

of the Scandinavians and the

444

Annex VIII: The

Forfeited Birthright of the Abortive Far Eastern

Christian Civilization
*

446

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

D.

XAAEHA TA KAAA

I.

The Return of Nature

WE

have now studied the action of Challenge-and-Response

and have attempted to survey the role which challenges and
responses have played in the geneses of civilizations. In embarking
upon this survey, we have implicitly rejected the view that civilizations are apt to be generated in environments
physical or human
which offer unusually easy conditions of life to Man. This view
or at any rate widely aired, in the modern
Western World, though it is contradicted by the theory of our
modern Western Physical Science as well as by the deeper intuition
of Mankind which has found expression in the Mythology of various

is

popularly held,

In the course of the survey which we

have just concluded, we have ignored this false view; but we may
find that, besides implicitly rejecting it, we have also indirectly
refuted it by exposing the fallacy on which it is founded.
This fallacy springs from a failure to conceive the genesis of a
civilization as 'an act of creation involving a process of change in
1
societies in various ages.

appearance of the scene, as it looks when the

drama of genesis has been played to the finish, is thoughtlessly
equated with the primitive appearance of the same scene in the
prehistoric age before the site was taken in hand by Man to serve
as the stage for a great human action. For example,

Time.

The

final

'we are accustomed to regard Egypt as a paradise, as the most fertile

country in the World, where, if we but scratch the soil and scatter seed,
we have only to await and gather the harvest. The Greeks spoke of

Egypt

most fit place for the first generations of men, for there,
food was always ready at hand, and it took no labour to secure

as the

they said,
an abundant supply. *\

The fallacy of this view is pointed out by the distinguished archaeorefute it.
logist who has formulated it in these sentences in order to
His refutation is presented in the latter part of a passage which has
at
already been quoted, in the preceding chapter of this Study,
greater length.

is

'There can be no doubt', he goes on to say, 'that the Egypt of to-day

a very different place from the Egypt of pre-agricultural times.
.

i,

For

vol.
*

i,

this contrary scientific

passim,

Newberry, op,

II

cit.

in II.

and mythological Weltanschauung^ see above, IL

(ii) (b)

2,

above, vol.

i,

p. 306.

C (u)

(b)

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

The

agricultural
of the Nile.' 1

Egypt of modern times

is

as

much

a gift of

Man

as

it is

In fact, the fallacious popular view entirely overlooks the stupendous

human effort involved, not only in once transforming the prehistoric

jungle-swamp of the Lower Nile Valley into the historical Land of

Egypt, but also in perpetually preventing this magnificent but
precarious work of men's hands from reverting to its primeval
state of Nature,

What

Nature was, we have indicated, in the two

2
instances of the Land of Egypt and the Land of Shinar, by citing
this state of

first-hand descriptions of the present state of certain other sections

of the Nile Valley and the Tigris-Euphrates Valley which have

remained, down to this day, in the primitive condition out of which
Egypt was conjured up in the Lower Nile Valley by the fathers of
the Egyptiac Civilization and Shinar by the fathers of the Sumeric
Civilization in what used to be the Lower Tigris-Euphrates Valley
before the present provinces of Basrah and Arabistan were built
out into the Persian Gulf by the progressive deposit of alluvium
during the last five or six thousand years. The present state of the
3
Bahr-al-Jabal section of the Nile Valley and of the 'Amarah4
Nasiriyah-Basrah triangle in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley testifies
to the feat which was performed by the pioneers who, some five or
six thousand years ago, succeeded in transforming similar tracts of
inhospitable jungle-swamp, out of all recognition, into an ordered
network of dykes and fields, where soil and water arc subject to
human control for the service of human purposes. The view that
civilizations are begotten in environments where the conditions are
unusually easy is clearly shown to be untenable when we compare
those howling wildernesses, which reproduce, in their virgin state
to-day, the primeval state of Egypt and Shinar, with the actual
state of Egypt and Shinar as we see it
to-day side by side with
the Bahr-al-Jabal and with the swamps in which the Tigris and
f

Euphrates lose themselves below 'Amarah and Nasiriyah. At the

same time, just because the works of Man which have effaced the
primeval state of Nature in the Lower Nile Valley and in the Lower
Tigris-Euphrates Valley are still 'going concerns', we cannot
observe the primeval state of Nature here directly. We have to be
content with the reflections of it which we can discern in the
watery mirrors of the Bahr-al-Jabal and the Amarah~Nasiriyah~
Basrah triangle and though the scientific student
may feel morally
c

*
Newberry, op. cit., quoted in vol. i, pp. 306 and 308, above. For the celebrated
aphorism of Herodotus, to which Professor Newberry takes exception in the second
sentence here quoted, see footnote 2 on p. 252 in II. C (ii) (a) 2, in vol. i, above,
z In II. C
(u) (6) 2, vol. i, pp. 309-12 and 316-18, above.
3 See vol.
4 See vol.
j, pp. 309-12, above.
i, pp. 316-18, above.

XAAEHA TA KAAA
certain, in his

own mind,

that these
surviving reflections give a fair
picture of the long-obliterated originals, he must be prepared to
find the layman declaring, like doubting Thomas, that
only direct
observation will convince him.

Are there theatres of civilization, other than Egypt and Shinar,

which can provide the layman with the direct evidence which he
demands and which Egypt and Shinar cannot give him ? Yes, there
are, for the human feat of maintaining Egypt and Shinar as 'going
a feat only less remarkable than the
original feat of
them
is
In
creating
something exceptional.
general it is true that
'naturam expcllas furca, tamen usque recurret'. 1 At various times
and places, recalcitrant Nature, once broken in by human heroism,
has broken loose again because later generations have ceased for
some reason to keep up the constant exertions required of them in
order to maintain the mastery which had been won for them and
transmitted to them by the pioneers. In such cases of reversion,
the primeval state of Nature, as it was before Man ever took it in
not merely in the mirror of some similar
hand, can be seen to-day
of
Nature
which
has
piece
happened to remain in its virgin state
but by direct observation on the very spot which has temporarily
been the scene of a signal human achievement. Such spectacles, in
which the primeval state of Nature and the subsequent works of
Man and the eventual reversion of Nature to her primeval state
are all displayed together on one spot like geological strata, are
certainly more striking, as visual demonstrations, than the spectacle
of the contrast between the present state
striking though this is
of Egypt and the present state of the Bahr-al-Jabal, in which the
two objects that have to be brought into simultaneous focus lie
a thousand miles apart. Where Nature has actually reasserted her
ascendancy over some spot that has once been the birth-place of a
civilization or the scene of some other signal human achievement,
it is
impossible to behold Nature flaunting her ultimate triumph
over these works of Man and still to doubt that here, at any rate,
the conditions in which those human works were performed were
will therefore trynot unusually easy but unusually difficult.
to clinch our argument by passing a few instances of such reversions
concerns'

We

under review.
In Central America

One remarkable instance is the present state of the birth-place of

the Mayan Civilization. Far different from the dykes and fields of
Egypt and Shinar, which are
*

still

being kept in order by

Horace, Epistles, Book

I,

Ep.

x,

1.

24.

Man

and

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

a livelihood, the
duly serving his purpose in yielding him
works of the Mayas are no longer 'going concerns' to-day. Their

still

of the immense and

surviving monuments are the ruins
which now stand, faraway
magnificently decorated public buildings
from any present human habitations, in the depths of the tropical
forest. The forest, like some sylvan boa-constrictor, has literally
sole

swallowed them up, and

now

it

is

dismembering them

at

its

leisure: prising their fine-hewn, close-laid stones apart with its

writhing roots and tendrils. The contrast between the present

have worn when

aspect of the country and the aspect which it must
the Mayan Civilization was in being is so great that it is almost
1
There must have been a time when these
beyond imagination.

immense public buildings stood in the heart of large and populous

cities, and when those cities lay in the midst of vast stretches of
cultivated land which furnished them with their food-supplies.
The masterpieces of Mayan architecture which are now being
strangled by the forest must have been built as works of supererogation with the surplus of an energy which, for leagues around,
had already transformed the forest into fruitful fields. They were
trophies of Man's victory over Nature; and, at the moment when
they were raised, the retreating fringe of the vanquished and routed

sylvan enemy was perhaps barely visible on the horizon, even from
the highest platforms of the palaces or from the summits of the
temple-pyramids. To the human beings who looked out over the
World from those vantage-points then, the victory of Man over

Nature must have seemed utterly secure and the transitorincss of

human achievements and the vanity of human wishes are poignantly
;

exposed by the ultimate return of the forest, engulfing first the

fields and then the houses, and
finally the palaces and the temples
themselves. Yet that is not the most significant or even the most
obvious lesson to be learnt from the present state of
Copan or
Tikal or Palenque. The ruins speak still more
eloquently of the
intensity of the struggle with the physical environment which the
creators of the Mayan Civilization must have
in
waged
victoriously

In her very revenge, which reveals her in all her gruesome power, Tropical Nature testifies unwillingly to the
courage
and the vigour of the men who once, if only for a season, succeeded
in putting her to flight and
keeping her at bay.*
their day.

Mr, Rudyard Kipling in his description of 'the Cold Lairs' : a fictitious Hindu
city which
the Indian Jungle has swallowed up. (Read the
story called 'Kaa's Hunting* in The
Jungle Book.)
*
r - Ellsworth Huntington
suggests that the Nature whom the fathers of the Mayan
,P
Civilization once
put to flight was a different (and less formidable) antagonist from the
Nature who has since got the better of these men's descendants in the selfsame
region,
For Dr. Huntington's hypothesis of a periodic
shifting of climatic zones, see II.
(vii),
Annex i, below*

XAAEIIA TA KAAA
In Ceylon
With the same

dumb

eloquence, the creeper-covered ruins of

Angkor Wat testify to the prowess of the men who once propagated
the Hindu Civilization on soil conquered from the
tropical forest of
and
the
Cambodia;
equally arduous feat of conquering the parched
of
for
plains
Ceylon
agriculture is commemorated in the breached
bunds and overgrown floors of the tanks which were once constructed on the wet side of the hill-country, on a colossal scale,
by
the Sinhalese converts to the Indie religion of the
Hinayana.

*To

how such

came

into being one must know something

of the history of Lanka. The idea underlying the system was
simple but
It
was
intended
the
very great.
by
tank-building kings that none of the
rain which fell in such abundance in the mountains should reach the
sea without paying tribute to Man on the way.
'In the middle of the southern half of Ceylon is a wide mountain
ssone, but to the east and north dry plains cover thousands of square
miles, and at present are very sparsely populated. In the height of the
monsoon, when armies of storm-swept clouds rush on day after day to
match their strength against the hills, there is a line drawn by Nature
that the rains are unable to pass.
There are points where the line of
demarcation of the two zones, the wet and the dry, is so narrow that
within a mile one seems to pass into a new country; for the whole
character of the forest alters, and in size and kind and distribution the
trees differ completely from those one can still see behind one. The wild
flowers take new forms and colours; different birds sing in the bushes;
cultivation changes abruptly; and wealth ends. The line curves from
sea to sea and appears to be stable and unaffected by the operations of
realise

tanks

Man, such
Yet the

as felling forests/ 1

missionaries of the Indie Civilization in Ceylon once

achieved the tour deforce of compelling the monsoon-smitten highwhere 'rain pours down at a higher rate for the month than
lands

whole of a very wet year' 2 to give

water and life and wealth to the plains which Nature had condemned to lie parched and desolate.

the rainfall of

London

for the

streams were tapped and their water guided into the giant
storage-tanks below, some of them four thousand acres in extent and,
from those, channels ran on to other large tanks farther from the hills,
and from them to others still more remote. And below each great tank
and each great channel were hundreds of little tanks, each the nucleus
of a village; all, in the long-run, fed from the wet mountain-zone. So
gradually the ancient Sinhalese conquered all, or nearly all, of the
3
plains that are now so empty of men.'
'Hill

The
*

arduousness of the labour of

first

conquering and then

Still,

John: The Jungle Tide (Edinburgh 1930, Blackwood), pp. 74-$.

Still,

op.

cit.,

p. 74-

Still >

P- clt

PP'

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

holding for a man-made civilization these naturally barren and desolate plains is demonstrated by the two outstanding features in the
landscape of Ceylon at the present day. The first feature is the
relapse of that once irrigated and cultivated and populated countryside into its primeval barrenness and desolation upon the stoppage
of the continuous human exertions which had been required in
order to produce and maintain this miraculous transformation of
the face of Nature. 1 The second feature is the avoidance of these
derelict plains, which were once the seat of a civilization, by our

modern Western coffee and tea and rubber planters who have
come to Ceylon to make their fortunes there in these latter days.

On

the first of these two points, the following testimony is

borne by the modern Western eyewitness whom we have quoted
already:
*The tank age endured for more than fifteen centuries, and then the
jungle tide rose over it and all signs or memory of it became lost. ... In
the forest which covers the ancient kingdom, far from the sounds of men ,
one comes upon the bunds of tanks, now utterly forgotten, where the
banks have given way and the beds become like natural glades for deer
to graze in, ...
'I

know

[a] city

[which]

lies

below the bund of an enormous tank

whose area may well have been thousands of acres, for the bund is miles
long. But now the very name of the tank is lost, for the bund burst
hundreds of years ago and its bed is but a low-lying region in the
unbroken forest, a deeper area amid the sea of trees. The only name it
now bears is a Tamil one meaning Tank of the Great Breach. At a
waterhole in a rock in the bed of that tank I saw a bear
stoop and drink,
and it was curious to think how he sought for that small hole of
stagnant
water, as for a rare treasure, in a place that for many centuries was at
the bottom of an inland sea where waves broke and
pelicans sailed in
fleets.
More than anything else, it brought home to me most vividly
how brief had been the age of tanks in the long history of the jungle.
For a million years animals drank from that narrow
hole; then, for a
thousand years, the rock, hole and all, was underneath the
waves; and
now the jungle drinks again where animals drank when Man used stone
arrowheads, and before he invented them, and before Nature invented

him.' 2

The second

feature in the present

landscape of Ceylon which
demonstrates the arduousness of the feat which the ancient
* The
cause of the breakdown of the ancient Sinhalese
irrigation system was an inceftR18 wa
d
dl n mercenaries from Southern India. These

^JTi -y^T^VT

*?
5
mercenaries deliberately cut the canals
and breached the bunds as a short cut to military
decisions; and eventually this will to destroy overcame the will to repair. Therewith the
plains not only went:out:of
cultivationthroughthestoppageof the water-supply, but hey
became hot-beds of malaria
when the running waters dwindled into stagnant pooln
^so
which were too shallow to harbour the fish that live
by

OP-

cit.,

pp. 77 and 79 and

11-13.

XAAEHA TA KAAA

Sinhalese bund-builders temporarily accomplished is the avoidance

of the derelict plains by our modern Western
planters who have
interested themselves in Ceylon not in order to
propagate a civilization there but in order to get rich quick.
'It is

a curious fact that ... the bulk of the

population

wealth have been found on the wet side of the

centuries of

European

rule* ...

during the four

line

To make money, one

and most of the

stays as a rule

on

the wet side, but to see the ruins of temples or monasteries, of

palaces or
1
one
must
to
the
of
side
the
line.
.
.
. For the
works,
engineering
go
dry
hills where we grow tea and rubber
[the ancient Sinhalese] did not care.
Few ancient remains are to be found among them, and the forests we
found there, and destroyed, were of immense age and probably of true
. Must one be ranked as
virgin growth.
opposed to civilization if one
the
and
prefers
dry
thinly populated side of the monsoon's frontier to
the prosperous and wet one? That is a question I find it impossible to
answer without first settling what the word "civilization" means.' 2
.

The
even

irrefutable testimony of the return of Nature is

repeated
where there are no stupendous ruins to work upon our

We

imagination.
may perceive it in the last agonies of the poor
as witness the following passage from a
village in the jungle
modern Western work of fiction in which the scene of action is
likewise Ceylon:

*Thc years had brought more evil, death and decay upon the village.
Disease and hunger visited it year after year. It seemed, as the
headman said, to have been forgotten by gods and men. Year after year,
the rains from the north-east passed it by; only the sun beat down more
pitilessly, and the wind roared over it across the jungle the little patches
of chena crop which the villagers tried to cultivate withered as soon as
the young shoots showed above the ground. No man, traveller or
headman or trader, ever came to the village now. No one troubled any
longer to clear the track which led to it the jungle covered it and cut the
.

village off.

'They struggled hard against the fate that hung over them, clinging
to the place where they had been born and lived, the compound they
knew, and the sterile chenas which they had sown. No children were
born to them now in their hut, their women were as sterile as the earth ;
the children that had been born to them died of want and fever. At last
This geographical segregation of the fields of the ancient indigenous and the modern
European enterprise in Ceylon has its analogue in Central America, where the modern
Spanish colonists have similarly kept clear of the plains which were once the seat of
the Mayan culture, and have established themselves in the highlands which were left
unoccupied by both the fathers and the children of the Mayan Civilization. (See
IL C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, p. 367, above, and II. D (u), pp. 34-^6, below.) In this connexion,
*

immaterial that, in contrast to the climatic conditions in Ceylon, the Central

relatively wet and the Central American highlands relatively dry;
for whereas, in Ceylon, an abundance of rain affords economic ease while a scarcity
demands economic effort, in Central America the relations of economic effect to climatic
cause are just the inverse, owing to the inverse correlation between climate and
A.I.T.
landscape.
*
Still, op. at., pp. 75-6 and 77 and 92,

it

is

American plains are

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

they yielded to the jungle. They packed up their few possessions and
left the village for ever.
.
induce
Menika to go with them, but she refused.
tried
to
Punchi
'They
The only thing left to her was the compound and the jungle which
.
she knew. She clung to it passionately, blindly. .
'The jungle surged forward over and blotted out the village up to the
very walls of her hut. She no longer cleared the compound or mended
the fence, the jungle closed over them as it had closed over the other
huts and compounds, over the paths and tracks. Its breath was hot and
heavy in the hut itself, which it imprisoned in its wall, stretching away
unbroken for miles. Everything except the little hut with rotting walls
and broken tattered roof had gone down before it. It closed with its
shrubs and bushes and trees, with the impenetrable disorder of its thorns
and creepers, over the rice-fields and the tanks. Only a little hollowing
of the ground where the trees stood in water when rain fell, and a
long
little mound which the rains washed out and the
elephants trampled
down, marked the place where before had lain the tank and its land.
The village was forgotten, it disappeared into the jungle from which it
had sprung, and with it she was cut off, forgotten. It was as if she was
the last person left in the World, a world of
unending trees above which
the wind roared always and the Sun blazed. .
'But life is very short in the jungle. Punchi Menika was a
very old
woman before she was forty. She no longer sowed grain, she lived
only
on the roots and leaves that she gathered. The
wasted
perpetual hunger
her slowly, and when the rains came she
lay shivering with fever in the
hut. At last the time came when her
strength failed her; she lay in the
hut unable to drag herself out to search for food. The fire in the corner
that had smouldered so
long between the three great stones was out.
In the day the hot air eddied
through the hut, hot with the breath of the
wind blowing over the vast parched jungle ; at
night she shivered in the
chill dew. She was
dying, and the jungle knew it; it is always waiting;
can scarcely wait for death. When the end was close
upon her a great
black
into the doorway. Two little
glided
shadow;
eyes twinkled at her
steadily, two immense white tusks curled up gleaming against the darkness. She sat up, fear came
upon her, the fear of the jungle, blind agonisft
fear.
ing
"Appochchi, Appochchi!" she screamed. "He has come, the devil
from the bush. He has come for me as
you said. Aiyo! save me, save me!
.

Appochchi!"
'As she feU back, the
great boar grunted softly, and glided like a
into the hut. ?I

shadow towards her

As the reader

closes the book, he

speculates on the meaning of
the tale which has this
ending. Throughout the story, the writer
has drawn in for us, stroke
by stroke, his picture of the jungle as
a sinister beast of
which
prey
only lives its own life in order to
'

'

The

Villa8e in

**

^ngU (London

'"3. Bdward

XAAEUA TA KAAA

human

life

to

destruction

sylvan counterpart to the

animated skeleton which is our image of Death.
Haud igitur leti praeclusa est iamia caelo
nee soli terraeque neque altis aequoris undis,
sed patet immane et vasto respectat hiatu. 1

bring

Under

shadow of this inhuman monster, ever watching and

waiting with a leer on its obscene countenance till it finds its
opportunity to close in upon its victim, the human life of the poor
villagers seems unbearably wretched. The odds against them are
so heavy the pressure upon them is so grinding would it not have
been better for them never to have been born ? And yet the story of
their lives, as it is told by the author in this painful setting, is
undoubtedly worth the telling. We read the tale to the end and
the

have not been lived for nothing, even though

at last the jungle overwhelms them. What is the
significance and
the interest of them? Perhaps it is that the cruel and unceasing
struggle with the jungle, which at first sight seems almost to divest
feel that these lives

them

of their humanity
to degrade them to the level of the beasts
2
that perish or of the creeping things that creep upon the earth 3
subtly reveals them in another light to the inward eye. If the jungle
is a malevolent beast of prey, then the villagers who have fought it
with their bare hands are heroes whose story is an epic. Without
the jungle the village could hardly have risen to be a theme for
literature. And when the jungle swallows the village up, we realize
in retrospect that we have been reading a tale of human prowess
which surpasses the tale told by the ruins of Angkor Wat.

In the North Arabian Desert

celebrated and indeed almost hackneyed illustration of our

theme is the present state of Petra and Palmyra a spectacle which
has inspired a whole series of modern Western essays in the
philosophy of history, from Les Ruines* onwards. To-day, these
former homes of the Syriac Civilization are in the same state as the
former homes of the Mayan Civilization at Copan and Tikal, and
their monuments astonish and confound the spectator for the same
reason.

The

parallel is

indeed exact, except that hostile Nature

is

* Psalm
xlix, w. 12 and 20.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Book V, 11. 373-5.
Leviticus xi. 29.
4 Volney, C. F., Comte de: Les Ridnes, ou Meditation sur les Revolutions des Empires
(xst edition, Paris 1791). For an attractive general acount of the caravan cities which
is based upon first-hand and recent archaeological research, especially at Dura, see
Rostovtzett, M.: Caravan^Cittes^ (Oxford 1932, Clarendon Press). For^ Petra see also
*

almyre

Vrin) and Partsch, J.: P<

Sitzungsbenchte Ak. Leipzig, bodv (1922).
(Paris

1931,

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

10

represented here by the Afrasian Steppe instead of the tropical

1
forest.
Here, too, we see the ruins of huge and splendid public
buildings which are likewise desolate and likewise isolated from the
nearest present human habitations by many leagues of surrounding
wilderness
the Afrasian wilderness of dry rock and gravel and
sand which is not less forbidding than the tropical wilderness of
sodden and matted vegetation. The desert has swallowed up Petra
and Palmyra, as the forest has swallowed up Tikal and Copan and
here, again, the ruins survive to point a contrast between present
and past which is so great as to be almost unimaginable.
The ruins tell us that these elaborate temples and porticoes and
tombs, at the time when they stood intact, must have been ornaments of cities which rivalled the Mayan cities in wealth and
population and here the deductions from the evidence of Archaeology, which are our sole means of composing a picture of the
Mayan Civilization, are reinforced by the written testimony of
historical records. The economic foundations on which the wealth
and population of Petra and Palmyra were supported arc not
matters of conjecture.
know that the historical pioneers of the
Syriac Civilization who conjured these cities up out of the desert
were masters of the magic which the Syriac Mythology attributes
;

We

to Moses.

These magicians knew how to bring water out of the dry rock and
how to find their way across the untrodden wilderness. In their
prime, Petra and Palmyra stood in the midst of irrigated gardens
like those which still surround Damascus
to-day or those which the
Muhammad
in
the
whenever he wishes to
Qur'an
Prophet
depicts
evoke in the minds of the faithful an
image of Paradise but Petra
and Palmyra did not live then, any more than Damascus lives
to-day, exclusively or even principally on the fruits of their narrow;

verged oases. Their rich men were not their market-gardeners but
their merchants, who
kept oasis in communion with oasis, and
continent with continent, by a busy caravan-traffic from
point to
point across the intervening tracts of steppe and desert gravelly
hamad and sandy nafud. The Nabataeans of Petra,
operating the
trans-desert route from the Mediterranean
ports of Syria to the
Ocean ports of the Yaman, competed with the Greek seamen of
Alexandria for the trade between the Roman
Empire and India; 5
:

55??* ^iS

8*011 seeks to explain the rise and fall of Petra and Palmyra.
Hli 2*
f
*"
7
by ,his ^thesis of a periodic shifting oi'
il^jv
"^r
chmatic zones. i
For ^
his application
of the hypothesis to the case of
Palmyra, sec Palatine
afto " tondon
Constable), ch. xv. For a general disciwuion of
Dr
1
1
/9ii,
n
hyP oth ** *> the histories of civilizations, ace
-

^'

^^^

w
I?So^
Bf'D^S^SS
2 The same
is made

pp> 67~8 '

point

apropos of Jerash (Gerasa) by RostovtzcfF in op. eit on

3 See
Rostovtzeff, op. dt, pp. $6-7.

XAAET1A TA KAAA

the Palmyrcnes, operating the trans-desert route from

Syria to
the
trade
between
the
Roman
'Iraq, virtually monopolized
Empire
and those regions lying east of it which were ruled
successively
1
by the Arsacids and the Sasanids. The economic control of traderoutes brought political power in its train; and the Nabataean
Kingdom, extending from Sinai to Damascus and from Tayma to
Beersheba, ranked as one of the principal client-states of Rome
3
before its annexation by Trajan. 2 As for
Palmyra, during those
decades of the third century of the Christian Era when the Roman
Empire was prostrated by a paralytic stroke premonitory of its
dissolution, Queen Zenobia succeeded momentarily, before
Aurelian carried her captive, in ruling from the Palmyrene oasis
a premature and abortive 'successor-state' which
anticipated, by

coming

4
four centuries, the principality of the Caliph
Mu'awlyah.
Such were the achievements of the Syriac Civilization under the
stimulus of the desert.
And the ruins of Petra and Palmyra, in
as
to
the final victory of the desert over Man,
testifying,
they stand,
also testify, by the selfsame posture, to the
previous victory of
Man over the desert. Since the day when the Syriac Society
overcome by the pressure of the human environment in the shape
of the Roman Empire 5
relaxed its grip upon the physical environment at these two points and allowed the desert to have its way
with Petra and Palmyra again, no other society has ever attempted
to repeat the achievement of the Syriac pioneers by recalling either
of these dead cities to life. The attempt has not even been made up
to the present by Western enterprise, though in our day we dispose

'

Sec RostovtscfF, op.

The Nabataean regime

cit,,

pp. 102-4.

in this region lasted altogether for nearly three centuries,

beginning circa 164 B.C. (Rostoytzeff, op. cit., p. 50).
3
Palmyra is rust heard of in 41 B.C. (RostovtzefT, op. cit., p. 121). The earliest
extant Palmyrcnc inscription was cut in 8 B c. (FeVrier, op. cit., p. 6).
+ Sec vol.
It may be noted that while the Nabataean
i, p. 74, above, footnote 4.
client-slate of the Roman Empire was based on the single oasis of Petra and Zenobia' s
aboitivc 'successor-state' on the single oasis of Palmyra, the successiul 'successor-state'
which was established or usurped by Mu'awiyah was based on a pair of oases: those
of Medina and Mecca. The political union of these two oases was the supreme political
achievement of Muhammad. In achieving it, he laid the foundations of a state which
grew, first into a 'successor-state' of the Roman Empire in its Syriac provinces, and then
mto a reintcgration or resumption of the Syriac universal state which had been built
by the Achaemenids and overthrown by Alexander the Great. (See I. C (i) (6), vol. i,

pp. 73-7, above.)

5
Petra and Palmyra each rose in turn to greatness by finding places for themselves
in the interstices between the dominions of mutually hostile Great Powers whose
hostility was too great to admit of their coming to a direct understanding with each
other, while it was not great enough to drive them into forgoing the advantage of doing
business with one another indirectly through the agency of commercial go-betweens
who would also serve as political buffers. Petra rose in this way in an interstice between
the Selcucid and the Ptolemaic 'successor-state* of the Achaemenian Empire; Palmyra
rose in an interstice between the Roman Empire and the Arsacid Power. Petra was
doomed when the Roman Empire supplanted both the Seleucid and the Ptolemaic Power
alike; Palmyra was doomed when the decay of the Arsacidae left Rome momentarily
without a rival in this quarter likewise
pending the rise of the Sasanidae. (See further
Rostovtzeff, op.

cit.,

pp. 26-35.)

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

12

which the Nabataeans and the Aramaeans

never dreamed of: artesian wells that can tap subterranean waterof divining-rods
supplies quite beyond the reach of picks or the ken
and petrol-driven six-wheeled motor-cars which can traverse in a
1
day a tract of desert which is a week's journey for a camel. Thus
the ruined monuments and the dried-up oases and the abandoned
caravan-routes of Petra and Palmyra declare unmistakably, to the
observer who considers them to-day, a fact which is not revealed in
of technical

facilities

those lovely gardens that are still watered by the rivers of Damascus the fact that the physical environment in which the Syriac
Civilization came to birth was not unusually easy but, on the
contrary, was unusually difficult for Man to master.
:

On

Easter Island

In a different environment again, we may draw a corresponding

conclusion concerning the origins of the Polynesian Civilization 2
from the present state of Easter Island. 3 At the time of its discovery

by modern Western

was inhabited by two

races a race of flesh-and-blood and a race of stone an apparently
primitive human population of Polynesian physique, and a highly
explorers, Easter Island

accomplished population of statues. The living inhabitants in that

generation possessed neither the art of carving statues such as these
nor the science of navigating the thousand miles of open sea that
separate Easter Island from the nearest sister-island of the Polynesian Archipelago. Before its discovery by the seamen of the West,

Easter Island had been isolated from the rest of the World for an
unknown length of time. Yet its dual population of flesh and stone
testifies, just as clearly as the ruins of Palmyra or Copan, to a
vanished past which must have been
different from the
utterly

visible present.

Those human beings must have been begotten, and those figures
must have been carved, by Polynesian
navigators who once found
their

way

across the Pacific to Easter Island in

flimsy

open canoes,

1 In the
year 1930 of the Christian Era, the motor-car and the artcawm well were being
used by one great man who was not a Westerner but an Arab
KinK 'Abd-al-'Azfc AI
ba ud of the Najd-Hijazin order to reassert Man's
ascendancy over Nature in one of
forblddl
toe** of the Afrasian Steppe, namely Central Arabia. With the
A ol
^rr
?S
aid
Western technique, Ibn Sa ud was evoking, in a region which had
previously been
utilized for nothing better than the
ranges of pastoral Nomads, a new world of irrigated
oases, linked together by trans-desert routes which served the dual
purpoac of commerce
and government. The empire ruled by the Wahhabi
King from Riyad promised, if it
to
endured,
reproduce at last, in the twentieth century of the Chmtian Era, an image of
the empures which had once been ruled
by King ftarith from Petra and by Queen
Zenobia from Palmyra. (See Rihani Ameen: Ibn Sa'oud of Arabia: Hit
Peopf* and hit
Land (London 1928
Phllby, H. St. J. B.: Arabia of the Wahhabi* (London
1928, Constable), andConstable);
Arabia (London 1930, Benn).)

T^ ?^
f

$e

*nH Brown,
and

J.

P ol

^
Th M
Macmillan: ^ &^
8ted

86 ' S

,V

e sian Civilization, see further Part III.

A, below.

*f E*t*r Island (London I 9 *9, Sifton Pracd);

The Riddle of the Pacific (London
1924, Fiaher Unwin),

XAAEHA TA KAAA

13

without chart or compass and with no other motor-power than the

wind behind their tiny sails and the human muscular force that
plied their paddles. And this voyage can hardly have been an
isolated adventure which brought one boat-load of
Polynesian
pioneers to Easter Island by a stroke of luck that was not repeated;
for on that supposition it would really be
impossible to account
both for the presence of the population of statues and for the
inability of the latter-day population of human beings to carve
them. The art of sculpture must have been brought to Easter
Jsland by the pioneers, and lost on Easter Island by their descendants, together with the art of navigation. The relapse of these

from the cultural level of the Polynesian Society

elsewhere must have been due to the breaking of their contact with
distant colonists

the rest of Polynesia. On the other hand, the population of statues

is so numerous that it must have taken
many generations to produce; and during those generations the art of sculpture, which has
been lost in this latter-day age of isolation, must have been kept
alive on Easter Island by continual transmarine intercourse. Taken
together, these considerations point to a previous state of affairs in
which the navigation across those thousand miles of open sea was
carried on regularly over a long period of time. Eventually, for
some reason which still remains a mystery to us, the sea, once
traversed victoriously by Man, closed in round Easter Island, as the
desert closed in round Palmyra and the forest round Copan. Yet,
here again, Nature's reassertion of her power bears testimony to the
prowess of Man in once overcoming her and thus indicates that
there were certain features of unusual difficulty in the physical
environment in which the Polynesian Civilization came to birth.
The truth thus proclaimed in unison by Past and Present on
Easter Island is, of course, in flat contradiction to the popular
Western view that the South Sea Islands are an earthly paradise
and their inhabitants children of Nature in the legendary state of
Adam and Eve before the Fall. Perhaps this view arises from a
mistaken assumption that one portion of the Polynesian environment constitutes the whole of it. The physical environment of the
Polynesian Society consists, in reality, of water as well as land:

water which presents a formidable challenge to any human beings

who propose to cross it without possessing any better means of
navigation than those, described above, which were actually the
only means at the Polynesian navigators' command. It was by
responding boldly and successfully to this challenge of the estrangby achieving, with their rudimentary means of navigation,
ing sea
the tour de force of establishing a regular maritime traffic across
that the Polynesian
waters between island and island
the

open

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

their footing on the specks of dry land which are

scattered through the vast watery wilderness of the Pacific Ocean
almost as rarely as the stars are scattered through the depths of
that these beaching-places which constitute
Even

pioneers

won

granting

Space.

such an infinitesimally small fraction of the Polynesian environment do offer an earthly paradise to any human beings who may
succeed in reaching them, it must be borne in mind that the
after hazarding
Polynesians reached them by their own exertions,
their lives upon the waters, whereas the Adam and Eve of the
of Eden by the act
Syriac Mythology were placed in the Garden

of their creator, and did not begin either to exert their minds and
bodies or to hazard their lives until they had been driven out of the
1
Garden, and kept out of it, by the angel with the flaming sword.
It is possible that, in the environment where the Polynesian
Civilization came to birth, there was an untoward degree of sharpness in the contrast between the difficulty of the first ordeal which

had to be passed and the ease of the conditions of life with which the
successful response to this first challenge was rewarded. The toils
and dangers of Polynesian navigation on the Pacific were so formidable and the sweets of repose on the islands were so alluring
that the children may well have been tempted to abandon that
great Oceanic world of land and water which their fathers had
opened up for them, in order to sink back each on the island
into a life
which he had inherited in virtue of his father's efforts
of primitive ease and isolation. That seems to have been the
history of the decline and fall of the Polynesian Civilization on
Easter Island the island which had to be won and held at the price
:

of the longest sea-passage of all. The colonists of Easter Island

must have been the flower of the Polynesian pioneers and the
virtue that was in them not only carried them across a thousand
miles of open sea 2 but availed them
before it went out of them
;

to

commemorate

their achievement for ever

distant journey's end,

some

by

creating, at their

of the finest masterpieces ever pro-

duced by Polynesian art. The history of the Polynesian Civilization

on Easter Island may supply the clue to the history of the Polynesian Civilization as a whole. That is a problem which will
demand our notice again hereafter. 3 In this place we are simply
concerned to point out that the popular Western view of the
PolyFor the significance of this myth of the Garden and the FaM, sec above, II, C (ii) ()
vol.i,pp 290-3.
2
The nearest land to Easter now inhabited, with the exception of Pitcairn Inland,
is in the Gambia Islands, about
1,200 miles to the westward; the little coral patch of
Ducie Island, which lies between the two, is nearly 900 miles from Easter, and hn no
*

i,

dwellers.'
p. 292.)
s It is

(Routledge, S.: The Mystery of Easter Island

touched upon again in Part

III.

A,

vol. iu,

(London 1919,

below.

Sifton Praed),

XAAEIIA TA KAAA
nesian environment is mistaken and to explain how
and the explanation turns out to be very simple.

15
it

has arisen

The Western

observers who have given it currency have only had eyes for the
land and have ignored the sea which covers all but a fraction of the
area over which the Polynesian Civilization once ranged. Pre-

sumably they would not have ignored

they had had to traverse

it themselves in the craft of the Polynesian navigators, instead of
travelling, as they have done, as passengers in modern Western
ocean-going liners, leaving the responsibility of navigation to be
borne by professional Western navigators with the assistance of

compass and
In

New

it if

chart.

England

Before closing this review of reversions to a state of Nature, the

one somewhat
writer may permit himself to cite two instances
which happen
out of the way and the other exceedingly obvious
to have come within his own personal observation.
I was once travelling in a rural part of the State of Connecticut
a not
in New England, when I came across a deserted village
uncommon spectacle, so I was told, in this section of the United
States, yet a spectacle, nevertheless, which is inevitably surprising
and even disconcerting to a European in America. This particular
had evidently been laid out much
it was called Town Hill
village
like other New England villages, still inhabited, in some of the more
of the same state through which I had already passed
on my journey that very day. For some two centuries, perhaps,
Town Hill had stood with its plank-built Georgian Church in the

fertile districts

middle of the village green, and with the houses round the church,
and with the orchards beyond the houses, and with the corn-fields
the church still
stretching away beyond the fruit-trees. In 1925
stood (it was being kept in repair by the State Archaeological
had vanished (though
Society as an ancient monument) the houses
their former positions could still be traced by the remnants of their
had been swallowed
foundations) the fruit-trees had gone wild and
faded
up in the resurgent undergrowth. As for the fields, they had
away altogether into the rocks and scrub of the barren hill-side.
to play about
Lingering on the spot and allowing my thoughts
the strange sights here presented to me, I marvelled first at an
in this year
apparent paradox. Within the hundred years ending
had wrested from Nature the
1925, those vanished New Englanders
whole breadth of a continent. In these few generations they had
on the Atlantic slope,
spread from the spot where I was standing,
to the shores of the Pacific. Yet at the same time they had suffered
;

Nature to recapture from them

this village in the heart

of their

THE RANGE OF "CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

16

a village which their forefathers had founded almost as

soon as they had set foot on American soil a village where, for
'the Winning of the West', the
perhaps two hundred years before
be established as
ascendancy of Man over Nature had seemed to
These were my first thoughts
securely as in any village in Europe.
but on second thoughts I began to understand the significance of
what I was looking at. The rapidity, the thoroughness, the abandon
with which Nature had reasserted her dominion over the site of
Town Hill as soon as Man had relaxed his grip, surely gave the

homeland

measure of the exertions which Man had formerly made, first to

Those
to hold it.
capture this position from Nature and then
exertions must have been extreme ; and, when one came to think of
as the energy which the breaking-in of
it, only an energy as intense
New England had called into play could have been sufficient for
the Herculean labour of breaking-in a whole continent. Thus, so
far from 'the Winning of the West' making the loss of Town Hill
inexplicable, the truth was that, in the loss of Town Hill, the secret
of 'the Winning of the West* was laid bare. The portent of this
of
village in Connecticut, deserted to-day, explained the miracle
those great

cities in

Ohio and

Illinois

and Colorado and California

which had sprung into existence overnight. In this hard environment of New England, an apprenticeship had been served for the
hard task of building the United States. When the apprentice
had felt himself fully trained in nerve and muscle and skill, he had
simply left the place which had been his training-ground and had
gone to the place where he was to do his work in life. The desertion
of Town Hill was not a paradox after all it was of one piece with
the great human enterprise which had founded and peopled Cincinnati and Chicago and Denver and San Francisco.
;

On

the

Roman Campagna

Similar

considerations resolve the apparent paradox in the

present state of the Roman Campagna. It is beside the point to
marvel, with Livy, that an innumerable multitude of yeoman-

warriors should formerly have subsisted in a

region which in his
1
as
in
a
was
of
wilderness
barren gray fell and feverish
ours,
day,
* In
when
the
writer
of
this
revisited
1931,
the Roman Campagna after an
Study
f

interval of

twenty years, he found that this statement required qualification. In xo.

the
student who made the pilgrimage of the Via Appia Antica found himself
walking through
a wilderness almost from the moment when he
passed beyond the City walls through
the Porta San Sebastiano till the moment when he
approached the outflkirta of Albino.
When he repeated the pilgrimage in 1931, he found that, in the interval, Man had bmi
busily reasserting his mastery over the whole stretch of country that lies between Rome
and the CasteUi Romani. The Via Appia Antica itself was
unchanged (being carefully
preserved, like the church at Town Hill, by archaeological piety) ; but there wae now no
point along its course where the wayfarer was out of sight of modern motor-roadH,
aerodromes, wireless-masts and
more impressive than all thesenewly cultivated
nelds. The tension of human energy on the Roman
Campagna is now beginning to n*e

XAAEHA TA KAAA

17

green swamp where the only surviving vestiges of human habita1

tion were the frail straw huts of a few miserable
It is
shepherds.
more apposite to reflect that this latter-day wilderness has reproduced the pristine state of the forbidding
which was once

landscape
transformed by Latin or Volscian pioneers into a cultivated and
populous countryside and that the energy generated in the process
of breaking-in this narrow plot of dour Italian soil was the
energy
which afterwards conquered the World in a radius extending from
the Campagna to Britain and Egypt, and from the Alban Hills to
the Atlas and the Caucasus. 2 If an energy which sufficed, in its
diffusion, to build the Roman Empire was first generated and concentrated within the limits of the Campagna, this indicates the
degree of human effort involved in first conquering the Campagna
from the wilderness and then maintaining it against reversion. Is
it any wonder that the cradle of the Roman Commonwealth did
;

when

the body politic which this cradle

had nurtured eventually turned its energies outwards over all the
kingdoms of the Earth ? Surely it would have been more surprising
if the Campagna had still continued to yield increase to the Roman
husbandman and recruits to the Roman drill-sergeant in those
latter days when the Roman Army was
guarding the frontiers of the
Empire, and tilling theprala legionum, far away on the fringe of the
Afrasian Steppe and on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube ?
have now passed under review a number of sites in the
American and Asiatic Tropics, in the Afrasian Steppe, in the
Pacific Archipelago, in North America, in the Mediterranean
which have reverted to their pristine state of Nature after having
been the scene of signal human achievements that are now commemorated by deserted ruins. In this array, there is the utmost
diversity both in the character of the local physical environment
and in the shape of the yoke which Man has once laid upon it; yet
all these sites agree in bearing unanimous witness to one essential
condition of successful human activity
revert to

its

pristine state

We

Nur
Der

der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben

3
taglich sie erobern muss.

Even when the efforts of the pioneers have succeeded in conquering some position from Nature, the conquered ground has to be
the War of
again for the first time since the end of the third century B.C., when, during
Hannibal, it began its great decline towards the zero point at which it has stood throughout the first nineteen centuries of the Christian Era.
*
'Innumerabilem multitudinem liberorum capitum in eis fuisse locis quae mine, vix
seminario militum exiguo rehcto, servitia Romana ab solitudine vindicant* (Livy,
Book VI, ch. 12). Compare the allusions in Horace, Epistles, Book I, Ep. xi, 11. 7-8 and 30.
a This is the theme of Professor Tenney Frank in The Economic JERstory of the Roman
Republic (and edition, Baltimore 1927, Johns Hopkins University Press).
3
Faust, 11. 11575-6, quoted above in vol. i on p. 277.
II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

on the part of the pioneers' successors,

The fields of Egypt
against Nature's unremitting counter-attacks.
or the gardens of Damascus, which seem at first sight to yield their
1
are really
fruits automatically to any one who scratches the soil,
only maintained as 'going concerns' by constant and strenuous
labour. How much greater, then, must have been the labour which
it cost the fathers of the Egyptiac and the Syriac Civilization
to bring the Land of Egypt and the Ghutah of Damascus into
existence out of the primeval jungle-swamp and the primeval
desert? Perhaps we may now consider that we have proved the
proposition which we first took for granted. It seems evident that
the conditions offered to Man by the environments that have been
the birth-places of civilizations have been not unusually easy but
held,

by unremitting

unusually
Perfida

efforts

difficult.

Capua

Having studied the character of certain environments which have

actually been the scene of the geneses of civilizations or of other
signal human achievements, and having found empirically that the
conditions which they have offered to Man have been not easy but
rather the contrary, let us pass on to a complementary study. Let
us examine certain other environments in which the conditions
offered to Man have in fact been easy, and study the effect on
human life which such environments have produced. Jn attempting this study, we must distinguish between two different situations.
The first is one in which people are introduced into an eafcy
environment after having lived in some difficult environment of one
of the kinds that we have examined above. The second situation is
that of people in an easy environment who have never, so far as
is known, been
exposed to any other environment since their
pre-human ancestors became men. In other words, we have to
distinguish between the respective effects of exposure to an easy
environment upon Mankind in process of civilization and
upon
Primitive Man. Let us deal with the two situations
separately, in
this order, and let us once more follow the
empirical method of
which
we
have
so
far.
inquiry
employed
Let us begin with a classic
example of an easy environment
which is suggested by the last
example of a difficult environment
that has occupied our attention. In Classical
Italy, Rome found her
antithesis in Capua
another great and famous city whose destinies
were as different from those of Rome as her
The
surroundings.

This seems to be the philosophy of Brazil, to

judge by the following amiable saying
which is reported to be current among the Brazilians 'For
twelve hours in the day we do
our worst with the country; but for the other twelve hours we
sleep, and then God and
the country put things right again!'
:

XAAEHA TA KAAA

19

Capuan Campagna was as kindly to Man as the Roman Campagna

was dour x and while the Romans went forth from their forbidding
country to conquer one neighbour after another, the Campanians
sat in their smiling country and allowed one neighbour after
;

another to conquer them. From her last conquerors, the Samnites

of the Abruzzi, Capua was delivered, at her own invitation, by the
intervention of Rome herself; and then, at the most critical moment
of the most critical war in Roman history, on the morrow of the
Battle of Cannae, Capua repaid Rome by opening her gates to
Hannibal, in the hope of recovering her freedom by exchanging one
z As far
as Capua was concerned, the futility of
patron for another,
this hope was written large in her previous history but for Hannibal, in his war against the first city of Italy, the defection of the
second city of Italy from Rome's side to his looked like a gain which
was quite beyond question. In fact, Hannibal and his Roman
;

opponents were of one mind in regarding Capua's change of sides

as being the principal immediate consequence of the Battle of
Cannae and perhaps the decisive event in the war. Hannibal

responded to the Campanians' overtures by repairing to Capua and

taking up his winter-quarters there
whereupon something hapfalsified
which
everybody's expectations. A winter spent in
pened
Capua demoralized the troops who had just annihilated the greatest
Roman army that had ever taken the field.
'The Carthaginian army, which [Hannibal] kept under cover there [in
Capua] for the greater part of the winter, had been long and thoroughly
hardened against all the ills that can afflict Mankind but when it came
to the good things of this life, the troops lacked both familiarity and
experience. Accordingly these heroes who had resisted the utmost
assaults of adversity were undone by an excess of prosperity and enjoyment; and they fell headlong, because their long abstinence made them
plunge in head-over-ears. The round of sleeping, drinking, eating,
whoring, bathing and taking their ease became sweeter to them as each
passing day confirmed the habit, until they became so enervated by it,
body and soul, that their safety came to rest in the prestige of their past
victories rather than in the present strength of their right arms. It was
;

1 The name
Campagna, which clings to-day to the cradle of the Roman Commonwealth in the lowlands between the left bank of the Tiber and the Alban Hills, originally
belonged (in its Latin spelling 'Campania') to the lowlands surrounding Capua, through
which the Volturnus flows on its way from the Abruzzi to the sea, just north of Naples.
The name was extended from the gates of Naples to the gates of Rome by Augustus, to
and the name has
designate one of the 'regions* into which he re-mapped Roman Italy;
persisted in a territory to which it was thus artificially applied, after having died out in
the territory where it was indigenous.
2 It is
noteworthy that while Capua, after Cannae, betrayed Rome who had fought
the Samnites on her account, the Samnites, who had been fought and conquered by
Rome on account of Capua, remained loyal to Rome, with the single exception of the
south-easternmost canton of the former Samnite Confederation, the Hirpini. The
loyalty of the Samnites to the Romans during the Hannibalic War was as remarkable as
that of the Sikhs to the British during the Indian Mutiny.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

20

the opinion of military experts that, in allowing them to come to this

committed a still greater fault than in failing to
pass, their commander
march on Rome immediately after the Battle of Cannae. It might be
Cannae had merely postponed the hour
argued that his dilatoriness after
whereas his error at Capua had deprived him of the
of final
victory,

war

strength to win the

at

all.'

was never committed by the Roman

Government to the end of its days. When Rome gave up the conexercised by the laborious husbandry of her Camscript army
the World, in order to
pagna with which she had conquered
under the guard of an army of professionals,
place her conquests
she did not make the mistake of stationing this new model army in
Hannibal's

fatal

error

Capua or even in any of those delectable places along the Riviera

where the spoilt children of our modern Western Society take up
their winter-quarters nowadays. She took care that the soldiers of
the Empire should be tempered by an environment which was not
less severe than that which had produced the redoubtable soldiers
of the Republic. The legionaries who were no longer to be exercised
as yeomen in the Campagna by keeping its marshes in drainage and
its fells under the plough were now stationed along the Rhine and
the Danube among the Transalpine forests and rains and frosts,
to be exercised by this new challenge from Physical Nature for
North-European barbarians. The
avoidance of Hannibal's error by Augustus prolonged the life of the
Roman Empire by some four hundred years. 3
Augustus clearly divined the incompatibility between military
efficiency and an easy environment, and he set himself to reform
the spoilt and insubordinate soldiery which he inherited from the
civil wars by banishing it to guard the frontiers on the bleaker side
of the Alps. While the great Roman statesman was carrying this
difficult policy through,, was he ever confirmed in his resolution
by
any reminiscences of the Greek literature in which he had been
their border warfare with the

educated?

The

which governed the military policy of Augustus

had been made the subject of a fable by the Greek historian Herodotus four centuries earlier. The fable was celebrated, since the
great Greek writer had given it prominence by telling it as the tail4
piece of his work; and the fable was also apt, since it was told by
i

Livy,

The

principle

Book XXIII,

ch. 18.

Rivieraconstituting, as it did at the time, the principal overland route

between Italy and Transalpine Europe would have offered * convenient station for
the Imperial forces from a purely
geographico-stratcgical point of view.
3 Of course even toe
statesmanship of an Augustus was only able to delay the doom
of Rome without being able permanently to avert it. For the eventual transference
of the
military and political power in the Roman Empire from the hands of the Romans themselves to the hands of the Transalpine
barbarians, see IL
(v), pp. 164-5, below.
4
Herodotus, Book IX, ch. 122.

XAAEIIA TA KAAA

zi

a military people who once upon a time

Herodotus of the Persians
had performed a feat which had afterwards proved to be beyond
the genius of Hannibal and had barely been achieved by the staying-

power of the Romans the

:

universal state.

feat of establishing,

by force of arms, a

As Herodotus

the story, it was a Persian grandee

Artembares, in the generation of the conquest,
c

who

first

tells

named

suggested to his Persian fellow-countrymen the proposition

which they adopted and laid before Cyrus, to the following effect:
"Now that Zeus has put down Astyages from his seat and has given
the dominion to the Persians as a nation and to you, Sire, as an individual,
why should we not emigrate from the confined and rocky territory which
we at present possess, and occupy a better? There are many near at
hand and many more at a distance, of which we have only to take our
choice in order to make a greater impression on the World than we make
as it is. This is a natural policy for an imperial people, and we shall
never have a finer opportunity of realising it than now, when our Empire
is established over vast populations and over the entire continent of
'

Asia/'

who had

and had not been impressed, told his

petitioners to do as they wished, but he qualified his advice by telling
them in the same breath to prepare their minds for exchanging positions
with their present subjects. Soft countries, he informed them, invariably
breed soft men, and it is impossible for one and the same country to
to
produce splendid crops and good soldiers. The Persians capitulated
the superior intelligence of Cyrus, confessed their error, abandoned
their proposition, and elected to live as an imperial people in a rough
nation 's
country rather than to cultivate the lowlands as some other
'Cyrus,

listened

slaves.' 2
universal state had taken the form of a Persian Empire. Whether the
universal state should take the form of a Carthaginian Empire or a
Hellenic
coming
Roman Empire was the real issue of the Hannibalic War,
omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu
horrida contrcmuere sub altis aethens oris,
in dubioque fuere utrorum ad regna cadendum
omnibus humams esset terraque marique.
(Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Book III, 11. 834-7.)
a Whatever the historical value of this fable may be, it is certainly an historical fact
the modern province of Pars and the ancient homeland
that the rough country of Persis
of 'the Persians' in the original narrower sense of a name which was afterwards extended
continued, unlike Latium, to be a breedingto cover all the kindred peoples of Iran
lasted but even after its fall. More than
its
as
so
not
for
soldiers
empire
long
only
ground
the
of
Sve centuries after the overthrow
Empire of the Achaemenidae by Alexander the
the
armies of Cyrus produced, in the Empire ot
bred
had
which
the
Great,
country
contended on equal terms with Rome and
which
the Sasanidae. a new military power
almost anticipated the Arabs in expelling an intrusive Hellenism from its last footholds
Thus.the Persians in
in the Syriac World (see I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 75-6, above).
New
the
Englanders. They managed to
their day, did better than either the Romans or
make use of their high energies in a great feat of expansion without at the same time
whose confines those high energies had
losing their grip upon the rough country within
the
been generated. Though the Persian soldiers of the Great King served their time,
hometheir
and
as
Anatolia,
afield
as
far
Egypt
garrisons of the Achaememan Empire,
or of Latin
steads in the highlands of Pars did not go the way of Town Hill, Connecticut,
His
smirched
Alexander
vain
that
in
was
it
so
And
1.
Ulubrae (Juvenal, Satires, x,
102).
*

The Symc

22

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

The Temptations of Odysseus

This fable of the Persians' Choice,
bal's

Army

at

Capua,

signifies

Hannithat when human beings who have

like the true story of

been living under pressure are set at ease, their energies are not
released but are rather relaxed by this pleasurable change in their
conditions of life. The same conception appears in a work of
classical literature that is older and more famous than the histories
of Herodotus and Livy. It is the theme of those four books of the
1
Odyssey in which the hero tells Alcinous the story of his wanderings
from the day when he sailed with his companions from Troy to
the day when he was washed up, the sole survivor, on the shores of
Calypso's island.

In that long series of adventures, it is not when he is encounterrunning the gauntlet of the
ing his difficulties and dangers
Laestrygons or confronting the Cyclops or making the passage
between Scylla and Charybdis that Odysseus comes nearest to
failure in his struggle to make his way home to Ithaca.
Rather,
these ordeals speed him on his course towards the goal of his
endeavours by calling his faculties of audacity and nimblcncss of
wit and endurance and ingenuity into action. 2 He comes nearest to
failure when the resolution to persevere on the difficult and dangerous course towards the journey's end has to compete with the
attractions of an assured and immediate ease.
Thus, when the three companions whom he sent out on a reconnaissance into the land of the lotus-eaters fell in with the inhabitants,
'the lotus-eaters did not bethink them to do our
companions to death,
but gave them of the lotus to taste. And which soever of them did eat
that honey-sweet fruit, he no longer had the will to bring back tidings
nor in any wise to return; but their will was to remain there with the
lotus-eaters, feeding on lotus, and to think no more of the homeward
voyage. So I took them to the ships weeping, under duress, and in the
hollow ships I dragged them under the benches and bound them there.
And then I bade the rest of my companions come aboard the swift ships
glory by burning the Great King's palace at Persepolis. The atony fields and bleak
pastures amid which the ruined palace stood (and stands to-day) did not eeane to breed
warriors. Alexander himself was so deeply impressed
by the military virtue* of the
Imperial People whom he had just overthrown that he enlisted the defeated I 'cmanii in
his own army on equal terms with his victorious Macedonians, I lad I lorodotiM lived
a century later than he did, and carried his narrative of the secular conflict between the
Synac and Hellenic worlds down to the close of Alexander's dramatic contribution to
the story, he might have capped his fable with a
prophecy (in hia ironic vein) that the
rough country which had bred soldiers for Cyrus and soldiers for Alexander would
continue to bear these formidable crops so
long as the Persian peasant remained on hi*
homestead to sow the dragon's-tooth seed,
*
Odyssey Books IX-XII.
k
3
*EvQa> St Trora) i
,

0awroto,

</>&ovs

oMvavres

ratpov$.
(Odyssey, IX,

11,

62-3 and 565-6.)

XAAEIJA TA KAAA
with

speed, lest any

the lotus.' 1
of
eating
all

Again,

come

to

when

man

23

should lose thought of the voyage

half his ship's

company accepted

home by

Circe's invitation

into her parlour,

them in and gave them benches and chairs to sit on and mixed
them cheese and barley and yellow honey in Pramnean wine; and
among the food she sprinkled baneful drugs, to make them utterly
forget their native land. And then when she had given it to them and
they had drunk it up, straightway she smote them with her staff and
penned them in pig-styes. And, lo, they had the heads of swine and the
voice and the bristles, yea and the body thereof, 2 albeit their under3
standing was steadfast as aforetime.'
'she led

for

needed not only Odysseus's human sword but Hermes' divine

herb to rescue the poor fools from Circe's black magic.
Thereafter, Odysseus himself would have gone deliberately to
his death, in the Sirens' clutches, when the enchantment of their
singing fell upon his ears, had he not beforehand stopped his companions' ears with wax and made them bind him hand and foot to
the mast and enjoined upon them only to multiply his bonds if he
It

4
besought them to release him.
Perhaps the hero is least heroic when, shipwrecked and alone,
he is washed up on Calypso's island and is kindly entreated by the
Goddess 5 a fairer than Penelope 6 who takes him to dwell with
her in her earthly paradise 7 and promises him an immortality of per8 He finds salvation when the
petual youth.
nymph ceases to please
him when he begins to pass his nights as an unwilling lover in her
willing arms and his days sitting on the sea-shore (as he is shown
at his first appearance in the poem) with his eyes never dry of tears
and his life ebbing away in his longing for home. 9 This revolt, in

the eighth year of a passive captivity, 10 against a state of melancholy

ease in which he might have continued for evermore, is the inward
release which has its external counterpart in the intercession of
Athene before the throne of Zeus and in the liberating mission
of Hermes. 11 When Calypso pleads with him, at the last moment,
to remain,
1

"Lady Goddess, be not wroth with me

know
r

Odysseus answers

that the prudent Penelope

Od. IX,

effect

11.

92-102.

An historical

upon the Polynesian

is

for this. I, even I, know it all

not to be compared with thee, in
:

analogue to this legendary incident is the soporific

on the South Sea Islands.

navigators of the sweets of repose

(See pp. 13-15, above)

*
3
*

7
8
10

The Republic, 3693-3720,

Plato's description of 'the City of Swine*
Part II. B, vol. i, p. 193, footnote i.
cited above
<
Od. XII, 11. 39-54 and 153-200.
Od. X. U. 233-40.

Compare

which

is

Od. Vh, 11. 255-7.

See the beautiful description of
Od. V, 1. 209, and VII, 1. 257.
Od. VII, 11. 259-61.

* Od. V,

it,

as

Hermes saw

it,

in Od. V,

11. 211-18.
63-74,
Od. V, 11. 151-8.
Od. V, U. 1-148.
11.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

24

face to face. She is a mortal woman, while thou art

figure nor in stature,
deathless and ageless. Yet none the less I long and pray daily to reach
returning. Yea, and if some God
home and to behold the day of
For I have in
it.
shall wreck me in the wine-faced sea, I will endure

my

my

Already have I
breast a spirit well schooled in enduring sorrows.
wave and war.
of
suffered full many, and have borne the bufferings
>x
I care not if this other blow be added unto those."

my

and
Odysseus speaks these words, he is his clear-sighted
not even Poseidon's final
indomitable self again; and nothing
can prevent him from
stroke of malice, which the hero foresees
knows
as he
already from the
reaching Ithaca now. Moreover,
mouth of Teiresias' ghost, he will not rest on his oars, even when
he has regained his home and slain Penelope's suitors. Another
bear his oar on his shoulder
journey awaits him, in which he must
and exchange the toils and perils of the sea for those of the land. 2

When

The Flesh Pots of Egypt

This motif"in the Hellenic story of Odysseus' return from Troy to
Ithaca appears, in a variant form, in the Syriac story of the Chosen
People's exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. The attraction
which undermines the resolution of the Israelites during their
wanderings in the wilderness is not the present delight of a Lotus
Land or a Calypso's Isle, but a hankering after the flesh pots of

Egypt, which may perhaps be theirs again to-morrow if only they

turn back now. They have no sooner crossed the sea dry-shod, and
seen Pharaoh and his host perish in the returning waters, than they
begin to murmur in the wilderness against Moses and Aaron :
3

God we had died by the hand of the Lord in

when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did cat

'Would

to

the

Land of

bread to the
us
forth
wilderness
to
into
this
kill
this whole
brought
4
.
assembly with hunger.
'Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill
us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 5
,
'Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did
eat in Egypt freely
the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the
onions and the garlic
but now our soul is dried away: there is nothing
at all beside this manna before our eyes.' 6
Egypt,

full; for ye have

Even when they have crossed the wilderness as sSafely as they had
crossed the sea, and stand at last on the threshold of Canaan, their

XAAEHA TA KAAA

25

back to Egypt as they listen to the evil report of their

their sight of the Sons of Anak, the children of the
spies
giants,
in whose presence the spies had seemed and felt like
grasshoppers.
thoughts

'And

fly

the congregation

and cried; and the

the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto
them: "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would
God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord
brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our
children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into
all

people wept that night.

lifted

And

up

their voice

all

And they said one to another: "Let us make a captain and

us return into Egypt." J1

Egypt?"
let

The Chosen People

are unable to enter into their inheritance until

haunting and enervating recollection of the flesh pots has been

effaced; and it is not effaced until forty years of purgatory
spent
in wandering over the face of the wilderness which they have just
put behind them in one straight and rapid trek have brought

this

the older generation to the grave and the younger generation to

manhood. 2
The Doasyoulikes
These passages from myth and history surely demonstrate,
between them, that when people are translated whether in 'real
life* or in imagination
from conditions of pressure into conditions
of ease, the effect upon their behaviour is demoralizing. It may
perhaps be retorted that this is a truism, and that we might have
spared ourselves the trouble of demonstrating the fact and not
have overlooked the obvious explanation. The ill effect, it may
be argued, is a consequence of the process of transition and not a
consequence of the condition in which the transition results, 'You
infer,

from the

illustrations

which you have put before

us, that

conditions of ease are inimical to civilization in themselves.

You

might as well argue that a full stomach is inimical to health on the

ground that a heavy meal has been known to prove fatal to a
starving man. You know very well that the proper treatment for
starvation is neither to fill the patient's empty stomach at one
but to
sitting nor to keep him at starvation point in perpetuity,
of
nourishment
amount
re-accustom him to taking a normal
by
the
of
effect
The
disastrous
his
ration
heavy
gradually.
increasing
meal upon the health of the starving man was due not to any inherent
fault in the quantity of the full ration, but solely to the rash abruptness with which it was administered.' In order to meet this
*

Numbers
Numbers

above.

xvi. 1-4.
xiv. a6-3S-

On

this

point, see also

II.

(ii)

(b) 2, vol.

i,

pp. 334-5i

26

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

turn to the second of the two situations which

we have distinguished above the situation of people in an easy
environment who have never, so far as is known, been exposed to
ancestors became
any other environment since their pre-human
men. In this case, the factor of transition is eliminated and we are
enabled to study the effect of easy conditions in the absolute.
Here is an authentic picture of it from Nyasaland, as seen by a
Western observer, nearly half a century ago, in the early days of
'the opening-up of Africa':
criticism,

we must

'Hidden away in these endless forests, like birds' nests in a wood, in

terror of one another, and of their common foe, the slaver, are small
native villages; and here in his virgin simplicity dwells Primaeval Man,
without clothes, without civilisation, without learning, without religion
the genuine child of Nature, thoughtless, careless, and contented.
This man is apparently quite happy; he has practically no wants. One
stick, pointed, makes him a spear; two sticks rubbed together make him
a fire; fifty sticks tied together make him a house. The bark he peels
from them makes his clothes; the fruits which hang on them form his
food. It is perfectly astonishing, when one thinks of it, what Nature can
do for the animal-man, to see with what small capital after all a human
being can get through the World. I once saw an African buried. Accordand he was
ing to the custom of his tribe, his entire earthly possessions
an average commoner were buried with him. Into the grave, after the
body, was lowered the dead man's pipe, then a rough knife, then a
mud bowl, and last his bow and arrows the bowstring cut through the
middle, a touching symbol that its work was done. That was all. Four
items, as an auctioneer would say, were the whole belongings for half a
century of this human being. No man knows what a man is till he has
seen what a man can be without, and be withal a man. That is to say, no
man knows how great Man is till he has seen how small he has been once.
'The African is often blamed for being lazy, but it is a misuse of words.
He does not need to work; with so bountiful a Nature round him it
would be gratuitous to work. And his indolence, therefore, as it is
called, is just as much a part of himself as his flat nose, and as little
blameworthy as slowness in a tortoise. The fact is, Africa is a nation of
the unemployed.
'This completeness, however, will be a sad drawback to
development.
Already it is found difficult to create new wants and when labour is
required, and you have already paid your man a yard of calico and a
string of beads, you have nothing in your possession to bribe him to
another hand's turn. Nothing almost that you have would be the
slightest use to him.
*A fine-looking people, quiet and domestic, their
life-history from the
cradle to the grave is of the utmost
Too
ill armed to hunt,
simplicity.
they live all but exclusively on a vegetable diet. A small part of the year
they depend, like the monkeys, upon wild fruits and herbs; but the
staple food is a small tasteless millet-seed which they grow in gardens,
;

XAAEHA TA KAAA

27
Twice a

crush in a mortar, and stir with water into a thick porridge.

day, nearly all the year round, each man stuffs himself with this coarse
and tasteless dough, shovelling it into his mouth in handfuls, and consuming at a sitting a pile the size of an ant-heap. His one occupation is to
grow this millet, and his gardening is a curiosity. Selecting a spot in the
forest, he climbs a tree, and with a small home-made axe lops off the
branches one by one. He then wades through the litter to the next tree,
and hacks it to pieces also, leaving the trunk standing erect. Upon all
the trees within a circle of thirty or forty yards' diameter his axe works
similar havoc, till the ground stands breast-high in leaves and branches.
Next, the whole is set on fire and burnt to ashes. Then, when the first
rains moisten the hard ground and wash the fertile chemical constituents
of the ash into the soil, he attacks it with his hoe, drops in a few handfuls of millet, and the year's work is over. But a few weeks off and on
are required for these operations, and he may go to sleep till the rains are
over, assured of a crop which never fails, which is never poor, and which
will last him till the rains return again.
'Between the acts he does nothing but lounge and sleep ; his wife, or
wives, are the millers and bakers; they work hard to prepare his food,
and are rewarded by having to take their own meals apart, for no African
would ever demean himself by eating with a woman. I have tried to
think of something else that these people habitually do, but their

vacuous

life

leaves nothing

more

to

tell.'

This piece of first-hand testimony to the Sthos and behaviour of

Marx in an easy environment has been chosen for quotation here
because of the remarkable sharpness of vision and depth of insight
which the witness displays ; but of course his evidence does not
stand alone. It could be supported, if that were necessary, by other
modern Western evidence, ranging in Time over the four centuries
that have elapsed since Western Man first began to take the whole
World for his field, and ranging in Space over all parts of the
World where he has found primitive societies still surviving. 2
the opposite extremity of Tropical Africa, we could cite
a life
similar descriptions of the life of the Dinka and the Shilluk
which exhibits to-day, like some specimen in 'a living museum', the
circumstances in which the fathers of the Egyptiac Civilization
were living before they responded to the challenge of desiccation
and plunged into the jungle-swamp of the Lower Nile Valley. 3

From

Drummoncl, H.: Tropical Africa (London 1888, Hodder and Stoughton), pp. 55-6
and 58-9.
a jfor a
survey and classification of primitive societies that have come under the direct
observation of our modern Western explorers and anthropologists, see The Material
Culture and Social Institutions of the Simpler Peoples: an essay in correlation, by Hobhouse, L. T., Wheeler, G. C.. and Ginsberg, M. (London 1915, Chapman and Hall,
reprinted in 1930), which has been cited above in I. C (m) (a\ vol. i, p. 147, footnote a
has
3 Sec the
description of the social institutions of the Dinka and the Shilluk which
been quoted above in II. C (ii) (6) 2, vol. i, on p. 313, from Childe, V. G.: The Most
Ancient East (London 1928, Kegan Paul), pp. 10-1 1. For a fuller account, see Seligman,
C. G. and B. Z.: Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London 1932, Routledge).
*

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

28

Again, this Tropical African evidence could be reinforced by

1
records of primitive tropical life in distant longitudes in Amazonia
or in Melanesia. 2 All this modern Western evidence is readily
accessible; and for this reason we will hold it in reserve and will
close our review of the effect of easy conditions in the absolute (as
distinct from the effect of easy conditions succeeding to difficult
:

conditions, which we have examined already) by citing a description of Hellenic authorship, albeit this description is only given at
second hand and has manifestly been enriched by certain legendary

Here is Herodotus's account of a people called the Argipin

paei who were to be found at the farthest extremity, as it stood
his day, of the trade-route leading from the Greek settlements on

touches.

the north coast of the Black Sea north-eastward into the interior of
the great Eurasian Steppe 3
'Up to this point, the whole of the country that I have described is
plain-land with a deep soil, but from this point onwards it is broken
and
country and the soil is stony. If you cross this broken country
of
come
the
foothills
mounthere is a great stretch of it
to
lofty
you
:

and these foothills are inhabited by people who are all bald from
birth, men and women alike. They also have snub noses and bushy
beards, and a language of their own, though they wear Scythian clothes;
and they live off trees. The tree off which they live is called the Ponticum.
It is just about the size of a fig-tree, and it bears a fruit the size of a bean,
with a stone in it. When the fruit ripens, they bag it in cloths, and then
it exudes a thick black substance which is called
aschy. This they either
suck or drink mixed with milk, while from the thick dregs they make
cakes and use these for solid food. They have not much livestock
because there is not any good pastureland there but every man lives
under his tree. In the winter he covers in the tree with a tent of close
white felt; in the summer he lives under the tree in the open. These
people are not ill-treated by anybody. They are left in peace because
they are regarded as holy, and they possess no arms. Their neighbours
bring their disputes to them for arbitration, and anyone who takes
4
asylum with them is safe from injury.'
tains

This Hellenic description of primitive life in Central Asia and

the foregoing Western description of primitive life in Central
Africa give, between them, a clear picture of how Man does live
where he has never been exposed to a challenge either from the
1
For the absence of response to any stimulus from the environment in the Amazon
Basin (except, of course, on its Andean rim), see the allusions in Means, P. A : Ancient
Civilisations of the Andes (New York 1931, Scribner), p. 2$, qualified by Nordenskitfld'a
observations which have been cited in II. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, on p. 259, footnote i, above.
2 See
Malinowski, B.: Argonauts of the Pacific (London 1922, Routledge).
3 The
possibility that, a century or so before Herodotus's day, this trade-route may
have extended right across the Eurasian Steppe, from the north-eastern extremity of the
Hellenic World to the north-western extremity of the Sinic World, is examined
by
Hudson, G. F.,
Europe and China: A Survey of their Relations from the Earliest Times
to 1800 (London 1931, Edward Arnold), ch. i
'Beyond the North Wind'.
*
Herodotus, Book IV, ch. 23. See also chs. 24 and 25.

XAAEHA TA KAAA
human environment.

29

from the
He vegetates, quite
comfortably and happily, in a state of lethargy; and, to all appearance, he might continue to vegetate in perpetuity, were he not on
the point of being exposed to a formidable challenge from the
physical or

human environment

at last.

This imminent challenge is portended in the very fact that his

manner of life has come under the observation of one of those
energetic

societies

that

are

in

of civilization;

process

for

his

encounter with these importunate strangers will not end in a

mere platonic acquaintance. They observe in order to take action;
and, when once the explorer has crossed the primitive's threshold,
the trader and the missionary and the soldier are sure to follow in
quick succession at the explorer's heels. The primitive's isolation
terminated, his peace is broken, his comfort and happiness are
replaced by a consciousness of pressure and a feeling of anxiety.
In fact, he is confronted by a challenge under which it is impossible
is

for his lethargy to persist. The lethargy may pass into death or it
may pass into action, but on either alternative it will pass away.
The possible alternative outcomes of collisions between primitive

and

societies in process of civilization are examined in

later parts of this Study. 1 In this place we are concerned solely with
the state in which the primitive societies are found existing at the

societies

moment when the

contact takes place. This state makes a profound impression upon the intruders because there is an extreme
between the Sthos
contrast between the two colliding ways of life
first

of people who have been sheltered from challenges hitherto by an

easy environment and the fethos of people who have been challenged
and have responded victoriously. This impression works so powerfully upon the intruders' emotions and imagination that it issues in

mythology.

The

the fable of the

have quoted already apropos of the effect

classic Hellenic exposition of

Lotus Eaters, which we

the

myth

is

upon Odysseus' companions. A classic Western

of the
exposition is 'The History of the Great and Famous Nation
Doasyoulikes, who came away from the Country of Hardwork
2

of the lotus fruit

because they wanted to play on the Jews' Harp all day long'. In
Charles Kingsley's fable, an improvident people who persist in

an earthly paradise overshadowed

pay the penalty by degenerating
into Tropical African gorillas. This is the complement to another
Western fable which we have dealt with in an earlier chapter: 3
living a life of primitive ease in
by the eruptive crater of Etna,

*
In a general way they are examined in Part VIII; the special case of the collisions
between primitive societies and our Western Civilization is further examined in
in

j.

VTT

See pp. 22-3, above.

See

II,

(ii)

(a) I, vol.

i,

pp. 216-21, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

30

'The History of that Virtuous and Provident Creature Nordic

Man, who followed the retreating Ice Cap because he wanted to
harden his Moral Fibre.' In the Western version of the myth,
which these two fables convey between them, the clear vision of the
we find in the verse
primitive ethos in an easy environment, which
of Homer and the prose of Herodotus, is obscured by the mists of
self-righteousness and self-interest. Yet these blemishes are irrelevant to our present purpose and, if we consent for the moment to
;

ignore them, we may perceive, underlying them, the philosophic

truth which we have studied in the Syriac fable of the Garden of
The same philosophic truth is mirrored in the fable of the
Eden.
1

the objective view of the primitive ethos in

2
easy circumstances is found, when we abstract it, to be substanand the Hellenic
tially the same in the minds of the Western
observer. Alike, they see that the primitive environment presents
the sharpest contrast to their own; they see that there is a corresponding contrast between the Sthos which has been induced in the

Lotus Eaters.

In

fact,

1
See II. C (li) () i, vol. i, pp. 290-3, above, for a discussion of the fable of the
Garden of Eden and for the relevant quotations from Hesiod, Plato, Virgil, Origen,
Volney, Huntington, and Myres. It will be noticed that the three passages quoted from
the works of Western scholars are simply expurgated versions of the myth which the

Man renders so crudely.

the purely intellectual perception of
versions of the myth, the objective view
the facts
has to be disentangled from certain aesthetic and emotional concomitants.
The difference between the turns which these concomitants take in the Western and
Hellenic versions throws some interesting side-lights upon the difference of outlook
which distinguishes the Hellenic from our Western Civilization. In the fable of the Lotus
Eaters, the innocence and happiness of the primitive fithos in easy circumstances are
appreciated so keenly that the Hellenic observer
appreciated at their full aesthetic value
feels a lively fear of being captivated by this charming way of life and succumbing to its
lethargy and so being beguiled into abandoning those practical ends on the pursuit of
which his own civilization depends. The Hellene does not want to remake the Lotus
his own image. Indeed, the idea never occurs to him. He is content to avoid
Eater
turning into a Lotus Eater himself, and even on this point he is in two minds. As he
sails away, he looks back on Lotus Land with a certain wistful regret.
'Perhaps', he
thinks, *I might have been happier as a Lotus Eater after alll' The Western observer's
attitude is amusingly different. As a rule, he is blind to the beauty of the life which he
is observing.
Malinowski's appreciation of the artistic and ritual and social refinements with which 'the Argonauts of the Pacific' occupy their vast leisure is the exception
which proves the rule. The typical Western observer dismisses such primitive occupations as child's-play and triviality and waste of time. He is quite immune from the
possibility of being captivated by thern himself, and there is no shadow of this fear on
his mind. The emotion which he feels is disgust
disgust that the Doasyoulikes should
have played truant from the Country of Hardwork; disgust that the Shilluk and the
Dinka should have evaded the challenge of desiccation to which the virtuous Egyptian
has responded by becoming a fallah. In the Westerner's view, this weak-minded
malingering is so contemptible that it must bring the wretches who indulge in it to a
bad end.
Doasyoulike, left to himself, is bound to degenerate into a gorilla. It follows
that it is the duty of Nordic Man to intervene,
order to save the Doasyoulike, in spite
of himself, from his natural and well-deserved fate. Fortunately,
and self-interest
duty;
coincide, for the Doasyoulike can only be saved by being remade in Nordic Man's
image, and the first step in this transfiguration is to make him serve an apprenticeship aa
Nordic Man's hewer of wood and drawer of water. Nordic Man can do with any amount
of cheap labour. *And we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to His purpose* (Romans viii. 28). Fortified
in his resolution by this oracle from the Sortes Biblicae, Nordic Man takes the poor
in the various roles of taskmaster, salesman, and
Doasyoulike firmly in hand and
arouses him from his lethargy, with ultimate consequences which are not yet
evangelist
fable of
z

In

Nordic

all

apparent but which

may

prove to be surprising.

XAAEIIA TA KAAA

31

by his easy circumstances and the ethos which has been

induced by a strenuous life in themselves they see that the primitive will not and cannot ever join them in running the race of
primitive

civilization 1 so long as

an easy environment continues to shield

him from the necessity; and finally they see that they themselves,
if they succumb to this insidious environment, will cease to run
with patience the race that is set before them.
II.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

A Plan of Operations
We

have

now

perhaps established decisively the truth that ease

is inimical to civilization.
The results of our investigation up to
this point appear to warrant the proposition that, the greater the
ease of the environment, the weaker the stimulus towards civilization which that environment administers to Man. Can we now
proceed one step farther? Are we warranted in formulating, in
equally simple and abstract terms, the inverse proposition that the
stimulus towards civilization grows stronger in proportion as the

environment grows more difficult? Let us put this second proposition to the test by our now well-tried empirical method. Let us
review first the evidence in favour of the proposition and then the
evidence against it, and see what inference emerges. Evidence
indicating that the difficulty and the stimulus of an environment are
apt to increase^ aripassu is not hard to lay hands upon. Rather, we
are likely to be embarrassed by the wealth of illustrations that leap
to the mind. Most of these illustrations present themselves in the
form of comparisons. Let us begin by sorting out our illustrations
into two groups in which the points of comparison relate to the
physical environment and to the human environment respectively;
and let us first consider the physical group. It subdivides itself into
two categories: comparisons between the respective stimulating
effects of physical environments which present different degrees of
difficulty; and comparisons between the respective stimulating
effects of old ground and new ground, apart from the intrinsic
nature of the terrain.

The Yellow River and

the Yangtse

Let us compare, for example, the different degrees of difficulty

which are presented respectively by the lower valleys of the Yellow
River and the Yangtse
starting in either case from the point
where the river issues from its last gorge in order to flow the rest of
its

way through open country to the

The primeval state of the lower
*

For

this

metaphor, see

II.

(ii)

coast.

section of the Yellow River

(a) r, vol.

i,

pp. 333~4> above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

32

Valley is vividly described in a passage from the work of a dis1

tinguished Sinologist which has been quoted in an earlier chapter.
When Man first took this watery chaos in hand, the river was not
navigable at any season; in the winter it was either frozen or
choked with floating ice ; the melting of this ice in the spring produced devastating annual floods which repeatedly changed the
river's course by carving out new channels, while the old channels
turned into jungle-covered swamps. This was the state of the
river as Man first found it and to-day, when some three or four
thousand years of human effort have drained the swamps and have
confined the main channel of the river between embankments, the
devastating action of the floods has not been eliminated. The
;

have merely been reduced in frequency

only to ravage
the works of Man with greater violence and over a wider range
when they do occur.
The flood-waters of the Yellow River which, in the state of
Nature, used to spread themselves annually over the plains, now in
normal years travel harmlessly between embankments from the
exit of the gorges to the sea but, like Gods restrained by human
visitations

impiety from

lust to
satisfying
passing, prepare for a future revenge.

their

Man

these floods, in
pile up trouble for

destroy,

They

in the literal sense by depositing the silt which they have

brought down from the mountains as they slacken speed and move

on sluggishly over the flat river-bed to which, in their lower course,

the embankments now confine them. Year by year, as the deposits
accumulate, the level of this river-bed rises above the level of the
fields on either side year by year, the people raise the
height of
the embankments, to prevent the flood-waters from spilling over.
Yet at last there comes a point at which the level of the river-bed is
so high above the level of the surrounding country that no heightening or thickening of the embankments avails any longer to lend
them the requisite resisting power; and then, in some year of high
flood, the imprisoned river savagely bursts its banks and engulfs
a whole countryside, obliterating the fields and sweeping away the
buildings and drowning the live stock and the population. Since
the history of the region began to be recorded, these periodic
inundations have occurred innumerable times; and on several
occasions the river has changed its course completely. At the
present moment it debouches into the Gulf of Chihli near the midpoint of its south-western coast, almost opposite the tip of the
Liaotung Peninsula; in the prehistoric age it debouched at the
north-west corner of the Gulf through the bed in which the Paiho
River flows to-day ;* but during the intervening three or four
;

See

II.

(a) (b) 2, vol.

i,

pp. 318-20, above.

Op.

cit, loc. cit.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

33

has played greater vagaries than this. Less than a

century ago it was not debouching into the Gulf of Chihli at all.
It was only the inundation of 1852 that diverted the river back into
the Gulf from a channel debouching, south of the
Shantung
Peninsula, direct into the Yellow Sea; and this was not the first
time on record that the Yellow River had switched its course from
one side of the Shantung Peninsula to the other.
remarkable contrast to this is presented by the lower valley of
the Yangtse. The Lower Yangtse drains a basin where the land is
potentially no less fertile than the northern plains and where
agriculture has not to labour, as it labours there, under the twofold
scourge of flood and drought. The Yangtse sometimes emulates his
northern brother in inundating his human neighbours' fields, 1 but
he never refuses to bear their craft upon his waters. 2
Such are the respective characters of the two great rivers, as they
were in the beginning and as they are to-day. And where did the
Sinic Civilization come to birth ? On the banks of the gracious
Yangtse Kiang or on those of the demonic Hwang Ho ? We know
that it came to birth on the banks of the Hwang Ho, and that the
Lower Yangtse Valley was not brought within the ambit of the
Sinic Society until after the Sinic Civilization had broken down
and had entered upon a Time of Troubles which was the first
millennia

it

phase of

its

decline.

Chimu and Valparaiso

Again, on what section of the Pacific Coast of South America
did the Andean Civilization come to birth ? Not on that Central
I A week after these sentences had been written in the summer of the
year 1931, the
Yangtse produced, in the region of Hankow, a flood which ; in scale and in destructiveness, is perhaps unsurpassed in the annals of the Yellow River itself. Nevertheless, the
writer believes that on a long view, extending back to the local beginnings of recorded
history in the middle of the last millennium B c., the contrast here drawn between the
characters displayed by the Yangtse and the Yellow River in their respective relations to
Man is borne out on the whole by the facts.
* In the
year 1926 of the Christian Era, 'the Yangtse was navigable* in *the summer
months, when the discharge of the river was augmented by the summer rainfall and by
the melting of the snows in Tibet ... as far up as Hankow (about 570 miles from its
mouth) . . for large ocean-going steamers' ; and this point had been known to be reached
.

foreign battleship of as much as 12,000 tons displacement. . . . Under the same

conditions, steamers of ordinary construction, though not of heavy tonnage, could
navigate likewise the next section of 367 nautical miles from Hankow to Ichang. The
section of 400 nautical miles above this, between Ichang and Chungking, had been
opened since 1919 to steam-navigation by specially constructed river-steamers of light
draft and with engines sufficiently powerful to mount the rapids. This achievement had
the most populous Chinese province (with an
brought steam-navigation into Szechuan
estimated population of 50,000,000). For native junks, the passage of the rapids in the
Ichang-Chungking section was a slow, laborious, and dangerous operation. On the
other hand, they were able to ascend the river as far as Suifu, which was about 1,548
nautical miles from the mouth, or even as far as Pingshan, about 33 miles further,
whereas Chungking, the limit of river-steamer navigation, was about 1,337 miles from
the mouth, and Ichang, the limit of navigation for small steamers of ordinary build,
about 037.' (Toynbee, A. J.: Survey of International Affairs, 1926 (London 1928,
Milford), pp. 302-3.)

by

'a

II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

34

Chilean section which enjoys such a generous rainfall that the

in the
Valparaiso
Spanish explorers saluted an earthly paradise
first of these green valleys which rejoiced their eyes after their long
journey down the parched brown coast which they had to traverse
farther north. The Andean Civilization came to birth on the North
described in a passage which has
Peruvian section of the coast
1
where Man has to fight a perpetual battle
been quoted above
with the desert and must water his fields, which the sky will not
water for him, by his own hard labour the spade-work of digging
and maintaining innumerable irrigation-channels. Chile was not
brought within the ambit of the Andean Society until the Andean
Civilization had reached an advanced stage in its decline. Chile
was one of the last conquests of the Empire of the Incas the
Andean universal state and even then the Incas were content to
leave the greater part of fertile Chile beyond their southern frontier, which they drew along the line of the River Maule. The Incas
were at home on the Andean Plateau, to which the coastal civiliza:

tion

had spread

at

an early date in

its

growth.

And on what section

of the plateau did this civilization secure its first foothold ? Neither
on the section which was nearest to its primary home in the coastal
valleys of Chimu, nor yet on the northerly section (in the territory
of the modern Latin Republic of Colombia) where the altitudes arc
comparatively low and the valleys open and the climate genial.
The ruins of Tiahuanaco testify that the first foothold of civilizaa
tion on the plateau was in the upland basin of Lake Titicaca
region which was hardly nearer to the primary home of the Andean
Civilization in one direction than the upper basin of the Magdalena

River was in the other, while in

soil

and climate

it

was manifestly

less inviting. 2

Lowlands and Highlands in Guatemala

Again, which face of Central America was
of the

Not the

it

saw the birth

where a relatively

that

Pacific face,
high altitude co-operates with a relatively low rainfall to liberate
a strip of country from the pall of tropical forest which smothers

Mayan

Civilization?

the Atlantic lowlands. 3

See II. C (ii) (b) 2, vol. i, pp. 322-3, above.
See the description of the Titicaca Basin which has been quoted in vol. i, p. 322,
above. For the birth-places of the Andean Civilization, and the course of its expansion
during its growth, see II. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 120-3, above.
3 For the contrast in climate and
vegetation between the Pacific Highlands and the
Atlantic Lowlands of Central America, see Huntington, E.: The Climatic Factor at
illustrated in And America
(Washington 1914, Carnegie Institution of Washington,
Publication No. 192), chs. xvii and xviii. For the almost exact inversion of the relative
degrees of civilization that have been prevalent respectively in the several different
geographical zones of Central America in post-Columbian times, as contrasted with the
situation
the age in which the Mayan Civilization came to birth and grew to maturity,
see op. cit., pp. 218-19. For Dr. Huntington's hypothesis that this shift of social zones
is to be accounted for by a shift of climatic
zones, see II.
(vii), Annex I, below.
1

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

35

When

the Spaniards arrived, they took to these

open healthy
Central American uplands overlooking the Pacific
an earthly
in
the
as
as
took
to
Chilean
paradise
Tropics
decidedly
they
at
far
the
of
their
in
the
New
World.
Valparaiso
extremity
conquests
was
It
here that they planted their Central American settlements,
working their way up the Pacific coast from the point where they
bestrode the Isthmus of Panama as far as the present frontier
between Guatemala and Mexico. On the other hand, they made no
serious attempt to occupy the Atlantic coast of Central America
between their settlements on the Isthmus and their settlements in
Yucatan. The tropical forest in the hinterland deterred them,
though this coast lay almost within sight of their island possessions
in the Antilles and though the opening up of coast and hinterland
would have shortened appreciably the length of the journey between
the Spanish settlements on the Pacific face of Central America and
the mother country. In spite of that, the Spaniards abandoned
J
this Atlantic coast to indigenous Indians and to English
interlopers,
and were content to leave the communications between Spain and
the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast to follow the roundabout route across the Isthmus. The situation has not changed
substantially since the Spanish Empire in the New World has disappeared. Though five out of the six republics which are its 'successor-states' in Central America possess Atlantic seaboards, the
best-developed districts and the principal centres of population are
still to be found on the uplands overlooking the Pacific where the
Spaniards first made themselves at home. In 1933, there were still
no more than two lines of railway spanning Central America from
coast to coast between the Isthmus of Panama and the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec; and in 1927 the capital city of at least one republic
was still cut off from its Atlantic littoral by a barrier of virgin and
2

virtually impassable jungle.

The contrast between the eagerness and promptness with which
the Spaniards took to the open highlands overlooking the Pacific
coast of Central America and the almost complete failure of the

colonists

and

their successors, over a period of

more than four

1 An
unsuccessful attempt to found a Puritan colony on the islet of Santa Catalina or
Providence, off 'the Mosquito Coast', was made in A.D. 1630 (see Newton, A. P.: The
Colonising Activities of the English Puritans (New Haven 1914, Yale University Press)),
and the British Government continued to claim a protectorate over the Mosquito Indians
After the acquisition of Jamaica, the English secured a footing on another
till 1855.
section of this coast which has now become the Crown Colony of British Honduras.
z The North American
statesman, Mr. Henry cL. Stimson, when he was at Managua,
the capital of Nicaragua, in 1927, found that the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua was
distant from us much less than 200 miles as the crow flies, but it takes longer to get there
than to go from
New" York to* San Francisco, and the only way of going was by sea
_
through the Panama Canal, unless one was villing to travel on foot through the .jungle
a canoe*. (Stimson, H. L.: American Policy in
or to follow down a tropical river
^

Nicaragua (New York 1927, Scribner), p. 47.)

36

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

open up the Atlantic coast with its hinterland of

tropical forest, gives some measure of the difference in the degree
of the difficulty which these two neighbouring but very diverse
centuries,

to

to break
regions oppose respectively to Man when he attempts
them in. Where was it, then, that the oldest indigenous civilization
of the New World came to birth? On the Central American
know that the
uplands or in the Central American forests ?
Mayan Civilization came to birth in the forests and that, even when
it spread, its line of expansion was not southwards into the adjoining uplands but northwards into the Yucatan Peninsula and on to

We

the Mexican Plateau. It was in those quarters, and not on the

southern uplands, that the two later civilizations which were
related to the Mayan Civilization arose in their turn. Apparently
the easily accessible Central American uplands were never occupied
by any civilization until the Spaniards came to take possession of
them from the other side of the Atlantic. The indigenous civilizations were as persistent in shunning the uplands as the intrusive
civilization has been in shunning the forests. Then were the Mayas
blind and the Spaniards sharp-sighted ?
have only to compare
the respective achievements in Central America of the Mayan
Civilization on the one hand and of the Spanish version of our
Western Civilization on the other in order to realize that the forests
in which the Mayan Civilization came to birth surpass in two
respects the uplands on which our Western Civilization has been
propagated. They not only surpass them in the degree of the

We

difficulty which they oppose to human efforts ; they surpass

no less in the degree of the response which they have evoked

human

beings

who have made

them
from

the effort to grapple with them. 1

The Aegean Coasts and their Continental Hinterlands

Again, the unusual difficulty presented by the Aegean area, in
which the Minoan and the Hellenic Civilization successively came
to birth, becomes fully apparent only when the area is viewed in
geographical setting, against the foil provided by the regions
round about. I can testify to this from personal experience. On
my first visit to the Aegean, I came and went by sea; and, as
always, the sea- voyage had the psychological effect of fixing a great

its

mental gulf between its termini. The contrast between the physical
features of Greece and those of England was of course obvious
but on both the journey out and the journey back the abrupt transition from the one country to the other made it
impossible to
;

1 This avoidance of the

former theatre of the Mayan Civilization by the
Spanish
colonists in Central America may be compared with the avoidance of the former theatre
of the Indie Civilization in Ceylon by the Scottish and English planters. (See II.
(i),
pp. 6-7, above.) In both instances, the latter-day Western intruders chose the softer
and less stimulating option.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

37

On my

second
appreciate this obvious matter of fact imaginatively.
visit to the Aegean, I
arrived
this
I
but
time
broke
again
by sea;
stay in Athens by making three reconnaissances into regions
First I went to Smyrna and made
just outside the Aegean area.

my

expeditions from there by rail up country into the interior of

Anatolia ; next I went to Constantinople and made other expedi-

from

and then, before coming

home, I went to Salonica and made an expedition from there into
the interior of Macedonia. Finally, I returned to England by the
overland route, travelling in the same railway-carriage, without a
change, from Constantinople to Calais. Thus, in the course of this
visit, I travelled overland, out of the Aegean area into the regions
round about, in four different directions and each time, in every
direction, I found myself travelling out of country that was bare,
barren, rocky, mountainous, and broken into fragments by the
estranging sea, into country that was greener and richer and
softer
country in which mountain-ranges were replaced by
rolling hills, and sea-filled gulfs and straits by broad cultivable
tions into Anatolia

that quarter;

The

cumulative effect of these contrasts upon the

observer's imagination was very powerful. On this comparative
view, the Aegean area showed itself in its true colours as a region
of unusual difficulty, not only by contrast with England or with the
other Transalpine countries of Europe, but by contrast with every
region adjoining it. In this light, I realized the deep meaning of the
words which Herodotus puts into the mouth of the Spartan exile
DamarStus in a colloquy with the Great King Xerxes 'Hellas has a
foster-sister Poverty who never leaves her; but she has brought in
a guest in the shape of Virtue, the child of Wisdom and Law; and
1
by Virtue's aid Hellas keeps Poverty at bay and Servitude likewise.'
river-valleys.

Attica and Boeotia

Similar contrasts in the physical environment, capped by corresponding contrasts in the local variety of civilization, may be
observed in the interior of the Aegean area itself. For instance, if
one travels by train from Athens along the railway which eventually
leads, through Salonica, out of the Aegean area into the heart of

a
Europe, one passes, on the first stage of the journey, through
stretch of country which gives to Central or Western European
the train has
eyes an anticipatory glimpse of familiar scenery. After
been climbing slowly for hours round the eastern flanks of Mount
Parnes through a typical Aegean landscape of stunted pines and
to find himself
jagged limestone crags, the traveller is astonished
aiei jcore
Herodotus, Book VII, ch. 102. The Greek text is: Tfl 'JEAAaSt Trm'ij /iev
/cat
re
avo
v6pov icrxypov* TTJ
oo</>fys Karepyacrpevrj
<rtivrpo<t>6$ &m, dpen) Be CTra/oro's tori,
re Trevhjv cwra/nWrai
; 1} 'EX\a$ rtfv
i

38

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

being rattled

down

into a lowland country of gently undulating

deep-soiled ploughlands. He might imagine that he had just

crossed the Austro-German frontier on the railway between Innsbruck and Munich; the northern aspect of Parnes and Cithaeron,
which he now views at a distance across this lowland foreground,
might be the northernmost range of the Tyrolese Alps. Of course
this landscape is a 'sport'. He will not see the like again until he

has put Nish behind him some thirty-six hours later and is
descending the Lower Valley of the Morava towards the Middle
Danube; and that makes this anticipatory patch of Bavaria-inGreece so much the more striking.
What was this odd piece of country called during the lifetime of
the Hellenic Civilization? It was called Boeotia; and in Hellenic
minds the word 'Boeotian' had a quite distinctive connotation. It
stood for an fethos which was rustic, stolid, unimaginative, brutal
an ethos out of harmony with the prevailing genius of the Hellenic
culture. This discord between the Boeotian thos and Hellenism
was accentuated by the fact that just behind the range of Cithaeron,
and just round the corner of Parnes where the railway winds its way
nowadays, lay Attica 'the Hellas of Hellas': the country whose
ethos was the quintessence of Hellenism lying cheek by jowl with
the country whose Sthos affected normal Hellenic sensibilities like
a jarring note. The contrast was summed up in piquant phrases :
'Boeotian Swine' and 'Attic Salt'.
The point of interest, for the purpose of our present study, is
that this cultural contrast, which impressed itself so vividly on the
ancient Hellenic consciousness, was geographically coincident with
an equally striking contrast in the physical environment which
already existed then and which still survives to-day to impress
the passing Western railway-traveller. For Attica is 'the Hellas of
Hellas' not only in her soul but in her physique. She stands to
the other countries of the Aegean as those Aegean countries stand
to the regions around. If you approach Greece by sea from the
west and enter through the avenue of the Corinthian Gulf, you may
flatter yourself that your eye has grown accustomed to the Greek
beautiful and forbidding at once
before the view is
landscape
shut out by the banks of the Corinth Canal. Yet when your
steamer emerges from the cutting through the Isthmus to plough
Aegean waters at last, you will still be shocked, in the Saronic Gulf,
by an austerity of landscape for which the scenery on the other
side of the Isthmus has not
fully prepared you; and this austerity
attains its climax when you round the corner of Salamis and see the
land of Attica spread out before your eyes up to the summits of
Pentelicus and Hymettus.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

In Attica, with her abnormally light and stony
called denudation,

was

soil,

39
the process

which Boeotia has escaped down

to this day,
already complete in Plato's time, as witness the Attic philo-

sopher's

own

graphic account of

it.

'Contemporary Attica may accurately be described as a mere relic of

the original country, as I shall proceed to explain. In configuration,
Attica consists entirely of a long peninsula protruding from the mass of
the continent into the sea, and the surrounding marine basin is known
to shelve steeply round the whole coastline. In consequence of the
successive violent deluges which have occurred within the past 9,000
years (the interval which separates our own times from the period with
which we are dealing), there has been a constant movement of soil away
from the high altitudes; and, owing to the shelving relief of the coast,
this soil, instead of laying down alluvium, as it does elsewhere, to any
appreciable extent, has been perpetually deposited in the deep sea
round the periphery of the country or, in other words, lost; so that
Attica has undergone the process observable in small islands, and what
remains of her substance is like the skeleton of a body emaciated by
disease, as compared with her original relief. All the rich, soft soil has
moulted away, leaving a country of skin and bones. At the period,
however, with which we are dealing, when Attica was still intact, what
are now her mountains were lofty, soil-clad hills her so-called shingleplains of the present day were full of rich soil; and her mountains were
a fact of which there are still visible traces. There
heavily afforested
are mountains in Attica which can now keep nothing but bees, but which
were clothed, not so very long ago, with fine trees producing timber
suitable for roofing the largest buildings; the roofs hewn from this
timber are still in existence. There were also many lofty cultivated
trees, while the country produced boundless pasture for cattle. The
annual supply of rainfall was not lost, as it is at present, through being
allowed to flow over the denuded surface into the sea, but was received
by the country, in all its abundance, into her bosom, where she stored it
in her impervious potter's earth and so was able to discharge the drainage
of the heights into the hollows in the form of springs and rivers with an
abundant volume and a wide territorial distribution. The shrines that
;

survive to the present day on the sites of extinct water-supplies are

evidence for the correctness of my present hypothesis.' 1

did the Athenians do with their poor country when she

lost the buxomness of her Boeotian youth ? We know that they did
the things which made Athens 'the education of Hellas'. 2 When
the pastures of Attica dried up and her ploughlands wasted away,
her people turned from the common pursuits of stock-breeding and

What

grain-growing to devices that were

in

all

their

own

olive-cultivation

A-D.
response to the challenge of the Attic environment has been touched
upon, by anticipation, in I. B (u), vol. i, pp. 24-5, above.
*

Plato, Critias,

The Athenian

40

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

The gracious tree of Athena

exploitation of the subsoil.
on the bare rock. Yet
flourishes
not only keeps alive but
cannot live by olive-oil alone. To make a living from his olivefor Scythian grain.
groves, the Athenian must exchange Attic oil
To place his oil on the Scythian market, he must pack it in jars
and ship it overseas necessities which called into existence the
1
Attic potteries and the Attic merchant-marine, and also the Attic
silver-mines, since international trade demands a money economy
and thus stimulates an exploration of the subsoil for precious
and the

Man

metals as well as for potter's earth. Finally, all these things torequired
gether
exports, industries, merchant ships, and money
the protection and defrayed the upkeep of a navy. Thus the
denudation of their soil in Attica stimulated the Athenians to
acquire the command of the sea from one end of the Aegean to the
other, and beyond ; and therewith the riches which they had lost
were recovered a hundredfold. This effect of Athenian sea-power
In the year 1921, the writer of this Study visited a modern Orthodox Christian
community in the Aegean area in whose life the olive was then^playing the same part
as it had once played in Hellenic Attica. This modern Greek city-state of Ayvalyq (a
Turkish word meaning 'Quince Orchard') or Kydhonie's (the equivalent in modern
Greek) was situated on a little peninsula projecting into the Aegean from the west coast
of Anatolia opposite the Greek island of Mitylene (the ancient Lesbos). The soil of this
which was as thin and stony and rock-ribbed as the soil of Attica itself
peninsula
made a striking impression of barrenness upon the traveller who came to Ayvalyq overland from the fertile valley of the Caicus and travelled on to Mitylene with its smiling
gardens and vineyards just across the water. From the citadel of Peigamum, which
commands the Caicus Valley, Macedonian Attalids and Turkish Qara 'Osmanoghlus
had sometimes extended their dominions over half Asia Minor. Yet ban en Ayvalyq had
acquired an empire too an overseas empire extracted from the olive. The Greek settlers
from all parts of the Aegean who had founded Ayvalyq during the last quarter of the
eighteenth century of the Christian Era had turned the barren soil, on which their lot was
cast, into a goodly heritage by planting it with two million phvc tices; and, & century and
a half later, these plantations were supporting a community of thirty or forty thousand
people in a high degree of civilization. At Ayvalyq, the olive was at the bottom of everything. The community purchased its food supplies and other necessities of life by
exporting the produce of the olive in various foims as fruit, as oil, and as soap (which
1

in their own factories). The waste product of the oilskins and stones and dregs
was used as fuel for driving the oil-presses and
presses
the soap-factories in Ayvalyq town, and also for driving the steamers (owned by local
capitalists and manned by local crews) which carried the produce of the olive-groves
from Ayvalycj port as far afield as Russia and America, in order to fetch the community's
foreign requirements as return cargoes. This olive-economy enabled Ayvalyq not only
to live but to live well. This community of fruit-growers and manufacturers and merchants and shippers did not neglect the things of the spirit. Its chief glory was an
academy which was one of the first places in which the literature of ancient Hellas and
the science of the modern West had been studied and taught together in the modern
Greek tongue.
This remarkable community at Ayvalyq was both brought into existence and wiped
out of existence by the process of Westernization, as this
remorselessly worked itself
out in the Near East. After being twice destroyed and twice refounded in the struggle
for the heritage of the old Ottoman Empire
a struggle which the ferment of Westernization set on foot between the Greeks and the Turks and the other Near Eastern peoples
Greek Ayvalyq was finally evacuated, this time presumably for good, in the great Greek
exodus from Anatolia after the d&dcle of the Greek Army in igzz.
To-day, modern
Greek Ayvalyq belongs to the past no less than ancient Greek Athens. The present
writer's glimpse of the
place in 1921, on the eve of its extinction, has enabled him to
understand by analogy the part played in ancient Attic life by the miraculous tree which
was venerated and loved as the gift of Attica's tutelary Goddess.

they manufactured out of the

oil

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

41

has been vividly painted by an anonymous Athenian writer of the

generation before Plato's
'Bad harvests due to atmospheric conditions fall with crushing weight
upon even the strongest land-powers, while sea-powers surmount them
easily. Bad harvests are never of world-wide incidence, and therefore
the masters of the sea are always able to draw
upon regions in which the
harvest has been abundant. If I may venture to descend to minor details,
I may add that the command of the sea has enabled the Athenians . .
:

to

discover

refinements

of luxury through their extensive foreign

relations.
Every delicacy of Sicily, Italy, Cyprus, Egypt, Lydia, the
Black Sea, the Peloponnese or any other country has been accumulated
on a single spot in virtue of the command of the sea. . . . Moreover, the
Athenians are the only nation, Hellenic or non-Hellenic, that is in a

position to accumulate wealth. If a country happens to be rich in shiptimber, what market is there for it, if it fails to conciliate the masters of
the sea? Similarly, if a country happens to be rich in iron, copper or

what market is there for it, if it fails to find

quarter? But these are precisely the raw materials
struct my ships
timber coming from one source,
from
a
third, hemp from a fourth, flax from
copper

favour in the same

out of which I coniron from a second,
a fifth. In addition,
will
refuse
to
licence
the
of
these
commodities
to other
they
export
markets or
those who choose to oppose our wishes shall be excluded
from the sea! Thus I, who produce not one of these commodities in my
home territory, possess them all by way of the sea, while no other
1
country possesses any two of them simultaneously.'
flax,

beyond the dream of the

Boeotian ploughman whose deep-soiled fields had never failed him
were merely the economic foundation for a political and artistic
and intellectual culture which made Athens 'the education of
Hellas' and 'Attic Salt' the antithesis of Boeotian animality. On
the political plane, the Athenian industrial and sea-faring populaBut these

riches of the sea

riches

tion constituted the electorate of the Athenian democracy, while

Attic trade and sea-power provided the framework for that inter-

national association of

Aegean

city-states

which took shape in the

Delian League under Athenian auspices. On the artistic plane,

the prosperity of the Attic potteries gave the Attic vase-painter the
opportunity which he used for creating a new form of beauty; and
the extinction of the Attic forests compelled Athenian architects to
translate their work from the medium of timber into the medium
of stone and so led them on to create the Parthenon instead of
resting

content

commonplace log-house which Man

2 On the
every place where tall trees grow.

with

has always built in

the

1
Pseudo-Xenophon: AtfienaiSn Pohteia ('Athenian Institutions'), edited by Kalinka,
E. (Leipzig 1913, Teubner), ch. 2.
2 The translation of a
commonplace architecture in timber into a unprecedentedly
and unsurpassedly noble architecture in stone -was of course not an exclusively Attic
achievement. It was the general consequence of a general exhaustion of timber-supplies

42

THE RANGE OF CHAIXENGE-AND-RESPONSE

intellectual

observer
quote our anonymous Athenian

to

plane,

once again,
with every language spoken under the Sun has
enabled the Athenians to select this expression from that language and
in contrast to other Hellenes,
this from the other, with the result that
life and costume
as a
rule, preserve their local dialect,
'their familiarity

who,

general
the Athenians rejoice in a cosmopolitan civilization for which the entire
1
Hellenic and non-Hellenic worlds have been laid under contribution.
This Attic culture did, indeed, gather the whole of the contemporary
Hellenic culture into itself, in order to transmit it to posterity

seasoned with the 'Attic

Salt'

and ennobled by the Attic impress.

and Boeotia
The contrast between Boeotia and Attica is not the only illustration of our theme which the Aegean area has bequeathed from the
Boeotia had another
age when it was the theatre of Hellenic history.
divided
neighbour, Chalcis a closer neighbour than Athens, though
from Boeotia by the sea. The city of Chalcis stood on the Euboean
so narrow that at times they have been spanned
shore of the Straits
by a bridge which run between the Island of Euboea and the
Boeotian mainland. In the Euboean hinterland of Chalcis City,
and within the frontiers of the Chalcidian State, lay the Lelantine
Plain. And this Chalcidian campagna was not like the 'bad lands'
of Latium or Attica. It was as good a ploughland as Boeotia itself;
ChalcidicS

for the Chalcidians, the Lelanor fortunately

but, unfortunately
tine Plain was narrow and hence, while the Boeotian farmers were
still finding land for the plough, enough and to spare, without
;

brought up
looking beyond their borders, the Chalcidian farmers
the
flanks
of
the
on
their
island,
towering
short,
by
precipitous
for
fresh
search
to
were
stimulated
of
ploughlands
peak
Dirphys
abroad. The salt waters of the Euripus Straits, which washed the
foot of their city walls, offered the Chalcidians a sea-passage for
their voyages of exploration.
Sailing out into the Aegean and
beyond it, they took to the land again wherever they found another
Lelantine Plain awaiting the Chalcidian plough with a native population incompetent to hold its own against the Chalcidian colonist.
Sailing north and east, they founded a new Chalcidicc on the
coasts of Thrace; sailing south and west, they founded another in
Sicily.
It was, however, on Athenian sites and in Athenian hands
that the Hellenic architecture produced its masterpieces.
may note in passing that
the absence of building timber had a profoundly stimulating effect not only upon the
Hellenic architecture but upon the Sumenc. Here, however, the effect was of a different
kind. While the Hellenic architect, in translating from timber into stone, was stimulated
to create a new beauty, the Sumeric architect, in translating from timber into brick, was
stimulated to invent a new technique. He discovered the principles of the arch and the

throughout the Aegean area.

vault.

We

0p.

cit, loc. cit.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

Of

43

which the Chalcidians performed under the

stimulus of land-shortage in Euboea is not to be compared with the
feats to which the denudation of Attica stimulated the Athenians.
While the Athenians responded to the Attic challenge by a qualitacourse, this feat

change in their economy, the Chalcidians' response to the

quantitative. They merely added field to
instead
of
field,
transforming fields into mines and olive-groves.
The agricultural life of the Chalcidian colonies, each set in its
arable plain
a Thracian Torone or a Sicilian Leontini
was a
replica of the life which had been lived in the Lelantine Plain by
the colonists' forefathers and which was still being lived there by
their cousins whose forefathers had succeeded in
staying at home.
In other words, the expansion of Chalcis differed from the expansion
of Athens in being extensive and not intensive. 1 Nevertheless,
tive

Euboean challenge was

Chalcis too, in response to a less formidable challenge, made a

mark albeit a fainter mark than the Athenian upon Hellenic
It was through those Chalcidian farmer-settlers overseas
that the barbarians of Macedonia and of Latium were drawn into
the orbit of the Hellenic Civilization and were given their first

history.

tincture of the Hellenic culture. 2

The

Chalcidians reacted, in their

degree, to the prick of Necessity's spur, while comfortable Boeotia
cared for none of these things.

Byzantium and Calchedon

The enlargement

of the area of the Hellenic World drca 725which the Chalcidians played this prominent part,
offers us some further Hellenic illustrations of our theme. Among
the barbarians who came within range of the movement and who
reacted to it by becoming converts to Hellenism instead of being
supplanted by Greek settlers, the difference, in stimulating effect,
between a hard and an easy environment is illustrated by the con-

525 B.C., in

between the careers of the two Italian city-states which arose

respectively in the Roman and in the Capuan campagna. This
contrast needs no more than a bare mention here, since we have
examined it in another connexion already 3 and we may pass on to
the celebrated illustration which is afforded by the contrast between
the two Greek colonies of Calchedon and Byzantium which were
planted respectively on the Asiatic and on the European side of the
entrance to the Bosphorus from the Sea of Marmara.
A century or so after the foundation of the two cities, the Persian

trast

1 This
point has been noted, by anticipation, in I. B (ii), vol.
taken up again in Part III. B, vol. iii, pp. 120-2, below.
2 See further III. C
(u) (6), Annex IV, vol. lii.
3 See
pp. 1 8-2 1, above.

i,

pp. 24-5, above, and

is

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

44

who had been

placed in charge of the

European hinterland of the Straits by Darius,
'made a mot which won him immortal celebrity among the Hellespontine
Greeks. At Byzantium he heard that the Calchedonians had planted
their city seventeen years earlier than the Byzantines had planted theirs
and he had no sooner heard it than he remarked: "Then the Calchedonians must have been blind men all that time." He meant that they
must have been blind to choose the worse site when the better was at

statesman Megabazus,

their disposal.' 1

Megabazus's famous observation was epigrammatic rather than

acute; for it is not so difficult to be wise after the event, and in
Megabazus *s day the respective destinies of Calchedon and Byzantium were already manifest. Calchedon was still what she had been
to begin with an ordinary Greek transmarine agricultural settlement of the kind which Chalcis and Megara and half a dozen other
agricultural communities in Old Greece had planted by the score
round the coasts of the Mediterranean and its backwaters. Meanwhile, Byzantium was already growing into one of the busiest ports
of the Hellenic World and was fairly launched on the career which
was to culminate in her becoming the ultimate capital of a Hellenic
universal state in the last phase of Hellenic history. Thus, by
Megabazus's time, any comparison between the respective advantages of the sites of Byzantium and Calchedon would naturally
turn upon their respective facilities as ports
and on this test the
eligibility of Byzantium was no doubt incomparably greater than
that of her neighbour over the water. Byzantium not only possessed
the natural harbour of the Golden Horn which had no counterpart
on the exposed and featureless section of the opposite Asiatic
coastline where Calchedon stood. More than that, the set of the
current which comes down the Bosphorus from the Black Sea into
the Sea of Marmara is in favour of any vessel trying to make the
Golden Horn from either direction,' while it is adverse to any
vessel heading for the open beach of Calchedon. 2 Thus every ship
that plies between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean has a
double incentive for passing by on the other side from Calchedon
and making Byzantium its port of call. The founders of Calchedon
would have been blind men indeed if, in face of this obvious fact,
they had deliberately chosen Calchedon in preference to Byzantium
:

as the site for a port.

In

of course, the founders of Calchedon made their

historic choice on quite a different consideration. As they
apthe
southern
entrance
to
the
on
their
proached
Bosphorus
voyage
1

reality,

Herodotus, Book IV, ch. 144.

See the detailed account of this which

is

given

by Polybius, Book IV,

chs. 43

and 44.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

45
of exploration, they looked at the landscape and chose their site
with eyes that were not blind at all, but were simply fanners* eyes
and not mariners'; and from the farmer's standpoint their choice
was admirable. They planted their city on the Bithynian Riviera:
a sheltered strip of fertile coast which seems like an enclave of
Mediterranean scenery in a more northerly clime. On this favoured
spot, the Greek farmer-prospectors who founded Calchedon settled
down to raise the crops and plant the fruit-trees which they had
always raised and planted at home. For their purpose, they could

not have chosen better; and we may be sure that this was the
judgement of the next company of Greek explorers, in search of
fresh land for their ploughs, who came this way seventeen years
later.
We may picture the founders of Byzantium cursing the
Calchedonians for their perspicacity and themselves for their
tardiness as they turned their ships' prows away from the smiling
Bithynian Riviera, now crowned by Calchedon's walls, towards the
much less inviting opposite coast of Thrace. Some Hesiodic
equivalent of the proverb that 'It is the early bird that gets the
first worm' must have often been in the Byzantines' mouths when
they tilled the soil of their little Thracian peninsula
only to see
their crops carried off systematically, year after year, by the barbarians of the hinterland.

'The Byzantine

territory is an enclave in Thrace, which marches with

the entire Byzantine land-frontier and comes down to the sea on either
side.

In consequence, the Byzantines are

afflicted

with an interminable

and insoluble war against the Thracians. Even when they make a
military effort and get the better of the Thracians for the moment, they
can never get rid of the Thracian war owing to the multitude of the
Thracian hordes and Thracian princelings. If they overthrow one

way for three others more formidable

the Byzantines give in and come to terms for
paying a stipulated tribute, they find themselves no better off. For any
concession which they make to one enemy has the direct effect of
bringing five new enemies down upon them. So they are in the toils of
this interminable and insoluble war, in which they are exposed to all
the danger of being at close quarters with a bad neighbour and all the
horror of warfare against a barbarian adversary. These, in a general
way, are the evils against which they have to struggle on land; and,
besides the ordinary evils attendant on war, they have to endure the
legendary punishment of Tantalus. They possess a first-rate soil; they
and then the barcultivate it intensively; they raise fine big crops
barians arrive on the scene to gather in and carry off the crops and
destroy what they do not take away! It is not only the loss of labour and
money and the spectacle of devastation but the fineness of the crops that

princeling, this simply clears the

than the

first.

Even

makes the business

if

heartbreaking.'
*
Polybius, Book IV,

ch. 45.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

46

Thus Byzantium was

subject, as a matter of course,

throughout

her history, to a recurrent calamity which Athens only experienced

of the Peloponnesian
during fifteen out of the twenty-eight years
1
War and Miletus only during her eleven years' war with Lydia
2

Her agriculture
in the reigns of Kings Sadyattes and Alyattes.
not
was at the mercy of an invader whom she was
strong enough to
meet in the field and who therefore had a free hand to carry off or
who
destroy her crops. After all, then, the Greek farmer-colonists
founded Calchedon were not blind men when, with both shores of
the Bosphorus to choose between, they settled on the Bithynian
Riviera and shunned the inhospitable Thracian shore; nor were
the founders of Byzantium men of vision. They simply followed in
the earlier prospectors' wake and took their leavings. However, a
vindication of the Calchedonians' perspicacity is not the true moral
of this story. The true moral is that when the Byzantines found
themselves perpetually subject, on land, to a prohibitive handicap
which the Athenians and the Milesians suffered only for a few
critical years in the whole course of their respective histories, the

Byzantines were thereby stimulated, even more powerfully than

the Athenians and the Milesians were stimulated in their less
desperate circumstances, to turn their attention from the land to
the sea and to indemnify themselves for their ruinous losses as
farmers by making handsome profits as merchants and mariners.
Under this powerful stimulus, to which the prudent Calchcdonian
farmers on the opposite shore were never exposed, the Byzantines
made the most of their straits and discovered no doubt to their

own

that *the Golden

surprise as well as to their neighbours'
Horn' was a cornucopia. The wealth and influence which Byzantium was taught by Necessity to derive from her command of the

Bosphorus are described in the second century B.C. by Polybius in

terms which recall the passage already cited 3 from an anonymous
Athenian writer of the fifth century who is describing the effects of
his own country's wider but less durable sea-power.
'The Byzantines occupy a site which, from the twin standpoints of
security and prosperity, is the most favourable of all sites in the Hellenic
World to seaward and the most unprepossessing of all to landward. To
1
During the first part of the War, the Peloponnesians invaded Attica in the years
431, 430, 428, 427, and 425 B.C. During the second part, they were in permanent
occupation of a fortified position on Attic soil, at Decelea, during the years 413-404 B.C.

inclusive.
2 See the account of this war in
Herodotus, Book I, chs. 17-22. The Lydian invaders
of Milesia practised the same form of economic warfare as the Thracian invaders of the
Byzantine territory and the Peloponnesian invaders of Attica. They destroyed or
carried off the annual crops. On the other hand, the Lydians showed less barbarity
or at any rate more enlightened self-interest
than either the Thracians or the Peloponnesians in leaving the farm-buildings, out in the countryside, intact,
3 On
pp. 41-2, above.
*

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

47

seaward, Byzantium commands the mouth of the Black Sea so absolutely that it is impossible for any merchantman to pass either in or out
against the Byzantines' will; and thus the Byzantines control all the
numerous commodities originating in the Black Sea which are in general
demand. These commodities include both necessities like the cattle
and slaves for which the hinterland of the Black Sea is notoriously a
prime source of supply, both for quantity and for quality and luxuries
like honey, wax and caviar, which the same
region provides in abundance. Moreover, the Black Sea hinterland offers a market for the
surplus of our Mediterranean products, such as olive oil and wines of
every vintage
grain being the medium of exchange in which the
balance of trade is adjusted periodically in either direction. The Hellenic
World would necessarily be debarred from all this trade completely, or
at any rate would lose all possibility of making a
profit on it, if the
Byzantines chose to give up "playing the game" and went into partnership with the Celts (or, normally, with the Thracians), or again if
Byzantium itself were simply not on the map. The Straits are so narrow
and the adjoining hordes of barbarians so formidable that in those circumstances the Black Sea would unquestionably be closed to Hellenic
navigation. As a matter of fact, the Byzantines themselves probably
draw the greatest economic profit of all from their unique position,
which enables them to export all their surplus products, and import
all that they need, both easily and
profitably, without any exertion or
At
the
same
time, many commodities which are in general
danger.
demand reach their destination through the Byzantines' agency, as has
been observed already. To this degree, the Byzantines are benefactors
of Society who fairly deserve not only gratitude but positive military
assistance, on an international basis, from the Hellenic World against the
1
standing menace of the barbarians.'

The

Byzantines were content to perform their service to Hellenic

Society without recompense so long as, on the landward side, they
2
only had to deal with their regular tormentors, the Thracians.
When, however, in the course of the third century B.C., the local
Thracians were temporarily subjugated by a migratory horde of
Celts, the Byzantines suffered heavily from this change of masters
in their hinterland. Where the Thracians had chastised them with
whips, the Celts now chastised them with scorpions. They raised
the annual ransom for the Byzantine crops to an exorbitant figure ;
and in this extremity the Byzantines met with hardly any response
when they appealed for financial assistance to the rest of the Hellenic World. Accordingly, the Byzantines were driven to raise
funds fqj ransoming their fields from the Celts by levying a toll
on all ships passing through the Bosphorus; and their action so
upset the Hellenic carrying-trade that the consequence was a war
i

Polybius,

Book IV,

ch. 38.

Polybius,

Book IV,

ch. 45-

48

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

between Byzantium and Rhodes, the leading maritime community

1
in the Hellenic World of the day.
Thus the vast divergence between the destinies of Byzantium

not explained by Megabazus's epigram. It was

not the blindness of the Calchedonians but the barbarity of the
Thracians and the Celts that made Byzantium's fortune. If the
actual founders of Byzantium had arrived first on the scene, they
would certainly have made the Calchedonians' choice and if the
actual founders of Calchedon had arrived second and had been left
no choice but to found Byzantium, they, for their part, would
of an intolerable
inevitably have been confronted by the challenge
situation on land, with the Byzantines' historic choice between
starving as landsmen or making a fortune out of the sea.

and Calchedon

is

Aegina and Argos

Another illustration of our theme from Hellenic history is the
contrast between the careers of two city-states of the Argolid:
Argos herself and Aegina. The Argives, being owners of one of the
finest arable plains in the Peloponnese, had only one idea when they
began to find their Argive plain too small for them. They set out,
land
beyond their borders but, unfortunately for themselves, they did
not look out to sea but lifted up their eyes unto the hills and coveted
what lay beyond them. Taking up the spear before labouring at
the oar, they sought their new fields in the quarter where it was
hardest to acquire them : in the territory of their Hellenic neighbours, who were spearmen too. The Chalcidians had known better
than to try conclusions with the sturdy Boeotians they had reserved
their steel for easy victories over ill-armed and ill-disciplined
Thracians and Sicels. The Argives were less prudent. Fighting
for the mastery of the Peloponnese, they collided with the Spartans,
who had responded to the same challenge in the same way, but had
faced the implications of their response by militarizing their life
from top to bottom. 2 For spearmen such as these, the Argives were
no match ; and this was the end of their city's career. She never
extricated herself from the role of being Sparta's discomfited rival
until Hellenic history came to an end.
Meanwhile, the little Argolic island of Aegina had been playing
an utterly different historical role, in conformity with the vastly
poorer physical endowment which she had received from Nature.
a bare, solitary mountain-peak
above
Aegina, raising her horn
like the Chalcidians, to take possession of additional arable
;

Polybius, Book IV, chs. 46 and 47.

For Spartan militarism, see I. B (n),

PP. 50-79* below.

vol,

i,

pp. 24-6, above, and III, A, vol.

n'i,

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

49

the waters of the Saronic Gulf within full view of Athens, was no
doubt one of those 'small islands' which were in the Athenian
1

2
philosopher's mind as signal examples of denudation at its worst.
Aegina was, in fact, an Attica in miniature ; and, under a still more
severe pressure from the physical environment than that to which
the Athenians were exposed, the Aeginetans anticipated, on a small
scale, the Athenians' achievements.
Aeginetan merchants were
the
lead
in
the activities of the Hellenic settlement at
taking
Naucratis in Egypt at a time when Athenian merchants were still
rare visitors there ; 3 and Aeginetan sculptors were carving statues
to stand in the pediments of the temple which Aeginetan architects had built for the local goddess Aphaia, half a century before
the Athenian Pheidias carved his masterpieces for the Parthenon.

Israelites, Phoenicians,

and

Philistines

If we turn now from Hellenic history to Syriac, we shall find

that the various elements of population that entered Syria, or held
their own there, at the time of the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung,

distinguished themselves relatively thereafter in close proportion to

the relative difficulty of the physical environment in the different
districts in which they happened to have made themselves at home.
In an earlier passage, 4 we have taken note of the difficulty which
an immigrant population must have found in acquiring the art of
irrigating the gardens of Damascus. Yet the Ghutah
though a
with
the
of
Eden
was
hard country compared
fabulous Garden
the choicest prize that offered itself in Syria to the incoming barbarians ; and it is therefore remarkable that, in the subsequent progress of the Syriac Civilization, it was not the Aramaean occupants
of Damascus that took the lead. Nor was the lead taken by those
other Aramaeans who settled down at Hamath to irrigate the fertile
banks of the Orontes with their water-wheels ; nor again by those
tribes of Israel who halted east of Jordan in order to fatten their
cattle on the fine pasture-lands of Gilead. 5 Most remarkable of all,
the primacy in the Syriac World was not retained by those refugees
1
'the eye-sore
Aegina was execrated to an Athenian audience as AiJ/xTj Zfctpat&o;
of the Peiraeus*
by the Athenian statesman Pericles when he was exhorting his countrymen to deal the maritime rival of Attica the knock-out blow at the culmination of a long
and bitter struggle for the command of a sea which was too narrow to be shared between
the barren island and the barren peninsula.
2 See the
quotation from Plato on p. 39, above.
3 In the time of
King Amasis of Egypt (regnabat circa 569-525 B.C.) the Aeginetans
were one of three Hellenic communities the other two being the Samians and the
that possessed separate religious precincts at Naucratis dedicated to their
Milesians
respective tutelary Gods. The other nine Hellenic communities which had a footing at
Naucratis were content to share a common precinct: the Hellenion. At this time, Athens
not only had no settlement of her own at Naucratis, but was not even one of the nine
city-states that shared in the administration of the International Settlement. (Herodotus,

Book
<

II, ch. 178.)

II.
(ii) (6) 2,

In

II

on pp. 334-S* above.

Numbers,

ch.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

So

to Syria not as barbarians but as the

Civilization and who took possession of the

from the Aegean who came

heirs of the

Minoan

:
the maritime plain
ports and cities and fields of the Shephelah
that extends from the south-western face of Mount Carmel to
the north-eastern frontier of Egypt.
In the connotation which their name has acquired, the Philis-

have fared still worse than the Boeotians. In our modern

Western vocabulary, with its echoes of Syriac and Hellenic
tradition, the word 'Boeotian' signifies nothing worse than a contines

a wilful
genital obtuseness of vision, while 'Philistine* signifies
blindness and a militant hostility towards 'the Chosen People' who
see the light.
Possibly,
deserve their bad name-

neither Philistines nor Boeotians fully

It is probable, on the whole, that they

have been misrepresented, considering that their reputation has

been at the mercy of hostile neighbours. Yet this consideration in
itself tells a tale. Why is it that the picture of these nations which
has come down to us is a picture painted by their neighbours' hands
and not by their own? It is because these neighbours and contemporaries of theirs were more active, more vocal, and more
successful than they were, and hence were better able than they
were to impress their own will and their own view upon the future.
The Athenians and Chalcidians, who were the Boeotians' neighbours, have occupied our attention already. We have taken note
of the feats accomplished by them which the Boeotians never
attempted. Let us look now at the neighbours of the Philistines,
and compare the Philistines' record with theirs.

The

1
It
Syriac Civilization has three great feats to its credit.
an
it
the
Atlantic
invented
discovered
alphabetic system of writing ;
it
a
and
arrived
at
Ocean;
particular conception of God which is
common to Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam, but
alien alike from the Egyptiac, Sumeric, Indie, and Hellenic veins of
2 Which
were the Syriac communities
religious thought and feeling.
by whom these achievements were severally contributed? The
Philistines may prove to have been the transmitters, if not the
inventors, of the elements of the Alphabet, if the conjectured
derivation of the Alphabet from some Minoan script 3 is substantiated in the future investigations of our Western archaeologists.

Pending further archaeological research, the credit for the inven1 See
I. C (i) (), vol.
pp. 82 and 102, above.
i,

And

equally alien, it would appear, from the Minoan and Hittltc veins, as far as
these are known to us. In this catalogue, the exception which proves the rule is the
conception of God which was attained by Ikhnaton (sec I. C (ii), vol. i, pp. 145-6,
above, and Part VII, below). The abortive solar monotheism of Ikhnaton has a distinctly Syriac touch; but this flash of illumination in the soul of a single individual, who
was repudiated by the society in which he happened to be born, can hardly be placed
to the credit of the Egyptiac Civilization.
3 See I. C
(i) (), vol. i, p. 102, footnote 3, above, and II.
(vii), p. 386, footnote 2, below.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

51
tion of the Alphabet must at present be left unallocated. When we
come, however, to the other two Syriac achievements, the history

a matter of common knowledge, we find that the

Philistines have no part or lot in them.
Who were those Syriac seafarers who ventured to sail the whole
length of the Mediterranean to the Pillars of Hercules and out
of which

is

Not

the Philistines, whose Minoan ancestors had been

the pioneers of long-distance seamanship in the Mediterranean. 1
In the Philistine communities of the maritime plain, the ancestral
seafaring tradition was buried, with the sowing-corn, in the furrows
of the broad ploughlands and so, when the Philistines came to feel
the need to expand, they took the same wrong turning as the
Argives took in the Peloponnese. Turning their backs on the sea,
the Philistines took up arms to conquer the arid lowlands of Beersheba and the well- watered valleys of Esdraelon and Jezreel ; and
they met the Argives' fate when, in fighting for the mastery of
Palestine, they came into conflict with still better fighters: the
tribesmen in the hill-country of Israel and Judah. The discovery
of the Atlantic was achieved not by the Philistine Lords of the
Shephelah, but by the Phoenician tenants of the rugged middle
section of the Syrian coast.
These Phoenicians were a remnant of the Canaanites the population which had been in occupation of Syria before the postMinoan Volkerwanderung descended like a human flood upon the
Country. When the neighbours and kinsmen of the Phoenicians
had been overwhelmed by the incoming Philistines and Teucrians
from the sea and Israelites and Aramaeans from the desert, the
Phoenicians had survived because their homes along the middle
section of the Syrian coast were not sufficiently inviting to attract

beyond?

the invaders.
Phoenicia, which the Philistines left alone, presents a remarkable
physical contrast to the Shephelah, in which the Philistines settled.
On this section of the coast, there is no broad plain and no gradation between plain and hill-country. Instead, the mountain-range
of Lebanon rises almost sheer out of the sea
grudging the coastdwellers any plain of their own and cutting them off from the
plains of the interior. Lebanon and Mediterranean lie in such a
close embrace that they do not even leave room between them for
road or railway. 2 The Phoenicians communicated with each other
See I. C (i) (), vol. i, p. 102, footnote
In the year 1933 there was a continuous

above.
standard-gauge railway from Haydar
Pasha, the Asiatic railway-terminus at Constantinople, all the way to Tarabulus at the
northern end of the Phoenician section of the Syrian coast; there was also a continuous
line of standard-gauge railway from Haifa, at the southern end of this section of coast, to
Cairo; but the gap between Tarabulus and Haifa remained unbridged owing to the
expense involved in the difficult engineering feat of building a standard-gauge coastal
*

4,

line of

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

52

and with the outer world by water, coastwise and of the three
the two
Tyre, Aradus, and Sidon
leading Phoenician cities
first-mentioned were not even situated on the mainland but were
perched, like gulls' nests, on rocky off-shore islands. When the
Aramaeans drifted into Syria out of the desert, they silted up
against the eastern face of Lebanon without penetrating beyond it
and when the Philistine Volkerwanderung passed that way en
route from Anatolia towards Egypt, we may presume that the ships
;

southward straight past the forbidding Phoenician coast to

the farther side of 'the Ladder of Tyre', while the ox-carts took
the inland road, to the east of Lebanon, along which the modern
sailed

from Turkey

Egypt finds himself transported

to-day. Even when the Philistines and Teucrians were flung back
from the frontier of Egypt, 1 they did not fall upon Phoenicia in
their recoil.
They fastened upon the Shephelah and made no
permanent settlements north of Mount Carmel. Thus, thanks to
Lebanon, the Phoenicians survived the Philistines' passage; and,
again thanks to Lebanon, they actually took over from their new
neighbours that Minoan tradition of long-distance navigation which
the Philistines themselves now discarded. While the Philistines
were browsing on the Shephelah like sheep in clover and were
moving inland, at their peril, in search of pastures new, the
Phoenicians, whose maritime horizon had hitherto been restricted
to the short range of the coastwise traffic between Byblos and the
railway-traveller

Delta of the Nile, 2

open

sea

to

now launched

and won a second home

out, Minoan-fashion, into the

for the Syriac Civilization in

the western basin of the Mediterranean and on the coasts of the

Ocean beyond.

Thus the maritime achievement

of the Syriac Civilization was

contributed not by the Philistines but by the Phoenicians. The
physical discovery of the Atlantic, however, is surpassed, as a feat
of human prowess, by the spiritual discovery of Monotheism and
;

achievement was contributed by a Syriac community that had

been stranded by the Volkerwanderung in a physical environment
which was still less inviting than the Phoenician coast namely, the

this

railway to link Tarabulus and Haifa together. Thus the railway-traveller who, between
London and Aleppo, had only been required to change carriages twice at the Straits of
Dover and at the Bosphorus had to change four times more in order to complete his
railway-journey to Cairo. At Horns he had to leave his through-carriage, bound for
railhead at Tarabulus, in order to proceed along the branch line leading to the inland
junction of Rayaq. At Rayaq he had to change trains from the standard-gauge railway
on to a narrow-gauge railway which earned him (by rack-and-pinion over Anti-Lebanon)
to Damascus. At Damascus he had to change again on to another narrow-gauge railway.
And finally he had to change a fourth time in order to board a train running on the
standard-gauge railway between Haifa and Cairo. These details of modern railway
geography bring out, in a striking way, the difficulty of land-traffic along the Phoenician
i
coast.
See I. C (i) (&), vol. i, pp. 93 and 100-1, above.
2 See I. C
(i) (), vol. i, p. 102, footnote 4, above.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

53

hill-country of Ephraim and Judah. This country was indeed so

in spite of its position in the heart of
extremely uninviting that
it
Syria, overlooking the high road between Egypt and Shinar
1
appears to have remained (like the rift-valley of the Jordan) a
virgin wilderness throughout the thousand years and more during
which the rest of Syria had been incorporated successively first
in the Empire of Sumer and Akkad, which was the Sumeric
universal state, and then in the Hyksos 'successor-state* of that
empire, and then in 'the New Empire' of Egypt. Apparently, this
patch of thin-soiled, forest-covered hill-country remained literally a

no-man's-land until 'the New Empire' began to lose its grip upon
Syria and the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung set in; and then, at
last, it was populated by the adventurous vanguard of the Hebrew
Nomads who had drifted into the fringes of Syria out of the North
Arabian Steppe. 2 These Hebrews were content, for the most part,
to halt in the pasture-lands east of Jordan and south of Hebron.
The hill-country beyond was the farthest bourne of their migration and here the Israelite pioneers transformed themselves from
;

Nomadic

stock-breeders into sedentary tillers of a stony ground

which they laboriously cleared of its forests 3 only to see the soil
which they had won from the trees washed away by the rains to
deepen the Philistine ploughlands on the Shephelah. The hardness of the life which has to be lived by the husbandman whose
lot is cast in this hill-country of Ephraim and Judah is conveyed in
the following passages from the report of an experienced British
investigator who, in the year 1930, observed on the spot the life of
the Israelite husbandmen's modern Arab successors. 4

'The cultivated land in the Hills varies very largely both in depth and
quality of the soil. In the valleys there are stretches of fertile land, which
will grow sesame as a summer crop. On the hillsides the soil is shallow
and infertile, and the extent of land-hunger is evident from the fact that
every available plot of soil is cultivated, even when it is so small that the
plough cannot be employed. There cultivation is carried on with the
mattock and the hoe. The harvest of such plots, even in a favourable
in general it seems doubtful whether such
year, is exceedingly small
See the quotation from Eduard Meyer in II. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, p. 257, above.
These statements likewise are made on the authority of Eduard Meyer: Geschichte
des Altertums, vol. ii (i), 2nd edition (Stuttgart and Berlin 1928, Cptta), p. 96.
3 See
Joshua xvii. 14-18, for the mark made upon the Israelites' folk-memory by
the labour of deforesting this hill-country in order to find room for an ex-Nomadic
deterred by its fear
people that had been driven off the North Arabian Steppe yet was
of the iron chariots of the Canaanites from descending into the fertile valley of Jezreel.
4 The modern Arab peasantry of Palestine, like their Israelite predecessors, are
descended partly from Nomadic intruders off the North Arabian Steppe, who in physical
race were Afrasian 'long-heads*, and partly from 'broad-headed' denizens of the highland
zone of folded mountains (see vol. i, p. 328, above), who worked their way down to the
Palestinian highlands from the Anatolian Plateau. Anthropometric studies of the modern
population of Palestine indicate that, in the repeated mixture of two races which has here
1

taken place, the 'Alpine' strain has prevailed over the 'Mediterranean'.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

54

On

the other hand, even the most rocky hillsides

of
support trees, especially olives; and, if capital were available, many
the cultivators of these exiguous and infertile plots would be able to gain
a livelihood by cultivation of fruit trees and of olives. These cultivators
have, however, no capital, and cannot afford to forgo even the meagre
fruitcrops obtained, for the four or five years which are required before
trees render a return. In the case of the olive, the period before a return

cultivation can pay.

expected is much longer.

"There is little irrigation in the Hill Country. Here and there are
springs which afford a supply for the irrigation of a small area; but,
taken as a whole, the country is arid and the crops depend on rain.

may be

'In the best case ... it is impossible that the general character of the
cultivation in the Hill Country can be radically changed, except in so
.
From the point of view
far as fruit can be made to replace grain. .
of agriculture, the Hill Country will always remain an unsatisfactory
.

proposition.

'The

life

'It is

of the fallah

is

one of great struggle and privation.

common

impression that the fallah 's cultivation is entirely

a good deal of ridicule has been and is poured upon the

inadequate, and
nail-plough which he uses. In the stony country of the Hills, no other
plough would be able to do the work at all. With regard to the use of
that plough, Dr. Wilkansky [a modern Zionist agricultural expert]
writes:
"The Arab plough is like the ancient Hebrew plough. ... It
all the functions
performs very slowly, it is true, but very thoroughly
for which a combination of modern machines is required. . . . The
ploughing of the fallah is above reproach. His field, prepared for sowing,
is never inferior to that
prepared by the most perfect implements, and
sometimes it even surpasses all others." n

In such a country, and under such conditions, the Israelites continued to live in obscurity until the Syriac Civilization had passed

As

century before Christ, at a date when

all the great
prophets of Israel had already said their say, the name
of Israel was still unknown to the great Greek historian Herodotus
and the Land of Israel was still masked by the Land of the Philistines in the Herodotean panorama of the Syriac World. When
Herodotus wishes to designate the peoples of Syria as a whole, he
calls them 'the Phoenicians and the Syrians in the Land of the
Philistines' 2 and 'the Land of the Philistines'
Filastin or Palestine
is the name
by which Erez Israel has continued to be known
the
Gentiles
down to this day. 3 Yet in these barren landamong
locked highlands, which were not of sufficient worldly importance
to acquire even a recognized name of their own, there was immanent
its

zenith.

late as the fifth

1
Simpson, Sir J. H.: Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development (British Parliamentary Paper Cmd. 3686 of 1930: London 1930, H.M. Stationery

Office),
2

p. 14, 65,

e.g. in

Book

TlaAaicmvTj

and

66.

II, ch. 104,

js

and in Book VII,

the Ancient Greek and

ch. 89.

JL? the modern Arabic

for Philistia.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

55

1
(to paraphrase Plato's language) a divine inspiration which made
this uninviting country a means of grace to those who came to

Syriac fable tells how this divinity once tested a

king of Israel with the most searching test that a God can apply to
a mortal.
settle there.

'The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God

said: "Ask what I shall give thee." And Solomon said: "... Give
And the speech pleased the
thy servant an understanding heart."
Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him:
"Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
.

neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of
thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern
life;

judgment behold, I have done according to thy words lo, I have given
thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee
before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have
also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour, so
that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days." 2
This fable of Solomon's Choice is a parable of the history of the
Chosen People. In the power of their spiritual understanding, the
:

'

surpassed the military prowess of the Philistines and

the maritime prowess of the Phoenicians. They had not sought
after those things which the Gentiles seek, but had sought first the
kingdom of God and therefore all those things were added unto
them. 3 As for the life of their enemies, the mighty men of the
Philistines were delivered into Israel's hands to be smitten with the
edge of the sword. As for riches, Jewry entered into the inheritance of Tyre and Carthage to conduct transactions on a scale
beyond Phoenician dreams in continents beyond Phoenician
the same peculiar
knowledge. As for long life, the Jews live on
to-day, long ages after the Phoenicians and the Philistines
people
have lost their identity like all the nations. The ancient Syriac
neighbours of Israel have fallen into the melting-pot and have been
re-minted, in the fullness of time, with new images and superscriptions, while Israel has proved impervious to this alchemy
performed by History in the crucibles of universal states and universal
to which we Gentiles all
churches and wanderings of the nations
in turn succumb. 4
Israelites

Lebanon and jfabal Ansartyah

The contrast between the

roles

of the Phoenicians and the

Philistines in the history of the Syriac Civilization is reproduced, in

1 See the
passage quoted above in II. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, on p 252, in footnote 2.
3 Matt. vi.
* i
31-3; Luke xii. 29-31.
Kings iii. 5-13.
4 From the Gentile standpoint, modern Jewry is the 'fossil' remnant of a society that is
extinct. For this phenomenon of 'fossilization', see I. B (ui), vol. i, p, 35, and I. C (i)
(6), pp. 90-2, above; and II. D (vi) and Part IX, below.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

56

Arabic Civilization, in a corresponding

which can be studied in the life at the present day

the history of the

contrast

affiliated

between the enterprise of the Lebanese highlanders, in the hinterland of the former Phoenician ports of Sidon and Tyre and Byblus,
and the stagnation of the Nusayri highlanders who live on the
northern side of the Nahr-al-Kabir in the hinterland of Aradus.
In modern times the highlanders of the Lebanon have emulated the historic exploits of the Phoenician islanders of Tyre and
Aradus by seeking their fortunes abroad and making a livelihood
in Egypt and in West
as traders and shopkeepers far and wide
1
The Nusayri highlanders, on the
Africa and in the New World.
other hand, have been as stay-at-home as the Philistine contemporaries of the Phoenicians.
The extreme degree and long continuance of the Nusayris'
stagnation in their highland homes is attested by the antique aspect
of their religion. The Lebanon, in its own degree, is a museum of
2
religious survivals. The ex-Monothelete Maronites and the Monophysite Jacobites and the Imami Shi'Is of the Jabal 'Amil and the
Druses are so many 'fossil' remnants of different phases in the long
contact between the Syriac Civilization and the Hellenic. 3 The
Nusayris, too, have acquired some tincture of Syriac religion in
its latest phase.
They have travestied the Isma'lli Shi'ism which
forced an entry into their mountain fastness in the age of the
Crusades4 by deifying the Caliph 'All abu Talib but this worship
of 'All is only an accretion; 5 and the core of their religion appears
to be some local worship which is more ancient than either Islam or
Christianity and is perhaps even prior to that impact of Hellenism
on the Syriac World in which both Christianity and Islam have
The sharpness of the contrast, in every aspect of
originated.
social life, between the Nusayris and the Lebanese is very
striking
and there is also a striking contrast between the two peoples'
respective physical environments.
While the native physical environment of the Lebanese is perhaps not quite so stimulating as the rocky islet of Tyre, which
cannot be cultivated at all, it presents a severer challenge to the
husbandman than the hill-country of Ephraim and Judah. On the
stony flanks of Lebanon there is a rigid limit to the harvests that
can be wrung out of a scanty soil, and this soil itself can only be
;

See II.
(vi), p. 338, below.
.Efc-Monothelete, because the Maronites have been in full communion with the
Roman Catholic Church since A.D. 1445, though they have retained their own Syriae
liturgy and their own ecclesiastical discipline.
1

See
See

II.

II.

D
DJ

and

(vi), pp. 234-6,

(vi), p. 258, below.
(vi),p.

II.

(vii),

pp. 285-8, below.

On the sijtrength of it, the French mandatory authorities have dubbed the Nusayris
(Arabic plural 'Ansariyah') 'Alouites', which is a Gallicism for the Arabic 'Alawiym.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

57
conserved and kept under cultivation by laborious terracing. 1
By
contrast, the Jabal Ansanyah, though it 'has been described as a
barren region', is in reality 'an extremely agreeable and fertile
tract. Being lower and less rocky, it is
naturally much more fertile
2
than the Lebanon'.
In the light of the local precedents, it looks as
though the Lebanese had been stimulated to emulate the Phoenicians
by the barrenness of their native mountain, while the agreeableness of the Jabal Ansariyah has inveigled the
Nusayris into
vegetating in a Philistine sloth.

Brandenburg and the Rhineland

When we turn from the Aegean and from Syria 3 to the scenes of
our own Western history, similar contrasts strike the eye.
Suppose, for example, that one finds oneself in the capital city of

two great Central European Empires of the modern

age the Hohenzollern Empire of Brandenburg-Prussia-Germany
and the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy. One has only to board an
outgoing train at any railway terminus in either Berlin or Vienna in
order to receive the same impression that a traveller receives when
he goes by train from the Aegean area into the interior of Anatolia

either of the
:

or into the interior of Europe. 4 In whichever direction you may

happen to be travelling outwards from the nucleus of the Hohenzollern or of the Hapsburg Empire into its fringes and outskirts,
you find yourself passing out of an unusually difficult physical
environment into environments where the difficulties are less
formidable.

Sec II.
below.
(vi), p. 258,
British Admiralty:
Handbook of Syria (London 1920, H.M. Stationery Office),
P- 3393
cannot take leave of the Syriac World without observing that, in the penultimate
phase of Syriac history, the contrast which we have brought out between Phoenicia and
Philistia was reproduced, in the Hijaz (a region which is a southward extension of
Syria into Arabia), in the similar contrast between the two oases of Mecca and Medina.
"The community which had settled in the valley of Mecca . . . cannot, when they selected
this spot, have hoped to live by its produce; for that the soil is incapable of producing
anything is attested by all who know it, from the author of the Qur'an to the present
day. . . . Unlike Mecca, Yathrib [Medina] lies in a fruitful plain. "Walled habitations,
green fields, running water, every blessing the Eastern mind can desire, are there."
And indeed the richness of the soil finds expression in the name Ta'ibah, "the pleasing".'
and
(Margoliouth, D. S.: Mohammed, 3rd edition (London 1905, Putnam), pp.
185.) In consequence, we find that the Yathribis, like the Philistines, were content to
cultivate their garden without turning their hands or minds to other things or betaking
themselves beyond their own borders, whereas the Meccans were stimulated by the
challenge of a barren home to take to the Steppe as the Phoenicians, in similar circumstances, had taken to the sea, and to earn their livings as camel-caravaners. It is significant that Mecca, and not Medina, was the oasis in which the Hijazi Prophet Muhammad
was born and brought up. It was the stimulus of his contact with the great world in his
caravan expeditions to the Syrian desert-ports of the Roman Empire, circa A.D. 594 seqq.,
that gave Muhammad the mental stimulus which impelled him to embark upon the
career of a religious revolutionary. (For the career of Muhammad, see III.
(u) (6),
*

We

78

vol.
4

iii, pp. 276-8, with Annex II, below.)

For this impression, as experienced by the writer of this Study, see pp. 36-7,

above.

58

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Take the nucleus of the Hohenzollern dominions the territories

which Frederick the Great inherited from his father when he came
to the Prussian throne Brandenburg, Pomerania, East Prussia. As
:

the Havel
you travel through this unprepossessing country between
and the Masurian Lakes, with its starveling pine-plantations and
its sandy fields, you might fancy that you were traversing some
the aggressive desert
outlying corner of the Eurasian Steppe, where
was thrusting its dry bones up and out through the skin of the
European landscape. Then travel on westward from Brandenburg
into the Rhineland or eastward from Prussia into Lithuania or
northward from Pomerania into Scandinavia: whichever way you
As the pastures and beechgo, you will experience a new sensation.
woods of Denmark or the black earth of Lithuania or the vineyards
of the Rhineland greet your eyes, you will breathe a sigh of relief
at your passage into a normal European landscape out of a landscape which was an offence to your aesthetic sensibilities. 'So this
repulsive Ostelbisches Land is, after all, something exceptional in
the European physical environment!' True enough; yet it is no
less true that the descendants of the medieval Western colonists
whose lot was cast in these 'bad lands' have played an exceptional

Western World. The legendary

'Prussian' may be as unprepossessing as his homeland. (There is
always a flicker of flame behind a screen of smoke and always a
grain of truth beneath the most hostile caricature.) Be that as it
may, he has managed to make his unpromising kingdom 'the
education of Europe' in certain matters which no good European
role in the

modern

history of the

Prussian has taught his neighbours how

to make sand produce cereals by enriching it with artificial
manures; and he has taught us how to raise a whole population
to an unprecedented standard of social efficiency by a system of
universal compulsory state education and to an unprecedented
standard of social security by a similar system of health and
unemployment insurance. In these responses to his physical environment, the Prussian has performed a greater service to Mankind
and has established a more lasting memorial for himself than in
his more notorious achievements: the training of the Prussian
Army and the building of the German Reich.

can

affect to despise.

The

Austria and Lombardy

Take, again, the nucleus of the Danubian Hapsburg dominions

those Danubian territories which the Emperor Charles
inherited
from the Emperor Maximilian before the Danubian Monarchy
took shape in the sixteenth century of the Christian Era, and which
the Austrian Republic inherited again from the last Austrian
:

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

59

Emperor Charles when the Monarchy broke up in 1918. On the

aesthetic scale of values, the heart of Austria and the heart of
Prussia are of course at opposite extremes. The
Alps in the Tyrol
and the Salzkammergut, and the Danube in Upper and Lower
Austria, are as beautiful as the sands and pine woods of Brandenburg and Pomerania are ugly. Yet, if the observant traveller is not
an artist but an economist, his prosaic eye will register the same
impression when he travels outwards from Vienna as when he
travels outwards from Berlin. Whether his
journey carries him out
of the Tyrolese or Styrian mountains into the plains of Bavaria or
Lombardy or Croatia or Hungary, or from the banks of the Austrian
Danube to the banks of the Bohemian Elbe, the economist, as he
observes the changes in the landscape, will ignore the transition
from variety to monotony which the artist perceives, and will take
note that he has left a lean land, flowing with nothing better than
milk and honey, and has entered fat lands where the plains are
covered with hop-fields or vineyards or wheat-fields or beet-fields,
and where the mountains are loaded with mineral ores. Yet that
lean land of Austria bred the dynasty 1 which gathered together the
fat lands round about and held them united for four centuries
against a host of enemies without and within.
The contrast between the relative poverty of the nucleus of the
Hapsburg Monarchy and the relative riches of the appended crownlands gives the physical explanation of the genesis of the Danubian

dynasty bred in a difficult environment supplanted

the more softly nurtured dynasties round about. The same contrast explains the economic straits to which the City of Vienna has
been reduced since the Danubian Monarchy's dissolution.
stranger, visiting Vienna after 1918 without any knowledge of
modern Western history and witnessing Vienna's plight to-day,
would be at a loss to understand how a magnificent city of some
two million souls could ever have come into existence in a poorly
endowed country of some six million souls all told. Actually, of

Monarchy.

course, the present size and magnificence of Vienna are explained

by the city's ci-devant status as the capital of an empire with fifty
million inhabitants and with abundant natural resources, while the
location of

The

capital

by the Danubian Empire's origin.

of the Hapsburg Monarchy was never moved from the

Vienna

is

explained

a matter of strict historical accuracy, the Hapsburg Dynasty was bred in the
Hapsburg, in the present Swiss Canton of Aargau, before it came to rule over
Austria. This, however, only gives additional point to our present argument; for, compared with the Aargau, even Austria is a land of plenty.
* For the human
In particular, see
(v), pp. 177-90, below.
explanation, see II.
6thos
of the Tyrolese
the
drawn
between
a
distinction
is
where
footnote
I,
p. 181,
Highlander, which once made Austria an Imperial Power, and the ethos of the Viennese
bourgeois, which reflects the demoralizing influence of an empire upon the inhabitants
1

As

castle of

of its capital

city.

60

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

a land which was

Austrian homeland of the Hapsburg Dynasty
the most venerable but least valuable jewel in the Hapsburg Crown.

'The Black Country' and 'The Home Counties'

When we turn from Central Europe to Great Britain, the apand the stimulus
parent law of correspondence between the difficulty
the law illustrated by the geographical
of a physical environment
seems at first sight to be put in
situations of Vienna and Berlin
London. While the
question by the geographical situation of
and Hohenzollern Empires lie
capitals of the ci-devant Hapsburg

in the leanest districts of Central Europe, the Thames Valley, in

which London lies, is one of the most well-favoured districts of the

United Kingdom. This superficial anomaly disappears, however,

For one thing, we shall find that,
as soon as we look deeper.
although the so-called 'home counties' certainly were the choicest
portion of the English physical environment in the age when the
capital of England came to be established at London, it is also true
that London did not win her position without having to respond
to any challenge at all. In that very age, she responded victoriously
to a challenge from the human environment which we shall
examine further on in this Part. 1 This, however, is by the way.
For our present purpose, it is more to the point to notice that, in
the modern social geography of the United Kingdom, London has
not remained the capital of the country in every sense.
While London has retained her status in the Kingdom as the
focus of politics and finance, the economic centre of gravity
shifted, during the Industrial Revolution, from the south-east
towards the north-west, until, on the eve of the General War of

had come

on the farther side of a line drawn

diagonally across the island from the estuary of the Severn through
Coventry and Leicester to the estuary of the Humber. If we now
fix our attention upon the region north-west of this line and pick
out the districts which shared between them the industrial primacy
in 'pre-war' Great Britain, we shall see at once that they conform
1914-18,

it

to rest

to our law conspicuously.

The midland manufacturing

cities

Birmingham and Coventry, Leicester and Northampton which

almost bestride our dividing line are the only group situated in
good arable or grazing country; and this is the exception that
proves the rule. In each of the other industrial districts of 'prewar' Great Britain, the physical environment is one which, judged
by the average standard of the island, offers unusually difficult
conditions to Man. This is true alike of the valleys of South Wales
of Tyneside and Teesside; and of the neck of Scotland where
;

See

II.

(v), p.

199, with the

Annex, below.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

Clydeside

now

61

harbours, in Glasgow, the second largest city of

Great Britain after London

The most

herself.

striking illustration

of all is the gigantic industrial zone which embraces the southern end
of the Pennines in the shape of a magnet with its tips at Preston and
Leeds and its curve skirting the upper course of the Trent a zone
which includes the Lancashire cotton-mills and the Staffordshire
potteries and collieries and the multiple industries of Nottingham
and the steel- works of Sheffield and the wool-mills of the North
Riding.

The

forbidding character of the physical environment in which

this Pennine industrial zone is set was brought home to the writer
of this Study once when he had occasion to travel by road from
the rural spot in the east of Yorkshire, in which he is writing these
lines at this moment, to a place in Shropshire within sight of the
Wrekin. After traversing York a city not less reminiscent than
Canterbury of medieval England we drove on south-westwards
across a fertile plain still innocent of other products than crops and
cattle, till we reached the frontier of the industrial zone at a village
which is celebrated for a legend. The legend is that, a century ago,
a certain Anglican prelate whose diocese extended over the West
Riding used to appoint the church of this village as his trystingplace with West Riding candidates for confirmation, because, he
declared, this was the farthest point west, towards the new terra
in orders
incognita of industrial squalor, to which any gentleman
or out of them
could be expected to ride! And indeed, when we
passed that prelate's legendary bourne now that the squalor beyond
it, on which he had refused ever to set eyes, had had a hundred
years longer to grow, the aesthetic side of our nature protested in
sympathy with the prelate's scandalous ultimatum to the lost souls
in his industrial cure. Beyond this village, the fertile lowlands
came to an end and at the same point the fells and the factories

began.

In their outward aspect, the 'dark satanic mills' seemed a fitting

match for the bleak grey landscape and at the same time the tour
deforce of these monstrous works of Man, erected in defiance of
the wilderness, had all the moral incongruity of an abomination
of desolation standing in the place where it ought not. In this
;

there
pullulating, throbbing, squalid life in a forbidding landscape,

was something portentously unnatural and the acme of unnaturalness was reached when we paused on the summit of the Pennine
Range itself a hand's-breadth of fell-country that had been left
and looked down, this way
still inviolate in its state of Nature
and that, towards Leeds just behind us and Manchester just
ahead. When, at nightfall, we found ourselves passing through
;

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

62

such another mellow city as York in such another

our glimpse of the West Riding and South
pleasant countryside
Lancashire already began to fade into the unreality of an evil dream.
Yet this industrial tour deforce that has been accomplished in the
Pennine Zone is of course not just a hideous blemish on the landwhich the legendary prelate
scape. The portent has also an import
who deplored its appearance never divined. The Pennine Zone is
indeed a magnet, not only in a fanciful geographical conceit, but in
sober economic reality. It is a magnet which has drawn to itself the
so potently that
productivity and the population of a great country
it has actually succeeded in shifting that country's economic centre
of gravity
shifting it from the fertile basin of the Thames to the
barren skirts of the Pennine fells. The uncompromising prelate
himself, if he could return to life to-day, would almost be con-

Shrewsbury

on into his terra incognita in order to

explore the ugly wonderland into which the ugly wilderness has
been transformed. And what is the agency which has produced
strained

by

curiosity to ride

these astonishing effects ? When we look into it, we find ourselves,

here again, in presence of a now familiar social phenomenon the
stronger stimulus of a more difficult environment prevailing over
the weaker stimulus of an environment in which the difficulty
:

is less.

In this psychological aspect, the contrast between the rural

south-east and the industrial north-west of modern Britain since
the Industrial Revolution reproduces that contrast between Boeotia
and Attica, in ancient Greece, which struck the imagination of Hellenic observers after the great Athenian statesmen and economists
a Solon and a Peisistratus and a Cleisthenes and a Themistocles
had done their work. In our so-called Middle Ages, the inhabitants of 'the home counties' of England, south-east of our line, held
economic assets comparable to those which the Boeotians held in
the first age of Hellenic history. Indeed, they not only possessed
the best arable and pasture lands in the Kingdom, but in Surrey
and Sussex they also had command of easily workable iron ores,
with the woods of the Weald to supply fuel for their forges and with
with these rich but wasting assets, the Southerners, like the Foolish
Virgins in the parable, improvidently burnt up their fuel till it was

consumed away. The

iron railings round St. Paul's are said to

be the last substantial piece of work that was produced by the
Southern iron-masters. By the time when these railings were
all

Weald was bare, and thereupon the Southern iron

industry came to a dead halt. The stagnant reed-choked hammerponds upon which the latter-day 'hiker' stumbles in the middle of

forged, the

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

63

the Surrey heaths are no more

to-day than this dead industry's
funeral monument. 1 Meanwhile, the medieval inhabitants of the

Welsh and

and Northern English 'bad lands' had been

stimulated by the poverty of their environment to exercise their
ingenuity in making the most of it. In South Wales and in Durham,
they probed the sub-soil, in the spirit of the ancient inhabitants
of Attica, to see whether Nature might
prove to be less niggardly
below than she was on the surface and their inquisitiveness was
rewarded by the discovery of a new kind of fuel. In the Pennine
Zone, they took to supplementing the meagre livelihood obtainable
from fell-farms by spinning and weaving and they turned to human
profit fell-sides that were too steep and barren for the plough by
harnessing the water-power of the falling beck. And so, under the
Scottish

constant prick of Necessity, they equipped themselves,

unwittingly,
for exchanging roles with their Southern
neighbours as soon as
their neighbours' improvidence gave them their
opportunity. When
the oil in these Foolish Virgins' lamps gave out, the Wise Virgins
of the North were ready to step into their places and to astonish

World with the mighty though sadly vulgar illumination

which they were able to produce. In the Industrial Revolution, the
Northern coal-fuel with its unheard-of potency and the Northern
the

mechanical processes with their unheard-of productivity replaced

and eclipsed the commonplace wood-fuel and the traditional handwork of the South. 2 The modern industrial Britain which arose,
like a jinn of the desert, out of the 'bad lands' beyond the SevernHumber line, surpassed the medieval agrarian Britain of 'the home

Judah

Solomon

the king of the hill-country of Ephraim and

3
surpassed in all his glory the oasis-queen of Sheba.

counties' as

*
For the history of the Southern iron industry, see Straker, E. : Wealden Iron (London
1931, Bell).
z It is
amusing to notice that the dearth of wood, which stimulated the ancient
Greeks into creating the beauties of Hellenic architecture, and the ancient Sumerians
into inventing the arch and the vault (see footnote 2 on p. 41, above), has stimulated the
modern British into burning coal.
3 The
shifting of the economic centre of gravity of Great Britain at the time of the
Industrial Revolution is sometimes attributed in large measure to the change in the flow
of international trade which followed the discovery of the New World. Since the
Western explorers who made this discovery were not natives of the British Isles, the
effect of their discovery upon the economic life of Great Britain must be regarded, from
the British standpoint, as the accidental effect of an extraneous cause. So far, therefore,
as this extraneous cause contnbuted to the shift in the economic centre of gravity of
Britain, it tells against our explanation of the shift as an incident in the internal history
of Britain and as a consequence of the different relations between Man and his physical
environment which
obtained, during the Middle Ages, in the South and in

respectively

the ports on the west coast and of their economic hinterlands, and to the prejudice of the
ports on the east coast. This dividing line between the eastern and the western faces of
Great Britain by no means coincides, however, with the line, running diagonally across
some two or three
the country from Severn to Humber, which came eventually
to divide the agrarian section
centimes after the discovery of America had taken place

64

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

In the present 'post-war' age, this glory is perhaps departing.

Since about the year 1920 there have been indications that the
economic centre of gravity of Great Britain is tending to shift back
J
and simultaneous
again, south-eastward, towards its medieval locus,
indications that the economic centre of gravity of the World is
and indeed from Europe,
shifting away from the British Isles,
America. It may be that,
altogether, and is passing over to North

symptoms become more sharply pronounced, the ci-devant

industrial focus of Britain, marooned among the barren Pennine
as the cifells, will come to present as melancholy a spectacle
devant political capital of the Danubian Monarchy, imprisoned
if

these

within the frontiers of the little Alpine Republic of Austria. The

drama of Industrial Britain, which opened in a busy squalor and
culminated in a grim magnificence, may be transfigured in its third
2
act into an austere tragedy with a cruel end.
The economic contrast between the two sections into which
Great Britain is divided by the Severn-Humber line is not the only
Still more
illustration of our theme which the island provides.
and
familiar is the cultural contrast between England
Scotland,
which has survived the union of the two kingdoms and which still
lends reality to a Border which has lost its political and has never
possessed any economic significance. The notorious difference of
temperament and habit between the legendary Scotchman solemn,
parsimonious, precise, persistent, cautious, conscientious, and
and the legendary Englishman frivothoroughly well educated
lous, extravagant, vague, spasmodic, careless, free-and-easy, and
follows the same lines, and correill-grounded in book-learning
of Great Britain from the industrial. For instance, the discovery of America, as was to be
expected, brought prosperity in the sixteenth century to the seamen of Devonshire and
to the merchants of Bristol: the western maritime districts which were least distant from
'the home counties' and from London. Yet it has still to be explained why Bristol after-Awards lost the primacy in the American trade to Liverpool and Glasgow: west-coast
ports which were geographically handicapped, in competition with Bristol, by being
separated from the open Atlantic by a longer stretch of narrow dangerous waters. It has
also to be explained why, in the Industrial Revolution, the new life showed itself not only
in the Lancashire and Lanarkshire hinterlands of Merseyside and Clydeside but equally
in Tyneside and Teesside and in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which was served by the
port of Hull. Newcastle and Middlesbrough and Hull, like the extinct hearths of medieval
English trade and industry in East Angha, all face away from the Atlantic and from
America. If the accessibility of the American market and of the American source of
supply was really the determining factor in the shift of the economic centre of gravity of
Great Britain at the time of the Industrial Revolution, it would be impossible to explain
why at this very time Bristol decayed and Newcastle began to flourish. On the other hand,
the phenomena are all explicable if it is conceded that the geographical relation to America
was no more than a secondary factor and that the governing factor in the shift was the
difference, examined above, in the degree of the respective stimuli which were administered to human activities by the two sections of the island, as demarcated by our diagonal
dividing line.
1 These
symptoms are discussed, in another connexion, in III. C (i) (d), vol. iii, p. 207,
below.
a These lines were written a few weeks before the
2ist September, 1931, which, at
the time of revision, seemed likely to be a momentous date in English economic and
financial history.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

65
to
the
same
contrast
in
the
local
spends
physical environment, as
the similar difference, which has likewise been elaborated and

caricatured

on both

sides,

between the legendary Prussian and the

legendary Bavarian.
*

The Struggle for North America

The

our present theme in our Western

history is the outcome of the competition between half a dozen
different groups of Western colonists for the mastery of North
America. The victors in this contest were the New Englanders;
and at an earlier point in this chapter, apropos of the reversion of
Town Hill, Connecticut, to its pristine state of Nature, we have
taken note of the unusual difficulty of the local American environment which first fell to the lot of the ultimate masters of the whole
continent. Let us now compare this New England environment, of
which the site of Town Hill is a specimen, with the earliest
American environments of the New Englanders' unsuccessful
competitors the Dutch, the French, the Spaniards, and the New
Englanders' own kinsmen and neighbours from England who
established themselves along the southern section of the Atlantic
classic illustration of

seaboard.
In the middle of the seventeenth century of the Christian Era,
when all these settlers had already found their first footing on the
fringes of the North American mainland, it would have been quite
easy to predict the coming conflict between them for the possession
of the interior; but the most acute and far-sighted observer then
alive would hardly have been likely to hit the mark if he had been
asked, at the time, to designate the ultimate victor. He might conceivably have had the acumen to rule out the Spaniards in spite of
their two obvious assets their ownership, in Mexico, of the only
region in or adjoining North America which had been broken-in
and developed economically, before the European colonists' arrival,
by an indigenous civilization; and the primacy of Spain, in our
hypothetical observer's own day, among the Great Powers of the
Western World. Our observer might have discounted the high
development of Mexico in view of its outlying position cut off,
as it was, from the main body of North America by a broad belt of
the political
inhospitable plateau and desert; and have discounted
strength of Spain by reading the political signs of the times as they
were written between the lines of the Treaty of Westphalia.
'The
Empire', he might have pronounced, 'is already a
:

Spanish

round which the vultures are gathering. France will

succeed to the military hegemony of Spain in Europe, Holland and
England will succeed to her naval and commercial supremacy on
carcass

66

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

the seas. The competition for North America lies now between
these three countries. Let us estimate their respective chances in
the double light of their general positions in the World and of their
local holdings in America. On a short view, Holland's chances might
appear to be the most promising. She is mistress of the seas (Eng-

land being no match for her on this element, and France not
seriously competing) and in America she holds a splendid watergate opening into the interior: the valley of the Hudson. On a
longer view, however, France seems more likely to be the winner;
for the French St. Lawrence offers still better means of access to
the interior of North America than the Dutch Hudson, while it is
in the power of the French to immobilize and exhaust the Dutch by
bringing to bear against them the overwhelming military superiority
of France on the Continent of Europe. All the same, as between
French and Dutch prospects, I hesitate' (we hear him saying) 'to
decide. The one prophecy that I make with confidence is that the
English are not in the running. Possibly the more southerly of the
;

English colonies, with their relatively genial soil and climate, will
manage to survive though at best they will find themselves
hemmed in between the Dutch along the Hudson in the north and
the Spaniards in Florida on the south and the Dutch or the French,
whichever it may be that cuts off their hinterland on the west by
securing the control of the Mississippi. One thing, however, is
certain. The little group of settlements in the bleak and barren
country which the colonists have christened "New England" is
bound to disappear. They are cut off from the other English
settlements by the Dutch in the Hudson Valley, while the French
in the St. Lawrence Valley press them close on the opposite flank.
The destinies of these New Englanders, at any rate, are not in
doubt!'

Let us

now

suppose that our hypothetical observer lives to see

the turn of the century. By the year 1701 he will be congratulating
himself on his discernment, fifty years earlier, in rating French
prospects higher than Dutch; for in the course of these last fifty
years the St. Lawrence has vanquished the Hudson. The French
explorers have pushed up the St. Lawrence on to the Great Lakes,
and over the portage into the Basin of the Mississippi, and down
these Western Waters to the delta of the great river, where they have
established the new French colony of Louisiana to match the older
French colony of Canada at the other end of the trans-continental
waterway. As for the Dutch, our observer must admit that he had
rated their prospects much too high.
They might have made
themselves masters of the Great Lakes before the French arrived
there. Indeed, for the ocean-going vessels of the
century, the head

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

67
of navigation was rather less distant up the Hudson than it was
up the St. Lawrence from the shores of Lake Ontario. Yet, far
from that, the Dutch have tamely allowed the Hudson Valley itself
to be taken from them by their weaker maritime rivals the English.
Well, the Dutch are out of the running now in North America, and
the French and the English are left there tete a tSte ; but the English
can hardly be regarded as serious competitors. The events of the
last half-century assuredly do not call for any revision of forecasts
on this head notwithstanding the unlooked-for success which the
English have gained in the Hudson Valley. Certainly the New
Englanders are making the most of this windfall. Already they are
colonizing the back-country of the Dutch province and are linking
New England up with the rest of the English settlements on the
Atlantic coast.
Possibly the New Englanders have been saved
from extinction but this only to share the modest prospects of
their southern kinsfolk. For the English feat of conquering the
Hudson Valley from the facile Dutch has been utterly surpassed
by the simultaneous French feat of conquering from the formidable
virgin wilderness the whole extent of the magnificent inland waterway between Quebec and New Orleans. While the English colonies
have been consolidated, the French colonies have effectively
hemmed them in. The future of the Continent is decided! The
victors are the French!
Shall we endow our observer with superhuman length of life, in
order that he may review the situation once more in the year 1803 ?
If we do preserve him alive till then, he will be forced to confess
that his wits have not been worthy of his longevity. By the end of
1803, the French flag has actually disappeared off the political map
of North America altogether. For forty years past, Canada has
been a possession of the British Crown, while Louisiana, after
being ceded by France to Spain and retroceded again, has just been
sold on the soth December, 1803, by Napoleon to the United
the new Great Power which has emerged out of the thirStates

teen English colonies

by

a most extraordinary metamorphosis.

'The United States of America!' Who would have prophesied

it? Yet the ambitious title is justified by the accomplished facts.
In this year 1803, the United States have the continent in their
It only remains to
pockets, and the scope for prophecy is reduced.
forecast which section of these United States is going to pocket the
that
the breadth of a continent
larger share of this vast estate
has come into their joint possession. And surely this time there
can be no mistake ? The Southern States are the manifest masters

of the Union and residuary legatees in North America of Great

Britain and France. Look how the Southerners are leading in this

68

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

round of the competition in this inter- American race for the

Winning of the West. It is the backwoodsmen of Virginia who
have founded Kentucky the first new state to be established west
of those mountains which have so long conspired with the French
to keep the English-speaking settlers on the Atlantic coast from
final

penetrating into the interior. And take note of the key-position

which Kentucky occupies, extending right down the left bank of
the Ohio to the confluence of the Mississippi's principal tributary
with the Mississippi himself. The West is in the Southerners'

and mark how all things work together for their good. The
statesmanship of an English Chatham and a Pennsylvanian Franklin
and a Corsican Buonaparte has endowed them with an immeasurable
supply of land and, as fast as they can put this new land under
grasp,

the hoe, the new-fangled mills of distant Lancashire are offering

them an ever-expanding market for the cotton-crop which the soil
and climate of the South enable them to raise. The Negro provides the labour and the Mississippi the means of transporting the
produce to the quays of New Orleans, where the ships from Liverpool are waiting to bear it away. Even the New Englander is a
useful auxiliary, as the Southerner superciliously points out.
*Our Yankee cousin', the Southerner observes in 1807, 'has just
invented a "steam-boat" which will navigate our Mississippi upstream ; and he has made a practical success of a machine for carding

and cleaning our

Those unlovable,

cotton-bolls.

unfortunate

fellow-citizens of ours in that out-of-the-way corner, down east!

Their "Yankee notions" are more profitable to us than they are to
the ingenious inventors! For what are
England's prospects?

New

Her prospects

no better in

1807 than they were a

wide
West has been thrown open
century since. To-day, when the
to Southern enterprise at last, it still remains closed to the New
Englander. New England is still barred in on the landward side by
the barrier of Canada, which has not ceased to be a foreign country
in passing from the French to the British Crown. So there our
are

this year

in his out-of-the-way corner, cooped up on

Hill; and there, presumably, he will go
on sitting till Doomsday! "Sedet, aeternumque sedebit!" '*
If our unlucky prophet takes Southern prospects on the morrow

poor relation

still sits

the "bad lands" of

Town

of the Louisiana Purchase at the Southerner's own valuation, he

must indeed be in his dotage for in the last round of the twocenturies-long contest for the mastery of the North American
Continent, the Southerner is destined to meet a swifter and more
crushing defeat than those that have been met heretofore by the
Spaniard and the Dutchman and the Frenchman. To witness his
;

Virgil: Aenetd,

Book VI,

1.

617.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

we

69

have to wait as long as a century. We

discomfiture,
shall see the relative positions of South and North reversed in less
than a lifetime.
In the year 1865, the situation is already transformed, out of all
recognition, from what it was in 1807. In the Winning of the West,
the Southern pioneer had been outstripped and outflanked by his
Northern rival. After almost winning his way to the Great Lakes
through Indiana and after getting the best of the bargain in
Missouri, the Southerner has been decisively defeated in Kansas,
and he has never reached the Pacific. The descendants of the men
who mastered the difficulties of Town Hill, Connecticut, have now
become masters of the Pacific coast along the whole front from
shall not

Los Angeles. Nor has the Southerner's command of the

Mississippi much availed him. He had counted on the network of
the Western Waters to draw the whole of the West into a Southern
system of economic and political relations; and when the Yankee
presented him with steam-boats to ply on the Western Waters, he
imagined that the Yankee had delivered the West into his hands.
But Yankee notions' have not ceased. The inventor of the steamer
has gone on to invent the locomotive; and the locomotive has
taken away more from the Southerner than the steamer ever gave
Seattle to

'

Valley in the human

geography of North America as the main gateway from the Atlantic
a potentiality which the Dutch had failed to turn to
to the West
has been actualized at
account in competition with the French
last in the railway age. The railway-traffic which now passes up
the valley of the Hudson and the valley of the Mohawk and then
along the lake-side to link New York with Chicago has superseded
the river-traffic on the Mississippi between New Orleans and St.
Louis. Therewith, the internal lines of communication of the

him

for the potential function of the

Hudson

North American Continent have been turned at right angles from

south and north to east and west and the North-West has been
detached from the South, to be welded on to the North-East in
interest and in sentiment. Indeed, the Easterner, who once made
;

the South-West a present of the river-steamer, has now won the

heart of the North- West with a double gift: he has come to the
North- Western farmer with the locomotive in one hand and with
the reaper-and-binder in the other, and so has provided him with
solutions for both the problems with which the West is confronted.
In order to develop its potential economic capacities, the whole
West has need of two things transport and labour ; but the Southwestern planter believing that his labour-problem has been solved
has sought a solution
for ever by the institution of negro slavery
for his transport-problem, and for this only, from the Yankee's
:

70

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

'mechanical ingenuity. The North- Western farmer is in a different

case.
He disposes of no servile man-power, and his free-labour
force is recruited by the casual process of immigration from Europe
So he finds the
all too slowly to till his fast-expanding fields.
the Eastern factories
agricultural machinery which is turned out by
as great a godsend as the Eastern railways. By these two 'Yankee
notions', together, the allegiance of the North- West has been
decided and thus the Civil War has been lost by the South before
it has been fought. In taking up arms in the hope of redressing
her economic reverses by a military counterstroke, the South has
;

merely precipitated and consummated a ddbdcle that was already

inevitable.

This ultimate victory of the New Englanders, in a competition

for the mastery of North America in which their Spanish, Dutch,
French, and Southern competitors were successively discomfited, is
illuminating for the study of the question with which we are concerned at the moment: the question of the relative stimulating
effects of different degrees of difficulty in the physical environment

For, unusually difficult though the New Englanders'

environment was, it is manifest that the rival colonists' environments were none of them easy. To begin with, all alike had undergone the initial ordeal of plucking up their social roots in Europe
and crossing the Atlantic and striking fresh roots in the soil of a
of human

New

life.

World;

themselves,

it

and,

when they had succeeded

was not only the

New

in re-establishing

who found
new American

Englanders

permanent difficulties to contend with in their

home. The French settlers in Canada had to contend with an
almost arctic cold; and the French settlers in Louisiana had to
break in a great river. The Mississippi was as wayward in changing
his course, and as devastating in his inundations, as the Yellow
River or the Nile or the Tigris; and the levies with which the
Creoles protected their hard-won fields and villages cost no less
human effort to build and maintain than the earthen bulwarks of
the Egyptiac and the Sumeric and the Sinic Civilization. In fact,
the difficulties presented by the physical environment in Canada
and in Louisiana were only less formidable than those which the
New Englanders encountered on Town Hill itself. Thus this
North American illustration, as far as it goes, tells in favour of the
proposition that the difficulty and the stimulus of an environment
are apt to increase paripassu. It will tell the same tale if we push
it even farther.

Can we push

it

farther?

Can we venture,

in 1933, to prophesy

1 The stimulus
of transmarine colonization and migration
pp. 84-100, below.

is

examined further on

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

71

whose hands the mastery of North America will lie a century

hence ? Can we hope to come any nearer to the mark ourselves
than our imaginary prophet in 1650 and 1701 and 1803 ? Can we
do more than ring down the curtain on the present scene, in which
in

the offspring of the

New

Englanders dominates the stage

Diffi-

though divination

may be, there are already certain signs that

the drama is not yet played out and the final victory in the struggle
not yet decided. One small sign once came to the notice of the
author of this Study.
cult

A few

days after the occasion, mentioned above, when I passed

by the deserted site of Town Hill, Connecticut, I found myself with
an hour to spend between trains in one of the small back-country
manufacturing towns of New England, on the Massachusetts side
of the Connecticut-Massachusetts state-line. Since the General
War of 1914-18, the industrial districts of New England have fared
as badly as those of the mother country. They have fallen on evil
days, and they show it in their aspect. In this town, however, on
this day, the atmosphere was not at all forlorn or lifeless. The town
was in fete, and the whole population was abroad in the streets.
Threading my way through the crowds I noticed that one person
out of every two was wearing a special badge, and I inquired what
the colours signified. I was told that they were the colours of the local
French Canadian club and I ascertained that my rough impression
of their frequency in the streets was borne out by statistics. In that
year 1925, in that New England manufacturing town, the French
Canadians were by far the strongest contingent in the local labomv
1

indigenous New Englanders had left these factories, as

they had left the fields of Town Hill, to find their fortunes in the
West; but the town, unlike the village, had not been deserted. As
force.

The

indigenous population had ebbed out, a tide of French

Canadian immigrants had flooded in. Conditions of work and life
which had ceased to be attractive to the descendants of the Pilgrim
Fathers seemed luxurious to these Norman peasants' children from
the sub-arctic hinterland of Quebec. Moreover, I was told, the
French Canadian immigrants were spreading from the towns of
New England on to the land, where, as peasants, they found themselves truly at home. On their frugal standard of living, American
rates of industrial wages left them with a surplus which quickly
mounted up to the purchase-price of a derelict New England farm.
The immigrants were actually re-populating the deserted countryside. Perhaps, on my next visit, I should find Town Hill itself no
Man
longer desolate. Yet if, on that forbidding spot, the works of
be
foreseen
overcame the wilderness for the second time, it could
fast as the

See pp. 15-16, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

72

would repeat itself with a difference. The fields and

orchards and even the houses might wear again in 1950 the aspect
which they had worn two centuries before; but this time the
blood in the veins of the farmers would be French and not English
and divine worship in the antique wooden church would be conducted no longer by a Presbyterian minister but by a Catholic

that history

priest!

seems possible that the contest between the French

Canadian and the New Englander for the mastery of North
America may not, after all, have been concluded and disposed of
War. For, when the
finally by the outcome of the Seven Years'
French flag was hauled down, the French peasant did not disappear
with the emblem of the French Government's sovereignty. Under
the tutelage of the Roman Catholic Church, this peasantry continued, undisturbed, to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
Earth; and now in the fullness of time the French Canadian is

Thus

it

making a counter-offensive into the heart of his old rival's homeland. He is conquering New England in the peasant's way
by
which
Governments
at
than
those
have
slower but surer methods

command. He

conducting his operations with the ploughshare and not with the sword, and he is asserting his ownership by
the positive act of colonizing the countryside and not by the
cartographical conceit of painting colours and drawing lines on a
scrap of paper. Meanwhile, law and religion and environment are
combining to assist him. The environment of a harsh countryside
keeps him exposed to a stimulus which no longer invigorates his
rival in the softer atmosphere of the distant Western cities. His
religion forbids him to restrict the size of his family by contratheir

ceptive

methods of

is

birth-control.

And United

States legislation,
countries overseas but not

which has restricted immigration from

from countries on the American Continent, has left the French
Canadian immigrant in a privileged position which is shared with
him by none but the Mexican. 1 Perhaps the present act in the
drama of North American history may end, after a century of
peaceful penetration, in a triumphal meeting between the two
resurgent Latin peasantries in the neighbourhood of the Federal
Capital of the United States! Is this the denouement that our
great-grandchildren are destined to witness in A.D. 2033 ? There
1
This Restriction of immigration into the United States has been effected by the
Immigration (Restriction) Acts of 1921 and 1924. It should be noted that the wide door
left open for immigration into the United States across the land-frontiers is only open

for native-born inhabitants of the adjoining American countries.

European or Asiatic
who attempts to enter the United States through Canada or Mexico, without having
secured a place in the annual quota of immigrants assigned to his own country of origin,
finds himself excluded. In this matter, the United States Bureau of Immigration has
adopted the British Admiralty's doctrine of 'continuous voyage*.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

have been reversals of fortune every

bit as strange as this in

73

North

American history before.

III.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

The Testimony of Philosophy, Mythology, and Religion

So much for comparisons between the respective stimulating
effects of physical environments which present different
degrees of
us
Let
now
the
same
from
a
different
difficulty.
approach
question
angle by comparing the respective stimulating effects of old ground
and new ground, apart from the intrinsic nature of the terrain.

Does the

effort of breaking

The

new ground

act as a stimulus in itself ?

answered
question
by the critical empiricism of an eighteenth-century Western philosopher as well as by the
wider spontaneous human experience which has found a cumulative expression in Mythology. David Hume concludes his essay
Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences with the observais

in the affirmative

and sciences, like some plants, require a fresh

however
rich the land may be, and however you may
soil; and,
recruit it by art or care, it will never, when once exhausted, produce anything that is perfect or finished in the kind'. The same
affirmative answer is conveyed in the myth of the Expulsion from
Eden and in the myth of the Exodus from Egypt. In their removal
out of the magic garden into the workaday world, Adam and Eve
transcend the food-gathering economy of Primitive Mankind and
give birth to the fathers of an agricultural and a pastoral civilization. 1 In their exodus from Egypt, the Children of Israel
though

tion that 'the arts

they hanker in the wilderness after the flesh pots of the house of
2
bondage
give birth to a generation which helps to lay the
foundations of the Syriac Civilization in taking possession of
the Promised Land. 3 When we turn from myths to records, we
find these intuitions confirmed by the evidence of empirical
observation.

In the histories of

religions,

we find that

to the consternation of

those who ask the scornful question: 'Can any good thing come
the Messiah of Jewry does come out of that
out of Nazareth ?' 4
obscure village in 'Galilee of the Gentiles': 5 an outlying piece of
new ground which had been captured for Jewry by the Macca6
bees rather less than a century before the date of Jesus's birth.
And when the indomitable growth of this Galilaean grain of
i

2 See
See II. C (ii) (b) I, vol i, p. 290, above.
pp. 24-5, above.
See the passage quoted in II. B, vol. i, p 198, above.
John 1.46. Compare John vn. 41 and 52, and Matt iv. 14-1 6, which is a reminiscence

of Isaiah ix. 1-2.

s Matt. iv.
15.

Regnante Alexandra Jannaeo, 103-76 B.C.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

74

mustard-seed turns the consternation of Orthodox Jewry into

active hostility, and this not only in Judaea itself but among the
Jewish diaspori, then the propagators of the new faith deliberately
c
turn to the Gentiles' 1 and proceed to conquer new worlds for
the range of
Christianity on ground which had lain wholly beyond
the strong right arm of an Alexander Jannaeus. In the history of
the same story, for the decisive victories of this
Indie faith are not won on the old ground of the Indie World. The
Hinayana first finds an open road in Ceylon, which was a colonial
annex of the Indie Civilization. And the Mahayana starts its
in the
long and roundabout journey towards its future domain
Far East by capturing the Syriacized and Hellenized Indie province
of the Panjab. It is on the new ground of these alien worlds that the

Buddhism

it

is

highest expressions of the Indie and the Syriac religious genius

in witness to the truth that 'a prophet
eventually bear their fruit
is not without honour save in his own country and in his own
house'. 2

The Testimony of the

'Related' Civilizations

A convenient empirical test of this social 'law' is

by those
civilizations of the 'related' class that have arisen partly on ground
already occupied by the respective antecedent civilization and
partly on ground which the 'related' civilization has taken over
on its
either from primitive societies or from other civilizations
offered

own

account, without the antecedent civilization having here precan test the respective stimuceded it and prepared the way.
lating effects of old ground and new ground by surveying the
career of any one of these 'related' civilizations, marking the point
or points within its domain at which its achievements in any line
of social activity have been most signal, and then observing
whether the ground on which such points are located is new
ground or old.
Let us begin with the extreme case of the Babylonic Civilization,

We

whose original home has been found to be wholly coincident with

that of the 'apparented' civilization the Sumeric. 3 In which of its
4
three foci
did the Babylonic CivilizaBabylonia, Elam, Assyria
:

most distinguish itself? Undoubtedly in Assyria. Whether

we judge by prowess in arms or by constructive ability in politics
or by creative genius in art, we must pronounce that the Babylonic

tion

Civilization reached a higher level in Assyria than in either of the

other two Babylonic countries. And was Assyria old ground or
1

Actp xin. 46.

Matthew

See the table and the footnote in vol i, p. 132, above.

See I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 116-17, above.

xiii.

57.

Compare Mark

vi.

4;

Luke

iv.

24; John

iv. 44.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

new ?

75

turns out, on further examination, that Assyria was the

one portion of the original home of the antecedent Sumeric Civilization which possibly might be regarded as new ground
at any
rate

It

by comparison with Sumer and Akkad and Elam for when we

;

probe the

local history of Assyria as

archaeological knowledge

deep as the present state of our

allows us to penetrate, we find some

reason for supposing that Assyria was not one of the original communities into which the Sumeric Society articulated itself after its
albeit a colony that was
birth, but was in some sense a colony
almost coeval with the mother country. Perhaps it is not altogether
fantastic to surmise that the stimulus derived from this breaking of
new ground in Assyria at some early stage in the growth of the
Sumeric Civilization may account in part for the special vigour
which was afterwards displayed by the 'affiliated' Babylonic Civilization on this Assyrian ground. 1
Turning next to the Hindu Civilization, let us mark the local
sources of the new creative elements in Hindu life
particularly in
which
has
been
the
central
and
religion,
always
supreme activity of
the Hindu Society.
find these sources in the South. It was

We

here that all the distinctive features of Hinduism took shape 2 the
cult of Gods represented by material objects or images and housed
in temples the emotional personal relation between the worshipper
and the particular God to whose worship he has devoted himself;
the metaphysical sublimation of image-worship and emotionalism
in an intellectually sophisticated theology (Sankara, the father of
:

Hindu Theology, was born, circa A.D. 788, in Southern Malabar). 3

All these features of Hinduism bear a Southern stamp. And was
the South of India old ground or new ? It was new ground, inasmuch
had not been incorporated into the domain of the 'apparented'
Indie Civilization until the time of the Maurya Empire (circa
4
323-185 B.C.), when the Indie Society, after having first broken
down and then passed through a Time of Troubles, at length
entered upon that advanced stage in the disintegration of a civilization which we have learnt to recognize as a 'universal state'.
Let us look now at the two civilizations that are 'affiliated* to the
5
Syriac, namely the Arabic and the Iranic.
as

it

of the Arabic Society, did its rather

feeble pulse beat least feebly? Assuredly in Egypt, where a ghost
c
of the Abbasid Caliphate (a ghost, that is to say, of the 'reintegrated'
of the
Syriac universal state) was evoked in the thirteenth century

Where, during the short

life

*
For another explanation of Assyria's rise as a reaction to the stimulus of pressure
from the human environment, see the present volume, pp. i33~7> below.
a See
Eliot, Sir Charles: Hinduism and Buddhism (London 1921, Arnold, 3 vols.),

vol.
3
s

i,

Introduction, p. xli.
Eliot, op. cit , vol.

See
See

i.

(i)

(6), vol.

i,

* See I. C (i)
with
Annex
I, above.
pp. 67-72,
ii,

p. 207.

(i), vol. i,

pp. 86-7, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

76

Christian Era by the Mamluks. 1 It was in Egypt that the Arabic

literature and the Arabic architecture kept themselves alive during
the quarter of a millennium that elapsed between the inauguration

of the Cairene Caliphate and the Ottoman conquest. And was

Egypt old ground or new? It was new ground inasmuch as it had
not begun to be incorporated into the domain of the Syriac Civilization, to which the Arabic Civilization was 'affiliated', before the
entry of this Syriac Civilization into its universal state and even
then the 'dead trunk' of the indigenous Egyptiac Civilization,
which still cumbered the ground in Egypt, was only absorbed into
the tissues of the Syriac Civilization slowly and arduously.
The conquest of Egypt by the Achaemenian Empire, which was
the original Syriac universal state, 2 was a mere external annexation.
The Egyptians were simply subdued politically by force of arms
;

and even this only intermittently. The Achaemenian regime

made no progress whatever towards converting their souls and,
when the Syriac universal state was interrupted by the intrusion
of Hellenism, 'Hellenization' seemed a more likely destiny for the
residue of the Egyptiac Society than a merger with the Syriac
Society which had been submerged, quite as deeply as the
Egyptiac Society itself, under the Hellenic flood. It was not until
both the Hellenic and the Egyptiac Society were in extremis that,
in the competition for spiritual dominion over Egypt, the Hellenic
Society lost and the Syriac Society gained the upper hand. The
ultimate victory of the Syriac Civilization in Egypt was first foreshadowed when Egypt was captivated by Monophysitism a
version of Christianity in which the Syriac reaction against Hel;

lenism expressed itself before the dissolution of the Roman Empire

and the re-integration of the Syriac universal state in the 'Abbasid

The victory of the Syriac

consummated when the population

Egypt was only

of Egypt
after having successively abandoned their ancient Egyptiac religion for Primitive
were
Christianity and Primitive Christianity for Monophysitism
converted en masse from Monophysitism to Islam; and this did not
happen until the 'Abbasid Caliphate itself had dissolved into the
interregnum (circa A.D. 975-1275)* out of which the Arabic Civilization afterwards emerged. Thus, in Egypt, the Arabic Civilization
was occupying ground which the 'apparented' Syriac civilization
had not completely made its own until the Arabic Civilization was
on the point of coming to birth. Yet it was on this new ground in
Caliphate.

See

The

Civilization in

a See vol.
i, p. 70, above.
i, pp. 75-9, above.
reaction of the Syrian Civilization against the intrusion of Hellenism, of which
this Monophysite version of Christianity was one symptom in one
phase, is discussed
further in II. 3D (vi), on p. 236, and II.
(vn), on pp. 386-7, as well as in Pail IX, below.
* See vol.
i, pp, 67-8, above.

vol.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

77
that
the
Arabic
Civilization
Egypt
displayed such vigour as it did
before
its
career
was
display
prematurely closed by incorporation
into the body social of its lustier Iranic sister. This is noteworthy,
considering that the original home of the Arabic Civilization

included not only the new ground of Egypt but also the old ground
of Syria
the very region in which the 'apparented Syriac Civilization had taken its rise. Yet, in the history of the 'affiliated*
Arabic Civilization, Syria always played the subordinate and Egypt
the leading part.
the sister of the
Again, in what areas did the Iranic Civilization
most conspicuously flourish ? Almost all the great achieveSyriac
ments of the Iranic Civilization in the principal spheres of social
not only in war and in politics, but even in architecture
activity
and in literature 1 were accomplished at one or other of the two
extremities of the Iranic World either in Hindustan, at one end, or
in Anatolia, at the other; 2 and they culminated respectively, in
these two areas, in the Mughal and in the Ottoman Empire. Were
these two Iranic empires erected on old ground or on new ground ?
The ground was new in both cases. The Ottoman Empire was
3

erected on the domain of the Orthodox Christian Civilization; and

indeed it occupied this domain so effectively that it actually performed, for the main body of Orthodox Christendom, the function
of a universal state. 3 Similarly, the Mughal Empire was erected on
the domain of the Hindu Civilization and performed the function of
a universal state in the Hindu World. 4 Thus the Iranic Civilization
1 Persian literature
which in the early age of Iranic history continued to flourish, and
this in the heart of the Iranic World, in Iran itself
is a conspicuous apparent exception
to the general rule here formulated. This Persian literature, however, is to be regarded
as a creation not of the Iranic but of the 'apparented' Syriac Civilization (as Latin
literature is a creation of the Hellenic Civilization and not of the 'affiliated* Western or
Latin Christendom). The genesis of Persian literature was an event of the 'Abbasid age,
when the Syriac Civilization was enjoying a kind of 'Indian Summer* after the reintegralion of its universal state. It is to this age of the Syriac Civilization that Persian literature
genetically belongs, although chronologically the lifetime of one of its great masters,
Sa*di of Shiraz (vivebat area A D. 1 184-129x5, falls within the post-Synac interregnum,
and the lifetimes of two others Hafiz of Shiraz and Jam! of Khurasan fall respectively
within the fourteenth and the fifteenth century of the Christian Era: that is to say,
within a time when the Iranic Civilization had already emerged
Hafiz and the other
Persian poets of his generation flourished under social conditions curiously resembling
those which produced both the Scandinavian skalds and the Ionian Homendae. *It
would seem that the existence of numerous small courts, rivals to one another, and each
striving to outshine the others, was singularly favourable to the encouragement of poets
and other men of letters, who, if disappointed or slighted in one city, could generally
find in another a more favourable reception.' (Browne, E G.:
Literary History of
Persia, vol.
(Cambridge 1928, University Press), pp 160-1 ) Thereafter, however,
from the beginning of the sixteenth century of the Christian Era, Persian literature
wilted in Iian under the regime of the Safawis. (For a discussion of this last-mentioned
:
Literary History of Persia, vol iv (Cambridge 1928,
phenomenon, see Browne, E,
University Press), pp. 24-31; and the present Study, I.
i,
(i) (6), Annex I, in vol

G A

above.)

original domain of the Iranic Civilization, see I. C (i)

pp. 68-9, above.
3 For this role of the Ottoman
Empire, see further Part III. A, vol. iii, pp. 26-7, and
4 See Part VI, below.
Part VI, below.
a

For the area covered by the

(6), vol.

i,

78

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

displayed, at two points which were remote from one another, the
identical idiosyncrasy of flourishing best on foreign soil. Moreover, it is to be noted that, in both cases, the acquisition of this
foreign soil had not started until after the beginning of the interregnum (circa A.D. 975-1275) into which the universal state of the

'apparented' Syriac Civilization dissolved and out of which the

'affiliated' Iranic Civilization itself emerged. The first permanent
conquests of Hindu territory in the Kabul Valley and in the Panjab

were made

(circa A.D.

by Sebuktegin and his more

of Ghaznah; the first permanent
1

975-I025)

celebrated successor Mahmud

conquests of Orthodox Christian territory were

made

(circa A.D.

1070-5) by the Saljuqs.

Accordingly, it was on sites acquired piecemeal from alien
civilizations at recent dates that the Iranic Civilization eventually
erected its most imposing monuments. On the other hand, the
second home which the 'apparented' Syriac Civilization had once
found on the Iranian Plateau and in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin 2
never became the most active focus of the 'affiliated' Iranic Civilization, in spite of the fact that these two regions lay in the heart
of the zone in which the Iranic Civilization originally emerged.
During the age when, in the new territories conquered from
Orthodox Christendom and Hinduism, the Iranic Civilization was
going from strength to strength, it succumbed in Iran and in
Transoxania to a series of local misdevelopments. 3 In the first
place, during the post-Syriac interregnum, these regions bore the
the last and most destructive
brunt of the Mongol invasion
avalanche of the post-Syriac Volkerwanderung. Thereafter, they
lay torpid under the dead weight of the two local Mongol 'successorstates' of the 'Abbasid Caliphate
the appanage of the Il-Khans and
the appanage of the House of Chaghatay and these disorderly and
sluggish regimes only disappeared to make way for the devouring
militarism of Timur. The final blows, by which the two regions
were prostrated simultaneously at the beginning of the sixteenth
century of the Christian Era, were the establishment of the Shi'i
Power in Iran and the conquest of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin by the
Uzbeg barbarians off the Eurasian Steppe two violent political
transformations which had the identic effect of fixing a great
religious and cultural gulf between the geographical heart of the
;

Sebuktegin established his suzerainty over the Kabul Valley in A.D. 075; and
conquered it and forcibly converted the population to Islam in A.D. 1021,
(Vaidya, C. V.- A History of Mediaeval India (Poona 1921-4, Oriental Book-Supplying
Agency, 2 vols.), vol. i, p. 193 ) Sebuktegm's raids on the Panjab began in A.D. 986-7;
Mahmud raided Kanauj in A.D. 1019 (Smith, V.: The Early History of India, 3rd edition
2 See I. C
(Oxford 1914, Clarendon Press), p. 382).
(i) (6), vol. i, pp. 80-2, above.
a See I. C
and
(i) (6), Annex I, in vol. i, II. D (v), pp. 144-8 of the present volume
1

Mahmud

Part IV.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

Iranic

World and

either of its extremities.

extremities and not at the heart of the Iranic

Thus
body

it

79

was

in the

social that the

blood pulsated most vigorously; or, in terms of our original metaphor, it was on new ground and not on old ground that the seed of
the Iranic culture produced its finest harvests.
In what regions has the greatest vigour been displayed by the
Orthodox Christian Civilization? A glance at its history shows
that

centre of gravity has lain in different regions at

different times. In the first age after its emergence out of the postHellenic interregnum, the life of Orthodox Christendom was most
its

social

vigorous on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles

in the central and north-eastern parts of the Anatolian Plateau
or, in the administrative terminology of the day, in the Anatolic
and Armeniac army corps districts (themata) of the East Roman
Empire. Thereafter, in the course of the two centuries which
elapsed between the conversion of Bulgaria to Orthodox Christianity in A.D. 865-70 and the occupation of the interior of Anatolia
by the Saljuq Turkish converts to Islam in A.D. 1070-5, the centre
of gravity of Orthodox Christendom shifted from the Asiatic to the
European side of the Straits; and, as far as the main body of
Orthodox Christian Society is concerned, it has remained in the
Balkan Peninsula ever since. In modern times, however, that
portion of Orthodox Christendom which constitutes the main body
of the society from an historical standpoint has been far outstripped
in growth and overshadowed in importance by the mighty offshoot
of Orthodox Christendom in Russia. 1
Are these three areas in which the Orthodox Christian Civilization has successively raised its head to be regarded as old ground
or as new ? Central and North-Eastern Anatolia was certainly new
ground as far as the Orthodox Christian Civilization was concerned.
It was the former domain of the Hittite Civilization; and although
the Hittite Civilization had died a premature death by violence
during the Volkerwanderung in which the Hellenic Civilization
was brought to birth, 2 its Anatolian homeland was not penetrated
by Hellenism until after the destruction of the Achaemenian
Empire by Alexander the Great. Even then, this region remained
unhellenized much longer than many places that were far more
distant from the Aegean. The process did not set in vigorously
here until after the last of the local 'successor-states' of the
Achaemenian Empire had been converted into Roman provinces;
and the first positive local contributions to the Hellenic culture
* An offshoot which has neither lost its
importance nor ceased to be recognizable
an
through being draped twice over first by Peter the Great and then by Lenin
exotic fancy dress of the momentarily fashionable Western cut.
2 See I. C
above.
(i) (6), vol. i, pp. 93 and 100-1,

8o

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

were made

as late as the fourth century of the Christian

Era by the

Cappadocian Fathers of the Church. Thus the earliest centre of

gravity of the Orthodox Christian Civilization in the interior of
Anatolia lay in a region which had not been completely incorporated
into the domain of the 'apparented' Hellenic Civilization until
Hellenism was in articulo mortis.
The second centre of gravity in the interior of the Balkan
Peninsula was established on new ground likewise. For the veneer
of Hellenic Civilization in a Latin medium, with which this region
had been thinly overlaid, in the lifetime of the Roman Empire,
during a span of some five centuries, had been destroyed without
1
leaving a trace during the interregnum into which the Empire had
eventually dissolved. The destruction was more thoroughgoing

was

in any of the western provinces with the single

exception of Britain. In the Balkan Peninsula, as in Britain, the
superficial change of regime was accompanied by a radical change

here than

it

of population and religion. The Christian Roman provincials were

not simply conquered but were practically exterminated by the
pagan barbarian invaders; and these barbarians eradicated all
elements of local culture so effectively that when their descendants
repented of the evil which their fathers had done they had to obtain
fresh seed from outside in order to start cultivation again. By the
time when Orthodox Christianity was re-sown in the Balkan
Peninsula in the ninth century of the Christian Era, the soil had
been lying fallow for more than three centuries that is to say, for
about twice as long as the soil of Britain had been lying fallow at
the time when Augustine was sent on his mission by Gregory the
Great. Thus the region in which the Orthodox Christian Civilization established its second centre of gravity was ground which had
recently been reclaimed de novo from the wilderness.
As for the third centre of gravity in Russia, there is no need to
labour the point. The offshoot of Orthodox Christendom which
was transplanted to Russia in the tenth century of the Christian
:

Era was propagated there in virgin soil on which no civilization had

ever grown before; and this new Russian offshoot of Orthodox
Christendom was separated from the main body by a double
barrier of sea and steppe. 2
Russia was new ground with a
1 The survival
of a Romance language among the mountains of South-Eastern
Europe, from the Carpathians to the Pindus, cannot properly be regarded as a trace of the
Latin version of the Hellenic Civilization
the Balkan Peninsula; for the survival of the
language did not carry with it any survival of the culture of which this language had once
been the vehicle. The still Latin-speaking and still nominally Christian Vlachs and
Rumans had to be converted, in 'the Middle Ages', to the Orthodox Christian Civilization de novo, just like the contemporary Bulgars and Jugoslavs, who were
pagan barbarians speaking outlandish tongues.
2 At the
present time, the domain of Orthodox Christendom in Russia and its domain
in the Balkan Peninsula are geographically isolated from one another no
longer. The

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

vengeance; and

81

Orthodox
Christian Civilization has flourished with an exuberance which
stands out in contrast to its strained and stunted growth elsewhere.
It is still

it

is

noteworthy

more remarkable

that,

in Russia, the

to observe that while the centre of

gravity of the Orthodox Christian Civilization has shifted twice in

the course of Orthodox Christian history, it has never lain in the
homeland of the 'apparented' Hellenic Civilization in the Aegean
area, although this area has been included in the domain of Ortho-

dox Christendom from first to

In the early age of the Orthodox

Christian Civilization, when its centre of gravity lay on the
Anatolian Plateau, the Aegean frontage of Anatolia, which had
played a leading role in the early age of the Hellenic Civilization,
was perhaps the least important district in the Asiatic peninsula. 1
Again, since the centre of gravity of the main body of Orthodox
Christendom has shifted to the European side of the Straits, it has
normally lain on the landward and not on the seaward side of
Salonica. In fact, peninsular Greece, which was the hub of the
Hellenic universe after the primacy had once passed from Ionia, has
never played a prominent part in Orthodox Christian history except
on two occasions one in the 'medieval' and the other in the
'modern' age of Western history when Greece has served as a
last.

Christians of the Balkan area now march with their Ukrainian coRussian area along a line extending from the Central Carpathians
through the Bukovina and Bessarabia to the Black Sea coast. This geographical continuity between the Russian and the Balkan domains of Orthodox Christendom does not,
however, date back farther than the eighteenth century. The two domains were separated
from one another by an outlying strip of the Eurasian Steppe until after the RussoTurkish War of A.D. 1768-74 It was only in the sequel to this war, when the north
coast of the Black Sea and its whole hinterland were annexed to the Russian Empire,
that this insulating strip of steppe was cleared of the last of its Nomadic pastoral tenants
and was colonized with an agricultural population of Orthodox Christian peasants.
This was the final stage in a gradual converging encroachment of the Orthodox Christian
peasant's ploughland upon the Muslim or pagan herdsman's cattle-range which had
been in progress since the Ruman pioneers had descended in the fourteenth century
from the Transylvanian highlands into the plains of Wallachia and Moldavia, and since
as they did at about the same date
the Zaporogian Cossacks had established themselves
on their island-fortress in the River Dmepr. (See II. D (v), pp. 154-7, below.) In
the tenth century, however, this encroachment had not yet begun. At that time, the
pagan Turkish Pechenegs were pasturing their flocks on virgin steppe-land from the
banks of the Don to the Iron Gates of the Danube without interruption The Orthodox

Rumanian Orthodox

religionists of the

Christian missionaries who carried the seeds of their civilization to Russia could only
icach this new field by facing the perils of sea and steppe in succession. They had first to
travel by ship from Constantinople to the Crimea, and thence to pick their way across
the open prairie, where they were at the mercy of the Pechenegs until they found safety
at last in the southern outskirts of the Russian forests.
*
When the East Roman Army was concentrated in Anatolia during the military crisis
produced by the Peisian and Arab invasions in the seventh century of the Christian
Era, this district was assigned to the Thracensian Army Corps, which was permanently
withdrawn from the European district from which it derived its name and was stationed
here in Western Anatolia in order to support the Anatolic Army Corps, which had been
withdrawn from Syria on to the Anatolian Plateau. The Anatolici were the front-line
troops; the Thracenses were mere reserves. Accordingly, the Thracensian district was
httle accounted of, whereas the Anatolic district, in conjunction with the Armeniac,
swayed the destinies of the East Roman Empire.
II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

82

Watergate through which Western influence has forced an entry

into the Orthodox Christian World. 1
Turning now to Hellenic history, let us ask our question apropos
of the two regions which (as we have just observed in passing)
successively held the primacy in the Hellenic World. When the
Hellenic Civilization flowered on the Anatolian coast of the Aegean
and afterwards on the European Greek peninsula, was it on new
ground or on old ground that this flowering took place ? It was on
new ground, here again for neither of these regions had lain within
the original home of the antecedent Minoan Civilization, to which
the Hellenic Civilization was related. On the European Greek
peninsula, the Minoan Civilization, even at its widest extension in
its latest age, had held no more than a chain of fortified positions
3 On the
Anatolian coast
along the southern and eastern coast-lines.
of the Aegean, the failure of our modern Western archaeologists
to find traces of the presence, or even influence, of the Minoan
Civilization has been so signal that it can hardly be attributed to
chance, but seems rather to indicate that for some reason this
coast actually did not come within the Minoans' range. 3 As far as
we know, the first settlers from the Aegean to occupy the west
coast of Anatolia effectively were those refugees of Minoan culture
and Greek speech who were driven thither, as late as the twelfth
century B.C., in the same final convulsion of the post-Minoan
Volkerwanderung that drove the Philistines on to the coast of
4 These were the founders of Aeolis and
Ionia; and thus
Syria.
Hellenism flowered first on soil which the antecedent civilization
had never seriously cultivated. Moreover, when the seeds were
scattered abroad from Ionia into other parts of the Hellenic World,
the Ionic soil on which they flowered next was the stony ground of
Attica on the opposite side of the Aegean. They did not germinate
in the Cyclades : the Ionic islands which stood, like stepping-stones,
between the Ionic mainlands in Asia and in Europe. Through the
whole course of Hellenic history the Cycladic islanders played a
subordinate role as humble servants of the successive masters of the
sea. This is remarkable, since the Cyclades had been one of the
two foci of the antecedent Minoan Civilization. The other Minoan
focus, of course, was Crete; and the role played in Hellenic history
by Crete is even more surprising.
;

* The first of these two

forcible entries was the military conquest of peninsular Greece
by the Latins, during and after the so-called 'Fourth Crusade'. The second was the
infiltration of modern Western ideas which began towards the end of the seventeenth
century and came to a head politically, some hundred and fifty years later, in the Greek
War of Independence which broke out in A.D. 1821.

a
3

I. C (i) (), Annex II, vol

above.
On this point, see I. C (i) (b), vol. i, p. 95,
See I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 100-2, above.

See

i,

above.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

83

Crete might have been expected to retain its social importance

not only for historical reasons, as the place in which the Minoan
Civilization had attained its culmination, but for
geographical
reasons as well. Crete was by far the largest island in the Aegean
Archipelago, and it lay athwart two of the most important searoutes in the Hellenic World. Every ship that sailed from the
Peiraeus for Sicily had to pass between the western end of Crete
and Laconia; every ship that sailed from the Peiraeus for Egypt
had to pass between the eastern end of Crete and Rhodes. Yet,
whereas Laconia and Rhodes each played a leading part in Hellenic
history, Crete remained aloof, obscure and benighted from first
to last. While Hellas all around was giving birth to statesmen
and poets and artists and philosophers, the island which had once
been the home of the Minoan Civilization now bred nothing more
reputable than medicine-men and mercenaries and pirates; and
though the greatness of Minoan Crete had left its impress upon the
Hellenic Mythology in the fables of Minos the thalassocrat and his
brother Rhadamanthys, the judge of the dead, this did not save the
latter-day Cretan scapegrace from becoming a Hellenic byword.
Indeed, he has passed judgement on himself in the song of Hybrias 1
and in a hexameter which has been embedded, like a fly in amber,
in the canon of Christian Scripture. 'One of themselves, even a
prophet of their own, said: "The Cretians are always liars, evil
>2
Thus even the Apostle of the Gentiles
beasts, slow bellies."
the
Hellenes
of
Crete
from the charity which he bestowed
excepted
3
upon Hellenes in general.
Let us ask our question once again
this time in regard to the
Far Eastern Civilization which is 'affiliated' to the Sinic Civilization.
At what points in its domain has this Far Eastern Civilization
shown the greatest vigour ? The Japanese and the Cantonese stand
out unmistakably as its most vigorous representatives to-day; and
both these peoples have sprung from soil which is new ground and
not old ground from the standpoint of Far Eastern history. As
regards the south-eastern seaboard of China, we have noticed in an
earlier chapter* that it was not incorporated into the domain of the

An

English translation of the Song of Hybrias, by Gilbert Murray, will be found

Part III. A, vol. in, on p 87, footnote i.
2 The
Epistle of Paul to Titus, ch. i, v. 12. The hexameter here quoted runs in Greek :
*

below

Kp-fjres act 0c?ar<u, KCLKO. Bypla,, yaarepes apyot.

context
of this verse in the poem called 'Minos' which was attributed
original
to the Cretan 'prophet' Epimenides, see I C (i) (), vol. i, p 99, footnote 2.
3 The Cretans have not
forgiven St. Paul for immortalizing their ill repute, and they
have racked their brains to turn the passage of Scripture in which they are pilloried to the
Apostle's own discredit. When the present writer was travelling in Crete in the year
1912, a Cretan peasant adjured him in all seriousness to discount Paul's testimony on the
what had given Paul his antiground that Paul was a biased witness. On being asked
Cretan bias, the peasant explained that a Cietan had once got the better of Paul in a
+ In I. C
business transaction!
(i) (5), vol. i, p. 90, footnote 2.

For the

84

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

'apparentecT Sinic Society until the last phase of Sinic history, and
even then only on the superficial plane of politics, as a frontier
province of the Empire of the Han, which was the Sinic universal
Its inhabitants remained barbarians; and their successors
state.
in the four modern Chinese provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi,
Fukien, and Chekiang testify, in the nomenclature which they
employ, that they claim no part or lot in the chapter of history
which the Han Dynasty brought to a close. They resign the
glorious name of 'Han people' to their neighbours in the basins of
the Yangtse and the Yellow River, and use the name of 'T'ang
people' to designate themselves. In this designation they signify
that their own history did not begin until the Far Eastern Civilization had already emerged from the post-Sinic interregnum for the
lineaments of the Far Eastern Civilization had taken shape before
the close of the fifth century of the Christian Era, whereas the T'ang
Dynasty was not founded until A.D. 618. Thus the four provinces
of China Proper which are now the most vigorous and progressive
are the four in which the Far Eastern Civilization has broken new
ground. As for the Japanese Archipelago, the offshoot of the Far
Eastern Civilization which was transplanted thither, by way of
Korea, in the sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian Era was
propagated there on ground where there was no trace of any previous culture. The strong growth of this offshoot of the Far Eastern
Civilization on the virgin soil of Japan is comparable to the growth
of the offshoot of the Orthodox Christian Civilization which was
1
transplanted from the Anatolian Plateau to the virgin soil of Russia.
;

The Special Stimulus of Migration Overseas

This survey of the relative fertility of old ground and new
ground, as exemplified in the histories of seven 'related' civiliza2
for the doctrine
tions, has given us a certain empirical support
which is implicit in the myths of the Exodus and the Expulsion
the doctrine that the ordeal of breaking new ground has an intrinsic
stimulating effect. Before passing on from the physical to the
human environment, let us pause to glance at certain illustrations
:

by which the foregoing empirical evidence may be reinforced.

These additional illustrations confirm the view which is suggested by the unusual vitality of the Orthodox Christian Civilization in Russia and of the Far Eastern Civilization in
that
Japan
the stimulating effect of breaking new ground is greatest of all when
the new ground can only be reached by crossing the sea.
The special stimulus inherent in transmarine colonization appears
1

See pp. 8o-r, above.

For a defence of
Annex, below.

this empirical evidence against a possible

criticism, see II.

(m),

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

85

of the Mediterranean during the first half

of the last millennium B.C. when the Western Basin of the Mediterranean was being colonized competitively by maritime
pioneers
very clearly in the history

representing three different civilizations in the Levant. It appears,

for instance, in the degree to which the two
greatest of these
colonial foundations
Syriac Carthage and Hellenic Syracuse-

each outstripped its parent-city. 1 Carthage dwarfed Tyre in the

volume and value of her commerce, and on this economic basis she

up a

empire to which the parent-city did not and

could not aspire. Syracuse likewise dwarfed her parent Corinth in
political power, and perhaps even more signally in the contribution
which she made to Hellenic culture. Again, the Achaean colonies
in Magna Graecia became busy seats of Hellenic commerce and
industry, and brilliant centres of Hellenic thought, as early as the
sixth century B.C., whereas the parent Achaean communities
along
the northern coast of the Peloponnese remained in a backwater
built

political

main stream of Hellenic history for three more

centuries, and only emerged from this long obscurity after the
Hellenic Civilization had passed its zenith. As for the Locrians,
outside

the

who were

the Achaeans' neighbours on both sides of the Ionian

Sea, it was only the Epizephyrian Locrians, in their transmarine
settlement in Italy, who ever distinguished themselves at all. The
Locrians of Continental Greece remained obscure from first to last.
The most striking case of all is that of the Etruscans, 2 who were
the third party competing with the Greeks and the Phoenicians
for the colonization of the Western Mediterranean. In this competition, the Etruscans effectively held their own. Their colonies on
the west coast of Italy were comparable, in size and number, to the
Greek colonies in Magna Graecia and Sicily and to the Phoenician
colonies in Africa and Spain; and the Etruscan colonists, unlike
either the Phoenicians or the Greeks, were not content to remain
within sight of the sea across which they had come. They pushed
forward from the west coast of Italy into the interior with an dlan
which carried them on across the Appennines and across the Po,
until their outposts halted at last at the foot of the Alps. At the
same time, these colonial Etruscans remained in close contact with
their Greek and Phoenician rivals and though this contact gradually drew them into the ambit of the Hellenic Society and eventually
resulted in their being incorporated into the Hellenic body social,
this cultural 'conversion' increased rather than diminished the
;

importance of their position in the Mediterranean World.

Thus

colonization of North America, Boston in Massachuparent-town in Lincolnshire, and New York and New Orleans
have outstripped the two cities in England and France after which they are respectively
a See I. C
Annex II, above.
named,
(i) (6), vol. i, p. 114, footnote 3, with
1

As, in the

modern European

setts has outstripped its

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

86

the Etruscan colonies in Italy are illuminated by the full light of

history; and we are also not without evidence of an abortive
Etruscan colonial enterprise in another quarter a daring but unsuccessful attempt to compete with the Greeks, in Greek home waters,
for the mastery of the Dardanelles and for the command of the
Black Sea. 1 It is the more remarkable that the Etruscan homeland
in the Levant, which sent out overseas the Etruscan colonists of
Italy and the Etruscan colonists of Lemnos, should be an historical
terra incognita. No historical record of its exact location survives
and nothing can be built on the Hellenic legend that the Etruscans
have to be content with the knowledge,
came from Lydia. 2
supplied by the records of 'the New Empire' of Egypt, that the
ancestors of the Etruscans, like the ancestors of the Achaeans, took
part in the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung and in the presumption
that the ports from which the descendants of those older Etruscan
sea-raiders afterwards set sail to make their fortunes in the west lay
somewhere on the Asiatic coast of the Levant in the no-man's-land
between Greek Side and Phoenician Aradus. This surprising gap
in the historical record can only mean one thing: 3 namely, that the
Etruscans who stayed at home never did anything worth recording.
The astonishing contrast between the nonentity of the Etruscans at
home and their eminence overseas gives the measure of the stimulus
which they must have received in the process of transmarine
:

We

colonization.

The
all

stimulating effect of crossing the sea is perhaps greatest of

in a transmarine migration which occurs in the course of a

Volkerwanderung.

Such occurrences seem to be uncommon. The only instances

which the writer of this Study can call to mind are the migration of
the Teucrians, Aeolians, lonians, and Dorians across the Aegean to
the west coast of Anatolia and the migration of the Teucrians and
Philistines round the eastern end of the Mediterranean to the coast
of Syria in the course of the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung; the
migration of the Angles and Jutes across the North Sea to Britain in
the course of the post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung the consequent
migration of the Cornavii and other Britons across the Channel to
the Armorican Peninsula of Gaul the contemporary migration of
the Irish Scots across the North Channel to the corner of North
Britain that is now called Argyll; 4 and the migrations of the
;

See I. C (i) (), Annex II, in vol i, above.

This legend may have no better basis than the not very close resemblance between
two proper names : Tyrrhenoi and Torrheboi.
3 Pace those modern Western scholars who take
this to mean that the Etruscans of
*
autochthonous
Italians or else immigrants, by an overland route,
Italy were either
from the interior of the European Continent.
4 See II. D
(v), p 194, and II. D (vii), pp. 323-4, below.
1

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

87

Scandinavians in the course of the Volkerwanderung which followed

the abortive evocation of a ghost of the Roman Empire by the
1
This Scandinavian Volkerwanderung took place
Carolingians.
almost entirely by sea, and this in several directions from Norway
across the North Atlantic to the Shetlands and Orkneys and thence
by way of the Hebrides to Ireland and by way of the Faroes to
:

Denmark across the North Sea to England; from

either Norway or Denmark down the English Channel to Normandy; and from Sweden across the Baltic to Russia.
The Philistine migration, as we have observed at an earlier point
Iceland; from

in this chapter, 2

came to a standstill in an easy environment which

a
soporific effect upon the immigrants after they had
produced
settled down and this sequel would appear to have neutralized any
stimulating effect that may have been produced by the previous
;

The

likewise, appears to have

produced no appreciable stimulating effect to judge by the rather
and this in
undistinguished subsequent history of the Bretons

sea-passage.

British migration,

spite of the facts that the new Continental Brittany was decidedly
a hard country, and that the new-comers from overseas did not

establish their footing there without having to encounter and overcome a considerable resistance, both from the Roman Church and
from the Prankish 'successor-state* of the Roman Empire. 4 In the
that is to say, in the transmarine
other four instances, however
migrations of the lonians, the Angles, the Scots, and the Scandiwe can discern certain striking phenomena which have an
navians
inner connexion with one another and which appear in conjunction, in each instance, with singular uniformity, while they are not
to be found in the far more numerous instances of migration overland.
Considering that the four migrations in question have
occurred quite independently of one another at wide intervals of

time and place, 5

we may

venture, perhaps, to generalize from

them

*
For
For the abortive Scandinavian Civilization, see II
(vii), pp. 340-60, below.
the Scandinavian Heroic Age, out of which the abortive Scandinavian Civilization failed
to come to birth, see Part VIII, below. For the abortive Carolmgian ghost of the Roman
Empire, see Part X, below.
* See
pp. 49-51, above.
3
Moreover, the Philistine migration was only maritime in part The flotilla which
skirted the Asiatic coast was accompanied by a train of ox-carts in which the women and
children and goods of the migrant horde were transported overland.
4 The failure of the Bretons to distinguish themselves is the more remarkable when
we consider that their migration across the Channel in the post-Hellenic Volkerwandcrung is the exact analogue of the migration of the Aeohans and lonians across the
Aegean in the post-Minoan Volkci wanderung. The Continental Bretons, like the Asiatic
Acolians and lonians, are the overseas descendants of refugee representatives of the
antecedent civilization who have been dislodged by the incoming barbarians. They are
not the overseas descendants of the barbarians themselves, like the Angles and the
Dorians. In the history of the Aeohans and lonians, the combination of the stimulus of
transmarine migration with the asset of an inherited culture has, of course, shown itself

particularly potent
s

With the exception of the English and the

temporary

in date

though geographically

isolated

Scottish migrations,
from one another.

which were con-

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

88

to the extent of regarding those

phenomena which

are

common

to

four as being inherent features of a Volkerwanderung when this

takes place not in the usual fashion overland but in this exceptional
fashion over the water.
The distinctiveness of these phenomena and their inner conall

nexion with one another are both explained by one and the same
simple fact : In transmarine migration, the social apparatus of the
migrants has to be packed on board ship before they can leave
the shores of the old country and then unpacked again at the end of
the voyage before they can make themselves at home on new ground.
All kinds of apparatus
persons and property, techniques and

and ideas

are equally subject to this law. Anything

that cannot stand the sea voyage at all has simply to be left behind ;
institutions

and many things

and these not only material objects which the
migrants do manage to take with them can only be shipped after
never, perhaps, to be reassembled
they have been taken to pieces
in their original form.

This law governs

transmarine movements whatsoever. It has

governed, for example, the ancient Greek and Phoenician and
Etruscan colonization of the Western Basin of the Mediterranean
and the modern European colonization of America; and the challenge which, in virtue of this law, is inherent in a sea-passage
accounts for the intrinsic stimulus of crossing the sea which we have
observed already in these two cases. In these particular cases,
however, the colonists happen to have belonged to societies which
were already in process of civilization at the time when the sea was
crossed. When a transmarine migration occurs in the course of
a Volkerwanderung, the challenge is much more formidable and
the stimulus proportionately more intense because the
impact here
falls upon a society which is not
at
the
time but
socially progressive
is overtaken
the
while
it
is
still
in
that
static
condition
by
challenge
which is the last state of Primitive Man. 1 The transition, in the
all

Volkerwanderung, from this passivity to a sudden paroxysm of

storm and stress produces a dynamic effect
upon the life of any
2
which
the
community
undergoes
experience; but this effect is
naturally more intense when the migrants take ship than when they
keep their feet on solid ground throughout their trek. The driver
of an ox-cart has a greater command than the master of a
ship over
the circumstances of his journey. He can maintain an unbroken
1

For the Ym-state in which we find Primitive Man as we know

him, see T C (m) (e),
pp 179-80, and II. B, vol. i, pp. 192-5.
In essentials, every society which takes
a Vplkerwandeiung is still
that static condition
part
even though, ex hypothesi
it has been irradiated
by certain elements of the civilization into whose ambit it has been
attracted and in whose 'external proletariat' it has been enrolled and
whose former
vol.

i,

domain

below -)

it is

now

invading.

(See Part

II.

A, vol.

i,

pp. 187-8, above, and Part VIII '

See further Part VIII, below.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

89
contact with his base of operations he can pitch camp and strike
camp where and when he chooses; he can set his own pace; and
in these circumstances he can carry with him much of the social
apparatus which has to be discarded by his seafaring comrade.
Thus we can measure the stimulating effect of transmarine migration in the course of a Volkerwanderung by comparing the phenomena with the effect of migration overland, and a fortiori with the
effect of staying at home and letting the paroxysm pass without
being moved to follow either the swan-path or the cart-track.
;

When the Scandinavians went beyond the sea, their migration meant
more than a change of place. At home, the World, large as it was, could
be surveyed from the homestead with the eyes of the mind but, as one
horizon burst on the view and another closed in ... the ancient Middlegarth lost its definiteness and made way for something more akin to our
*

Universe. This change of outlook gave birth to a

and men.

new conception of gods

The

local deities whose power was coextensive with the

of
their
territory
worshippers were replaced by a corporate body of gods
the
World. The holy place with its blot-house which had formed
ruling
the centre of Middlegarth was raised on high and turned into a divine
mansion. Time-honoured myths setting forth the doings of mutually
independent deities were worked up into a poetical mythology, a divine
saga, on the same lines that had been followed by an earlier race of
Vikings, the Homeric Greeks. This religion brought a new god to birth :
1
Odin, the leader of men, the lord of the battlefield.'

In somewhat similar fashion, the overseas migration of the Scots

from Ireland to North Britain prepared the way for the entry of
a new religion. It is no accident that the transmarine Dalriada
became the head-quarters of St. Columba's missionary movement
which not only achieved the conversion of the Picts and the
Northumbrians but also exercised a profound retroactive influence
upon Christianity in Ireland itself through the Familia Columbae
:

a cluster of federated monasteries, mostly situated on Irish soil,

which all recognized the supremacy of lona. 2
One distinctive phenomenon of transmarine migration is the
intermingling and interbreeding of diverse racial strains; for the
first piece of social apparatus that has to be abandoned is the primiNo ship will hold more than one ship's
tive tribe or horde.
company, and the primitive ship is small. At the same time, the
primitive ship is relatively mobile compared with the ox-cart or
other primitive means of transport on land. Moreover, in transmarine migration, no less than in overland migration, there is
safety in numbers. For these reasons, a new community founded
1

: The Culture
of the Teutons (London 1931, Milford,
pp. 306-7.
For the Familia Columbae, see further II.
(vn), p. 325, below.

Grbnbech, V.

irt II,

3 parts in

vols.),

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

90

by migrants across the sea is apt to be established by the concerted

efforts of a number of crews which have joined forces from different
in contrast to the ordinary process of migration overland,
quarters
in which a whole tribe is apt to pack its women and children and
seed-corn and household gods and household utensils into its oxcarts

and move

Earth.

We

off en masse, at a foot's pace, over

catch a glimpse of this phenomenon of

the face of the

maritime race-

mixture in the foundation-legends of Hellenic Aeolis and Ionia

whatever these legends may be worth in the form in which they
have been transmitted by Herodotus and Pausanias. In almost
every Greek city-state along the west coast of Anatolia, the latterday inhabitants traced their ancestry back to more places than one
not to speak of the strains
in the European Greek peninsula
introduced by intermarriage with the native women whom the
pioneers took captive. We are on surer ground when we turn from
the case of Ionia to that of Iceland, where an exact and detailed oral
record survived to be perpetuated in the Landnamabok.
the peculiarly favourable conditions for mental development
in Iceland, the most important was the selection of the human stock that
settled the island.
It included all those families of petty kings and
peasant chieftains from Western Norway who refused to yield to the
autocratic rule of Harold Fairhair, preferring to seek a new home on the
distant island which had recently been discovered. At the same time it
was impossible for the society of Iceland to become a mere repetition of
the old Norwegian community; the racial mixture was too pronounced
for that. There came Norwegians from various parts of the country,
stragglers from Sweden, vikings from the West, including even some
semi-Celtic elements.' 1

'Among

This distinctive phenomenon of unusually far-going racial mixture is closely connected with another: the unusually rapid disintegration of the kin-group which is the basis of social organization
in a primitive society. The comparative efficacy of transmarine
migration and of overland migration as solvents of the kin-group is

appraised as follows, at the conclusion of an exhaustive inquiry,

a distinguished modern student of Scandinavian antiquities :

by

'The analogy of the Icelandic settlers will incline us to accept the idea
that a migration involving transport by sea was especially liable to impair
the sense of kin-solidarity among those who venture on it, though the

who remained behind might

not be appreciably
affected. It is extremely unlikely that each group of kindred would build
a vessel and man it exclusively, or even mainly, with their own kinsmen ;
on the contrary, all analogies show us that any individuals wishing to
organization of those

join an expedition
1

would

rally to the first ship that

Olrik, A.: Viking Civilisation (English translationCp. p. 112.

pp, 175-6.

London

was

sailing

and

1930, Allen and Unwin),

THE STIMULUS1OF NEW GROUND

91

probably remain permanently associated with its crew in the new

country
A classic example is afforded by the sons of Earl Hrollaug of Norway,
one of whom, Gongu-Hrolf, is declared by Snorri to have founded the
Duchy of Normandy; one lost his life in the Western Isles of Scotland
on an expedition with Harald Hairfair; another became Earl of the
Orkneys, while yet another settled in Iceland. It seems more than
4

probable that the peoples of Schleswig-Holstein lived under similar

conditions in the 5th century, with viking expeditions, and finally the

permanent conquest of England, as the result. The settlers in England

might therefore be almost as lacking in full kindreds as the settlers in
Iceland a few centuries later. Before we make certain that the invaders
must have come over en masse, in full kindreds, in order to achieve such
a vast result as the conquest of England, we shall do well to remind
ourselves that the feat was all but paralleled, in a much shorter time and
in the teeth of a resistance at least equally obstinate, by the vikings of a
later period; yet that no one thinks it necessary to assume a wholesale

emigration of kindreds in this case, or to postulate that the organization

of the Vikings, when they arrived in England, was on a basis of kindreds.
'If we are to adopt the Danish theory that the Normans are mainly of
Danish and not Norwegian origin, we can point to Normandy also as
the
affording corroborative evidence for the disintegrating influence on
kindred of a settlement by sea. According to this theory the invaders of
Normandy came from the highly cohesive kindreds of Denmark. Yet
the traces of kinship-solidarity in thirteenth-century Normandy are far
fainter than in other districts of Northern France, which the Teutons

reached by land.
'So far as it goes, too, the evidence available for the easternmost and
westernmost of Teutonic settlements bears out our contention. The
laws of the Swedish kingdom in Russia, won by naval expeditions, show
but a feeble conception of kinship: the slayer alone pays for his deed,
and the right of vengeance is limited to brother, father, son and nephew.
On the other hand, West Gothic custumals in Spain show division of
wergild between kinsmen, definitely organized blood-feuds between
The West Goths travelled
kindreds, and oath-helpers of the kindred
a long way, but they travelled by land.
'Thus we are driven to the conclusion that the main disintegrating
factor in the case of the Teutonic kindreds was migration, and especially
of the
migration by sea. Denmark and Schleswig are the strongholds
France
Northern
and
Netherlands
kindreds: those of Friesland, the
had vitality enough to withstand centuries of highly adverse influences,
whereas the Icelander stood alone from the moment he set foot on
questioned whether the Anglo-Saxon
settler was in much
Here, too, we should find
an explanation of the weakness of the kindreds in Norway, for much of
the settlement of that country must have been accomplished by sea, and
Icelandic soil; and

it

may be

better case in this respect.

at a very late period.*

i

Phillpotts, B. S.

Kindred and Clan (Cambridge 1913, University Press), pp, 257-65.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

92

of transmarine migration is the

atrophy of a primitive institution which is perhaps the supreme
expression of undifferentiated social life before this is refracted,
by a clarifying social consciousness, on to the separate planes of
and religion and art the institution of the
economics and

Another

distinctive

phenomenon

politics

and his cycle.

work by the same authority
wavro$

Satjitcov

On this point we may

quote another

'In Iceland the May Day game, the ritual wedding, and the wooing
scene seem hardly to have survived the settlement, partly, no doubt,
because the settlers were mainly of a travelled and enlightened class, and
partly because these rural observances are connected with agriculture,
which could not be an important branch of activity in Iceland.' 2

If

we wish

to see the ritual of the eviauros Safacw in

its

glory in

the Scandinavian World, we must study its development

Scandinavian peoples who did not leave their homes

among

seems that at Lejre and Salhaugar in Sjaelland, at Upsala in

Sweden, and possibly at the old Skiringssal in South Norway, the
'It

was presented in ancient sanctuaries consecrated by the

tombs of kings or gods. There is some reason for believing that it was
the central rite of a religious confederacy. This drama was apparently
performed only once every nine years, by actors of royal birth, and there
was a tradition of an actual slaying. Such stately drama as this was
bound by immemorial tradition to one locality. The sanctuary, the

fertility-drama

3
goddess, the priest-king could not migrate with the members of the
confederate tribes. There is therefore no trace of what we may call
literary drama, or of such highly developed tragic drama, outside
Southern Scandinavia, where Teutonic peoples had been settled for

several thousand years.' 4

The

work from which these two last passages are

that
the
Scandinavian
quoted
poems which have been preserved
by Icelandic tradition and committed to writing in the Icelandic
compilation called the Elder Edda are derived from the spoken
thesis of the
is

words of the primitive Scandinavian fertility-drama

the only
element in the traditional ritual which the migrants were able to
cut away from its deeply-embedded local roots and to take on
board ship with them. According to this theory, the development
of a primitive ritual into a Scandinavian drama was arrested among
1
See Part II. B, vol. i, p. 189. The undifferentiated unity of Art and Religion and
Life itself in a primitive human society is pointed out, apropos of the Scandinavian case,
by Gronbech, V.: The Culture of the Teutons (London 1931, Milford, 3 parts in 2 vols.),
Part II, pp. 239-41 and 269.
2
Phillpotts, B. S.: The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandinavian Drama (Cambridge
The
1920, University Press), p. 204. On the same subject, see further Grbnbech, V.
:

the migrations of the Franks did not

4
Phillpotts, op. cit., p. 207.

last

long and affected their customs very

little.'

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

those Scandinavians

93

who

and the theory is

For it is a wellsupported by
established fact that, although the Hellenic Civilization came to
flower in transmarine Ionia first, the Hellenic drama, which was
one of the highest creations of Hellenic culture, sprang from the
continental soil of the European Greek peninsula. The counterpart, in Hellas, of the sanctuary at Upsala was the theatre of
Dionysus at Athens. Neither Ionia nor Iceland could show the like.
The distinctive phenomena of transmarine migration which we
migrated across the sea ;
an analogy from Hellenic history.

have noticed so far are

'

but the challenge implicit in

these negative phenomena has evoked a remarkable positive response which must now engage our attention.
At an earlier point in this Study we have found reason to believe
all

negative

that race-mixture, by setting up a physical disturbance, administers

a stimulus to the psyche which is conducive to the genesis of a
civilization
so much so, that the geneses of civilizations may
1
actually prove to require contributions from more races than one.
This indirect physical stimulus may be assumed to reinforce the

'

direct psychic stimulus which is administered by 'a sea change* ;

and the two factors in combination shatter the 'cake of custom'

which primitive societies, as we know them, are fast bound. 2

Thereupon, in long-imprisoned and suddenly liberated souls there
emerges a rudimentary social consciousness which reveals itself in
two closely connected forms: an awareness of strong individual
personalities and an awareness of momentous public events. The
circumstances and spirit of this mental awakening are forcibly conveyed in the following description of it, as it came to pass in
Iceland, from the pen of one of the three modern Western scholars
in

whom we

*-

have quoted already.

'The largest part of the population came from the districts of Hordaland and Rogaland in Western Norway, [and] it was these regions that
had contributed most to the great Viking Age and the period of discoveries. Many families had spent years in the western colonies. They
had acquired a wide horizon and an insight into political conditions in
near and distant places; for all these scattered habitations were closely
connected with each other by family ties and common enterprises. The
numerous merchant-ships constantly brought news, which was received,
The experiences of contemporaries naturally
scrutinised and judged.
became transformed into sagas.
'These aristocratic and talented persons settled in Iceland under more
severe conditions of life than they had formerly known. Instead of being
a petty king, the peasant had at most a very limited chieftain authority
as thsgodi (sacrificial priest and thing leader) of his district; many a man
*

See
For

(ii) (6) i, vol.

pp. 239-243, and II.
this 'cake of custom' see Part II. B, vol. i, p. 192, above.

II.

(ii)

(a) i, vol.

i,

i,

p. 278, above.

94

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

of noble origin had to settle as a peasant in the godord (godi district) of

another man. Instead of proud raftered halls, they built houses with
walls of earth several yards thick, a continuous row or group of such
houses constituting the farm buildings. Cattle-breeding, bird-hunting,
if they were to yield
fishing required an extreme degree of attention
man who once had
a
foodstuffs for all the housecarls and servants;
traded in the most precious commodities of foreign countries had now
circumstances of
only the home-woven frieze to export. The external
The only earmark of nobility that was still
life were narrowing down.
retained from the forefathers was the mental culture, the ability to pass in
1
review a succession of events, to form a judicious estimate of situations.'

In the strenuous and stimulating mental atmosphere here described,

the void resulting from the absence of the primitive social apparatus
that has been left behind in crossing the sea is filled by new acts of

The

energies released by the breaking of the 'cake

of custom' crystallize, in the new transmarine environment, into
new activities which are definite in their forms and are limited in
their scope, in each case, to some single plane of social life. In the
field left clear by the atrophy of the fertility-ritual there arises a
social creation.

Saga or the Epic. In the field

left clear
disintegration of the kin-group there arises a
polity in the likeness of a ship's company on an enlarged scale and
on a permanent basis: a commonwealth in which the binding
element is not community of blood but that common obedience to
a freely chosen leader and common respect for a freely accepted
law which has been called 'the social contract' in the figurative
language of our modern Western Political Mythology.
The Saga and the Epic both alike arise in response to the same
new mental need. In both, the new awareness of strong individual
personalities and of momentous public events, which the storm
and stress of the Volkerwanderung has brought into consciousness,
finds an expression through art. 2
*The Icelandic Saga
grew out of reports of contemporary happenA
man
who
had
recently returned home would sit at the Althing
ings.
narrative

form of
by the

literary art: the

Olrik, op. cit , pp. 176-7

The difference between the Saga and the Epic lies not in the nature of the stimulus
by which they are evoked nor in the nature of the interests and feelings and ideas which
are expressed in them, but merely in the method and origin of their respective techniques.
In the Icelandic Saga, the new interest in personalities and events finds expression in a
technique which is new likewise. The form and matter of the dialogues and soliloquies
that grew out of the continental Scandinavian fertility-ritual are religiously preserved in
the Elder Edda; but, having once been torn away from their roots in Older to he transported across the sea, they are not put to new uses in the new country nor developed any
further. They are preserved, as it were, as fossils; and when the Icelanders fashion 'the
Saga, the true Icelandic counterpart of the Epic, out of the stories current in the countryside', they create, to convey it, 'a new prose form* in which they are 'hampered by no
fossilised tradition* (Phillpotts- The Elder Edda, p
The sagas only indirectly
205).
reveal the existence of an older dramatic technique in a certain dramatic sense and
dramatic detachment which are characteristic of their style (op. cit,, loc. cit.)
On the
other hand, the makers of the Epic
in Ionia or in England
solve the same problem of
2

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

and

95

a connected account
of all that had taken place
story
the
at
well-known scenes of action
during
year
Probably many a saga
in
this
The
was
related
to
an
originated
way.
story
attentively listening
circle of hearers by one who had himself been taking part in the events;
and while the first scene is being thus reported, Life itself continues the
destinies of the acting persons.' 1
tell his

Thus, one day at the Althing, Thormod listens to a saga that is

being told by Thorgrim and slays the teller after the tale is done
because an incident in the story has been the slaying, by Thorgrim
2
himself, of Thormod's own foster-brother.
Thus, likewise, during
the siege of Troy, when Achilles is sulking in his tent, he is there
found entertaining himself by singing *the tales of warriors' 3
such
tales as 'the wrath of Achilles' itself is destined to become in the
mouths of Homeric minstrels. Already, in the tenth year after the
fall of Troy, the tales of the siege and of the victors' homeward
voyages are ever in the mouths of the minstrel Phemius in Ithaca
and the minstrel Demodocus in the land of the Phaeacians.4
'That lay is praised of men the most which ringeth newest in
their ears.' 5 Yet there is one thing in an epic lay that is still more
highly prized than its novelty by the hearers, and that is the

human

interest of the story.

predominates just so long as the storm

intrinsic

The
and

interest in the present

stress of the Heroic Age

continues; but this social paroxysm is essentially transitory; and,

finding an artistic expression for the new interest in personalities and events by 'making
over* both the form and the matter of the continental fertility-ritual to fit the new
demand. Thus, in the Greek and English Epic we find the tale of Troy's fall or Achilles'
wrath or Odysseus' wanderings or Beowulf's exploits grafted on to myths in which the
stuff of primitive ritual has been reshaped and projected into heroic narrative. The
amalgamation of these two elements in the Epic is so thorough, and the artistic perfection
of the finished product is so complete, that it needs all the paraphernalia of 'the Higher
Criticism' to analyse the process which has taken place. Neveitheless, such analysis
reveals not only the presence of these two once separate elements in the Epic but also
the extreme diversity of their nature and origin. The Epic, unlike the Saga, has a ritual
root, and it shares this root with the Drama. The continental Ionic Drama of Attica and
the transmarine Ionic Epic of Ionia are two flowers of art which have sprung from a
single religious stem. By contrast, the poetry of the Elder Edda and the prose of the
Sagas are two flowers that have sprung from different stems out of roots bedded in
different soils. The Elder Edda is a flower which has wilted, before it has been able
its full perfection, because its root has been cut in order to transport it
to unfold itself
across the sea. The Saga is a flower which has blossomed because it has grown up from

new
1

roots in the

new

ground.

Olrik, op. cit, pp. 177-8.

This illustiation is cited at greater length in

op

cit.,

loc

cit.,

omitted in the foiegomg quotation.

3
TQV 8* $pov <f>pva Tepiro/xevov ^op/xtyyt XtyeCfj.
rn o y* dvaov ZrepTTtv, deiSe 8* apa nXea av$p>v.

in the passage here

.

(Ihad, IX, 11. 186-9.)

four lays sung by Phemius and Demodocus in the Odyssey, no less than three
are taken from the Trojan Cycle, while only one is a tale of the Gods. Phemius sings
of the homeward voyage of the Achaeans (Od. I, 11. 325-7), Demodocus of a quarrel
between Odysseus and Achilles (Od. VIII, 11. 73-82), and of the Wooden Horse (Od.
VIII, 11. 499-520).
5
r^v yap aotS^v /taAAov CTrt/ctatovcr' civQpwiroi,
n Tt? dfcot;6VT<r<ri vecuTarn du^TeAi?Tai.
(Od. 1, 11. 351-2.)
*

Of the

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

96

storm abates, the lovers of the Epic and the Saga come to feel
that life in their time has grown tamer than it was in the time of
their heroic predecessors. Therewith, they cease to prefer new
lays to old; and the latter-day minstrel or saga-man, responding
to his hearers' change of mood, repeats, like Nestor, the tales of the
older generation. When the storm abated in Iceland, 'now that
as the

the present moment was less eventful and exciting, attention was
fixed on the deeds of the past they were again brought forth and
And only then did
shaped artistically into connected accounts.
the sagas in the proper sense of the term begin to take shape.' 1
When the storm abated in Ionia, the latter-day epic poet still
;

harped upon Phemius's and Demodocus's Trojan theme

'Tell me, Muse, of a man a man of many shifts a man who wandered
much when he had sacked Troy's sacred fastness. O, many were the
folk whose cities he beheld and knew their thoughts beside; and many
were the sorrows that he suffered in his heart; sorrows of the sea, in
striving for his life and striving therewithal to bring his comrades
homeward.' 2
:

Thus

the art of the Homeric Epic and the Icelandic Saga continued to live and flourish when the stimulus which had first
evoked it was no longer at work. It ultimately attained its literary
zenith in the altered circumstances of a later age. The literary
is the
as exemplified in Beowulf
history of the English Epic
same. Nevertheless, these mighty works of art would never have
come into being if that original stimulus had not been exerted and
it was
produced, as we have seen, by the ordeal of migration across
the sea. This explains why the Hellenic Epic developed in transmarine Ionia and not, like the Hellenic Drama, in the European
Greek peninsula the Teutonic Epic on the island of Britain and
not on the European Continent 3 and the Scandinavian Saga on the
island of Iceland and not, like the Scandinavian Drama, in Denmark or Sweden. This contrast between the transmarine and the
;

continental artistic

phenomena appears with such

regularity in
of the authorities

such widely different times and places that one

whom we have cited formulates it as a law. Drama
*

develops in
the home country, Epic among migrating peoples, whether they
or to Ionia, for the
migrate to France or England or Germany
with
Drama
Greek
holds good here too.'4
analogy
i

Od. I, II. 1-5.

the Teutonic peoples who took part in the post-Hellenic Vtflkerwanderung, the
majority migrated overland on the European Continent and only the Angles and the
Jutes overseas from the Continent to Britain. Yet, of the extant epic poetry that has
sprung from the Teutonic migrations of that age, all the mature and complete specimens
are of English make, while the Continental School is represented by a handful of rather
rudimentary original fragments and some Latin versions.
4
Phillpotts, B. S.: The Elder Edda (Cambridge 1920, University Press), p. 207.
3

Olrik, op. cit., p. 179.

Of

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

97

The

other positive creation that emerges from the ordeal of

transmarine migration in the course of a Volkerwanderung is not
artistic, like the Epic and the Saga, but political. This new kind of
polity is a commonwealth in which the binding element is contract
and not kinship.
have noted its nature already by anticipation,
and examples of it leap to the mind.

We

The most famous examples, perhaps, are those city-states which

were founded by seafaring Greek migrants in the last convulsion of
the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung along the west coast of Anatolia,
in the districts which subsequently came to be known as Aeolis and
Ionia and Doris. The scanty surviving records of Hellenic constitutional history seem to indicate that the principle of
political
organization by law and locality instead of by custom and kinship
asserted itself first in these Greek settlements overseas and was
afterwards adopted in the European Greek peninsula by mimesis,
In the act of establishing their foothold on the Anatolian coast in
the face of opposition from the previous occupants of the country,
the Greek seafarers would proceed upon the new principle sponeach hailing from a
taneously. A number of ship's companies
different district and recruited from members of many different
would join forces to conquer a new home for themkin-groups
selves overseas and to secure their common conquest by building a

common

In the city-state thus founded, the 'cells' of the

new political organization would be, not kindreds held together by
the tie of common descent, but 'tribes' 1 representing ship's comcitadel.

panies; and these ship's-companies, in taking to the land, would

still be held together
by the ties which had held them on shipboard. Having co-operated at sea as men do co-operate when they
are 'all in the same boat' in the midst of the perils of the deep,
they would continue to feel and act in the same way ashore when
they had to hold a strip of hardly- won coast against the menace of a
hostile hinterland. On shore, as at sea, comradeship would count
for more than kin, and the orders of a chosen and trusted leader
would override the promptings of habit and custom. In fact, a bevy
of ship's-companies joining forces to conquer a new home for
themselves overseas in a strange land would turn spontaneously
into a city-state articulated into local 'tribes' and governed by an
elective magistracy.
There are no corresponding circumstances to account for the

evolution of the Hellenic city-state in European Greece and indeed

our scanty records indicate that the Greeks who had stayed at
home in Europe came into line politically with the Greeks who
had migrated across the sea to Asia by imitating, artificially and
;

II

The

conventional English translation of the Greek

word

^uAat.

98

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

an act which, in the settlement of Aeolis and Ionia and

Doris, had been something immediate and spontaneous. On the
coast of Anatolia, the city-state was a new creation evoked by the
stimulus of transmarine migration. In European Greece it was
a revolutionthe second-hand product of a deliberate 'synoecism'
ary aggregation of village-communities into city-states, which was
belatedly,

accompanied or followed by the substitution of locality for kin as the

basis of political organization. There is no reason to suppose that any
such 'synoecism' would ever have been carried out or even thought
of in 'the old country' if the spontaneous generation of the city-state
in 'the new country' overseas had not provided the Hellenic Society
a model which was commended not only by its
with a model polity
own obvious intrinsic merits but also by the prestige of its creators,
the Hellenes of Aeolis and Ionia, who were in the forefront of the

Hellenic Civilization in this first age of Hellenic history. 1

When we turn from the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung to the
Scandinavian, we can discern the rudiments of a similar political
development in certain new Scandinavian communities which arose

out of transmarine migrations likewise. 2 If the abortive Scandinavian Civilization had actually come to birth, the part once played
in Hellenic history by the city-states of Aeolis and Ionia might have
been played in Scandinavian history by the five city-states of the
Ostmen along the Irish coast 3 or by the five boroughs which were
organized by the Danes to guard the landward border of their con4
Even as it was, the stimulus of transmarine
quests in Mercia.
1
The artificial character of the process of 'synoecism* in Continental Greece, as a.
deliberate imitation of an overseas pattern, is indicated by the fact that the four 'Ionic'
<f)vXai, into which the Athenian body politic was articulated before the Clcisthenic
reorganization of 508 B c., were a selection from a larger number of <j>v\ai into which we
know that the body politic was articulated at Miletus. (See Wilamowitz-MoellcndorrT,
U. von: Aristoteles und Athen (Berlin 1893, Weidmann, 2 vols.), vol. 11, pp. 138-42.) On
this analogy, we may conjecture that the three 'Doric* </>vXai likewise originated spontaneously in some city-state of the overseas Doris and were reproduced artificially in
some of the 'Dorian* city-states of Continental Greece (there is no evidence for their
reproduction in Sparta). So much for the overseas origin of the 'Ionic* and 'Doric' <f>y\at
in the city-states of Continental Greece.
may attribute the same origin to the 'Dorian*,
'Ionian*, and 'Aeolian* races into which the Greek-speaking World as a whole was
conventionally articulated. The Greek transmarine settlements on the Anatolian coast
fell into three distinct geographical groups speaking three different dialects of the Greek
language. The local names of these groups were Aeolis, Ionia, and Doris; and we may
conjecture that the same names were subsequently applied to communities in other parts
of the Greek-speaking World on grounds of linguistic affinity or of accidental similarity
of name. (See Beloch, K. J. : Gnechische Geschichte, 2nd edition, vol. i (i) (Strassburg
1912, Trabner), pp. 139-42 )
2 See
Olrik, A.: Viking Civilisation (London 1930, Allen and Unwm), pp. 98-9.
3 These
city-states were Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. (For
their history, see Kendrick, T. D.:
History of the Vikings (London 1930, Methuen),
pp. 277 and 299.)
* These five
boroughs were Lincoln, Stamford, Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham
(see Kendrick, op. cit., p. 236).
Compare the four similar boroughs which were
established, after the conclusion of the Treaty of Wedmoie, at Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Bedford, in order to guard the landward borders of Danish East

We

Anglia (Kendrick, op.

cit.,

p. 240).

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

99

migration produced several Scandinavian polities that did attain a

the south coast of the Baltic, in
high degree of development.
Wendland, the short-lived fraternity of the Jomsvikings

On

developed
a standard of asceticism, discipline, and prowess which won for
Jomsborg, in its day, the same reputation in the Scandinavian
World that Sparta had once enjoyed in Hellas. 1 The older Scandinavian settlement of Aldeigjuborg
established by vikings who had
crossed the Baltic from west to east and had pushed on up the Gulf
of Finland and up the River Neva into Lake Ladoga
made an
impression of political efficiency upon the minds of the Northern
Slavs which is reflected in the foundation-legend of the Scandinavian empire in Russia. The legend relates that the Slavs who had
fallen under the yoke of these intruders from beyond the sea
succeeded in driving their new masters out ; but that, having once
experienced, under duress, the benefits of Scandinavian rule, they
found the reversion to their native anarchy so intolerable that
they invited the Scandinavians to return and receive their willing
obedience. This legendary 'social contract' between a primitive
Slavonic population and a Scandinavian ruling class which had
acquired its political education in crossing the sea is the traditional
explanation of the origin of the Russian State. Yet the creation of
Russia was not the greatest political feat that was achieved by
Scandinavians who migrated overseas. It was surpassed by the
a Scandinavian polity whose
creation of the Republic of Iceland
foundation is not veiled in legend but is illuminated by the full light
of history. On the apparently unpromising soil of this barren
arctic island, which could only be reached from the nearest Scandinavian point d'appui in the Faroes by crossing some five hundred
miles of open Atlantic, the political as well as the literary genius of
the Scandinavian Civilization produced its finest flower.
As for the political consequences of the transmarine migration of
the Angles and Jutes to Britain in the course of the post-Hellenic
Volkerwanderung, it is perhaps something more than a coincidence
that an island which was occupied at the dawn of Western history
by immigrants who had shaken off the shackles of the primitive
kin-group in crossing the sea should afterwards have been the
'Jonisborg . . . was inhabited by a ... viking garrison; and legend tells that this
society within the fortress was governed by strict rules. There were no women at all
allowed inside, and each one of the men was a warrior of tested valour, not older than
fifty years of age nor younger than eighteen. Courage, and courage alone, won admission
that company a self-sacrificing loyalty to each and all one's
to their company, and
fellows was demanded of the Jomsvikings, slander of any kind was prohibited, and the
private retention of booty forbidden. Military efficiency was the sole object of their
organization and regulations, and though no single man might be away fron^the
fortress for more than three days without special licence, each summer the Jomsvikings
were abroad together fighting, and so widespread did their fame become that soon they
were counted as the greatest wariiors of the North/ (Kendrick, op. cit., pp. 181-2.)
1

ioo

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

country in which our Western Civilization achieved some of the

most important steps in its political progress. The Danish and
Norman invaders who followed on the heels of the Angles, and who
share the credit for subsequent English political achievements,
likewise came over the element that has to be traversed by all who
set foot on the shores of an island; and the sea-passage had the

same

liberating effect

upon

their social organization as

upon

that of

their seafaring predecessors.

people thus fruitfully diversified
in its racial composition, and at the same time uniformly freed from
the encumbrance of a hampering primitive institution, offered an

unusually favourable field for political cultivation. It is not surhave succeeded, in

prising that our Western Civilization should
England, in creating first 'the King's Peace' and thereafter 'Parliamentary Government', while, on the Continent, our Western
survival of the kinpolitical development was retarded by the

group among the descendants of Franks and Lombards who had

not been relieved of that social incubus at the outset by a liberating
transit of the sea.

Finally, we may observe, in this political connexion, the curious

fact that one of the two enduring political entities that have

eventually emerged out of the struggle for existence between the

ephemeral barbarian 'successor-states' of the Roman Empire in
Britain has been the Kingdom of Scotland; 1 and that the founders
and eponyms of this Scotland in Britain were an overseas offshoot
of those original Scots of Ireland who, in their native island, are a

byword

for their prolonged

failure to create

an effective united

even under the pressure of the most formidable

foreign aggression from the Scandinavians and thereafter from the
Irish

state

English.

IV.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

Having now examined the relative stimulating effects of a less

and a more difficult environment in cases in which the environments are physical, we may complete this part of our study by
surveying the field of human environments on the same comparative method.
For convenience, we may divide this field into sections. We may
distinguish, first, between those human environments that are
geographically external to the societies upon which they act, and

For the creation of the Kingdom of Scotland, see further II.

(v), pp. 190-2 and
194-5, below.
3 It is one of the curiosities of
history that even in these latter days, when the Irish have
to some extent retrieved their political reputation by their success in establishing an
Irish Free State, this political achievement in Ireland itself has been forestalled by the
success of the Irish emigrants across the Atlantic
playing the game of 'machine
polities' in the United States!
1

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

101

those that are geographically intermingled with them. The former

category will cover the action of societies, peoples, states, cities, and
other social organizations that are in exclusive occupation, at any
given time, of particular portions of the habitable world, upon
neighbouring social organizations of the same kind. From the
standpoint of the organizations which play the passive role in such
social intercourse, the human environment with which they are
confronted here is 'external' or 'foreign'. The second of our two
categories will cover the action of one social 'class' upon another,
where the two 'classes' are in joint occupation of the same geographical area, and where the term 'class' is employed in its widest
meaning. From the standpoint of a 'class' which plays the passive
role, the human environment constituted by the other 'classes' that
are acting upon it is 'internal' or 'domestic'. Leaving this 'internal
human environment' for later examination, and starting with the
'external human environment', we may begin by making a further
subdivision between the impact of the 'external human environ3
ment when it takes the form of a sudden blow and its impact in the
form of a continuous pressure.
What is the effect of sudden blows from the external human
environment ? Does our proposition 'The greater the challenge the
greater the stimulus' hold good here ? Let us seek light, once more,
from our well-tried empirical method of inquiry.
The first test cases that naturally occur to our minds are certain
sensational instances in which a military and militant Power has
first been stimulated by successive contests with its neighbours, and
has then suddenly been prostrated in an encounter with some
adversary against whom it has never measured its strength before.
What usually happens when incipient empire-builders are thus
dramatically overthrown in mid-career? Do they usually remain
lying, like Sisera, where they have fallen, while their half-built
empire collapses like a house of cards ? Or, on the contrary, do
they rise again from their Mother Earth, like the giant Antaeus of
the Hellenic Mythology, 1 with their strength and vigour and moral

Do

they succumb ? Or do they react to an unprecedentedly heavy blow by an unprecedented outburst of purposeful
energy ? The historic examples indicate that the second and not the
former alternative reaction is the normal outcome.
What, for example, was the effect of the Glades Alliensis upon the
fortunes of Rome ? The catastrophe overtook her only five years
after her victory in her long and arduous duel with Veii had placed
her, at last, in a posture to assert her hegemony over Latium. The
overthrow of the Roman Army at the Allia and the occupation of

redoubled

For the myth of Antaeus, see further Part X, below.

102

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Rome

herself

by barbarians from the back of beyond might have

been expected to wipe out, at one stroke, once and for all, the power
and prestige which Rome had won, just before, by the overthrow
and annexation of her Etruscan neighbour. Instead, Rome recovered from the Gallic disaster so rapidly that, within less than
half a century after the Gauls had been ignominiously bought off,
the Roman State was able to engage in a longer and more arduous
duel with a mightier neighbour than Veii for higher stakes. The
Roman State was able to fight the Samnite Confederacy for the
prize of a hegemony over all Italy, and eventually to emerge victorious from a fifty-years' war which far surpassed, in scale and
1
severity, any previous war which Rome had ever ventured to wage.
What, again, was the effect on the fortunes of the 'Osmanlis
when Timur Lenk took Bayezid Yilderim captive on the field of
'
Angora ? This catastrophe overtook the Osmanlis just when they
were on the point of completing their conquest of the main body
f
of Orthodox Christendom in the Balkan Peninsula. The Osmanlis

had planted their military colonies in Thrace and Macedonia they

had overthrown the latest masters of the interior the Serbs on
the field of Kosovo; and they were beleaguering the last remnant
of the East Roman Empire in Constantinople. At the moment
when they were thus on the verge of consolidating the results of
fifty years' labours in Europe, they were prostrated, on the Asiatic
side of the Straits, by a thunderbolt from Transoxania. A collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans might have been
the more so, inasmuch
expected to follow the disaster at Angora
as Timur, being rather more provident if not much more persevering
than Brennus, had taken steps to paralyse the Ottoman Power in
its Anatolian homeland by liberating and
re-establishing the rival
Anatolian Turkish principalities.
So far from that, however,
;

Mehmed

the Conquerer, who succeeded to the Ottoman throne

just half a century after his ancestor Bayezid had been carried away
captive to Samarqand, was able to place the coping-stone on
Bayezid's building by taking possession of Constantinople and
rounding off the Ottoman Empire until, from Trebizond to the
gates of Belgrade and from the Crimea to the Morea, it comprised
the whole domain of Orthodox Christendom except its transmarine
annex in Russia. 2
In the third place, we may take notice of the fortunes of the Incas
after their passage of arms with the Chancas towards the middle of
the fourteenth century of the Christian Era. When the Chancas
1
The traditional initial and terminal dates of the first three Romano-Sammte Wars
are 343-290 B.C. the traditional date of the Battle of the Allia is 390 B c.
3 Mehmed Fatih
imperdbat A.D. 1451-81; the Battle of Angora had been fought
;

A.D. 1402.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

103

marched on Cuzco and the reigning Inca Yahuar Huaccac evacuated

his capital in a panic, it looked as though the Incas had lost the
empire which had been founded a hundred years before when their
ancestors had conquered the Collao and Nazca.
The battle on the
in
which
of
the future
Prince Hatun Tupac
Sacsahuana,
plain
1

Inca Viracocha

just succeeded in staying the Chancas' onslaught

and saving Cuzco from fire and sword, was the hardest battle that
the Incas had yet had to fight. Nevertheless, the great work of

expanding and elevating the Empire into an Andean universal

state was taken up and completed by Viracocha *s son and successor
the Inca Pachacutec, who came to the throne at Cuzco some fifty
2
years after the Battle of Sacsahuana had been fought.
Other illustrations of the same 'law'
the stronger stimulus of
the heavier blow
will meet our eyes if we reopen the book of
Roman history at a later page and study the course of those wars
between Rome and the rival Great Powers of the Hellenic World

which cleared the ground for the eventual conversion of the Roman
Empire into a Hellenic universal state. In this phase of Roman and
which began with the outbreak of the first
Hellenic history
Romano-Punic War in 264 B.C. and ended with the simultaneous
destruction of Carthage and annexation of Macedonia in the year
Rome had to fight three rounds with Carthage and four with
146
Macedonia before she was able to deliver two 'knock-out blows'
which brought the titanic struggle to a close. No doubt, the poet
Virgil had these two series of wars in mind when he bade his
countrymen ever remember 'to battle down the stiff-necked':
debellare superbos. 3 Yet the historical facts surely indicate that the
method of attrition was not a masterly choice but a costly and
though the Romans managed to beat the
Carthaginians and the Macedonians in every war that they fought
with either Power, nevertheless, at each successive renewal of the
combat, the prowess displayed by the vanquished and the exertions
required of the victors were both conspicuously greater than they
had been each time before.
dangerous necessity;

for,

defeat of Carthage in the first Romano-Punic War stimulated Hamilcar Barca to conquer for his country an empire in Spain

The

which far surpassed her lost empire in Sicily, and Hamilcar's son
Hannibal to strike at the heart of the Roman Power in Italy. Even
after the Hannibalic War had ended in the defeat of Hannibal's
For the foundation of the^Inca Empire, see I. C (i) (6), vol i, pp. 121-2, above.
elevation of the Empire of the Incas into an Andean universal state may be said
to have been accomplished through the incorporation of the states along the seaboard of
the Pacific, from lea to Chimu inclusive, which covered, between them, the original
1

The

of the Andean Society. The Inca Pachacutec, who achieved this, imperabat circa
A.D. 1400-48; the Battle of Sacsahuana had been fought circa A.D. 1347.
3
Aeneid> Book VI, 1. 853.

home

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

104
last

army

at

Zama,

in the

home

territory of Carthage, the

Car-

thaginians twice astonished the World during the half century that
was still to run before their name was blotted out of the Book of
Life. Under the stimulus of this appalling situation, when they lay
at the

mercy of an implacable enemy, with

their

impending doom

ever present to their minds, they displayed an energy and a fortitude which had not distinguished them in the days of their power

They showed

their mettle first in the rapidity

with which they paid off their war indemnity to Rome and recovered their commercial prosperity; 1 and they showed it again in

and

their security.

the heroism with which the whole population of the doomed city
men, women, and children fought and died in the last struggle,
when the Romans were avowedly bent upon destroying them
utterly, and when it was certain that nothing now could save them

from

their fate.

of Macedon had been content during the

Again, King Philip
Hannibalic War, when he might have saved his country by joining
forces with Hannibal himself in Italy, to engage in desultory and
ineffective 'side-shows' on his own side of the Adriatic. It was the
blow of Cynoscephalae, which cost him his hegemony in Greece,
that stimulated him to show that 'his last sun had not yet set' 2 and
to transform Macedonia into so formidable a power that, a quarter
of a century after Cynoscephalae had been fought, Philip's son
Perseus was able to challenge Rome single-handed and almost to
defeat her utmost efforts to overcome him. Even when Perseus'
stubborn resistance was finally broken at Pydna, the Macedonian

people were so far from losing their spirit that, some twenty years
later, it only needed the appearance of an adventurer impersonating
Perseus' son Philip to make the nation rise in arms again in a last
struggle for liberty which was a forlorn hope from the start.
In our own Western history, similar reactions were evoked by
Napoleon I's premature and abortive attempt, during the General
War of 1792-1815, to establish a Western universal state in the

form of a French Empire. 3

For example, the Austrians, who had allowed themselves in
1792 to be turned back by a cannonade at Valmy from an invasion
1 As
early as 191 B.C., only ten years after the restoration of peace, the Carthaginians
offered to pay off the whole outstanding amount of the indemnity forthwith in a single
lump sum, in anticipation of the stipulated succession of instalments. This offer was
not accepted by the Romans. (Livy, Book XXXVI, ch. 4.)
2 See the account
given by Livy (Book XXXIX, ch. 26) of an interview in the year
185 B c. (the eleventh year after Cynoscephalae) between Philip and a Roman commissioner. After stating his case, Philip 'elatus demde ira adiecit nondum omnium
dierum solem occidisse'.
^The Macedonian king's outburst was a reminiscence of a line
of Theocritus: "HSij y&p fodafyi irdvd* oAtov appi SeSwcetv; (Theocritus: Thyrsts.
1.

102)
3

This aspect of the Napoleonic Empire

is

examined further in Part VI, below.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

105

of France which might have nipped the Revolution in the bud, and
had allowed themselves thereafter to be ejected by the French
twice over from Italy, were aroused at last by the blow of 1805,
when in a single campaign Napoleon captured half the Austrian
at Ulm and occupied Vienna and destroyed the rest of the
Austrian Army at Austerlitz. Austria after Austerlitz prepared for
a renewal of the contest with the same grim energy that Macedonia
had displayed after Cynoscephalae and in 1809, when she tried
conclusions with the conqueror again, and this time single-handed,
without an ally, she made him pay as much more dearly for a

Army

second victory as Macedonia made the Romans pay in 171-168 B.C.

If Austerlitz was Austria's Cynoscephalae, Wagram was her Pydna.
Moreover, the Austrians, like the Macedonians, still had the spirit,
after suffering two signal defeats, to take up arms once again; and,
more fortunate than the Macedonians, they marched this time to
victory. The intervention of Austria on the side of Russia and
Prussia in 1813 was the decisive act which made the overthrow of

Napoleon inevitable and brought

his

ephemeral empire to the

ground.
Again, the Prussians played the same ineffective part in 1805 as
the Macedonians played during the Hannibalic War, and they paid
the penalty by meeting their Cynoscephalae at Jena; but the effects
of Jena upon Prussia were dynamic. The remnant of the Prussian
Army which had marched out so ingloriously in the autumn to an
ignominious defeat had the hardihood to fight a winter campaign

and to exact a Pyrrhic victory from Napoleon at Eylau and after that
to go on fighting still, in the farthest corner of Prussian territory
beyond the Memel. In the year after Jena, the Prussians only
accepted the French conqueror's terms because they were virtually
coerced into surrender by their own Russian allies and the severity
of the terms only added to the stimulus which the shock of Jena
had first administered. The energy evoked in Prussia by this
stimulus was extraordinary. It not only regenerated the Prussian
;

(and this through the instrumentality of the very restrictions which Napoleon had imposed upon the Prussian Army in
order to reduce it to impotence) it regenerated, into the bargain,
the Prussian Administrative Service and the Prussian Education
System. In fact, this new-found energy transformed the Prussian
State into a chosen vessel for holding the new wine of German
Nationalism and simultaneously it performed the miracle of conjuring this strong German wine out of a watery cosmopolitanism.
The first-fruits of this titanic Prussian response to the challenge of
Jena were the acts of faith which decided the issue of the Befreiungskrieg; the final harvest was gathered in by Bismarck in that

Army

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

io6

calculated combination of diplomacy and war which produced its

intended result in the establishment of a new polity: Prussia-

Germany.

As

for the role of the Russians in the General

War

of 1792-1815,
it is notorious that they fought indifferently so long as they were
In 1812 the national
fighting the French on foreign ground.
energies of the Russian people were evoked, in successively higher
degrees, as the French invaders crossed the political frontier and
as they passed, at Smolensk, out of the insensitive fringe of alien
territories, recently incorporated in the Russian Empire, into the
quick of Holy Russia. At last, in the burning of Moscow, Russia
found herself; and then she turned upon her invader in a counter-

come

to a standstill until the tide of war had

ebbed back right across the Continent from Moscow to Paris.
When we turn to the next chapter of Western history, in which

attack that did not

are reversed, exactly the same

phenomena present themselves mutatis mutandis. In 1 870, when the
French, in their turn, played the vainglorious and ignominious

the roles of France and

Germany

role of the Prussians in 1806, the Prussian General Staff, who this
time had calculated and provided for everything down to the

were half-surprised at the ease with which they were

able to invade France and destroy the French armies in the field
and lay siege to Paris. 1 On the other hand, in 1914 the Prussian
General Staff of the day, who were obsessed by the memory of
what had happened forty-four years before, were astonished at
what happened this time when they repeated the invasion of
last button,

France with apparently greater odds in their favour than their

predecessors had been able to count upon in 1870. In 1914 the
Germans encountered a French resistance for which the campaign
of 1870 offered no precedent; and their under-estimate of French
moral in 1914 was one of several psychological miscalculations
which, cumulatively, were responsible in large measure for Ger-

many's

final defeat in

the

War

of 1914-18.

The Germans

fell

into

this particular error of

judgement because they neglected to take

effect of the stimulus which their own
fathers had administered to France in dealing her the blow of
1870. This stimulus had revealed itself already, before the War of
1870 was over, in the contrast between the ddbdcks at Sedan and
into account the

momentous

1 It was the
glamour of Napoleon I's victories that blinded the French to realities in
1870, just as, in 1806, the Prussians had been blinded to realities by the glamour of the
victories of Frederick the Great. Among neutral spectators, the expectation of a French
victory in 1870 was widespread when war broke out. The wnter of this Study possesses
a map, published at that moment by The Illustrated London News, in which the section
covered by the German Rhineland is printed in red in order to pick it out on the assumption that it is destined to be the war-zone
The French Army itself is said to have been
supplied with maps of Germany but not with maps of France

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

107
the stubborn resistance of the
people of Paris in a siege
from which they had no hope of being delivered. The same stimulus revealed itself again at a later date and in a sublimated form in
the Affaire Dreyfus, when a moral issue stirred the whole French
nation to the depths. For those who had eyes to see, it was evident
that this was the turning-point at which the shock of defeat, still

Metz and

working in French souls, had translated

itself into

the stirrings of

regeneration and so, to properly instructed observers, the extreme

difference between the successive French reactions to successive
German invasions in 1870 and in 1914 did not come altogether as
;

a surprise.

The
18

was

tenacity of the French resistance during the War of 1914a tenacity which was symbolized by the defence of Verdun
one of the principal factors in the victory of the Allied and

Associated Powers. Perhaps the most impressive feature in the

behaviour of the French during those war-years was the fortitude
with which they endured the devastation of some of the wealthiest
and most valuable parts of their national territory and the sequel is
still more remarkable.
sympathetic and admiring witness of
;

French national heroism during this war might have imagined, at

the time, that he was witnessing the death of a nation on the field of
honour. 'France', he might have prophesied, 'may possibly emerge
victorious, but her victory will certainly be the death of her. This
long-drawn-out devastation of the war-zone must have inflicted a
mortal wound upon the French national economy. These terrible
casualties must have doomed the population of France to an
irretrievable decline. A magnificent euthanasia! Yet death is still
death of the body, even when it has been robbed of its spiritual
Such prophets never dreamed that the ghastly wound
sting.'
which was being inflicted on France would actually rejuvenate her.
Yet so it has turned out. In the reconstruction of the devastated
areas, the whole material apparatus of life has had to be renewed.
The debris of the old equipment has naturally been replaced by

new equipment

of the latest pattern and, as the work of renovation

has proceeded, the French have come to congratulate themselves
on the accident which they lamented so bitterly while the devastation was taking place
that the war-zone happened to include the
;

majority of their industrial districts. Whether the cost of reconstruction actually has been, or ever will be, defrayed by German
Reparations payments is a secondary question. In the fifteenth
year after the Armistice, it is already evident that it has profited
France handsomely to have had her hand forced by devastation,
even if the consequent reconstruction has had to be carried out
almost entirely at French expense. In this compulsory renovation

io8

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

of her industrial plant, France has been compelled to make an

inestimably valuable capital investment. Moreover, her gain is not
to be measured in crude terms of iron and steel and bricks and
new apparatus involves a new technique; and a new
mortar.

technique involves a new spirit. It is no paradox to say that, in

the reconstruction of the devastated areas, France herself has
renewed her youth. 1
As for Germany, the miracle which a military devastation has
accomplished in one fashion for victorious France has been
accomplished in another fashion for the defeated rival of France by
a financial inflation. It is already evident that the blows which have
been rained upon Germany since the Armistice of 1918 are having
the same stimulating effect as the blows inflicted on Prussia a
2 In
fact, the unfriendly service which the
century ago in 1 806-7
Germans did to the French before the Armistice has been done by
the French to the Germans during these post-war years so that an
observer who perceived only the outward actions and their effects,
without being aware of the motives behind them or the temper
informing them, might almost imagine that France and Germany
.

were two flagellants who had gone into a partnership in asceticism

under a mutual vow to wield the lash for one another in turn.
'These are they which came out of great tribulation'; 3 and cer-

when the first draft of this chapter

was written, both France and Germany seemed to be less far from
salvation than Great Britain: the one Great Power in Europe
tainly, in

the autumn of 1931,

which had succeeded for more than seventeen years after the outbreak of the Great War in turning the blows of Fortune aside and
avoiding both the two calamities of invasion and inflation. An
Englishman, communing with his own soul in the autumn of the

Pound Sterling on the 2ist

well
whether
ask
himself
this British tour de
September, might
force had not really been a perverse evasion of 'things that accom4
a perversity whereby Great Britain had simply
pany salvation'
condemned herself to 'work out' her 'own salvation' belatedly 'with
year 1931

after the collapse of the

1
In the autumn of 1931, some thirteen years after the Armistice, on the morrow of
the fall of the Pound Sterling from the Gold Standard, France momentarily found
herself an a position
the World which, even at the time of the Peace Conference, it had
seemed inconceivable that she should ever occupy again. At that moment, she possessed
and exercised an effective military supremacy and political hegemony on the European
Continent, she was predominant over the whole ot Europe in the air; she was second
only to the United States in her holding of gold, and she was in a conspicuously better
economic position than any other great country in the World in virtue ot her relative
immunity, for the time being, from the incidence of the world-wide economic depression.
It was as if, when Zeus hurled the thunder-bolt which was to annihilate Semele, his
defenceless victim had been transfigured, at the stroke, into Athene radiant in her
shining armour.
2 This
passage was written in the summer of 1931, and it still holds good at the
moment of revision in the spring of 1933
3 Revelation vii.
4 Hebrews vi.
14.
9.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

109

and trembling', instead of having salvation thrust upon her

betimes. 'For whosoever will save his life shall lose it.' 2
The classic example of the stimulating effect of a blow is the
reaction of Hellas in general, and Athens in particular, to the
the Syriac universal state
onslaught of the Achaemenian Power

fear

in

480-479 B.C.
'The vastness of the

employed in the expedition of Xerxes King

of Persia against Hellas cast the shadow of a terrible danger over the
Hellenic Society. The stakes for which the Hellenes were called upon to
fight were slavery or freedom, while the fact that the Hellenic communities in Asia had already been enslaved created a presumption in
every mind that the communities in Hellas itself would experience the
same fate. When, however, the war resulted, contrary to expectation,
in its amazing issue, the inhabitants of Hellas found themselves not only
relieved from the dangers which had threatened them but possessed, in
addition, of honour and glory, while every Hellenic community was
filled with such affluence that the whole World was astonished at the
completeness with which the situation had been reversed.
forces

'

During the half century that followed this epoch, Hellas made vast
strides in prosperity. During this period, the effects of the new affluence
showed themselves in the progress of the arts and artists as great as any
;

recorded in history, including the sculptor Pheidias, flourished at the

time. There was an equally signal advance in the intellectual field, in

which philosophy and public-speaking were singled out for special

honour throughout the Hellenic World and particularly at Athens. In
philosophy there was the school of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; in
public-speaking there were such figures as Pericles, Isocrates and Isocrates* pupils; and these were balanced by men of action with great
military reputations like Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon,
Myronides and a long array of other names too numerous to mention.
'In the forefront of all, Athens achieved such triumphs of glory and
prowess that her name won almost world-wide renown. She increased
her ascendancy to such a point that, with her own resources, unsupported by the Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians, she broke the
resistance of powerful Persian forces on land and sea and so humbled
the pride of the famous Persian Empire that she compelled it to liberate
3
by treaty all the Hellenic communities in Asia.'

The pre-eminence

of Athenian vitality in this outburst of Hellenic life which followed the repulse of Xerxes' onslaught is comof 1914-18 ;
parable with the rejuvenation of France after the War
the
brunt of
bore
for Athens on that occasion, like France on this,

the stimulating blow. While the fertile fields of Boeotia were saved
from devastation by the treachery of their owners to the Hellenic
cause, and the fertile fields of Lacedaemon by the presence and the
1

Phihppians 11. 12.

Diodorus of Agynum:

Library of Universal History,

2 Matthew xvi.
Book XII, chs. i-a 1 .

25.

no

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Salamis, the poor land of Attica

was devastated systematically by the invaders in two successive
seasons. Indeed, Attica suffered more in 480-479 B.C. than France
in A J>. 1914-18 ; for the Germans only succeeded in occupying a
fraction, albeit an especially valuable fraction, of the French

prowess of the Athenian

fleet at

national territory, whereas the Persians occupied and devastated

the whole of Attica, including Athens itself and the Acropolis and
the temple of Athene, on the summit of the rock, which was the
The whole population of Attica men,
Attic holy of holies.

women, and children

sea to the Peloponnese

'

to evacuate the country and cross the

as refugees ; and it was in this situation that

had

the Athenian fleet fought and won the Battle of Salamis, within
sight of the victors' abandoned fields and ruined homes and altars.
It is no wonder that a blow which aroused this indomitable spirit
in the Athenian people should have been the prelude to achievements which are perhaps unique in the history of Mankind for
their brilliance and multitude and variety. In the material reconstruction of Attica, the new equipment of the farmsteads surpassed
the old as conspicuously as the new equipment of the French
factories has surpassed the plant destroyed by German shell-fire.
Half a century later, this new apparatus of agriculture in Attica was
still so far superior to anything that was to be found in other parts
of Hellas that when Athens
betrayed into folly by excess of good
fortune
at last conjured up against herself an overwhelming
counter-coalition of other Powers, the Boeotian contingent in the
Allied and Associated Armies found it worth while to carry off the
woodwork of the Attic farm-buildings bodily across the mountains. 1
Yet, in the reconstruction of Attica, this imposing reequipment of the farmsteads was nothing accounted of. The work
which was regarded as truly symbolic of the country's glorious
resurrection was the rebuilding of the temples and in this work
Periclean Athens displayed a vitality far superior to that of post-war
France. When the French recovered the battered shell of Rhcims
Cathedral, they performed a pious restoration of each shattered
stone and splintered statue. When the Athenians found the Heka;

This fact

is

recorded in the fragment of a history of Hellenic affairs, of unknown

come to light on the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus. The relevant passage

authorship, which has

runs as follows :

'Thebes had enjoyed a great increase in general prosperity as an immediate result of

the outbreak of the Atheno-Peloponnesian War
she prospered still more after the
While the occupation lasted,
joint Thebano-Lacedaemonian occupation of Decelea.
the Thebans bought up cheap the slaves and other prize of war; and the tact that they
were the Athenians' next-door neighbours enabled them to transpoit to the Thebaid
all the
capital equipment of Attica, including the very timber and tiling of the buildings.
At that time the Attic countryside was more lavishly equipped than any other in Hellas.
It had suffered very little in the previous Lacedaemonian invasions, and an immense
amount of skill and labour had been invested in it by the Athenians.
.
.'
(Hellcnica
Oxyrhynchia (Oxford 1909, University Press), xii. 3-4.)
.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

in

tompedon burnt down to the foundations, they let the foundations

lie and proceeded, on a new site, to create the Parthenon.
As for Sparta, she had to wait for the stimulus which she had
been spared
or denied
by Destiny in 480-479 B.C. until it was
accorded to her some fifteen years later by an act of God. It was
the great earthquake of 464 B.C.
a catastrophe which laid the City
of Sparta in ruins and raised all the Helots of Laconia in revolt
that put the Spartans on their mettle
against their stricken masters
again and nerved them first to check the expansion of the Athenian
Empire and later to put an end to its existence. As for Thebes, she
did not completely recover from the demoralization of her 'Medism'
480 B.C., nor wholly efface its stigma, until almost a century later
when, in the year 382, the Gods at last had mercy on her and
inspired the Spartans to seize by fraud and hold by force the Theban
in

citadel, the

Cadmea. Under the stimulus of

this heaven-sent blow,

Thebes achieved,

The

stature.

for a season, the miracle of adding a cubit to her

liberation of the Cadmea in 378 B.C. was followed by

the victory of Leuctra in 371 and the invasion of Laconia in 370.

Thebes had not only fulfilled her ancient ambition of establishing
an undisputed authority over the other city-states of Boeotia ; she
had actually defeated the invincible Spartans and raided their
inviolable territory and wrested from them the hegemony of the
Hellenic World.
In this series of examples from the military and political histories
of sovereign states, the stimulus of blows is manifest. Yet if these
examples warrant the inference that 'the heavier the blow the
stronger the stimulus' is a genuine social law, we must beware of
making the further inference that Militarism in itself is a source of
creative energy ; for the historic examples of our present law are
not confined to the battle-field, 1 and there are other mediums
besides those of war and politics in which these stimulating blows
are dealt

The

and received.

example, which we have reserved until the end of

this chapter, is presented on the field of religion in the Acts of the
These dynamic acts, which were to win the whole
Apostles.
Hellenic World for Christianity as they worked themselves out in
the fullness of time, were conceived at the moment when the
Apostles were looking steadfastly toward Heaven as their Lord went
classic

i
the burning
recent Western history
One of the notorious deeds of Militarism
has stimulated the
of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, by General Sherman in A D. 1864
stricken city to raise herself to an eminence in the arts of peace which she had never
attained in her ante-bellum infancy Sherman challenged Atlanta to show her destroyer
that she was not a Persepolis but a phoenix ; and he taught her the way by opening^her
eyes to the indestructible importance of her geographical position as a railway junction.
On the morrow of her disaster, Atlanta took for her civic motto the Latin word Resurgens,
and turned her strategic position to commercial account by making herself into a distributing centre for the whole of the south-eastern United States,

us

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

1
up out of their sight. At the moment, it was a crushing blow for
them to lose again the personal presence of a Master who had so lately
returned to them from the dead. Yet the very heaviness of the blow

evoked, in their souls, a proportionately powerful psychological

reaction which is conveyed mythologically in the message of the
two men in white apparel 2 and in the descent of the Pentecostal
3
In the power of the Holy Ghost, they preached
tongues of fire.
the divinity of the crucified and vanished Jesus not only to the
Jewish populace but to the Sanhedrin 4 and, within three centuries,
the Roman Government itself capitulated to the Church which the
;

Apostles had founded at a

V.

moment

of extreme spiritual prostration.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

'Marches' and 'Interiors'

So much

for the stimulus of the

human environment when

its

impact takes the form of a sudden external blow. We have next to

examine the cases in which the impact takes the different form of a
continuous external pressure.
In terms of political geography, the peoples, states, or cities
which are exposed to such pressure fall, for the most part, within
the general category of 'marches' and the best way to study the
effects of this particular kind of pressure empirically is to make
some survey of the parts played by marches, in the histories of the
societies or communities to which they belong, in comparison with
the parts played by other territories that belong respectively to the
same societies or communities but are situated geographically in
;

their 'interiors'. 5

In the Egyptiac World

In the history of the Egyptiac Civilization, for example, we have
noticed already, in another connexion, 6 that, on no less than three

momentous occasions, the course of Egyptiac history was directed

by Powers originating in the south of Upper Egypt. The foundation of the United Kingdom circa 3200 B.C., the foundation of
the universal state circa 2070/2060 B.C., and the restoration of the
universal state circa 1580 B.C., were all accomplished by Powers

We

that originated within this narrowly circumscribed district.

may
observe now, apropos of our present inquiry, that this district is
* Acts i. lo-ii.
3 Acts ii.
4 Acts ii-v.
Acts i. 9-10.
1-4.
In Part IV, below, we shall have occasion to recur to this survey of the parts
played
by marches, apropos of the pathological phenomenon of an excessive concentration of
energy upon certain particular activities which aie the responses to particular challenges.
An example of this phenomenon which is conspicuous in the histories of marches is the
social malady called Militarism
6 See I. C
Geschuhte fas
(n), vol. i, p. 140, footnote 2, above, following Meyer, E.
Altertums, vol. 11 (i), 2nd edition, pp. 60-1.
1

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

113

coincident with the Southern March of the Egyptiac World which

was exposed to pressure from the barbarians of Nubia. And if we
look further into Egyptiac history from our
present angle of vision,
we shall find other marches playing equivalent parts in reaction to
pressures from barbarians or from alien civilizations which impinged upon the Egyptiac World from other quarters. In particular, a pressure from North- Western Africa or from South-Western

Asia was apt to

call

into existence,

paramount Power with

its

in the Egyptiac World,

seat in the corresponding

marches on

this or that fringe of the Delta. 1

The

polarization of political

power

at the

two extremities of the

Egyptiac domain was an

early as well as a persistent phenomenon

consolidation of the twenty or thirty once
independent local states of the Lower Nile Valley2 into two empires
with the Northern and the Southern March as their respective
nuclei was the prelude to the foundation of the United Kingdom;

of Egyptiac history.

and

dualism had been converted into unity through the

triumph of the Southern over the Northern Power, the memory of
it was still
kept alive in the symbolism of the Double Crown, until
at last, after the passage of some two thousand years, the Northern
March succeeded in capturing in its turn, and thenceforth retaining,
the primacy. In the thirteenth century B.C., new pressures from
the Hittite Power on the Asiatic mainland and from the postMinoan Volkerwanderung in the Levant caused the sceptre to pass
from Thebes, the historic metropolis of the Southern March, to
the City of Ramses the new frontier-fortress on the eastern fringe
of the Delta which now guarded this exposed extremity of the
Egyptiac World as Thebes had guarded the frontier over against
Nubia. 3 Thereafter, during the sixteen centuries of twilight which
elapsed between the decline of 'the New Empire' and the ultimate
extinction of the Egyptiac Society in the fifth century of the
Christian Era, political power reverted to the Delta as persistently
as it had been apt to revert to the Southern March during the preceding two thousand years. After being governed in the thirteenth
after this

and twelfth centuries

B.C.

from Deltaic Ramses, the Egyptiac

1 e
g. at the City of Ramses and at Tanis and at Bubastis on the eastern fringe of the
Delta; at Sais on the western fringe (see below).
2 The historical
'nomes', i.e. provinces, as they were called after their *mediatization'.
3 For this transfer of the
capital from Thebes to the City of Ramses, see Meyer, E. :
Geschichte des Altertums, vol. ii (i), 2nd edition, pp. 453-4, 487-8, and 494-5. The City
of Ramses was the first Deltaic capital of an oecumenical Egyptiac State with the exception
of Avans ; and Avans is the exception which proves the rule ; for Avaris was the capital of
the Hyksos and the Hyksos were alien interlopers in the Egyptiac World who never
felt themselves at home there. For this reason, the Hyksos did not attempt to establish
themselves an the interior, but remained encamped at Avans, on the edge of their Egyptian
dominions, in order to keep open their line of retreat to their original settlements in Syria.
Thus Avaris, under the Hyksos regime, was not really the capital of an Egyptiac State
but rather the head-quarters of an alien military occupation.
;

II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

ii4

World was governed

and in the tenth and

in the eleventh century from Deltaic Tanis

ninth centuries from Deltaic Bubastis ; and

the classic instance of Deltaic paramountcy is the rise of the

Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, which originated in the Delta in response
to the challenge of the Assyrian occupation in the seventh century

and came,

after supplanting the intruders, to rule all Egypt,

as far south as Elephantine, from Sais. The Saite Power, thus

B.C.

founded, endured until it failed to respond to another challenge

from Asia in failing to save Egypt from political incorporation into
the Achaemenian Empire. The subsequent successive attempts
some abortive and others temporarily successful to throw off the
Achaemenian yoke all emanated from the Delta likewise. During
these centuries when the Delta was politically in the ascendant, the

Thebaid was politically in eclipse. The position of post-Imperial

Thebes in the latter-day Egyptiac World resembled that of postImperial Rome during the post-Hellenic interregnum and the
early age of Western Christendom. The ci-devant Imperial City
was perfunctorily compensated and consoled for the loss of its
political power by the enjoyment of an ecclesiastical primacy
which was a legacy from its previous greatness and a tribute to its
enduring prestige.

Can we

was that, in the competition for political

paramountcy between the Thebaid and the Delta, the Thebaid
had the upper hand from the foundation of the United Kingdom
until the decline of 'the New Empire', while the Delta had the
upper hand thereafter ? This permanent change in the balance of
power is to be explained by certain permanent changes in the
incidence of external pressure upon the Egyptiac World. From the
fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C. onwards, the pressures
from North- Western Africa and from South-Western Asia decidedly
outweighed the pressures from other quarters; and accordingly,
during these latter days, the stimulus derived from external pressure was felt in greatest measure by the Northern Marches in the
Delta. Concurrently, the pressure from the Upper Nile Valley
relaxed; and the classic Southern March, in the section of the
valley immediately below the First Cataract, was relegated to the
discern

why

it

interior of the Egyptiac

domain

The

World by an extension of the Egyptiac

up-river.

Southern March was only a march so long as the

marked a sharp line of cultural division between the
Egyptiac Civilization and a Nubian barbarism and this condition
classic

First Cataract

1
See Meyer, E. : Gottesstaat, Militarherrschaft und Stdndewesen in Aegypten =
Berichten Berl. Akad. 1928, pp. 495 seqq.; eundem: GescTnchtedesAltertums, vol. ii (ii),
and edition (Stuttgart and Berlin 1931, Gotta), pp. 6-60.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

115

did not prevail either in the evening or at the dawn of

Egyptiac
In the so-called pre-dynastic age, there had been no
history.
substantial difference in culture between the sections of the Nile
Valley below the First Cataract and above it. The differentiation of

a dynamic civilization in Egypt from a static

primitive culture in
Nubia declared itself on the eve of the foundation of the United
Kingdom; and the stimulus of barbarian pressure upon the
Egyptiac frontiersmen at the new dividing line perhaps accounts
for the foundation of the United Kingdom by a dynasty whose seat

was at Al Kab. The new difference in cultural level between Egypt

and Nubia was accentuated during the regime of the Egyptiac
United Kingdom, as the Egyptiac Civilization soared to its zenith;
and this cultural gulf remained fixed during the subsequent 'Time
of Troubles'
when Nubia appears to have been occupied by
Afrasian Nomads from the North- West
and also during the
regime of the Egyptiac universal state, which was founded and
maintained by the Theban emperors of the Eleventh and Twelfth
Dynasties. Though Nubia was annexed to the Egyptiac universal
state politically, its incorporation into the Egyptiac World remained
the incorporation of the southern seaboard of
China into the Sinic World under the Han. 1 The Egyptiac Civilization was still exotic in Nubia; and such local interaction between
the two cultures as took place in that age resulted in the barbarizing
of the Egyptian garrison and not in the civilizing of the Nubian
On the other hand, Nubia was not only politically
proletariat.
annexed but was also culturally assimilated by the restored Egyptiac
universal state
'the New Empire'
and after the organization of
the new dominion by Thothmes I (imperabat circa 1557-1505 B.C.)
the southern boundary of the Egyptiac World stood near the foot
of the Fourth Cataract, at the new frontier-fortress of Napata,
instead of standing at the head of the First Cataract at the old
frontier-fortress of Elephantine. In thus definitively incorporating
Nubia into the Egyptiac World, the Theban emperors of the
Eighteenth Dynasty cut the roots of their own country's greatness.
They transferred from the Thebaid to Napata the military burden, and with it the political stimulus, of serving as the Southern
March; and on the one occasion, during the last sixteen centuries
of Egyptiac history, on which the now prevalent political paramountcy of the Northern Marches was contested by the South, the
superficial,

like

Southern Power which aspired to oecumenical authority had

new Southern March of Napata and not in the
devant Southern March of the Thebaid.

roots in the

When

the break-up of 'the

1

New

its

ci-

Empire' into successor-states,

See pp. 83-4, above.

n6

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

under the rule of local princelings descended from Libyan mercenaries, was followed by a re-polarization of political power at the
two extremities of the Egyptiac World, the two poles in the new
tension were not both coincident with those at which power had
been concentrated on the eve of the foundation of the United
Kingdom, some two thousand five hundred years earlier. In the
post-Imperial age, the capital of the Northern Power was duly
planted in the Delta, this time at Bubastis, by the Libyan princes of
Heracleopolis ; while these latter-day Libyan Heracleopolites' Napatan kinsmen 1 and contemporaries, who established the Southern
Power, retained their capital at Napata, which was now the Southern
point of pressure and stimulus, and did not transfer it either to the
Thebaid or to any other point in the interior. In the fullness of
time, this Napatan Power attempted to emulate the thrice-repeated
feat of the Thebaid: the political unification of the whole Egyptiac
World under a single sovereignty. The new Southern March,
however, now failed to accomplish what the old Southern March
had achieved thrice over. The Napatan attempt to gain oecumenical power, which was initiated by Kashta when he annexed the
Thebaid circa 750 B.C. and was almost carried to completion by
Piankhi when he made his expedition down-Nile into the Delta circa
725, was frustrated first by the alien Assyrian invaders and finally
by the indigenous Deltaic Power of the Saites, who began as the
Assyrians' creatures and endedastheir local residuary legatees. Circa
661-655 B.C., the frontier between the Saite and the Napatan Power
came to rest at Elephantine; and thereafter this obsolete boundary

between an Egyptiac Civilization and a Nubian barbarism acquired

a new function as the internal line of demarcation between the two
political units into which the enlarged Egyptiac World was thenceforth permanently divided.
Thus, in the post-Imperial age, the old Northern

Southern March both

failed to attain

and the new

oecumenical power in the end
;

and the resultant

political dualism persisted during the remainder

of Egyptiac history. Yet though Napata fell short, in achievement,
of Al Kab and Thebes, she was not altogether unresponsive to the
stimulus of external pressure to which, as the latter-day Southern
March of the Egyptiac World, she had come to be exposed in her
turn. The former frontier-fortress of 'the New Empire' on the
Upper Nile became the capital of a 'successor-state' which embraced
half, albeit the more backward half, of the latter-day expanded
Egyptiac World and, unlike the Saites and their successors in the
;

1 Reisner's view that

these princes of Napata were Libyans is not accepted by Eduard
Meyer, who suggests that they were descended from Hnhor, the High Priest of Amon

who established the Theban theocracy ctrca

and

edition, p. 52).

1075 B.C. (Geschichte des Altertums, vol.

ii (ii),

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

117
the
did
not
succumb
to alien conquerors. During
Delta,
Napatans
the long centuries when Egypt north of
Elephantine was successively subject to the Achaemenids and the Ptolemies and the
Romans, Ethiopia south of Elephantine remained an independent

Egyptiac Power. Indeed, during these centuries the domain of the

Egyptiac Culture was extended still farther up-river under this
Ethiopian regime, until Napata herself, who had started her career
as a frontier-fortress, was relegated to the interior as Thebes had

been before her. Thereafter,

circa

300

B.C.,

Napata was supplanted,

as the capital of the Ethiopian state,

by Meroe at the foot of the
Sixth Cataract, midway between the junctions of the Atbaraand the
Blue Nile with the main river; and this Meroitic Power lived on,
as a politically independent embodiment of the
Egyptiac Society,
until the third century of the Christian Era, when the
Egyptiac
Culture suffered a violent death in Ethiopia at the hands of bar-

some two
Egypt itself.

barian invaders,
its

sleep in

centuries before

it

died peacefully in

Thus

the political history of the Egyptiac World, from beginning

may be read as a tension between two poles of political
power which, in every age, were located respectively in the
Southern and in the Northern March of the day. One or other
of these marches was the cradle of every successful or abortive
oecumenical dynasty. On the other hand, there are no examples of
oecumenical dynasties which originated at points in the interior of
the Egyptiac World. The political creations of the interior were
to end,

seldom more than parochial and even when oecumenical dynasties

whose roots lay in one of the marches in the Delta or in the
Thebaid transferred their capitals to places in Middle Egypt for
administrative convenience, political power was apt to ebb back to
the marches as soon as times once more became critical. For
instance, after the foundation of the United Kingdom, the capital
was transferred from Al Kab, in the Southern March, which had
been the original seat of the founders, to Memphis on the borderline between the two lands of the Double Crown yet the new task
of founding the Egyptiac universal state after a time of troubles
was accomplished by a dynasty from Thebes. Again, after the
foundation of the universal state, the capital was transferred once
more, this time from Thebes to a new central site just above Mem;

yet the new task of restoring the universal state after the
intrusion of the Hyksos was accomplished by a dynasty from
Thebes, who thus asserted her political potency for the second

phis

1 This new central

site, to which the capital was transferred by Amenemhat I from
Thebes, was called Iz-Taui, which meant 'Conqueror of both Lands' (Meyer, E..
Geschichte des Altertums^ vol. i (11), 3rd edition, p. 267).

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

n8

Finally, after the restoration of the universal state, the

new imperial
capital was transferred from Thebes by Ikhnaton to his

time.

city at Tell-el-Amarna, mid-way between Thebes and Memphis ;

yet this transfer was as ephemeral as the religious and artistic

innovations with which it was bound up. 1 Upon the death of the
imperial revolutionary, the capital reverted to Thebes and remained
there until the Thebaid paid the inevitable penalty for having
ceased to be a march by forfeiting, once for all, its ancient and
long-enduring political paramountcy. Even then, the political
heritage of the Thebaid did not fall to any district in the interior,

but was divided, as we have seen, between the old Northern March
in the Delta and the new Southern March of Nubian Napata.
In the Sinic World

The

part played in the classical period of Egyptiac history by the

Thebaid the march which relieved the interior of the Egyptiac
World from the pressure of the barbarians of Nubia was played
in Sinic history by the valleys of the Wei-ho and the Fen-ho, which
were the marches of the Sinic World against the barbarian highlanders of Shensi and Shansi. The Chou Dynasty, which founded
the Sinic equivalent of the Egyptiac United Kingdom towards the
close of the second millennium B.C., and the Ts'in Dynasty, which
founded the Sinic universal state in the year 221 B.C., both originated
in the Wei Valley, while the Fen Valley was the seat of the Tsin
Dynasty, which was the rival of the Ts'in during the first phase
of the Sinic Time of Troubles. In Sinic, as in Egyptiac, history,
there was a tendency for Powers which originated in the marches
and afterwards attained an oecumenical dominion to transfer their
capitals from the periphery to the interior. The site in the Sinic
World which corresponded to the Egyptiac Memphis was Loyang
It lay on the borderline between the
(the modern Honan-fu).
western valleys and the eastern plain, 2 traversed by the Yellow
River in its lower course, which was the geographical heart of the
Sinic World. 3 The capital of the Ch6u was transferred to the
neighbourhood of Loyang from the Wei Valley after the dynasty
1

For a discussion of Ikhnaton's

role in Egyptiac history, see

I.

(ii),

vol

i,

pp. 145-6,

above.

The exact location of Loyang was in the valley of the Lo-ho, a minor right-bank
stream just below the
tributary of the Yellow River which debouches into the
Yellow River's exit from the gorges that intervene between its Lower Basin in the eastern
plain and its Upper Basin in the highlands where it receives the waters of the Wei and
the Fen.
2

mam

The

of 'Middle Kingdom* (Chung Kwo), which was eventually taken over by the
is under Heaven* (T'ien-hta)> appears
to have been borne originally by the little principality of Chu, in the middle of the
eastern plain, on the borderline between the modern provinces of Honan and Shantung.
(See Cordier, H. Histohe G6n6rale de la Chine (Pans 1920-1, Geuthner, 4 vols.), vol. i,
title

Sinic universal state as an alternative to 'All that

p.

314)

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

had

119

and in a later age the capital of the

Sinic universal state, which had been located originally at
Ch'ang
the
in
Wei
under
the
Prior
was
transferred
likeNgan
Valley
Han,
fallen into

decadence

when

the Posterior Han gave the Sinic universal

state a second lease of life. It is the more
significant that, not-

wise to Loyang

withstanding this repeated attraction of the capital of the Sinic

World from the periphery into the interior, the two Powers which
made Sinic history both originated in the Western March. The
only Power that is credited with an original seat in the eastern plain
is the
semi-legendary Yin or Shang Dynasty, which was traditionally

supposed to have been paramount before the Chou united

March under their own sceptre.

the eastern plain with the Western

In the Far Eastern World

When we

turn to the history of the Far Eastern Civilization

which is 'affiliated' to the Sinic Civilization, we find that the
oscillation between a western capital and an eastern capital, which
had been characteristic of the political history of the 'apparented'
civilization, is reproduced, with a difference, in a new oscillation
between a southern capital and a northern.
In the Sinic World, there had been a tendency for oecumenical
Powers to originate in the Western March, under stimulus from
the pressure of the surrounding barbarian highlanders, and to
transfer their capitals to sites in the interior on the eastern plain.
In the Far Eastern World, the heaviest external pressure came
from a different source and a different quarter. The barbarian
highlanders of Shensi and Shansi had been subdued and assimilated
by the growing Powers of Ts'in and Tsin before the close of the
Sinic Time of Troubles; but this elimination of the barbarians of
the western highlands had merely removed a buffer which had
previously intervened between the Sinic World and the far more
formidable Nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe; and the
simultaneous expansion of the two Sinic principalities of Chao and
Yen, at the northern end of the eastern plain, doubled the length of
the new front between the Sinic World and Eurasia. This front
now extended from the north-western coast of the Gulf of Liaotung
to the north-eastern escarpment of the Tibetan Plateau. The lines
of defence against Nomad inroads, which had been thrown up
piecemeal by the contending states of the Sinic World, with such
energies as they could spare from the last round in their own internecine struggle, were consolidated, after the 'knock-out blow' had
been delivered and the Sinic universal state founded by Ts'in She
1
Hwang-ti, into the Great Wall of China. It was across the line of
1

See Cordier, op.

cit.,

vol.

i,

pp. 206-7.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

120

the Wall, from north to south, that, some five centuries later,
during the interregnum (circa A.D. 175-475) which followed the
break-up of the Sinic universal state, the Eurasian Nomads came in,
as barbarian invaders, in the post-Sinic Volkerwanderung; and the
pressure from the north did not cease when the new Far Eastern
Civilization emerged. Hence, in the Far Eastern World, there was
a tendency, from the beginning, for oecumenical Powers either to
originate in the Northern Marches or to transfer their capitals to
the Northern Marches if they had originated in the southern
interior.

For instance, the Power which evoked, in the Far Eastern World,
a ghost of the Sinic universal state 1 in the first age of Far Eastern
history, originated, like the Sinic universal state itself, in the
Valley; and in the new orientation of political geography the

Wei
Wei

Valley constituted the western section of those Northern Marches

in which the pressure from the Eurasian Nomads was now making
itself felt. It was here that the Sui Dynasty, which re-enacted the
part of Ts'in She Hwang-ti by uniting the whole of Society under
a single rule, established a new oecumenical capital at Si Ngan (the
modern Sian-fu) in the neighbourhood of the ancient Ch'ang
2
Ngan. Si Ngan, under the Sui, drew to itself the power that had
3
previously resided in Nanking, the capital of the South, which the
Sui had annexed to their dominions and when the T'ang Dynasty
reaped the fruits of the Sui Dynasty's labours, as their prototypes
the Han had once entered into the heritage of Ts'in She Hwang-ti,
the T'ang kept the seat of oecumenical power at Si Ngan, where
;

they had found

it.

Ngan, however, did not retain its primacy in perpetuity for

the incidence of the pressure from the Eurasian Nomads tended, in
the course of Far Eastern history, to shift from the western sector
of the Northern Marches to the east, and the seat of political power
in the Far Eastern World shifted eastwards correspondingly. This
shift was approximately contemporaneous with the
momentary
breakdown of the Far Eastern Oecumenical Power during the
interval between the extinction of the T'ang Dynasty in A.D.
907
and the foundation of the Sung Dynasty in A.D. 960.
During the Sung Age, Far Eastern history consisted, for the main
body of the Far Eastern Society on the Continent, 4 in a slow and
Si

1 See further the

comparative study, in Part X, below, of the likenesses and differences
between the evocation of the ghost of the Sinic universal state in the Far Eastern World
and the evocation of ghosts of the Hellenic universal state in the Orthodox Christian and
Western worlds.
* For
Ch'ang Ngan, the capital of the Sinic universal state under the Prior Han, see

p.

u 9,

above.

The

different course taken

overseas, in Japan, is examined

Parts

VI and VIII.

3 See
p. 122, footnote i, below.
the
by
history of the offshoot of the Far Eastern Society
below in the present section, on pp. 158-9, as well as in

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

121

stubborn retreat of the Far Eastern Oecumenical Power from north

to South under an ever increasing pressure from a succession of
Nomad Powers operating from Manchuria. The Khitan had
extorted the cession of sixteen districts along the northern border
circa A.D. 927-37, before the oecumenical
authority of the Sung had
been established; the Khitans* successors, the Kin, conquered
from the Sung, circa A.D. 1125-42, the whole of Northern China
down to the watershed between the Yellow River and the Yangtse;
and, when the Kin had been supplanted in their turn by the Mongols, the Mongol Great Khan Qubilay (imperabat A.D. 1259-94)
completed the work of his Kin and Khitan predecessors by extinguishing the Sung altogether and reuniting the whole of the main
body of the Far Eastern World under a barbarian dominion. The
tide of barbarian conquest, however, had no sooner engulfed the last
remnant of the Far Eastern Society on the mainland than it began
to recede ; and the point of interest, for our present purpose, lies in
the sequel which followed the eviction of the Mongols from China
in A.D. 1 3 68 1 by a new thoroughbred Chinese Power: the Ming.
This new thoroughbred Chinese dynasty arose in the same
quarter in which their last thoroughbred predecessors, the Sung,
had held out longest, that is to say in the South; and the founder
of the Ming, Hung Wu, signalized the expulsion of the barbarians
from China and the restoration of a genuine Chinese regime by a
solemn transfer of the capital.
When the Kin had conquered Northern China, they had established their capital on the site of the modern Peking (*the Northern
Capital'), on the borderline between the barbarian portion of their
dominions to the north of the Great Wall and the Chinese portion
to the south of it. 2 The same site commended itself, for the same
geographical reason, to Qubilay; and in his reign Peking became
the capital not merely of a reunited China but of a universal state
which extended from the Pacific coasts of Asia right across the
continent as far as the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates and the
Carpathians and the Baltic and thus embraced the whole circumference of the Eurasian Steppe. This Kin and Mongol capital was
naturally obnoxious to the Chinese as a reminder of the barbarian
3

* The insurrection
against the Mongols which ended in their eviction began about
the year 1351.
*
Compare the location of the Hyksos* capital, Tanis, on the borderline^ between the
non-Egyptiac portion of their dominions in Syria and the Egyptiac portion in the Lower
Nile Valley. (See p. 113, footnote 3, above.)
3
Qubilay began to recondition Peking in AD. 1264 and transferred his capital
thither in 1267 from Qaraqorum, which was his ancestral capital in the Basin of the
Orkhon, in the heart of Eurasia. At the same time he kept a footing on the Steppe by
building himself a subsidiary residence, within easy reach of Peking, at Chung-Tu
(Coleridge's Xanadu) just outside the Great Wall.
'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome

decree.

.'

122

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

yoke which they had borne so long and had only just succeeded in
throwing off. Accordingly, Hung Wu had no sooner driven the
Nomads out again into their native steppes and re-established the
frontier of a liberated China along the line of the Great Wall, than
he transferred the capital from Qubilay's city to Nanking, which
had been the 'Capital of the South' at the dawn of Far Eastern
1
laid out his new city at Nanking on a scale
history.
Hung
commensurate with the size of the greater empire of which it was
designed to be the capital henceforward. Yet neither historical
sentiment nor cultural amour propre nor administrative convenience nor a lavish outlay on public buildings availed to retain
the capital of the Ming Empire on this site in the interior. For
though the Nomads had been expelled from China for the moment
by Hung Wu's prowess, he could not exorcize the danger of their

Wu

possible return On the morrow of their expulsion, as they began to

recover from their momentary prostration and to rally their forces
like Satan and his angels in the exordium of Paradise Lost, their
.

pressure became perceptible once more at the point where it had

been making itself felt for the past five centuries that is, in the
eastern sector of the Northern March
and, once again, the point
which was bearing the brunt of the political pressure drew to itself
the primacy in political power. In A.D. 1421, Hung Wu's son and

second successor,

Yung Lo

(regnabat A.D. 1403-25), retransferred

his own father's chosen city of Nanking

the capital of China from

to the very city of Peking which had first been raised to honour by
the hereditary barbarian enemy.
c
Yung Lo's reversion from the Southern Capital' in the interior
to 'the Northern Capital' in the Marches was justified by the event.
Indeed, the renewed pressure from the north became so strong
that, though the retransference of the capital to the danger-point
postponed the day of fresh disaster for China, it could not for ever
avert it. In A.D. 1619-44, rather more than two centuries after
Yung Lo's statesmanlike move, the Great Wall was broken through
and Peking captured and all China overrun by a new Power from
the north-eastern no-man's-land in the shape of the Manchus 2 and
;

Nanking had been continuously the capital of the South, under five successive
dynasties, from A D. 317 (the date which saw the end of the ephemeral restoration of
the Sinic universal state under the so-called 'United Tsin') down to A D. 589 (the date
which saw the evocation of a ghost of the Smic universal state by the Sui). In A D. 589
the Sui annexed the South to their own Northern dominions and thereby united the
whole Far Eastern World of the day under a single rule (See p. 120, above )
1

2 Unlike the
Mongols, the Manchus were not stock-breeding Nomads but primitive
hunters who were at home, not on the Eurasian Steppe, but
the highlands
clad
in virgin forest
which bound, on the east, the easternmost enclave of the Eurasian
Steppe in the common basin of the Rivers Liao and Sungari. The particular Manchu
community which conquered China in the seventeenth century of the Christian Era
came from the section of this highland-forest country that lies between Kirm and the
Pacific coast. These Manchu conquerors of China, being still on the primitive level at

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

123
in the eighteenth century of the Christian Era the Manchu
sovereign
Ch'ien Lung ruled from Peking 1 an empire
all
China
and
uniting
half Eurasia under a common dominion
which could bear com-

parison with the empire that had once been ruled from Peking
by the Mongol Great Khan Qubilay himself. From A.D. 1421
down to A.D. 1928, Peking remained the capital of China through
all vicissitudes. The
attempt of the T'aip'ing insurgents, in the
middle of the nineteenth century, 2 to bring back the capital to
Nanking collapsed with the failure of their endeavour, of which it
was a part, to deal with the Manchus as the Ming had dealt with the
Mongols. In 1928, however, the Emperor Yung Lo's historic act
was reversed, at last, by President Chiang Kai-shek; and at the
time of writing Nanking is the capital of the Chinese Republic,
while Peking has been degraded to the rank of a provincial centre
under the belittling title of Peping.

be permanent? And, if it is, will it

militate against the validity of our social 'law' that marches are
apt to be stimulated, by the external pressure to which they are
Is this

change

likely to

exposed, into developing a political power which gives them a

predominance over the interior? In the writer's belief, the recent
transfer of the Chinese capital from Peking to Nanking is likely
to be perpetuated, and this just because, so far from invalidating our
'law', it actually illustrates and confirms it.
How are we to account for the success of the Kuomintang in retransferring the capital of China from Peking to Nanking some
three-quarters of a century after the T'aip'ing's failure in their

attempt to do this very thing?

The

explanation is to be found in
certain far-reaching transformations of China's human environment which have taken place during the interval.
In 'the eighteen-fifties' of the Christian Era, the quarter from
which China was subject to the heaviest external pressure was still
the north, as it had been since the beginning of Far Eastern history.
At that moment, China was under die rule of a dynasty of northbarbarian origin whose founder had forced his entry by breaking
through the Great Wall, in its eastern sector, from north to south;
the time of the conquest, were much more readily assimilated to the Far Eastern culture,
and absorbed into the Far Eastern body social, than their Mongol predecessors, who had
entered China as full-fledged Eurasian Nomads with a tincture of the abortive Far
Eastern Christian culture of the Nestorian Diaspora (see II.
(vi), pp. 237-8, below).
For the primitive culture of the Manchus, see Lattunore, Owen: Manchuria Cradle of
It will be seen that the Manchu conquest
Conflict (New York 1 93 2, Macmillan), pp. 44-5
of China differed from the Mongol conquest both in nature and in outcome, and bore a
greater resemblance to the Chichimec conquest of Mexico.
1
The Manchu rulers of China followed Qubilay's example by supplementing their
a glorified hunting lodge
capital at Peking, on Chinese soil, with a secondary residence
and summer retreat outside the Great Wall. This Manchu counterpart of Qubilay's
Xanadu* was Jehol in Eastern Inner Mongolia.
a The
T'aip'ing insurrection lasted from A.D. 1850 to A.D. 1864.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

124

and, according to our 'law', it was to be expected that the capital of

that is to say, at
China would remain in the zone of pressure
so long as
Peking, in the eastern sector of the Northern Marches
this state of affairs continued. By 1928, however, a historic situa-

been intact in 'the eighteen-fifties' had become

entirely obsolete; and the Chinese Political Revolution of 1911,
which overthrew the Manchu Dynasty and put an end to the
Manchu ascendancy in China Proper, was by no means the most
tion

which had

still

revolutionary event in this radical change. The Manchu Dynasty

and the Manchu Bannermen who had transferred their residence
from Manchuria to China at the time of the conquest had been con-

generations before they were put

down from their seat by Chinese Nationalism. 1 The really momentous change in the situation since the failure of the T'aip'ing has
been not political but economic, and has consisted in a counteroffensive of the Chinese cultivator against the Nomad herdsman. 2
verted to Chinese culture

many

This Chinese colonization of the steppe country, which was well

under way before 1911, has been facilitated by the lapse of the
Manchu regime's migration-restrictions and has been stimulated
by the subsequent ravages of civil war and banditry and famine and
flood in the heart of China itself: a fourfold scourge which has been
driving the Chinese peasantry of Shantung and Honan and Chihli
to emigrate in their hundreds of thousands to the empty and
unharassed virgin lands of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Thus,
to-day, the Great Wall no longer marks the boundary between
Chinese peasant and barbarian Nomad. The line across which the

Nomad

invader has trespassed so many times during the last two

thousand years has been left far behind in the Chinese peasant's
peaceful but potent counter-offensive, until now a broad zone of
the steppe-land which the Mongol herdsman used to range has
1

Indeed, it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the Manchu Dynasty

and Nobility, at any rate, had been Sinified before they crossed the Great Wall in
AD. 1619. For their previous extra-mural dominions had included not only their own
original homeland in the forest-clad highlands east of Kirin but also the relatively wellwatered portion of the lowlands in the Liao River basin which had been brought under
the plough by Chinese peasant-colonists and had been shielded from Nomad incursions
by the construction of the Willow Palisade: a north-eastern prolongation of the Great
Wall which takes off from the Wall just above Shanhaikwan and runs down the eastern
escarpment of the Central Asian Plateau and then across the South Manchunan plains
until it strikes the left bank of the Upper Sungan after traversing the foot-hills of the
eastern mountains between Changchun and Kirm. By the time when the Manchus
descended from their highlands, these well-watered and colonized and cultivated and
protected lowlands had become a Chinese country; and it was at Mukden, in this
Chinese milieu, that the Manchus held their court before they crossed the Wall and
moved to Peking. This residence at Mukden Sinified the Manchu princes as effectively
as
the^Scottish kings were Anglicized by transferring their residence from the Highlands
to Edinburgh, and the Achaememdae Babylonicized by
transferring theirs from Persis
to Susa.
Half the Bannermen who conquered intra-mural China for the Manchu
Dynasty were not Manchus at all, but South-Manchurian Chinese; and the so-called
Manchu conquest of China was, in effect, a Chinese civil war. (See Lattimore, op. cit.,
3 For
PP- 4S-7I-)
this, see further Part III. A, vol iii, pp. 16-22, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

125
the
Under
counterattack of these ever advancing furrows, the Mongols have almost
evacuated their former pasturelands south of the Gobi Desert, while
the Manchus have become almost extinct in 'the Three Eastern
Provinces' of the Chinese Republic which are still popularly known
as Manchuria. In other words, the environs of Peking have ceased
to be a march and have become assimilated to the interior for the
first time in Far Eastern history; and it is in accordance with
our law that in these new circumstances Peking itself should for1
feit its long-maintained status of being the
capital of China.
But has Nanking undergone any converse change of circumstances which entitles it to re-acquire the status which Peking has
now lost ? If our law is to be vindicated completely, we must be
able to demonstrate that, concurrently, the environs of Nanking
have ceased to be part of the interior, as they have been hitherto
since the beginning of Far Eastern history, and have become a
march; and, as soon as we state the problem in these terms, we
perceive that, in this quarter, there has in fact been a transformation of China's human environment which is not less far-reaching
than the change in the north. While, along the northern landfrontiers of China, the old pressure from the Nomads of the
Eurasian Steppe has gradually been reduced to vanishing point and
has latterly given place to a counter-pressure upon the Nomads
from the Chinese, China has been exposed contemporaneously to a
new pressure, of steadily increasing intensity, along her eastern
frontage, where she faces the sea. In earlier ages of Far Eastern
history, the coast-line of China was the quarter on which the
pressure upon her was least severe. Save for the desultory visits of
Arab and Persian Muslim merchant-ships in the T'ang period and
the desultory raids of Japanese pirates in the Ming period, the sea
remained, from the Chinese standpoint, 'a perfect and absolute
blank', until, some four centuries ago, it became the vehicle of the
impact of our Western Civilization upon the Far East*
This impact of a human force from the opposite side of the globe
was feeble at first and it is less than a century ago that it began to
acquire its present formidable momentum. At the date, for instance,
when the T'aip'ing made their unsuccessful attempt to retransfer
the capital of China to Nanking, the Western international settle-

been brought under the Chinese plough.

ment of Shanghai was still in its puny infancy: an unregarded

bunch of 'godowns' planted on a mud-bank up a backwater of
the Yangtse estuary. To-day Shanghai is not only the greatest of the
from Canton at one end
treaty-ports that stud the coast of China
Compare the edipse of Thebes after it had been relegated to the interior of the
1 14-18,
Egyptiac World through the incorporation of Nubia (see the present chapter, pp
1

above).

126

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

She is also one of the greatest ports and

greatest cities in the World, and, to all appearance, she commands
a future that will quite eclipse her imposing present. In other
words, as China's northern landward marches have fallen into
atrophy with the cessation of pressure from the Nomads, a new
eastern maritime march has been brought into existence by a new
pressure from overseas which is being exerted upon China by the
Westerners. This new maritime march has taken the place of the
old landward march as the quarter from which the incidence of
external pressure upon China is heaviest; and the sector in which

to Tientsin at the other.

now

the central sector containing Shanghai.

Shanghai is the point of the spear which the West is thrusting into
China's side ; and accordingly, in the political geography of China,
as it has come to be re-orientated during the last three-quarters of
a century, the province of Kiangsu, in which Shanghai is embedded,
has succeeded to the historic position of the province of Chihli,
which used to lie athwart the war-paths of Nomad invaders from
it is

heaviest of

all is

Mongolia and Manchuria.

Now Nanking occupies in Kiangsu a position corresponding to
1

The reader of this passage may demur to this implied relegation of Manchuna to a
secondary role; for he can point out that Manchuria has never ceased to be a zone
which external pressure is being brought to bear upon China and that, since the i8thigth September, 1931, the pressure upon China from this quarter has become so intense
has come to be regarded as a matter of world-wide concern. This is quite true;
that^it
but it should also be observed that, since the last decade of the nineteenth century of the
Christian Era, the pressure which has been exerted upon China through Manchuria
has not been the pressure either of Mongol Nomadism or of Manchu Barbarism
In
these latter days, the pressure through Manchuria has been exerted by Russia and
Japan; and it has been exerted by these two Powers as a consequence of the process of
Westernization which each of them has previously undergone In fact, Russia and Japan
in Manchuria are acting as representatives of the West; and, in virtue of this, the
importance of Manchuria as a channel conducting towards China the aggression of the
West is at least as great* at the present day 'as its importance in bringing the expansive
powers of China to bear on the frontier'. (Lattimore, op cit., p. 259.) Under the shadow
of the Sino-Russian conflict in Manchuria in 1929 and the more formidable SinoJapanese conflict in Manchuria which came to a head in 1931, an observer might be
inclined to judge that, while the personality of the aggressor in Manchuria has changed
the Japanese and the Russian having replaced the Mongol and the Manchu
Manchuria
itself has not forfeited its historic role as the quarter from which the heaviest external
pressure upon China is exerted. Yet on closer inspection it will be found that, in spite of
superficial appearances, the Manchurian frontier, as a zone of entry for the Western
impact upon China, is really secondary to the maritime frontier round the estuary of the
Yangtse. This truth is borne out by the history of the Smo- Japanese conflict which broke
out in Manchuria in 1931; for the conflagration which had first flared up at Mukden
spread to Shanghai forthwith.
'There could have been no more conclusive demonstration than this of the truth that
the centre of gravity of China had indeed effectively shifted from the Province of Chihli
and the Basin of the Peiho River and the port of Tientsin and the former political capital
at Peking to the Province of Kiangsu and the basin of the Yangtse River and the
port of
Shanghai and the new political capital at Nanking In effect, the new centre of energy
with which Western enterprise had endowed
or encumbered
China at Shanghai had
become so potent that, by the years 1931-2, it was virtually impossible foi anything of
major importance to happen to China at large without Shanghai becoming the principal
scene of action. In this phase of Chinese history, Shanghai was a dominant magnetic
point; and the magnetic power of this Western-made focus of modern Chinese economic
life proved stronger than Japanese military
dispositions/ (Toynbee, A. J.: Survey of
International Affaiis 1931 (London 1932, Milford), p. 461.)
1

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

that of Peking in Chihli. Peking

down

Nankow

127

commands the Mongolian war-path

and the Manchurian war-path through

the passage of Shan-hai-kwan, where the Great Wall descends
from the mountains to the sea. Similarly, Nanking commands the
path by which Western men-o'-war penetrate into the heart of
China up the waterway of the Yangtse. A Chinese Government
established at Nanking can defend China against the most formidable of the external pressures to which she is subject to-day
at the point where the pressure is the most intense and, in keeping
the intruder under surveillance and holding him in check from this
post of vantage, the rulers of China can learn his arts as well. Fas
est et ab hoste doceri', 1 and
Nanking is only one short night's railwaydistant
from
and school of thieves
journey
Shanghai: the den
which Western enterprise has planted at China's eastern door.
the

defile

from the seaward side, in spite of the history of the

nineteenth century, is still novel and terrifying to the consciousness of
the [Chinese] people at large. There is no buffer territory between the
sea and the heart of China; there are no non-Chinese "reservoir" tribes
to graduate the shock; and the tradition of the sea-going population
itself is one of exploiting, not of being exploited. The impact of Western
nations, the alien standards of the West, treaties dictated by the West,
have always aroused a reaction of terror and hate far greater than any
defeat in the vague buffer territories of the North. There is no underlying tradition to prescribe a method of dealing with aggression from
over the sea. The methods applied in the eighteenth and nineteenth
'Military defeat

centuries were, generally speaking, coloured by the traditions applying

to the northern land-frontier barbarians. They did not work well; in
fact, they tended to bring on disasters. Hence a feeling, which has now
penetrated very deep, that the Western nations are incalculable, that they
are always likely to spring a fresh surprise, something quite outside of
2
experience and the "rules of the game".'
It was in order to learn the outlandish rules of the

new Western
finance that
and
and
industry
game of war and diplomacy and trade
the capital of China was transferred from Peking to Nanking in
A.D. 1928.

It will

be seen that

this transfer is a perfect illustration

of our law that the external pressure of the human environment

upon a march administers a stimulus which gives the march predominance over the interior.

In the Hindu World

turn next from Far Eastern history to Hindu, we shall
for
recognize certain corresponding phenomena. We shall notice,
instance, that in India, as in China, to-day the march which is
If

we

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IV, 1. 428.

Lattimore, Owen: Manchuria Cradle of Conflict
pp. 297-8.
i

(New York

1932, Macmillan),

128

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

subject to the heaviest pressure is the seaboard, and that the

pressure from overseas is being applied by the same Western force.
In Bombay, 'the Gate of India', we shall identify the Indian
analogue of Shanghai; and we shall observe that just as the vital

elements of the Far Eastern Society in China have been concentrating themselves latterly in the immediate hinterland of Shanghai,
so the vital elements of the Hindu Society in India seem to be
concentrating themselves now in the immediate hinterland of Bombay. It is the Bombay Presidency, from Poona to Ahmadabad, that
is producing the foremost
politicians and industrialists and saints
and thinkers in India in our generation.
We shall notice, again, that, in India as in China, this concentration of pressure and stimulus and response in the maritime march
is of recent date ; and indeed in India it is still far from
being complete. If we pass, for instance, from the intellectual and economic
indices of social vitality to the military, and inquire into the comparative contributions of the various subdivisions of contemporary
India to the Indian Army, we shall find that nearly 58 per cent,
of the personnel is supplied by the Panjab and by the adjoining
North-West Frontier Province, and that, on this criterion, the
Bombay Presidency is altogether outmatched by the Panjab in
vitality, even though it holds its own in the military field, as in the
1
civil, against all other provinces of British India.
Moreover, the
capital of the Indian Empire, though it was transferred to a new site
in A.D. 1912, as the capital of the Chinese Republic was transferred
in 1928, has not been transplanted to the Bombay
'Presidency. It has
been located at Delhi and Delhi, though not appreciably nearer than
theprevious capital, Calcutta, to Bombay, is on thefringe of the Panjab
In fact, the special enclave containing the new imperial
capital has
been carved out of territory which previously belonged to the Panjab
as delimited in British Indian administrative
geography.
;

In the year 1930, the total combatant strength of the British Indian Regular

Army

was 158,200. Of these troops, 91,600 had been recruited from the Panjab and the
North-West Frontier Province, some 35,500 from the Himalayan Highlands (Garhwal,
Kumaon, Nepal); some 31,100 from the rest of India, including the Bombay Presidency;
and 7,000 from the Bombay Presidency itself (See the Report of the Indian Statutory
Commission = British Parliamentary Paper Cmd. 3568 of 1930 (London
1930, H M.
Stationery Office), vol. i, pp. 96-8. In the figures extracted from this source in the
present footnote, the 16,500 troops recruited from the United Provinces have been
credited to the Himalayan Highlands on the assumption that the
majority of them came
from the highland districts of Garhwal and Kumaon.) The above figures include
recruitments outside as well as inside the limits of territory under British administration
or control. In the year 1930, about one-seventh of the Indian
Regular Army was
recruited from territories beyond the limits of British administration or control:
partly
among the highlanders of the North-West Frontier in districts which were not under
effective British rule though they were on the Indian side of the
Indo-Afghan Frontierand partly^to the strength of 19,000) among the highlanders of
Nepal: an independent
state hanging on the southern flanks of the
Himalayas. For the tendency of civiliza-

tions, when they find themselves confronting barbarians along

stationary artificial
frontiers, to recruit their frontier defence-forces from among the trans-frontier bar-

barians themselves, see Part VIII, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

129

Why

has the capital of India moved to Delhi and not to the

hinterland of Bombay ? And why do the Panjab and the North- West
Frontier Province supply, between them, more recruits than all the
rest of India together to the Indian Army?
The answer to the second question is, of course, that, in the Panjab and in the North- West Frontier Province, in contrast to the
Maritime March and the interior alike, Indian vitality has been
stimulated to express itself in military prowess by exposure to
external military pressure. This pressure is being applied nowadays
by the warlike highlanders who still preserve their independence de
facto on the extreme edge of the Iranian Plateau, where its southeastern escarpment descends upon the north-western flank of the

Indus Valley. The proximity of these barbarian hill-men has the

same stimulating effect upon the frontiersmen of the Hindu World,
along the banks of 'the Five Rivers', that the proximity of similar
barbarians in the highlands of Shensi and Shansi once had upon
the frontiersmen of the Sinic World in the valleys of the Wei and
the Fen. 1 And the parallel goes further. On the northern marches
of China, the highland zone once occupied by barbarian hill-men
2
eventually became, as we have observed, a passage through which
China was invaded by the more formidable Nomadic peoples from
the Eurasian Steppe in the hinterland. Similarly, on the northwestern marches of India, the pressure which is being exerted by
the local highlanders at the present day was formerly far surpassed
in severity by a pressure from the Nomads of the Eurasian Steppe,
who found a passage into India across the highlands of Afghanistan,
as their counterparts found a passage into China across the highlands of Shensi and Shansi and Jehol.
In Hindu history, as in Far Eastern, it is this pressure from
Eurasian Nomads across an inland frontier that has been the
heaviest external pressure until recently, and this ever since the
time when Hindu history began. The Nomads' pressure was felt
in full force during the interregnum, following the disintegration
of the 'apparented' Indie Civilization, out of which the Hindu
Civilization originally emerged . In the post-Indie Volkerwanderung
the Indie Power that had
after the break-up of the Gupta Empire

the social functions of an Indie universal

India was invaded, across this north-west frontier, by the

resumed and
state 3

fulfilled

1
See the present section, pp. 118-19, above, and compare the relations between the
Chinese frontiersmen and the Manchu barbarian hill-men in Manchuria, on the eve of
their joint conquest of intra-mural China. (See p. 124, footnote i, above.)

Seep. 119, above.

For the role of the Gupta Empire in Indie history, as a resumption of the Indie
universal state which had been first embodied in the Maurya Empire and had then been
see I, C (i) (5),
interrupted prematurely by a Hellenic intrusion upon the Indie World,
.

vol.

i,

II

pp. 85-6, above.

130

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Nomad

Gurjaras and Huns. The invaders swamped the Indus

Valley, made themselves at home in the Indian Desert beyond it,
and swept on through Rajputana into the Deccan. 1 The historic
issue was whether these barbarians should or should not forestall
the emergence of a new civilization, 'affiliated* to the defunct Indie
Civilization, by engulfing the Ganges Valley as well; and this
question was decided in the negative because, along the line of the
River Jumna, a stand against their onslaughts was made with
success. In the historical geography of the Hindu World, the crosssection of the great plain of Hindustan which contains the course
of the Jumna, from the southern foot-hills of the Himalayas to the
northern foot-hills of the Central Indian highlands, has had the
same strategic importance as the passes from Manchuria and Mongolia into the Chinese province of Chihli in the historical geography
of the Far East. Here was the gap through which the Nomad
invaders must pass if they were to penetrate farther and here was
the point where they met with serious resistance. To this neighbourhood, accordingly, the capital of India has gravitated hitherto
throughout the history of the Hindu Civilization.
Already, during the post-Indie interregnum, when Harsha
;

(imperabat A.D. 606-47) momentarily restored the Indie universal

state, he fixed his capital in this new north-western march at

Sthanesvara, covering the approach from the Panjab to the Jumna,

and not in the interior of Magadha the natural administrative
centre of the Ganges Basin, at the junction of the
Ganges with the

Jumna and with two other

tributaries, which had been the capital

of both the Guptas and the Mauryas.
Again, some two centuries
when
the
new
Hindu
later,
Civilization, which had emerged in
the meanwhile, was threatened in its infancy by
pressure from the
Arabs, who had reached the delta of the Indus from the sea and
were pushing their way inland up-river, 2 the Arabs' advance was
arrested by the rise of a Hindu Power, the Pratihara
Rajputs, who
ruled from Gujerat to the
Jumna-Ganges Duab and fixed their
3
in
the
on
the
west bank of the
at
Duab,
capital

Ganges,

Kanauj.

In Vincent Smith's opinion, the Chalukyas, who founded a

principality in the Deccan
circa A.D. 550, were probably Gurjara invaders from
Rajpulana. (Smith, Vincent: The
Early History of India, 3rd edition (Oxford 1914, Clarendon Press), p. 424 )
* For the
province of the Arab Caliphate in the Indus Valley, see I.
(i) (b), vol. i
pp. 105-6, above.
The Pratiharas were Gurjara converts to Hinduism who defended the
3^
society of
their adoption against the aggression of the
Syriac universal state (now resumed, after
the Hellenic intrusion, in the Arab
Caliphate), just as, on the opposite edge of the
in this case, Western Christendomwas
Syriac World, another nascent society
defended against the same Arab aggressors by the Prankish converts to
Christianity.
The Eurasian Nomad origin of the Pratiharas is attested by their military
technique.
were
horse-archers and camel-men, not elephant-riders.
They
(See Vaidya. C. V. : The
History of Mediaeval India (Poona 1924, Oriental Book Supplying Agency), vol. ii,
p. 105 ) The Pratiharas made themselves masters of the Jumna-Ganges Duab definitively circa A.D. 810-16. It is remarkable that they fixed their capital at
Kanauj, in this
*

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

131

Both Kanauj and Sthanesvara, however, were to be eclipsed by a

later foundation in the same region. Delhi was built on the west
bank of the Jumna, on a site intermediate between the sites of the
two earlier capitals, in A.D. 993-4* by Hindu hands; but Delhi, like
Peking, was first raised to honour by rulers who were alien intruders.

Nomads of the Eurasian Steppe broke

their bounds again and began to make their way into India by the old
At

this

very juncture, the

route across the north-west frontier but this time they appeared in a
new guise. The Hun and Gurjara invaders of the post-Indie Volker;

475-775) had come in as undifferentiated

were
who
not immune from conversion to Hinduism.
Their Turkish kinsmen who took the same road two centuries

wanderung

(circa A.D.

barbarians

later arrived in India as converts to

Islam

the Syriac universal

and as apostles of a new Iranic Civilization to which the
church
expiring Syriac Civilization was 'apparented'.
By force of arms
these latter-day Turkish invaders carried their alien religion and
culture into the Ganges Valley, where their Gurjara predecessors
had not secured a footing until after they had become Hindus.
The Turks broke through the Jumna March, and conquered the
Ganges Valley down to the coast of Bengal, in A.D. 1 191-1204; they
conquered the Deccan in A.D. 1294-1309; and eventually a great
Turkish statesman, Akbar the Timurid (imperdbat A.D. 1556-1605),
reunited the Hindu World under an alien rule, as the Mongol
2
Qubilay reunited the main body of the Far Eastern World, by

Hindu and Muslim princimotley fragments

into an all-embracing empire which performed the
palities alike
functions of a Hindu universal state. For the Eurasian invaders of
situated, as it was,
India, Delhi was the natural site for a capital
Indus
and
the
on the borderline between the
Valley
Ganges Valley,
between the region in which Islamic religion and Iranic culture and
Eurasian blood had become predominant and the region where
Hinduism was still holding its own under an alien yoke. Accordingly,
Delhi was the normal seat of Turkish Muslim rule in India from
bringing together

its

the thirteenth century of the Christian Era, when the 'Slave Kings'
fixed their capital there, down to the eighteenth, when the descendants of Akbar, the maker of the Hindu universal state, were mainthe
taining a shadow court at Delhi as proteges and pensioners of
British East India
newly acquired province

Company.

at the extremity of their

dominions, instead of retaining

it^at

some site in Rajputana, the country in which they had been at home for several centuries
and which was still the geographical centre of their empire. In order to explain their
was
choice, we must suppose that the strategic importance of the Jumna-Ganges Duab
already well recognized.
i
Smith, V., op. cit., p. 384

See p. 121, above.

While Delhi was normally the capital of India during the five or six centimes
of Muslim Turkish rule, her enjoyment of this status was not uninterrupted. In the
3

32

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Moreover, Delhi,

like Peking,

status after the downfall of the

has succeeded in recovering her

Power by which

this status

was

first

conferred upon her. The replacement of the Mughal Raj in India

by the British Raj, like the expulsion of the Mongols from China
by the Ming, was accompanied at the moment by a transfer of
the capital from the principal landward march to a new site in the
interior where the new rulers felt themselves at home and were
sure of their authority. In the nineteenth century, Delhi had to
yield her primacy to Calcutta, as, in the fourteenth century, Peking
had to yield hers to Nanking. Yet in India, as in China, the old
capital in the march eventually won back, from the new capital in
the interior, the status which it had temporarily forfeited. In A.D.
1912, fifty-five years after the definitive extinction of the Mughal
Raj and confirmation of the British Raj in the suppression of
the Indian Mutiny, the British Government itself retransferred
the capital of India to Delhi, as the Ming Emperor Yung Lo retransferred the capital of China to Peking fifty-three years after the
expulsion of the Mongols from China by Yung Lo's own father

Hung Wu.
It is

noteworthy

that, while the capital of India

has perpetually

gravitated to the environs of Delhi since the genesis of the Hindu

Civilization, it has never established itself permanently anywhere
in the Middle or Lower Ganges Valley, in Bihar or in Bengal.

Before the advent of the British, it never established itself thereabouts at all ; and no permanent change in the political geography
of the Hindu World has been produced by the historical accident
that the British rule began in Bengal a century before it was fully
confirmed throughout India. This accident gave Bengal a double
temporary advantage over other Indian provinces she became the
base of operations and seat of government of the new All-India raj
which was taking the place of the broken-down raj of the Mughals ;
and her people were exposed to the process of intensive Westernization several generations earlier than their neighbours. Yet these
accidental advantages, considerable though they are, have not
availed against the permanent handicap to which Bengal is subject :
the lack of stimulus which is the penalty of her situation in the
interior. Even under the British Raj, which has its source in seaa port
power, the capital of India has departed from Calcutta
:

early days of the empire of the Great Mughals, the capital was at Agra: and Akbar,
followed in Ikhnaton's footsteps in attempting to turn his autocratic
political authority to account for the artificial creation and imposition of a new universal
church (see Part VIII, below), likewise followed Ikhnaton in building himself a brandnew capital city. After the founder's death, however, Fatihpur Sikri had the same fate
as Tell-el-Amarna; the capital reverted to Agra and
thence, under Shah Jahan, to Delhi;
and so, in the latter days of the Mughal Empire, the Turkish Muslim rule in India
ended at Delhi, where it had begun

who unknowingly

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

133

and has shifted back to Delhi,

where the Eurasian horseman is at home and the Western seafarer is a stranger. As for the stimulus of the impact of our Western
Civilization from across the sea
an impact which has given Bengal
accessible to ocean-going vessels

the character of a march for the

time in Hindu history

the
Bengali response
challenge seems to lack vitality and
In
originality.
Bengali souls, the ferment of Westernization is apt
to

first

this

to deteriorate into 'the leaven of the Scribes'. 'Where there is no

x
vision, the people perish' ; and, in the Indian National Movement,

which the challenge of the West has evoked, the inspiration and the
leadership have been passing, as we have observed already, from
Bengal to the

Bombay

this hinterland of

Presidency.

We may

observe further that

Bombay, which has thus become the principal

march of India vis-a-vis the West, has not now acquired the
character of a march for the first time in Hindu history. From the
beginning, it has been exposed to external pressure of various kinds
from various quarters military pressure from Gurjaras and Arabs
:

by land; economic pressure from Arabs and Parsees by

sea.

'The

greater the pressure the greater the stimulus' is a maxim which is

borne out by the phenomena of social geography in the Hindu
World, as well as in the Far Eastern World and in the Sinic and in
the Egyptiac.

In the Sumeric and Babylonic Worlds

In the Sumeric World, we find the same law illustrated in the
2 The
Empire of Sumer and
history of the Sumeric universal state.
Akkad was founded by a Sumerian dynasty whose capital was at
Ur, in the heart of the homeland of the Sumeric Civilization. The
Empire was restored, after a temporary breakdown, by an Amorite
dynasty whose capital was at Babylon: 'the Gate of the Gods'
which was also the gate through which the Amorite Nomads of
the North Arabian Steppe had forced an entry into the Land of
Shinar. Thus, in the Sumeric universal state, political power passed

from the interior to the march on which the heaviest external

pressure was being exerted.
The same phenomena reappear in the history of the Babylonic
Civilization which was 'affiliated' to the Sumeric. We have seen
and
that, in Babylonic history, Babylonia was surpassed, in arms
arts alike, by Assyria; and we have attributed Assyria's superiority
to the fact that, as compared with Babylonia, she was in a certain
sense 'new ground'. 3 We shall now find a second and possibly more
potent cause of Babylonia's failure to hold her
1

Proverbs xxix. 18.

See I. C (i) (), vol.

i,

pp. 103 and 106, above.

own
3

against Assyria

See pp. 74-5, above.

134

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

in the fact that Babylonia occupied a sheltered position in the

interior of the Babylonic World, whereas Assyria was a march
which bore the brunt of successive external pressures. In the postSumeric Volkerwanderung, Babylonia had suffered and succumbed to an invasion of barbarian Kassites at the time when
and repelling an invasion of barbarian
Assyria was suffering

Mitannians and thereafter the Assyrians experienced

;

and resisted

from which the Babylonians were exempt.

After being liberated, in the fourteenth century B.C., from the
Mitannian pressure by the vicarious exertions of the Hittite Power, 1
Assyria was involved, throughout the eleventh and tenth centuries,
further pressures

struggle for existence against a more formidable adversary

than Mitanni in the shape of Aram. The Aramaeans were Nomads
who had issued out of the Arabian Peninsula, in company with the
in a

new

Hebrews, during the Volkerwanderung which preceded the birth

of the Syriac Civilization and while the Hebrews had drifted into
Southern Syria, the Ajramaeans had drifted northwards in the
;

ancient track of the Amorites. One wing of the migrant Aramaean

horde had settled in the oases of east-central Syria, from Damascus
to Hamah; another wing had lapped over the Middle Euphrates
and had occupied the pasture-lands of Northern Mesopotamia;
and it was this eastern wing that came into collision with Assyria.
The situation, however, was not in all respects the same as when
the Aramaeans' Amorite predecessors had forced an entry into the
Sumeric World along this very track some twelve hundred years
before.
The Amorites when they entered Akkad, like the Huns and
Gurjaras when they entered India, had come in as undifferentiated

barbarians and, as such, they had been converted easily and rapidly
to the culture which they found in occupation of the ground on
which they were trespassing. On the other hand, the Aramaeans,
when they began to encroach upon the western borders of Assyria,
had already come within the ambit of the nascent Syriac Civilization, just as the Turks who invaded India in the footsteps of the
Huns had previously come within the ambit of the nascent Iranic
Civilization and had been rendered immune to Hinduism
by an
inoculation
with
Islam.
Thus
the
Aramaean
anticipatory
Syriac
the
World
was
as
formidable
a
pressure upon
Babylonic
danger to
the existence of the threatened civilization as the Turkish Muslim
pressure upon the Hindu World; but, whereas the Rajputs failed
to save India from being overrun by the Turks, the
Assyrians not
checked
the
Aramaeans'
eastward
in
advance
two
centuries of
only
defensive warfare but passed over thereafter, in the ninth
century
*

See

I.

(i) (6),

vol.

i,

p. 113, above.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

135

which carried the Assyrian arms to

the shores of the Mediterranean and ground all Syria under the
Assyrian heel. Thus, in this first round of the long and arduous
struggle between the Syriac and Babylonic civilizations, Assyria
bore the brunt and gained the victory for the Babylonic World. In
the meantime Babylonia had the easy task of assimilating the Chaldaeans
a Nomadic people who had issued out of the Arabian
Peninsula simultaneously with the Aramaeans and the Hebrews,
but whose line of migration lay so far to the south-east that the
B.C., into a counter-offensive

influence of the nascent Syriac Civilization did not reach them.

Thus the Chaldaeans like the Amorites and unlike the Aramaeans
came in as undifferentiated barbarians who were open to assimi-

when

and

their infiltration into Babylonia, during the centuries

Assyria was fighting the Aramaeans for her life, was a peace-

lation;

ful penetration instead of being a formidable ordeal.

Moreover, the Aramaean front was only one of the fronts on

which Assyria had to fight. While she was resisting the pressure
from the Syriac Civilization on the south-west, she had to defend
her rear against the highlanders of the Iranian and Anatolian
plateaux on the east and the north. In this quarter, again, Assyria

performed the function of a march covering the interior of the

Babylonic World ; and, while she eventually gained the upper hand
over her Syriac adversaries, the highlanders kept her perpetually on
the defensive. Indeed, when, through this warlike intercourse, the
highland principality of Urartu, in the basin of Lake Van, even-

became converted to the Babylonic Civilization, the struggle

like the struggle between the East
only became the more intense
Roman Empire and Bulgaria after the conversion of the Bulgarians
to Orthodox Christianity.
Nevertheless Assyria, under this perpetual pressure from every
quarter, developed a vitality which Babylonia could not match so
tually

long as Assyria's prowess gave her shelter. On the other hand, the
positions were reversed when Assyria turned her arms against the
1
interior of the Babylonic World and ceased to defend its frontiers.
During the seventh century B.C. she applied to her sister-country
Babylonia the grinding pressure which she had applied in the ninth
and eighth centuries to alien Syria and this fearful challenge stimulated the Babylonians as potently as it stimulated the Syrians, though
in a different way. In Syrian souls, it evoked the religious inspiration which found expression through the mouths of the Prophets
of Israel; in Babylonian souls it evoked a dogged nationalism
;

This change in the direction of Assyrian energies is examined further in Part IV,
below, apropos of the pathological phenomenon of Militarism as a specific malady of
the marches.
1

36

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

which proved more than a match for the furor Assyriacus. The
fortified by Chaldaean infusions and steeled by
Babylonians
were in at the death when, at the close of the
Assyrian atrocities
seventh century B.C., the highlanders of the Iranian Plateau overwhelmed Assyria at last and these Median allies of Babylon in the
war of annihilation against Assyria were able now to achieve the
destruction of the Power which had successfully resisted the pressure of Urartu and the earlier pressure of Mitanni because Assyria,
by the time when she had to deal with the Medes, had ceased to
perform her historic function as a march.
the
In the seventh century B.C., a wave of Eurasian Nomads
the
north-western exCimmerians and the Scyths broke over
descended
the
and
Iranian
Plateau
upon the Babylonic
tremity of
and Syriac worlds, as the Huns and Gurjaras broke over the northeastern extremity of the same plateau and descended upon the
Indie World in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian Era.
Therewith, the challenge of Nomadic invasion was presented in
South- Western Asia for the first time since the occasion when,
more than a thousand years earlier, during the post-SumericVolkerwanderung, the Hyksos had broken out of the Eurasian Steppe and
had swept across the derelict domain of the Empire of Sumer and
Akkad to settle in Syria, 1 This time, Assyria was the South- West
Asian Power whose proper task it was to take the Eurasian Nomads'
challenge up but, this time, Assyria failed to rise to the occasion
for the first time in her history. Whether from impotence or from
impolicy, she allowed the Nomads to raid South- Western Asia
unchastised; and she even enlisted their services as mercenaries
to fight for her in her Median and Babylonian wars. Thereby, she
repudiated the function which she had made her own for the last
five centuries ; and the Medes seized the opportunity thus offered
to them. They stepped into the breach; occupied the vacant post
of danger and honour; exterminated or subdued or expelled the
Scythian intruders; and inherited, as their reward, the hegemony
2
For
previously exercised by Assyria over South- Western Asia,
;

See I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 104-5, above. In the seventh century B.C., the Scythians
penetrated to Syria, like the Hyksos before them and the Turks after them; and the
name Scythopohs, by which the Greeks afterwards knew the Biblical city of Bethshean
(the modern Baisan) in the Valley of Jezreel, attests that at least one Scythian war-band
made a permanent settlement in Palestine.
2
Except in the western extremity; of the Anatolian Peninsula, beyond the River Halys,
where the local task of exterminating or subduing or expelling the intrusive Nomads
was taken in hand, not by the Medes, but by the Lydians: a local people who were
under the influence of the Hellenic and not the Babylonic or the Syriac Civilization.
The local response of Lydia to the challenge from the Nomads won her a double reward.
On the landward side, she shared with Media, Babylonia, and Egypt the dominion
previously exercised by Assyria over South- Western Asia. On the seaward side, towards
the Aegean, she imposed her suzerainty upon the Greek city-states along the
seaboard,
who had failed to save themselves from the Nomads and theiefore forfeited their
political independence to the Power in the hinterland which had performed the work of
1

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

137

Assyria was a march or nothing. As soon as she failed to respond

to the challenge of external pressure from the human environment,
she fell; and Media, who had taken up the Scythian challenge, was
the Power that dealt Assyria her death-blow.

In the Syriac World

While the immediate consequence of the presentation of the
Scythian challenge was the replacement of Assyria by Media, an
ultimate consequence
which was of much greater historical imwas the eventual victory of the Syriac Civilization in its
portance
the duel which had begun in the
long duel with the Babylonic
eleventh century B.C. with the collision between Assyria and Aram.
After the first round had been decided in favour of the Babylonic

by the victorious Assyrian counter-offensive against

Syria in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C., the struggle had shifted
from the military to the cultural plane and had resolved itself into a
Civilization

competition between the two rival civilizations for the conversion

of the highlanders on the Anatolian and Iranian plateaux. In this
competition, the Babylonic Civilization gained an initial success,
which has been mentioned above, in the conversion of Urartu but
this cultural 'Babylonicization* of one highland country on the
north which did not succumb to Assyrian arms was counterbalanced by the 'Syriacization' of another highland country on the
east which the Assyrians temporarily succeeded in subjugating;
and here, in Media, the Assyrians in applying their ruthless
;

policy of breaking their victims' spirit by uprooting them from

their homes and carrying them away captive
actually served as
'carriers' for the Syriac Civilization which they had trampled

under

foot.

When

the Assyrians finally broke the resistance of the Syriac

peoples in the latter half of the eighth century B.C., they deported
part of the conquered population to 'the cities of the Medes' ;* but
this extreme application of the maxim 'Divide and rule* had an
unintended consequence. By the forcible introduction of Syriac
deportees, the Medes were inoculated with the germs of the
Syriac Civilization before they were stimulated, by the challenge
of Scythian pressure, to step into Assyria's place. At the same
time, the Scythian challenge, which called out this 'Syriacized'
Media's energies, broke the 'Babylonicized' Urartu's back; and

thus the fivefold interaction between Syria and Assyria and Media
and the Scyths and Urartu worked together for the Syriac Civilizasalvation for them. The political subjection of the Asiatic Greeks to Lydia naturally
expedited the cultural conversion of the Lydians to Hellenism. Indeed, this was perhaps
(Horace:
the first of many instances in which 'Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit*.
* 2
Kings xvn. 6 and xvui. n.
Epistolae, Book II, Ep. i, 1. 156.)

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

138

of Assyria, the remnant of the Babylonic

World now gathered together into 'the Neo-Babylonian Empire'
found itself hemmed in
of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar
and pressed upon by the Syriac World on both flanks: not only

tion's good.

from the

After the

fall

rival civilization's

homeland in Syria

itself

but from the

had now acquired

From this encircling movement, the Babylonic
Civilization had no more chance of escape than an antelope has
from the toils of a boa-constrictor. The constriction and mastication of the Babylonic Civilization by its victorious rival was only a
matter of time and the process was completed before the beginning

great new domain

for itself in Iran.

which the Syriac

Civilization

of the Christian Era. 1

we now

turn our attention to the subsequent history of the

Syriac Civilization, we shall find our law illustrated here again.
The enlarged Syriac World which had been brought into existence
by the 'Syriacization' of Iran remained, from the seventh century
B.C. onwards, in direct contact with the Eurasian Steppe; and it
was from the Eurasian Nomads that it continued to receive the
heaviest external pressure. In consonance with this, we find that,
thenceforward, the primacy in the Syriac World passed, in succession, to the peoples who successively took over the burden of
keeping the Eurasian Nomads at bay, and to the regions which
successively served as anti-Nomad marches. The Median hegemony, for example, lasted just so long as the Medes held the front
line in the defensive warfare against Nomad aggression. The hegemony was forfeited by the Medes to the Persians because the princes
of Persis had succeeded in snatching from their Median neighbours
the wardenship of the Eurasian Marches and thereby relegating
Media to an unexposed and unstimulating position in the interior
of the Syriac World. The Medes had been content to bar the
passage of the Nomads at its narrowest point, where the Elbruz
Range on one side and the Central Desert of Iran on the other
If

side barely leave open, between them, "the Caspian Gates'.

this Median front line, and redeemed

Achaemenidae masked

The
from

Nomad

occupation a vast additional zone of Iranian territory, by

extending their own dominions north-eastwards from their home
territory of Persis right up to the line of the Oxus ; and it was their
expansion in this direction that made their fortune by putting
them in a position to supersede the Medes as the Medes had superseded the Assyrians. 2
For the attraction of Iran into the orbit of the Syriac Civilization, and the absorption of the dead body of the Babylonic Civilization into the Synac Civilization's
living
tissues, see I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 79-81, above.
2 It
may be noted that the Lydians as well as the Medes succumbed to the Achaemenidae, and that Lydia, like Media, had previously been 'relegated to the interior' by the
Achaememds* assumption of the wardenship of the Eurasian marches.
*

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

139

This Achaemenian enterprise in the north-east, which was the

preliminary to the overthrow of the Median Astyages and to the
foundation of a Syriac universal state in the form of an Achaemenian
Empire, went almost unmarked among Hellenic observers, whose
vision did not yet extend to such distant horizons. Yet the
acquisition of Bactria was a more
important step in the rise of the Achaemenian Power than the acquisition of Elam; and it was not for
nothing that Cyrus met his death in fighting the Nomad Massagetae
1
beyond the Jaxartes. Under Cyrus's successors, the Achaemenian
Empire held against the Nomads, with a strong hand, every oasis
that could be created by irrigation along the courses of those rivers
Heri Rud and Murghab, Oxus and Jaxartes which flow out
from the northern foot of the Iranian Plateau and from the western
foot of the Pamirs to reach the Caspian or the Sea of Aral or else

We

to lose themselves in the desert.

may conjecture that the
pressure of the Eurasian Nomads upon this North-Eastern March
of the Syriac universal state always weighed more heavily on the

minds of Achaemenian statesmen than the pressure of the Hellenes

upon the opposite extremity of their dominions and this even
during the Athenian counter-offensive that was kept up intermittently for thirty years after the failure of Xerxes' expedition
against Greece. It was assuredly not until Alexander had crossed
the Dardanelles, and perhaps not until he had crossed the Euphrates,
that the Hellenic peril became a greater anxiety than the Nomad
peril to the last Darius.
Moreover, Alexander's own experience in the process of conquering the Achaemenian Empire indicates that, here as elsewhere, the
march which was exposed to the heaviest external pressure had
been stimulated into a greater vitality than any other region. It
took Alexander not more than five years to conquer outright, without parley or compromise, the vast mass of the Achaemenian
dominions, from the Dardanelles and the Libyan oases up to 'the
Caspian Gates', where the Medes had halted in their pursuit of the
routed Scyths and where Alexander overtook the dying Darius.
Persis itself
the home territory of the imperial dynasty and the
native land of the imperial people
quietly accepted the verdict
of the Battle of Arbela, notwithstanding the stimulus which the
Persians
having 'elected to live as an imperial people in a rough

country rather than to cultivate the lowlands as some other nation's

See the picturesque account of Cyrus's last campaign in Herodotus, Book I, chs.
202-15. Herodotus's accurate knowledge of geography did not extend much farther
eastwards than a line drawn from Trebizond to Susa (i.e. a line roughly coincident with
on the
the present eastern frontiers of Turkey and 'Iraq); and his 'River Araxes*
appears to be a conflation of the actual river, still
crossing of which his story turns
bearing that name, which flows from Armenia through Azerbaijan into the Caspian,
with the actual Oxus and Jaxartes, into a single mighty and fabulous stream.
1

140

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

slaves' 1

had never ceased

to derive

from

their physical environ-

Nevertheless, in this instance, the physical stimulus of a

rough country upon the Persians showed itself less potent than the
human stimulus of Nomad pressure upon their kinsmen in the

ment.

north-eastern marches; for, whereas it had taken Alexander no

more than five years to conquer the interior of the Achaemenian

Empire up to 'the Caspian Gates', it took him two whole years

more to complete his task by conquering the marches in the OxusJaxartes Basin.
As soon as Alexander passed beyond the Caspian Gates, he
experienced an entire change in the nature of the resistance which
to that point, he had secured the submission
of vast provinces at the price of a few pitched battles against

he encountered.

Up

heterogeneous imperial field armies which showed little enthusiasm

for defending territories where they felt themselves hardly more at
home than the invader. Upon setting foot, however, in the OxusJaxartes Basin after the last of the Achaemenian armies had been
scattered to the winds, the Macedonian conqueror met with a spontaneous resistance from a feudal aristocracy with local roots. The
border barons of Bactria and Sogdiana defended themselves against
the Macedonians as they were accustomed to defend themselves
against the Massagetae. Their resistance was not only spontaneous
but energetic and protracted. Every castle stood a siege; and even
when a baron had been brought to his knees he rose in revolt again
the moment the conqueror's back was turned. At the end of two
strenuous campaigns, Alexander had to win the allegiance which
force could not exact by a policy of conciliation.
Thus, during the two centuries that had elapsed between the day
when Cyrus met his death at the hands of the Massagetae on the far
side of the Jaxartes and the day when Alexander gave the Nomads
a lesson by bombarding them with his catapults without crossing
the frontier river, the vitality of the Syriac universal state which
was embodied in the Achaemenian Empire had come to be concentrated in these north-eastern marches, where the Syriac World
was exposed to the severest external pressure. It is remarkable to

phenomenon reappearing when the Syriac universal state,

which had been prematurely cut short by the destruction of the
Achaemenian Empire through Alexander's action, was reintegrated
find this

and resumed,

after a Hellenic intrusion

years, in the 'Abbasid Caliphate.

c

Though the Abbasid

capital

which had lasted a thousand

was

fixed,

on considerations of geo-

See the passage quoted from Herodotus in II. D fi), on p. 31, above.
For the historical relation between the 'Abbasid Caliphate and the Achaemenian
Empire, see I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 73-8, above.
1

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

141

1
in the
graphical and administrative convenience, at Baghdad,
ancient homeland of the Babylonic Civilization which had long
since been absorbed into the Syriac World, the
political and military
movement which completed the re-establishment of the Syriac
universal state by setting up the 'Abbasids in the place of the

originated in Khurasan: the province lying between

'the Caspian Gates' and the Murghab, which was the north-eastern
march of the Syriac World in that age. 2 The stimulus which

Umayyads

nerved

Abu Muslim and

his Khurasanis to overthrow the

Umay-

yads was the selfsame stimulus that, in earlier ages of Syriac

history, had nerved Cyrus and his Farsis to overthrow Astyages and
the Medes, and had nerved the dihkans of Balkh and Sughd to
measure themselves against the invincible Iskandar Dhu'l-Qarnayn.
The challenge of pressure from the Nomads of the Eurasian Steppe
was as stimulating to the latter-day Syriac frontiersmen who were
confronted by the Ephthalites and the Turks and the Tiirgesh as
it had been to their
predecessors who had had to deal with the
and
the Massagetae; and the Khurasanis' historic feat of
Scyths
re-establishing the Syriac universal state in A.D. 751 was led up to,
during the years 705-41, by the more arduous, if less momentous,
feat of reincorporating the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin into the Syriac
World after a separation that had lasted some eight or nine

centuries. 3
1 The 'Abbasids fixed their
capital at Baghdad on the same considerations that had
once led the Achaemenids to hold their court at Babylon for four months in the year
(Herodotus, Book I, ch. 192). It lay in the most remunerative province in their dominions
and at the mid-point between the Syrian and the Iranian half of the Empire.
z The destruction of the Achaememan
Empire had been followed, within two centuries, by the submergence of the former Norm-Eastern Marches in the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin under a flood of Nomad invasion; for the Seleucid Empire, which was the Hellenic
'successor-state* of the Achaemenian Empire in Asia, was too exactingly preoccupied
by the task of holding its own against rival Hellenic Powers in the Levant to discharge
efficiently those responsibilities on the distant borders of the Eurasian Steppe which it
had inherited from its Achaemenian predecessor. (See pp. 1434, below.) Thus, from
the latter part of the second century B.C. to the beginning of the eighth century of the
Christian Era, the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin had been lost to the Syriac World and had been
living a separate life of its own under the dominion of successive Nomad intruders
Massagetae (= Sakas) and Yuechi and Ephthahtes and Turks. Under this dispensation,
the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin had often been in closer relations with India than with. Iran;
and in these conditions it had developed symptoms of a distinctive social individuality
which promised, for a time, to take definite shape in the genesis of a new 'Far Eastern
Christian* Civilization.
During this long secession
below.)
* ..
(See II.-D (vii), pp. *
369-85,
.
.v.
"
iac World, T
the role of antiand estrangement of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin from the Syriac
which
was
saved
for
the
the
of
Nomad march devolved upon
Syriac
Khurasan,
province
World by the Arsacid pnnce Mithradates the Great (regnabat 123-88 B.C.) after a struggle
between the Arsacid Power and the invading Sakas or Massagetae which had lasted for

&

'

nearly half a century.

3 Khurasan
the frontier province over against the Eurasian Nomads which the
Umayyads took over from the Sasaman successors of the Arsacidae was the base of
operations from which, under the Umayyad regime, the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin was
eventually reincorporated into the Syriac World, by force of arms, in A.D. 705-41. (See
Gibb, H. A. R.: The Arab Conquests in Central Asia (London 1923, Royal Asiatic
Society).) The work was accomplished by the combined efforts of Arab garrisons which
had been cantoned in Khurasan after the Arab conquest of the Sasaman Empire, half
a century before, and local levies which were raised, by the Arab authorities, from the

142

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Thereby, the North-Eastern Marches of the Syriac World, over

against the Nomads of Eurasia, were restored, on the eve of the
reintegration of the Syriac universal state under the Abbasids, to
the limits up to which they had been carried originally on the eve
of the first establishment of the universal state under the Achaemenids. And thereafter history repeated itself yet again for under
the 'Abbasid, as under the Achaemenid, regime the vitality of the
Empire concentrated itself in the North-Eastern Marches as it
ebbed away from the interior. This became apparent at the breakup of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, as it had become apparent, once
before, at the destruction of the Achaemenian Empire by Alexander ;
for the most powerful and effective and socially beneficent of the
Caliphate's 'successor-states' arose one after another in this region.
The Samanid regime at Balkh and Bukhara (A.D. 819-999) fostered
Persian literature in its infancy and accomplished something which
the Caliphate had never achieved in propagating Islam among the
Nomads of the Steppe ;* and it was only as converts that it suffered
them at last to trespass from the desert on to the sown. Thereafter,
one horde of these trespassers, the Saljuqs, when they had penetrated to Baghdad in order to rescue the 'Abbasid Caliphs from the
tyranny of the sectarian Buwayhids, turned back to supplant their
fellow-converts, the Ilek Khans, as wardens of the North-Eastern
Marches against their unconverted Nomadic kinsmen who still
remained on the Steppe. Under this Saljuq regime at Merv (A.D.
1089-1141) the frontier of Dar-al-Islam was once more guarded as
faithfully as it had been guarded by the Samanids ; and even the
Shahs of Khwarizm, who first rose to power by betraying their
religion and allegiance when they joined forces (in A.D. 1141) with
the pagan Nomad Qara Qitays in order to expel the Saljuq Sultan
Sanjar from the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin, eventually redeemed their
honour when (from A.D. 1220 to 1231) they bore the brunt of the
Mongol avalanche which finally overwhelmed Dar-al-Islam in the
c

last

convulsion of the post-Syriac Volkerwanderung. 2

indigenous Iranian Khurasanis. It is noteworthy that it was here, in the North-Eastern

Marches, under the formative influence of a common pressure from beyond the frontier,
that the vanquished Iranians and the victorious Arabs first fraternized with one another.
And it was this Arab-Iranian frontier-force that completed the re-establishment
of the
c
Syriac universal state, by putting down the Umayyads and setting up the Abbasids, ten
years after it had proved its mettle and acquired its esprit de corps by completing the
re-conquest of Transoxania on the Syriac Society's account.
1 The
Saljuqs, who at that time were ranging over the steppe-country in the OxusJaxartes Basin, were converted about A.D. 956; the followers of the Ilek Khans, who
were ranging over the steppes adjoining the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin on the north-east, in
the gap between the Tien Shan and the Altai Mountains (in the fourteenth-century
'Mughalistan' and the modern 'Zungaria'), were converted about A.D 960.
2 In A.D.
1209/1210, ten years before the Mongol avalanche descended upon them,
the Khwarizm Shahs had partially counteracted the effects of their original act of
treachery against the Saljuqs by similarly betraying the Qara Qitays. They partitioned
the dominions of the Qara Qitays in conjunction with Gushluk the Naiman, another

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

143

Thus, over the course of some nineteen centuries of Syriac history, from the seventh century B.C. to the thirteenth century of the
Christian Era, we can observe one constant phenomenon. We find
the pressure from the Eurasian Nomads
normally exceeding in
the
severity
pressures from other neighbours of the Syriac World,
and concurrently we find the North-Eastern Marches, upon which
the brunt of this pressure fell, normally surpassing in
vitality all
the other marches as well as the interior.
The exception which proves the rule is the situation which prevailed, for some two centuries out of these nineteen, under the
Seleucid Empire, which was the Achaemenian Empire's Hellenic

Under the Seleucid regime, as under

c
the Achaemenid and the Abbasid, vitality and power tended to
pass from the interior of the Empire to the periphery ; but whereas
they passed under the Achaemenids from Persepolis and Susa and
'successor-state' in Asia. 1

Babylon and Ecbatana to Bactria and Sogdiana, and under the

'Abbasids from Baghdad to Khurasan and to Transoxania, they
flowed out, under the Seleucids, in the diametrically opposite
direction that is, from Seleucia-on-Tigris not to 'Alexandria on
the Verge' of the Eurasian Steppe but to Antioch-on-Orontes.
This gravitation of the Seleucid capital to a site which lay almost in
view of the Mediterranean indicated that the Seleucid statesmen,
unlike their Achaemenid predecessors, felt the pressure from the
Hellenic World more acutely than the pressure from the Eurasian
Nomads. The outcome, however, was to prove that the Seleucids'
policy was ill-advised and the site of Antioch eccentric for, notwithstanding the clever location of Antioch athwart the shortest
portage between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, the transfer of the capital from Seleucia to Antioch cost the Seleucidae their
Empire and the Syriac World its North-Eastern Marches. The
first consequence was that the Greek garrisons in the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin, finding themselves left to their own resources, seceded from
the Seleucid Empire and constituted themselves into an independent Power: the Hellenic Kingdom of Bactria. The second consequence was that this Hellenic Bactria, which had responded with
such spirit to the challenge of desertion by resorting to self-help,
found herself unequal in the long run to the task of holding the
:

pagan Nomad Power, who took the Qara Qitays in the rear. In this unheroic manner,
the whole of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin was momentarily recovered again for Dar-alIslam; but retribution quickly overtook the spoilers. The Naiman and the Khwarizm
Shah were overwhelmed in turn by the Mongol Chingis Khan; and it was in response
to this terrific

Mongol

challenge that the last of the

Khwarizm Shahs,

Jalal-ad-Din

MankobirnI, redeemed the treacheries of his ancestors by the heroic rear-guard action
in which he covered the interior of Dar-al-Islam from Mongol assault and battery for a
whole decade after the Mongols had overrun his own home-territories on the banks of
the Lower Oxus.
1
See the second footnote on p. 141, above, and, further, Part VI, below.

144

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

North-Eastern Marches against the Nomads without support from

the interior. In the second century B.C., Bactria succumbed to a
Nomad invasion ;* and the ground then lost to the Nomads by the
Greeks was only recovered from the Nomads by the Arabs some
2
eight or nine centuries later.

In the Ironic World over against Eurasia

The North-Eastern Marches over against the Eurasian Nomads,
which were thus reincorporated into the Syriac World on the eve of
the reintegration of the Syriac universal state, and which played a
c

3
part of steadily increasing importance under the Abbasid regime,
produced their historic social effect once more in the first age of

the Iranic Civilization, 'affiliated' to the Syriac Civilization, which

emerged, after the interregnum following the break-up of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, when the waters of the Mongol cataclysm began
to subside.

We can discern this effect in the diversity between the respective

historical roles of the

two Mongol

'successor-states'

which were

one in the borderland and the other in the interior.

deposited here
As between these two appanages of the Mongol Empire in Dar-alIslam, nothing came of the principality of the House of Hulagu,
the so-called Il-Khans, in Iran and Iraq. 'The lines' were 'fallen
unto' these barbarians 'in pleasant places yea', they had 'a goodly
4 And
yet, 'as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away',
heritage'.
so the Il-Khans went down to the grave and came up no more. 5
On the other hand, out of the principality of the House of Chaghatay, which bestrode the borderline between the desert and the
;

sown, there came forth two Powers which made their mark, for

good or evil, on history: the Empire of Timur Lenk ('Tamerlane')

in Central Asia and the later Empire of the Timurids in India,

where Timur's great-great-great-grandson Babur played the part

of David and Babur's grandson Akbar the part of Solomon.
A glance at the careers of Timur and Babur shows that both
were frontiersmen who were confronted by a challenge from
the Eurasian Nomads of their time, and that both rose to greatness by responding to this challenge successfully

own way.
Timur (imperabat

each in his

A.D. 1369-1405) started life as a feudal

baron

in the district of Kish in Transoxania that is to say, in the sedentary

as opposed to the Nomad section of the Chaghatay dominions.
:

The Chaghatay principality had been compacted

1

2
3

See the second footnote on p. 141, above.

See the third footnote on p. 141, above.
4 Psalm
See p. 143, above.

xvi. 6.

of two component

Job vu.

9.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

145

1
where this pagan
parts: the oases of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin,
Mongol dynasty bore rule over a sedentary Muslim population;
and the steppes of Zungaria, adjoining the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin on
the' north-east, where the Chaghatay Khans were the leaders of

pagan Nomads who were made in

own

image. In A.D. 1321,

however, a century after the Mongol conquest of the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin and forty years before the beginning of Timur's career, the
two ill-assorted sections of the Chaghatay principality had been
separated from one another politically through the partition of
Chaghatay's appanage between two different branches of the
eponym's descendants ; and the prelude to Timur's career opened
with this event. The political separation enabled the sedentary
population in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin to assert itself culturally
against the Nomadic element after a century of subjection; and
the first consequence was that here, as in contemporary Iran and
Hindustan and Anatolia, the nascent Iranic Civilization began to
their

make headway.

The

partition

was accompanied by, and was perhaps causally

connected with, the conversion of the western branch of the

Chaghatayids, who obtained the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin for their
portion, from their primitive Mongol paganism to the Islamic
faith of their subjects while even the eastern branch of the House,
;

whose portion was the Zungarian Steppe (now styled, par excellence, 'Mughalistan'), seem to have been converted likewise a
generation later. The next consequence was a reaction of the
Nomads against the rising power of the new sedentary civilization
on their borders. In A.D. 1360 Tughluq Timur, the newly converted Eastern Chaghatay Khan of 'Mughalistan', presented himself in the Oxus-Jaxartes country
perhaps at the instigation of the
Nomad element there, who felt their old ascendancy slipping out of
their hands
and claimed dominion over the western as well as the
eastern portion of his ancestral appanage. By this time, the settled
population of the oases, having enjoyed for some forty years the
benefits of a milder and less barbarous regime, had come to regard
the untamed Nomads of 'Mughalistan* as odious marauders 2 who
whether converted or not were definitely beyond the pale of
*
Excluding the oases along the lower course of the Oxus, in Khwarizm, which were
included, not in Chaghatay's appanage, but in his brother Juji's. (See further p. 14?*
below.)
2 The
mysterious word 'jatah', which the Turkl-speaking sedentary population of the
Oxus-Jaxartes oases in Timur's day applied to the Nomads of 'Mughalistan'^as a term
of abuse, is perhaps identical with the Ottoman Turkish word 'cheteh', which means
something between a brigand and a guerrilla. Is it perhaps derived from the tribal name
of the Getae (Massagetae and Thyssagetae) or Jats, who were the nearest Nomadic
neighbours of the Oxus-Jaxartes oases in the Achaemenian Age, before they erupted
out of the Steppe and poured over the Hindu Kush into the Panjab in the second

century B.C.
II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

156

ensconced between sea and 'haff ', is reproduced in 'the Sich' the
river-girt fortress of the Cossacks on an island in the Dniepr. The
Helot peasantry which tilled the Spartans' fields, in order that their
masters might devote their whole time and energy to the practice
of arms, is reproduced in the servile peasantry which laboured for
the Cossacks in return for their protection. The devotion of the
Templars and Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights to a single pur:

reproduced in the similar devotion of the Cossacks, whose

avocation it was likewise to live and die as Crusaders against pagans
and Muslims. The Cossacks, however, in their method of conducting their truceless warfare against the Eurasian Nomads,
displayed a further characteristic in which they did not so much reproduce the past as anticipate the future. For they resembled the
Colonial Powers of the modern Western World in their strategic

pose

is

outlook.

They

wage war against

must fight them with other weapons and

realized that, if a civilization is to

barbarians with success, it

other resources than their own.
Just as the modern Western 'empire-builders' have overwhelmed
their primitive opponents by bringing to bear against them the
superior resources of Industrialism, so the Cossacks overwhelmed
the Nomads by availing themselves of the superior resources of
agriculture. And as modern Western generalship has reduced the
Nomads to military impotence, on the Nomads' own ground, by
outmatching their mobility and overtaking their elusiveness through
the employment of newfangled and bewildering and invincible
technical devices like railways and motor-cars and aeroplanes, so
the Cossacks reduced the Nomads to military impotence in their
own way by seizing upon the rivers : the one natural feature on the
Steppe which was not under the Nomads' control and which told
against them instead of telling in their favour. The rivers were
formidable as obstacles and useless as means of transport to the
Nomad horseman, whereas the Russian peasant and lumberman,
with a lingering trace of Scandinavian seamanship in his social
tradition, was expert in river navigation. Accordingly the Cossacks, when they ventured out of the Russian forests in order
to dispute with the Nomads the mastery of the Nomads' native
Steppes, did not neglect, in their new environment, to take advantage of their own hereditary skill. In learning to vie with their

Nomad

adversaries in the art of horsemanship, they did not forget

it was
;
by boat, and not on horseback, that they
won
their
to
the dominion of Eurasia.
eventually
way
the
the
Cossacks held the river-line, mainDescending
Dniepr,
taining their own communications upstream with Russia, and
cutting the Nomads' communications from bank to bank, by their
to

be watermen and

158

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

continued to rise until the steam was blown off at last in the great
explosion of 1914-18. After that catastrophe, which shattered the
pre-existent political structure of Europe and interposed a broad
the East-European 'successor-states'
barrier of debris
between
Russia and the surviving Great Powers of the Western World, the
capital of the Russian Empire, in its latest metamorphosis the
U.S.S.R., promptly swung back from the eccentric position on
the Western March in which it had remained fixed for more than
two centuries to the position of greatest administrative convenience
in the interior: that

is

to say,

from Leningrad to Moscow. 1

In Japan
If we now take a comparative view of this history of the offshoot
of the Orthodox Christian Civilization in Russia and the history
of the offshoot of the Far Eastern Civilization in Japan, we shall
observe, in Japanese history, an outflow of vitality and power from

the interior into a march which closely corresponds to the first

of the three movements in Russian history which we have just been
have seen that the centre of gravity of the Orthodox
examining.
Christian Civilization in Russia was transferred from the upper
the region in which the offshoot first took
basin of the Dniepr
root
to the upper basin of the Volga when this latter region was
added to the domain of Russian Orthodox Christendom by the
prowess of the Russian backwoodsmen.
may now observe
that the centre of gravity of the Far Eastern Civilization in Japan
likewise shifted from the region in which the offshoot first took
that is, from Yamato
root in this case
to a region in the backwoods which was subsequently added to the domain of the Japanese
Far Eastern Civilization shifted, that is to say, from Yamato to the
Kwanto. In the historical geography of Japan, Nara and Kyoto are
the analogues of the Russian Kiev, while Kamakura and YedoTokyo are the analogues, respectively, of the Russian Vladimir
and the Russian Moscow. The contrast between 'the Kiev Period'
and 'the Moscow Period' of Russian history reappears, with an
accentuated sharpness, in the contrast between 'the Nara and

We

We

1
By the time when the capital was retransferred from Leningrad to Moscow under
the Russian Communist regime, Moscow, which had lain within the north-eastern
marches of Russia from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century of the Christian Era, had
long since been relegated to the interior by the eastward and southward expansion of the
Russian Empire. In this retransfer, however, there was another force at work besides
vis mertiae. If, in one aspect, the retransfer of the capital of the U.S.S.R, from Leningrad to Moscow by the Russian Communists was an almost automatic recoil, there was
also another aspect in which this transfer, like the
contemporary transfer of the capital
of the Turkish Republic from Constantinople to Angora by the Turkish
Nationalists,
was a deliberate move in a systematic campaign of social revolution. This
aspect is
referred to again in Part III. C (i) (<f), vol. iii, pp. 200-2, and is dealt with further in
Part XI, apropos of contacts in the Space-dimension between different civilizations.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

159
1
Period*
of
Kyoto
Japanese history (sixth to twelfth century of the
Christian Era) on the one hand and 'the Kamakura and
Ashikaga
Period' (A.D. 1184-1597) on the other. The first precocious and

bloom of the Far Eastern Civilization on Japanese

Nara and Kyoto has that exotic air of a hot-house plant, keepalive
ing
by a tour de force in an unfavourable climate, which is also
characteristic, though in a less extreme degree, of the first bloom of
the Orthodox Christian Civilization on Russian soil at Kiev. And

sophisticated
soil at

the passing of the sceptre in the twelfth century of the Christian

Era from sophisticated Kiev to rude Vladimir the natural breakdown of an artificial state of affairs is analogous to the more
violent and dramatic revolution in Japan through which, in the
course of the same century, the regime of 'the Cloistered Emperors'
of Yamato was overthrown and was replaced by that of the feudal
nobility of the Kwanto. The new masters of Japan, like those of
Russia, were men of war who had acquired land and power and
military spirit in the process of enlarging the borders at the expense
of the primitive peoples of the north-eastern forests (the Ainu being
the counterparts, in the Japanese hinterland, of the Finns in the
Russian). Thus in Japan, as in Russia, vitality flowed away from
the sheltered interior towards the exposed frontier until eventually

power followed

suit. 2

In the Minoan and Hellenic Worlds

In the Minoan World, which we may consider next, the quarter

in which the heaviest pressure was felt was the frontier over against
the continental European barbarians and, in the course of Minoan
history, vitality and power duly passed from the maritime interior
to the continental European marches. When 'the Thalassocracy of
Minos' was in its hey-day, the cultivated inhabitants of the unwalled
imperial capitals at Cnossos and Phaestus, on the island of Crete,
doubtless looked down upon the wardens of the marches who had
to live a ruder life
cribbed, cabined, and confined within the
for fear of the
clumsily massive walls of Tiryns and Mycenae
barbarians at their gates. How much more elegant and comfortable
to be protected, as the Eteocretans were, by the shapely wooden
;

i
Strictly, 'the Nara Period* did not begin till the laying out of the first fixed capital
of the Japanese Empire at Nara in A.D. 710. From a broader point of view, however,
this period may be taken as coeval with the introduction of the Far Eastern Civilization
In this process the two major events were the importation of Mahayanian
into Japan.
Buddhism into the Japanese Archipelago, via Korea, during the second half of the sixth
century of the Christian Era, and the reorganization of the Japanese Imperial Government on the Chinese model of the T'ang in A.D. 645.
a The breakdowns of the Far Eastern Civilization in Japan and of the Orthodox
Christian Civilization in Russia, which accompanied these shifts of the centres of
are examined^ in
gravity in the course of the twelfth century of the Christian Era,
Part VIII, below, apropos of the phenomena of the radiation and the degeneration
of civilizations, as well as in Part VI, apropos of the institution of universal states.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

160

walls of an Imperial Navy which was in sole and complete command

of the estranging sea! Yet, here again, pressure administered a

stimulus which eventually gave Mycenae and Tiryns the mastery

over Phaestus and Cnossos. The pioneers who had won for the
Minoan Civilization a footing on the European mainland, in
defiance of the continental barbarians, by building those gigantic

found energy and enterprise to spare, from their task

of holding their own on land, to compete with their imperial
cousins 1 in Crete for the control of the sea. While they kept the
continental barbarians at bay with one hand, they launched a
battle-fleet with the other; and our archaeologists conjecture that
it was a Mycenaean Armada which put a sudden and catastrophic
end to the Minoan Thalassocracy by breaking through the boasted
wooden walls of Crete and sacking the open city of Cnossos towards
fortifications,

the close of the fifteenth century B.C.

When we pass on to the history of the Hellenic Civilization
which was 'affiliated' to the Minoan Civilization, we find that in

the Hellenic World, likewise, the continental European marches

were the zone of greatest external pressure and that the vitality and
power of the Hellenic Society tended to concentrate themselves at
different points in this zone successively as the incidence of the
pressure shifted hither and thither in the course of Hellenic history.
In the Greek Peninsula, the hegemony which was first held by a
f
city-state situated in the Island of Pelops' passed from Sparta to

Athens, on the continental side of the Isthmus of Corinth, and then

from both Athens and Sparta to Thebes, on the continental side of
Mounts Cithaeron and Parnes, until it came to rest at the roots
of the Peninsula in Macedonia the frontier state of Greece over
2
Similarly, in the
against the continental European barbarians.
:

This language is not intended to imply that these Mycenaean pioneers of the Minoan
were Eteocretan colonists, or even that they were akin to the Eteocretans
race or linked with them by the bond of a kindred language. It is possible and even
probable that the majority of the exponents of the Minoan Civilization on the mainland
of European Greece were not colonists but converts. (On this question, see II. C (i) (6),
vol. i, p. 10 1, footnote i, with Annex II )
2 The writer of this
Study vividly remembers how the continental character of
Macedonia impressed itself upon him at the first view. He first visited Macedonia in the
summer of 1912, at the end of a visit to the Kingdom of Greece within the frontiers
as they then stood. Since the standard-gauge railway which now links Athens with
Salomca had not been completed at that date, he travelled from the Peiraeus to Salonica
by sea. He had been looking forward with interest to observing the political aspect of the
passage from territory under Greek to territory under Turkish rule; but, as the steamer
entered Salonica harbour, his eye was caught, not by the Turkish flag flying above the
custom house, but by Austrian and German railway-wagons standing along the quay, on
rails which ran without a break from Salonica to Vienna and from Vienna to Berlin. He
then realized in a flash that this economic solidarity with Central Europe was the
distinctive and fundamental characteristic of Macedonia, and that the political connexion
with Turkey-in-Asia, though picturesque, was accidental and superficial. (For the
history of the question whether the Hellenic Great Power in Macedonia was to be a
monarchy as it actually came to be or a confederacy of city-states of the kind that was
1

Civilization

built

up

in Italy

by Rome,

see III.

(ii) (6),

Annex IV,

in vol.

iii,

below.)

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

161

Italian Peninsula, the

hegemony which had first been held by
Syracuse in the island of Sicily (an island which, in terms of human
geography, is only insular in the same degree as the Peloponnese)
was afterwards contended for between two Powers which were

both situated on the continental side of the Straits of Messina

Samnium and Rome. Moreover, this contest was won, not by
Samnium, who had both hands free for fighting her duel with her
Italian neighbour, but by Rome, who was constrained to
fight
Samnium with one hand while she was employing the other in
keeping at arm's length the Celtic barbarians who were pressing
upon Italy from the heart of Continental Europe. Yet Rome beat
Samnium and won the hegemony of Italy, not in spite of, but
because of, the fact that she had previously taken over the warden:

march of Italy when the Etruscans had

shown themselves unequal to the task; 1 for the pressure which had
thus fallen upon Rome acted as a stimulus and not as a handicap.
ship of the continental

From

the days of Camillus to the days of Caesar, during the four

centuries which it took the Romans to build up their empire, the

more trying to Roman nerves than

or
Macedonian
was the
Carthaginian galley-beaks
pike-heads
barbarian avalanche: the 'Gallicus Tumultus'; and the genius of
Hannibal showed itself in nothing so much as in his decision to
attack Rome from the quarter from which, in Roman eyes, an
In making the
aggressor ever appeared the most formidable.
passage of the Alps and bringing the Celtic avalanche down with
him in full force in his descent of the Italian slope, Hannibal was
seeking to reproduce artificially, for the undoing of the Romans,
the natural catastrophe which, some two centuries earlier, had
overwhelmed the Etruscans. He was seeking to bring upon the
peril

which was

Romans

their

bugbear

the destruction which, in

Mr.

Kipling's story,

Mowgli

brought upon Shere Khan when he sent the herd of buffalo stampeding down from the head of the valley upon the tiger who stood
so
trapped in the valley-bottom. But the strategy which succeeded
failed
brilliantly in the hands of the fictitious Indian changeling
because
man
of
in the hands of the historic Carthaginian
genius,
this
in
Hannibal's human antagonists reacted,
desperate situation,
Instead of losing
victim.
bestial
than
otherwise
Mowgli's
quite
nerve, like

She^ Khan, and

turning

tail,

the

Romans

refused to

of the
I Before the
collapse of the Etruscan Power, Rome had held the wardenship
Etruscan marches of Latium and had finally reacted to Etruscan pressure by a victorious
counter-attack in which she had conquered and incorporated the Etruscan city-state
which had lain closest to the Latin border: that is, Veii. In virtue of this original
of Latium from
wardenship of the Etruscan marches, Rome had captured the hegemony
Alba Longa another example of the phenomenon of the frontier prevailing over the
hills that bear her name, was shielded from
interior, since Alba, ensconced among the
Etruscan attack by the Roman watch on the Tiber.
II

62

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

in defeating
'despair of the Republic' and turned at bay; and
Hannibal and his Celtic allies they determined their own destinies.
The general result of the victory of Rome in the Hannibalic War was

Roman Empire grew and merged into a Hellenic universtate.

One particular result was that Rome won and lost the

that the
sal

hegemony over the whole Hellenic World by becoming the sole

warden of the continental European marches.
This devolution upon Rome of the sole responsibility for the
defence of Hellenism against the continental European barbarians
was manifest to the World, and was acknowledged even by the
Romans themselves, when Augustus organized the Roman frontier
along the longest diameter of the Continent from the mouth of the
Rhine to the mouth of the Danube; but this vast extension of
Rome's commitments, as compared with the local wardenship of
the Italian march which she had originally taken over from the
Etruscans, had devolved upon the Romans against their will and
had still been repudiated by them in theory long after it had
become an accomplished fact. The advance of the Roman frontier
from the line of the Po, where it had stood at the outbreak of the
Hannibalic War, to the distant line of the Rhine was a direct,
though long-delayed, consequence of the Hannibalic War itself, in
which the western corner of Transalpine Europe had become
both the prize of victory and the key to the retention of its fruits. 1
The parallel advance of the frontier from the Po to the Danube was
a direct consequence of Rome's victory over Macedonia and therefore an indirect consequence of her victory over Hannibal, since
it was the Hannibalic War that
precipitated the collision between
Rome and Macedonia and also predetermined the outcome.
In this trial of strength between the Power which had become
the warden of the continental European marches of the Hellenic
Civilization in Italy and the Power which was the warden of the
corresponding marches in Greece, Macedonia did not succumb to
Rome without a struggle 2 for the Macedonians had been trained
in the same school of border- warfare as the Romans, and they too
were redoubtable frontiersmen and barbarian-fighters in their
degree. The Hannibalic War, however, had been an unprecedented
ordeal from which the Macedonians had held aloof, while the
Romans had been made by their Punic adversaries to pass through
the fire like the children offered to Molech 3 and the burning fieryfurnace had tempered the Roman steel to a cutting edge which
clove the Macedonian buckler at one stroke and mercilessly shore
through the living flesh. This figurative manner of speech is
1 On
this point see I. B (iv), vol.
p. 40, above.
;

i,

For the increase in the vigour and

struggle proceeded, see II

effectiveness of the

D (iv), pp. 103-4, above.

Macedonian

resistance as the

Lev. xvni. 21 , xx.

2; Jer.

xxxu. 35.

64

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Inexorably, the burden of vanquished Macedonia became the burden of victorious Rome; and it was Philip's abandonment of the
old Macedonian border in the Vardar Basin in the year 200 B.C.
that compelled Augustus, two centuries later, to advance the
Roman border up to the Danube, as well as up to the Rhine, from
the Basin of the Po. Thus, in the event, the Illyrian and the
Dardanian, as well as the Spaniard and the Gaul, were brought
within the frontiers of the Hellenic universal state by Roman force
of arms and so it was that Rome, in winning the hegemony of the
Hellenic World from Carthage and Macedon, set up a train of
events which inevitably transferred the hegemony to other hands
again in the fullness of time.
;

For

Rome had no

peculiar magic.

The same

arts that did gain

power, must

it

maintain

and Rome was no more capable than her predecessors and victims
of maintaining a hegemony which had been gained under the
stimulus of barbarian pressure after she had deprived herself
of that stimulus in obedience to the very necessities of her
situation.
In the last phase of Hellenic history, power

new

and
vitality flowed away once more from the interior to the marches
and this time the current left Rome stranded. The stimulus which
had once nerved Rome to overcome Syracuse and Samnium and
Carthage and Macedon now nerved Illyria and Gaul, in their turn,

dominate Rome herself. Some three centuries after Augustus

had organized the Danubian frontier, the dominion which the first
Roman Emperor had gathered into his hands for transmission to
Roman successors was being exercised by the Illyrian Diocletian 1
and by the Dardanian Constantine 2 and the Roman Empire was
being governed, not from the banks of the Tiber nor even from
Milan beyond the farther bank of the Po, but from two cities in the
immediate hinterlands of the two continental frontiers from Constantinople behind the Lower Danube and from Trier behind the
Middle Rhine. In the last agony, when the Empire broke
up and
the Old Rome opened her gates to the Goths and Vandals, New
Rome remained an impregnable city of refuge never to be
swamped by the barbarian waves that broke upon its walls from
beyond the old front line. As for the Rhineland, it played the same
role in the break-up of the Roman
Empire as Transoxania in the
to

came from Doclea, a village in the Basin of the Lake of Scodra which, in
had been the nucleus of the Illyrian principality of King Pleuratus.
2 Constantino's
father, Constantius Chlorus, came from Naissus (Nish) in the Morava
Valley, which lay within the borders of Dardama; and the family traced their origin
back to another Dardanian
Claudius Gothicus
who had anticipated Constantius
Chlorus, by several generations, in attaining to the purple.
1

aoo

Diocletian

B.C.,

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

165

break-up of the 'Abbasid Caliphate. Under the Merovingian regime

it became the seat of the least ineffective and least
ephemeral of all
the defunct empire's 'successor-states'.
In the break-up of the Hellenic universal state, we can observe
the stimulus of exposure to external pressure at work, not only in
its general social effect
upon whole territories and populations, but

On

also in its particular personal effect upon single individuals.

this plane, it produced, 'in real life', the astonishing results which
Mr. G. K. Chesterton has imagined in his fantasy 'The Napoleon

of Notting Hill'. It transformed pacific men of letters into warlike

men of action. In order to perform this miracle, the stimulus had,
of course, to be administered with extreme violence. Pausanias the
antiquarian, for example, was not made a new man by the momentary
appearance, in the Asopus Valley, of a stray band of trans-frontier
barbarians. Pausanias was a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius, and
in that generation, some two centuries after the establishment of the

Danubian frontier, such mishaps as this passed off without stirring

men's souls to the depths, because they were regarded as curiosities
rather than as portents. Even so, the vagaries of the outlandish
Costoboci caused at least one citizen of one city in Greece to take up
arms and die in battle for hearth and home in the manner of the
past which was also to be the manner of the future ;* while the more
formidable upheaval in the hinterland of the Danubian frontier
a wave in a new movement of barbarian unrest in which the
Costobocan raid on Greece was a casual ripple
compelled the
philosopher-emperor to devote his last years to the uncongenial
business of punitive border warfare.
The emergency which gave a MnSsibulus or a Marcus the
occasion for a noble gesture was felt in grim earnest in the days of
Athenian Dexippus, and yet more in the days of Cyrenaean Synesius
and Arvernian Sidonius Apollinaris. In those latter days, no man
could blind himself to the fact that the barbarian enemy was now
within the gates of the Hellenic World; and this challenge to the
inner citadel of Hellenism transfigured the last custodians of the
Hellenic cultural tradition. The Gothic threat to Athens nerved
the historian Dexippus to take up the sword in order to resume
the pen when the tyranny was overpast. The Gothic threat to
Auvergne, and the Berber threat to Cyrenaica, which did not pass
1
'The marauding band of Costoboci which raided Greece in my lifetime appeared,
in the course of their raid, before the walls of Elatea; whereupon, an Elatean gentleman,
MnSsibulus, raised an armed force under his own command and succeeded in inflicting
heavy casualties on the barbarians, though he himself was killed in action.' (Pausanias :
Descriptio Graeciae, Book X, ch. 34.)
These Elateans who died for their country in the second century of the Christian Era
were worthy of the epitaph in which the self-sacrifice of the Tegeatans had been commemorated in the fifth century B.c by Simonides.

66

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

away, changed the whole course of Synesius's and Sidonius's lives.

It turned them from cultivated and lethargic country-gentlemen into
energetic barbarian-fighters and devoted shepherds of souls. By the
third generation, when the intrusive barbarism had become endemic,
the ci-devant heirs of the Hellenic culture in a derelict world had
adapted themselves so well to the monstrous conditions of their
new environment that when the Arvernian nobility answered the
of their Visigothic overlords to march against the Franks,
they acquitted themselves better than their barbarian comrades-inarms in this contest between two barbarian 'successor-states' for
the residuary legateeship of Rome in Gaul. At the decisive Battle

summons

of Vouille (A.D. 507), Sidonius's grandson died gallantly on the

battle-field with King Alaric when Alaric's own Visigoths ran away.

In

the Western
Barbarians

World over

against

the

Continental

European

When we

pass on to the history of our own Western Civilization

which is 'affiliated* to the Hellenic Civilization, we find on the one
hand that, in the Western World, the heaviest external pressure was
felt, at first, in the same quarter in which it had been felt from first
to last in the Hellenic World and in the Minoan World
that is
to say, on the frontier over against the continental European barbarians. On the other hand we find that the Western, unlike either
the Hellenic or the Minoan, reaction to the barbarian pressure was
in the end definitively victorious The barbarian frontier of Western
Christendom on the Continent of Europe eventually faded out ;
and thereafter our Western Society found itself in contact here, no
longer with barbarians, but with alien civilizations. The incidence
of these new pressures stimulated the vitality of our Western
Society to new responses in new forms.
In the first phase of Western history on the European Continent,
the stimulating effect of the pressure from the continental barbarians declared itself in the emergence of a fresh social structure
for a nascent society out of the debris of one of the 'successorstates' of the defunct Roman Empire the barbarian
principality of
the Franks. The Merovingian Prankish r6gime had been Epimethean : its face had been turned towards the Roman past. The
succeeding Carolingian Prankish regime was Promethean; for,
although it incidentally evoked a ghost of the Roman Empire, its
face was turned towards the Western future, and the ghost was only
evoked
in the spirit of the cry 'Debout les morts!'
in order to
assist the living in carrying out an almost superhuman task. 1 This
.

1 See Part
X, below, for the phenomenon of the Evocation of Ghosts
general, and
in particular for this Carolingian evocation of a ghost of the Roman Empire.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

167

complete transformation of the social functions of the Prankish

Power this transubstantiation of the Prankish body politic was
nothing less than a fresh celebration of the perpetual mystery of Life.
'Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth
sweetness.' 1 And in what part of the Prankish domain was this
fresh act of creation accomplished ? Not in the interior but on the
continental European March; not in Neustria, on soil fertilized by
ancient Roman culture and sheltered from fresh continental barbarian inroads, but in Austrasia,2 in a territory which bestrode the
ancient Roman frontier and which was still exposed to constant
assaults from the Saxons of the North European forest and from
the Avars of the Eurasian Steppe. The measure of the stimulus
which was administered by this external pressure to the Franks in
Austrasia is given by the achievements of Charlemagne. Charlemagne's eighteen Saxon campaigns and his extirpation of the Avars
are not incomparable, as sheer military triumphs, to Timur Lenk's
steppe campaigns in which he crushed the Nomads of Mughalistan
and Qipchaq; 3 and Charlemagne's military and political achievements were followed by the first faint manifestations of intellectual
a feeble counterpart to the outenergy in the Western World
burst of intellectual energy in Transoxania and Khurasan under the

Timurids. 4
This Austrasian reaction to the stimulus of pressure from the
continental European barbarians
the reaction which came to a
head in the career of Charlemagne was not conclusive. For
reasons which are examined at later points in this Study, 5 it came
to a premature standstill and was followed by a relapse. Accordingly, we find the Austrasian reaction reduplicated in our Western
history by the Saxon reaction which came to a head, rather less than
two centuries later, in the career of Otto I. The enduring (though
exhausting) achievement of Charlemagne's career had been the incorporation of the domain of the continental Saxon barbarians into

Western Christendom; and by this very success he had prepared

the way for a transfer of the kingdom, the power and the glory from
1

Judges xiv. 14.

The very nomenclature 'Austria-Neustria', which makes its appearance in the
Lombard as well as in the Prankish 'successor-state* of the Roman Empire, tells its own
tale. 'Austria* is a new name for a new Irving commonwealth which has sprung from the
marches. 'Neustria*
i.e. continental
soil of the derelict 'successor-state* in its eastern
simply means 'Non-Austria* : that is to say, the leavings of the debris which still cumber
the ground on the rest of the derelict site after the new growth in the marches has
manifested itself.
3 See
Charlemagne, like Timur, though in a lesser degree, sucpp. 146-8, above
2

cumbed

to the malady of Militarism and was inveigled by it into misdirecting his military
energies from the periphery to the interior of his world; and Charlemagne's error, like
Tirnur's, resulted
though this, again, in a lesser degree^-in the collapse of the structure
which he had built up. For the malady of Militarism, as illustrated in both Charlemagne's
career and Timur's, see further Part IV, below.
s In II
4For this, see pp. 148-50, above.
(vii), pp. 344-5, and in Part IV, below.

68

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

own victorious Austrasia to the homeland

of the vanquished and

forcibly converted barbarians by pushing forward the continental
European march of Western Christendom from Austrasia into
his

Saxony and thereby exposing Saxony, instead of Austrasia, to the

stimulus of continental barbarian pressure from the hinterland.
In Otto's day, the same stimulus evoked in Saxony the same reaction that had been evoked by it, in Charlemagne's day, in Austrasia
and this time the counter-offensive of the Western Civilization
against the continental barbarians was sustained until it reached its
;

final objective.

Charlemagne had smitten Otto's own

and thereafter the continental frontiers of Western
Christendom were pushed steadily eastward, partly through the
voluntary conversion of the barbarians to Christianity and partly
Otto smote the

Saxon ancestors

Wends

as

through their subjection or extirpation by force of arms. The

Magyars and the Poles and the Scandinavians were converted at
the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries of the Christian Era by
the prestige of Western Christendom under the Ottonid regime, as
the Bohemians had been converted, two centuries earlier, by the
prestige of Western Christendom under the regime of Charle-

magne. The barbarians along the continental coastline of the Baltic

were more recalcitrant. On this sector of the frontier, the Saxon
frontiersmen had to follow up Otto's counter-stroke against the
Wends in a stubborn border warfare that lasted some two centuries
before they succeeded in definitively advancing the bounds of
Western Christendom from the line of the Elbe to the line of the
Oder. This result was achieved by the conversion of the Wends in
Mecklenburg in A.D. 1161, and by the contemporary extirpation of
their kinsmen in Brandenburg and Meissen.
Thereafter, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the task
of 'Westernizing* the last remaining continental barbarians was
carried on by the Germans with still greater vigour and effect
through the instrumentality of two new Western institutions the
city-state and the militant monastic order. The Hansa Towns and
the Teutonic Knights, between them, advanced the bounds of
Western Christendom from the line of the Oder to the line of the
Dvina, while, farther north, the Scandinavian converts to Western
Christianity were winning fresh ground for Western Christendom
and for themselves the Danes in Estonia and the Swedes in Finland. That was the last round in this secular conflict; for, before
:

the close of the fourteenth century of the Christian Era, the continental European barbarians, who had been pressing upon the
frontiers of three successive civilizations over a total
span of some
three thousand years, had been wiped off the face of the Earth. By

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

169

Western Christendom and Orthodox Christendom, which

had been entirely isolated from one another on the Continent by
intervening barbarians no longer than five hundred years before,
had come to march with one another continuously along a line
extending across the whole breadth of the Continent from the coast
of the Adriatic Sea to the coast of the Arctic Ocean.
It is interesting to observe how, on this frontier between a
youthful Western Christendom and a senile continental
European barbarism, the reversal in the direction of the pressure, which became
constant from the time when Otto I took up Charlemagne's work,
was followed by a transference of stimulus as the Western counterA.D. 1400,

offensive proceeded.

For example, the original Duchy of Saxony, west of the Elbe,

suffered the same eclipse as a result of Otto's victories over the
Wends that Austrasia had suffered, two centuries earlier, as a result
of Charlemagne's victories over the Saxons themselves.
Like
Austrasia, Saxony owed the hegemony over Western Christendom
which she inherited from Austrasia to the esprit de corps that was
instilled by pressure from barbarians at close quarters and, again
like Austrasia, she lost her esprit de corps and with it her
hegemony,
when this pressure was removed. Saxony actually lost her hegemony over the Western World in A.D. 1024: that is, as soon as the
Wends beyond the Elbe had been thrown upon the defensive. She
broke into fragments in A.D. 1 182-91 : that is, as soon as the frontier
of the Western World had been definitively advanced, on this sector,
from the line of the Elbe to the line of the Oder. Thereafter, when,
in a later age of Western history, a state bearing the name of Saxony
once again became a power in the Western World, this latter-day
Saxony arose in the March of Meissen: that is, on one portion of
the new ground which had been won for Western Christendom at
the expense of the Wends during the two centuries of border warfare along the old Saxon frontier which had followed the reign of
;

',

Otto

I.

Again, as the continental frontier of Western Christendom was

pushed farther and farther forward into the barbarian hinterland,
the seat of 'the Holy Roman Empire* receded deeper and deeper
into the interior; and simultaneously, as the vigour of the Western
counter-offensive against the continental barbarians increased, the
authority of 'the Holy Roman Emperor' diminished. The similitude of the Imperial office, which had been revived at the end of
the eighth century of the ChristianEraforthebenefit of an Austrasian
prince and had then passed from Austrasia to Saxony, did not continue thereafter to follow the ever advancing frontier. When the
office fell, in

due course, from Saxon hands

in A.D. 1024,

it

passed

170

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

makers of the new marches of the Western

World beyond the Elbe, but to a dynasty whose homeland lay in
Rhenish Franconia. Moreover, from the advent of the Salian Dynasty to the Imperial throne in this year 1024 down to the formal
this time, not to the

Holy Roman Empire', nearly

eight centuries
held the office
that
later, in A.D. 1806, each successive dynasty
had its roots in the Rhine Basin that ancient continental march
of the Roman Empire which had been relegated to the innermost
extinction of 'the

expanding Western World. The Franconians came

from the valley of the Main, the Hohenstaufen from the valley of
the Neckar, the Luxemburgers from the valley of the Meuse, the
Hapsburgs from the valley of the Aar. At each successive transfer,
the office passed to a dynasty which sprang from soil more remote
from the continental frontiers of the Western World than the native
soil of its predecessors and concurrently, at each successive transinterior of the

the Imperial authority grew weaker. It was less effective in

Salian hands than in Saxon and in Hohenstaufen hands than
in Salian, until the downfall of the House of Hohenstaufen was
fer,

followed by 'the Great Interregnum' (A.D. 1254-73).

It is noteworthy that, during this practical break in the continuity of the Imperial succession to Charlemagne and to Otto I,
the work of reacting against the pressure of the continental bara work which Charlemagne had first set on foot and
barians
which Otto had taken up again was being carried on, 'and this
with unprecedented energy and success, by other agencies than
the Imperial authority such agencies as the Hansa towns and the
Teutonic Knights and the crowns of Denmark and Sweden. It is
also noteworthy that the Hohenstaufen, who were seeking to preserve 'the Holy Roman Empire' in extremis, and the Hapsburgs and
:

Luxemburgers, who were seeking to re-establish it after it had

fallen into practical abeyance, all alike sought to restore some real
function and importance and power to an office which had in fact
become superfluous by combining it, once more, as it had been
combined in the great days of the Carolingians and the Ottonids,
with something in the nature of a wardenship of the marches. The
Hohenstaufens sought a new basis for their power in the Kingdom
of the Two Sicilies, which was a march of Western Christendom
against both the Orthodox Christian World and the Arabic World.
The Luxemburgers mounted to the throne of the Empire by way
of the throne of Bohemia, and justified their tenure of the
highest
office in Western Christendom by their service in
the
full
bringing
of
Western
Civilization
a
into
which
had
light
region
previously
lain in the penumbra. Rudolf of
made
the
fortunes
of
Hapsburg
his family not by his acquisition of the
Imperial office but by his

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

Austrian
Swabia.
It

March

171

gave him for adding the

of the Empire to his ancestral possessions in

seizure of the opportunity

was thanks to

which

this

this

permanent addition to the Hapsburg family

inheritance that the Imperial office, which Rudolf had held for his
lifetime, was reacquired by his descendants not much less than two
centuries later. Yet the office would assuredly not have remained in
the hands of the Hapsburgs permanently the second time
any more
than the first, and would probably not have remained in existence
at all now that the ancient
pressure from the continental European
barbarians had been completely removed by the complete extinction of the barbarians themselves, if the Western World had not
suddenly been subjected at this juncture to a new and formidable
continental pressure from an alien civilization. The life of 'the
Holy Roman Empire' was unexpectedly prolonged for another
three centuries, and was permanently vested during the whole of
this period in the

House

of the Ottoman Power

of Hapsburg, in consequence of the impact

upon the Western World in the Basin of the

Danube.

'The Great Interregnum* which virtually began at the

death of Frederick II Hohenstaufen and was nominally brought
to an end when Rudolf of Hapsburg assumed the Imperial office a
quarter of a century later, really continued until A.D. 1526, when,
on the morrow of the Battle of Mohacz, Rudolf's descendant Ferdinand added the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia to the wardenship
of the Austrian and Styrian marches and thereby founded the
Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy, with which the Imperial office
thenceforth remained indissolubly associated until it was finally
extinguished in 1806 by a formal merger of the shadow in the
1

reality.
c

the vitality of the Holy Roman Empire' varied, during the

course of the Empire's existence, in the same degree as the intensity

Thus

of the external pressure that was being exerted from time to

time, by barbarians or by alien civilizations, upon the continental
frontiers of Western Christendom. The Empire lost vitality as the
pressure from the continental European barbarians relaxed, and
then recovered vitality when a new pressure came to be exerted by
the 'Osmanlis. Conversely, we find that the vitality of the barbarians who had remained beyond the pale of the Western Civilization and the ci-devant barbarians who had been brought just
within the pale by conversion tended to increase as the pressure
1 In
August 1806 the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II Hapsburg formally renounced
the style and title of 'Roman Emperor' in order to style himself thenceforward 'Emperor
a titular solecism which was at the same time a tardy recognition of long
of Austria*
since accomplished historical facts. (See the passage quoted from. Lord Bryce
Part I. B (iv), Annex, vol. i, on p. 343, above )

172

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

exerted

upon them by the Western

counter-offensive

came

to

be

intensified.

The

Lithuanians, for example, as the last surviving pagans in

Europe, drew upon themselves, in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries of the Christian Era, the last impetus of the Crusading
spirit in the Western World that survived the decisive failure of the
Crusading enterprise in Syria. The head-quarters of the Teutonic
Knights, which had been established at Acre, on the Syrian coast,
until the fall of this sole remaining stronghold of the Crusaders in
the Holy Land in A.D. 1291, were transferred, in 1308, to Marienburg on the easternmost arm of the delta of the Vistula ; and during
the next hundred years the Teutonic Order pressed Lithuania hard.
This formidable Western pressure upon the Lithuanians in their
homeland had the effect of stimulating the Lithuanians themselves
to achieve sweeping conquests at the expense of Russian Orthodox
Christendom in the upper basin of the Dniepr, and at the expense
of the Eurasian Nomads in the sector of the Qipchaq Steppe that
lay between the lower courses of the Dniepr and the Dniestr and,
as their struggle with the Order approached its climax, the stimulus
increased to such a pitch that in A.D. 1363, when the Lithuanians
were being worsted in their resistance to the Order's strategy of
barring them out from their ancestral seaboard on the Baltic,
they actually acquired a new seaboard on the remote shores of the
Black Sea. The social energy and the military technique in virtue
of which the Lithuanians were able to establish this far-reaching
ascendancy over their non-Western neighbours had been acquired
in the process of reacting to the pressure of their Western adversaries; and eventually this reaction became so powerful that it
enabled the Lithuanians to launch a counter-offensive against the
Teutonic Knights themselves.
This explanation of Lithuania's temporary political greatness as
a reaction to the Teutonic Knights' contemporary Crusade is aptly
conveyed in the heraldic emblem of the Lithuanian State a gallopman and horse in the elaborate plate-armour
ing horseman clad
which was brought to perfection by the technique of Western
armourers in the fifteenth century. This horseman is the last of the
barbarians in a new guise. It is the woodland warrior of Lithuania
who has taken unto him the whole armour of his Western adversaries
that he 'may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done
1
To the astonishment and confusion of the Teutonic
all, to stand'.
;

Knights, he is bearing down upon them in their own accoutrements

in order to trample them under foot on the field of
Tannenberg.

This tour deforce, however, was only achieved by the Lithuanian

1

Ephesians

vi. 13.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

173

barbarian after he had adopted the religion and the culture as well
as the military technique of the Western Civilization from which
he was under pressure ; and this conversion which was the true
was brought
turning-point in his struggle with the Teutonic Order
about on the initiative, and through the agency, of a Western
Christian neighbour and ally who had likewise become a victim
of the Order's aggression and was likewise being stimulated into
unprecedented activity by the necessity of fighting for his life.
The Lithuanian's ally was the Pole, who had been converted to
Western Christianity himself before the close of the tenth century
of the Christian Era and had actually called in the Teutonic Order
in the thirteenth century in order to assist him in extending the
bounds of Western Christendom, on this sector of the frontier, at
the pagan Prussian's and Lithuanian's expense. The Polish prince
of Cujavia who gave the Teutonic Knights their first footing on
the Baltic unwittingly laid the foundations of Poland's subsequent
greatness by exposing her to a new German pressure which was far
more formidable than the old Prusso-Lithuanian pressure from
which he had intended to bring her relief. For the Teutonic
Knights treated their neophyte Christian Polish hosts in much the
same fashion as they treated the unconverted pagans whom they had
been called in to fight; and the Poles, who at this time were still
only feebly illuminated by the penumbra of the Western Civiliza-

more competent than their pagan neighbours

a
militant
to withstand
power which emanated from the heart of
the Western World and which had at its command the most highly
developed technique and organization that the Western Society had
yet evolved. Accordingly, in the thirteenth century, the Teutonic
Knights unceremoniously deprived the Poles of their ancestral
Baltic seaboard in Pomerania while they were religiously depriving
the Lithuanians of theirs in Prussia and Samogitia; and thereafter,
in the fourteenth century, this same pressure from the same quarter
produced the same reaction in Poland as in Lithuania.
While the Polish principalities of Cujavia and Masovia were being
devoured by the Order, the nucleus of a new Polish Kingdom was
being formed by Casimir the Great (regnabat A.D. 1333-70), whose
reign was contemporary with the south-eastward expansion of
Lithuania. The ultimate object of Casimir's work was to bring the
offensive of the Teutonic Knights to a standstill; but Casimir's
successors realized that Poland was no match for the Teutonic
Order by herself; and, before trying conclusions with their assailants, they cast about for possible comrades-in-arms. The first
the personal
combination which was achieved by Polish diplomacy
tion,

were

at first little

union of the crowns of Poland and Hungary from A.D. 1370 to A.D.

174

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

King of Hungary, Louis the
was ephemeral and abortive, since the interests of the two
did not coincide. Hungary had no quarrel with Poland's

1382, in the person of the Angevin

Great
parties

enemies nor Poland with Hungary's. The master-stroke of Polish

statesmanship was the personal union between the crowns of Poland

and Lithuania, which was achieved in A.D. 1386 by the grant of the
Polish Queen Jadwiga's hand to the Lithuanian King Jagellon in
consideration of Jagellon's conversion from his primitive Lithuanian
paganism to Western Christianity.
It was Jagellon who opened the counter-offensive against the
Teutonic Order by leading the combined forces of Lithuania and
Poland to victory over the Knights at Tannenberg in A.D. 1410 and
the work thus begun was completed by Jagellon's second successor
on the Polish-Lithuanian throne in A.D. 1466, when he imposed on
the Teutonic Order the Second Peace of Thorn. The First Peace
of Thorn, in the year following the Battle of Tannenberg, had
;

secured the retrocession of Samogitia to Lithuania. The fruits of

the Second Peace were the cession 1 to Poland of Eastern Pomerania
and Ermeland and the reduction of the Teutonic Order's domain in
Prussia to the position of a geographical enclave in Polish-Lithuanian
territory and to the status of a political dependency of the Polish
Crown. Thus, in little more than half a century, the situations
of the combatants had been completely reversed as a result of
the combined Polish-Lithuanian reaction to the Teutonic Order's
pressure. Before the year 1410, the dominions of the Order had
extended along the continental coastline of the Baltic in an unbroken belt from the eastern frontier of the Holy Roman Empire
all the way to the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland
and both
Poland and Lithuania had been excluded thereby from access to the
Baltic altogether. After 1466, the ancestral seaboards of Poland and
Lithuania on the Baltic were once again in the hands of their original
owners, while the two remnants of the Teutonic Order's dominions
were nowboth insulated bytherestored Lithuanian Corridor'from
one another, and by the restored 'Polish Corridor' from the Empire.
;

In the Western World over against Muscovy

Why did not Poland and Lithuania fall apart again after the
pressure from the Teutonic Knights, which had originally brought
them together, had thus been effectually counteracted? The quesi
'Cession', not 'retrocession', since the Polish territories which were recovered from
the Teutonic Order in A.D. 1466 had been lost to the Order originally, some two
centuries earlier, not by the Kingdom of Poland but by the then independent Polish
principalities of Cujavia and Masovia. Before the conclusion of the Second Peace of
Thorn in A.D. 1466, the two Polish principalities or, rather, the remnants of them
which had escaped annexation by the Order had been absorbed into the Polish

Kingdom.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

tion

175

suggested by the actual course of events in Scandinavia- a

first come within the
pale of the Western Civilization, by conversion to Western Christianity, contemporaneously
with Poland, and had then been subjected, again contemporaneously
with Poland, to pressure from certain more progressive and more
efficient members of the Western
Society. During the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, while Poland was under pressure from
the Teutonic Order, Scandinavia was under
pressure from the
Hansa and in Scandinavia, as in Poland, the backward members
of the Western Society succeeded in holding their own against their
progressive assailants by resorting to the expedient of political
combination. The personal union of the three Scandinavian kingdoms under the Treaty of Calmar in A.D. I397 1 was a retort to the
aggression of the Hanseatic League, just as the personal union of
Poland and Lithuania in 1386 was a retort to the aggression of the
Teutonic Order. The two unions, however, had very different
histories. The Scandinavian Union of Calmar dissolved in A.D.
1520, after the sinews of the Hansa had been cut by the diversion
of trade from the Baltic and the North Sea to the Atlantic in consequence of the discovery of America. On the other hand, the
crushing of the Teutonic Order in 1466 was not followed by any
corresponding dissolution of the parallel union between Poland
and Lithuania. On the contrary, the Polish-Lithuanian Union was
drawn closer in 1501 and still closer, by the Treaty of Lublin, in
1569, and it only ceased with the complete extinction of the political
independence of the united commonwealth in 1795.
Why was the life of the Polish-Lithuanian Union prolonged
almost to the close of the eighteenth century ? And why was it completely extinguished then ? The answer to these two questions is to
be found in the imposition and the subsequent remission of afresh
pressure upon Lithuania and Poland from a new quarter. The Poles
and Lithuanians had no sooner won relief from the pressure of the
Teutonic Knights than they began to feel the pressure of the rising
power of Muscovy. The expansion of Lithuania at the expense of
the offshoot of Orthodox Christendom in Russia reached its farthest
limits about the middle of the fifteenth century. Within the next
century, the multitude of mutually independent and hostile states,
into which the remnant of the Russian Orthodox Christian World
is

region which had

had previously been

was consolidated, by Muscovite

Russian Orthodox Christian universal state 2

articulated,

conquest, into a single

1 The definitive union which was achieved in A.D.

'1397 had been preceded by tentative experiments in the direction of an All-Scandinavian union in the course of the

fourteenth century.
2 This function of the Muscovite
Empire as a Russian Orthodox Christian universal
state is studied further in Part VI, below.

176

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

and in 1563 that is, half a dozen years before the Polish-Lithuanian
Union of Lublin this newly formed Russian universal state impinged upon the Western World by pushing back the eastern
frontier of Lithuania, which had once run east of Smolensk, to a
line running west of Polotsk on the Dvina. Thus the united commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania acquired a new function and,
as one of the marches of the Western
therewith, a new vitality
World against a new pressure from Orthodox Christendom in
Russia.

Poland shared this new function with the Kingdom of Sweden,

which had broken off from the Scandinavian Union in A.D. 1520 x
and the reaction of the Western Society to the new Russian pressure
took the form of simultaneous Polish and Swedish counter-offensives. The Poles recaptured Smolensk in 1582 and held Moscow
itself from 1610 to 1612 while the terms of the peace-treaty which
was concluded between Sweden and Muscovy at Stolbovo in 1617
excluded Russia, in her turn, from all access to the Baltic. 2 In
;

pushing their counter-offensives thus far, however, the Poles and

the Swedes were guilty of an excess of zeal which brought its own

The temporary

presence of a Polish garrison in Moscow and the permanent presence of Swedish garrisons on the banks
of the Narev and the Neva produced a profound psychological effect
in Russian souls ; and this inward spiritual shock translated itself
into an outward practical act of equivalent magnitude the deliberate
'Westernization' of Russia by Peter the Great. 3 Through this portentous revolution, the continental frontier of the Western World
was advanced, at one bound, from the eastern borders of Poland
and Sweden to the distant lines along which the newly initiated
Russian proselytes to the Western Civilization already marched
with the Nomad occupants of the Eurasian Steppe and with the
Manchu conquerors of China. Therewith, the wardenship of the
marches of the Western Society, which Russia's Western neighbours and adversaries had been exercising somewhat too zealously
at Russia's expense, was suddenly snatched out of their hands, as a
result of Peter's astonishing counter-stroke, by Russia herself. The
Poles and Swedes thus found the ground cut from under their feet.
Their function in the Western body social was taken from them ;
and the loss of the stimulus which the exercise of this function had
formerly administered was followed by a swift decay. Within little
more than a century reckoning from the beginning of Peter's
retribution.

See p. 175, above.

For the effect produced upon the internal economy of Russian Orthodox Christen-

dom by the

application of this pressure from the Western Civilization in the seventeenth

century through the agencies of Poland and Sweden, see pp. 157-8, above.
3 This Westernization' of Russia is
examined in greater detail in III. C (11) (i), vol.
in, pp. 278-84, and in Part IX, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

Sweden had

177

her possessions east

of the Baltic, including her ancient dominion of Finland, while
Poland had been erased from the political map altogether.
effective rule

lost to

Russia

all

In the Western World over against the Ottoman Empire

It will be seen that Polish and Swedish
history, from the opening
of the sixteenth century of the Christian Era until after the close of
the eighteenth, is best expressed in terms of the history of a foreign
in terms, that is, of the history of Orthodox Christendom in Russia. Poland and Sweden both flourished so long as they
fulfilled the functions of anti-Russian marches of the Western
Society; they both began to decline towards their fall so soon as
Russian Orthodox Christendom had achieved the tour deforce of
filching this function from them. Let us now turn our attention
to the history of the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy, which can
be traced back to approximately the same date as the histories of
modern Poland and modern Sweden. Sweden upset the Scandinavian union of 1397 by breaking away from Denmark and Norway
in 1520; Poland consolidated the Polish-Lithuanian union of 1386

body

social

by entering into the closer unions of 1501 and 1569 the Danubian
Hapsburg Monarchy was brought into existence by the union of
the Hungarian and Bohemian crowns with the Austrian patrimony
of the Hapsburgs in 1 526 Thus the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy
was modern Poland's and modern Sweden's contemporary and we
;

shall find that its history, like their histories, is best expressed in
foreign terms. Poland and Sweden had their raisons d'etre in serv-

ing as marches of the Western Society against an Orthodox Christian

universal state which had been established in Russia by the Muscovites. Similarly, the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy existed in
order to serve as a march of the Western Society against another
universal state into which the main body of Orthodox Christendom,
in the Balkan Peninsula, had been welded by the Osmanlis. 1 It
was called into existence at a moment when the Ottoman pressure
upon the Western World had suddenly become really formidable ;
it remained in the first rank of the Great Powers of Europe as long
as the Ottoman pressure remained at its height; it began to decline
as soon as the Ottoman pressure began to relax; and it finally fell
in which
to pieces in the same general war
the War of 1914-18
the Ottoman Empire received its coup de grdce.
The impact of the Ottoman Power upon the Western World began
I This function of the Danubian
Hapsburg Monarchy as a carapace evolved by the
Western Society, in order to protect it against the Ottoman impact, has been noticed
already, by anticipation, in I. C (lii) (6), vol. i, on p. 156, footnote i, above. The function
of the Ottoman Empire as the universal state of the main body of Orthodox Christendom
is discussed further below in Part III. A, vol. lii, on pp. 36-7, below.

II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

178

with the hundred years' war between the 'Osmanlis and Hungary
which culminated in the Battle of Mohacz (A.D. 1526). Before the
opening of this long duel in A.D. 1433/4, the 'Osmanlis and the
and
Westerners had only crossed one another's paths occasionally
these occasions had arisen through the desultory interference of
this or that Western Power in the distracted affairs of the Orthodox
Christian Society with a half-hearted intention of preventing the
'Osmanlis from accomplishing their work of welding the main body
of Orthodox Christendom together under Ottoman rule. This work,
however, was substantially complete before the end of the fourteenth century of the Christian Era ; it was not undone by the blow

which Timur

dealt the

0smanlis at Angora in A.D. 1402;* and,

rounded off by Mehmed the

Conqueror (imperdbat A.D. 1452-81). It was not the annexation of
Constantinople and the Morea and Trebizond and Qaraman, but
the offensive against Hungary, that made the greatest demands upon
after a

momentary pause,

Ottoman

it

was

easily

military energies in the fifteenth century.

Hungary, standing at bay under the leadership of John Hunyadi

and his son Matthias Corvinus (regnabat A.D. 1458-90), was the
most stubborn opponent whom the 'Osmanlis had yet encountered
and she was stimulated culturally as well as militarily by the
tremendous effort involved in withstanding the Ottoman pressure
almost single-handed. The disparity, however, between the respective forces of the two combatants was so great that the maintenance of the effort eventually proved to be beyond Hungary's
strength; and the ultimate break-down of Hungary and formation of the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy
in order to carry on
Hungary's work with greater resources were both portended in
a number of preliminary and abortive attempts at political union
between Hungary and several of her Western neighbours while the
hundred years' war between Hungary and the Osmanlis was in
progress. For instance, the Hungarian crown was fitfully united
with the Bohemian during the years 1436-9 and 1453-7 an<^ *49~
1 526
both crowns were united with part of the Austrian patrimony
of the Hapsburgs in 1438-9 and again in 1453-7; and Hungaryalone was united with Austria from 1485 to 1490. Moreover, the
crowns of Hungary and Poland were temporarily united for a
second time from 1440 to 1444 this time in the person of a Polish
and not a Hungarian sovereign, and with the object, not of bringing
Hungarian reinforcements to Poland in her struggle with the Teutonic Order (the purpose of the previous Hungarian-Polish union

in A.D. I370-82), 2 but of bringing Polish reinforcements to Hungary in her struggle with the 'Osmanlis. These loose and ephemeral
1

See

II.

(iv), p.

102, above.

gee pp. 173-4, above.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

179

unions were not enough to give Hungary the strong permanent

reinforcement which she needed. They perhaps postponed but did
not ultimately avert the crushing blow which the 'Osmanlis finally
dealt Hungary at Mohacz and it was only a disaster of this magnitude that could produce a sufficient psychological effect to bring
the remnant of Hungary together with Bohemia and Austria into
a close and enduring union under the Hapsburg Dynasty. This
result was immediate. The triple union was accomplished before
the end of the calendar year (AJX 1526) in which the Battle of
;

Mohacz had been fought and

endured for nearly four hundred

years
only to dissolve in the same calendar year (A.D. 1918) that
saw the final break-up of the Ottoman Power which had delivered
the dynamic blow at Mohacz four centuries back.
Indeed, from the moment of the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy's
;

it

fortunes followed those of the hostile Power, whose

pressure had called it into existence, in each successive phase. The
heroic age of the Danubian Monarchy coincided chronologically
with the period during which the Ottoman pressure was felt by the
Western World most severely. This heroic age may be taken as
beginning with the first abortive Ottoman siege of Vienna in A.D.
1529 and as ending with the second in A.D. 1682-3. I n these two
supreme ordeals, the Austrian capital played the same role psychoin the desperate resistance of the
logical as well as strategic
Western World to the Ottoman assault that Verdun played in the
French resistance to the German assault in the War of igi^-iS. 1
The two sieges were both turning-points in Ottoman military history. The failure of the first brought to a standstill the tide of
Ottoman conquest which had been flooding up the Danube Valley
for a century past. The failure of the second siege was followed by
an ebb which continued thereafter in a secular movement that
until the European
persisted through all pauses and fluctuations
frontiers of Turkey, which stood at the outskirts of Vienna from
1529 to 1683, h ave fiJlen back in our time to the outskirts of
Adrianople. The Ottoman Empire's loss, however, has not been
the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy's gain; for the heroic age of the
Danubian Monarchy did not survive the beginning of the Ottoman

foundation,

its

The

Ottoman Power, which threw open

a field in South-Eastern Europe for other forces to occupy, simultaneously released the Danubian Monarchy from the pressure
which had been stimulating it into heroic activity hitherto; and
the withdrawal of the former stimulus inhibited the Danubian
Monarchy from taking advantage of the new opportunity. So far
decline.

collapse of the

For the part played by

Annex, pp. 400-1, below.
1

sieges in

making the fortunes of

cities,

see further II.

(v),

So

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

from entering

Ottoman Empire in SouthEastern Europe, the Danubian Monarchy now followed into decline
the Power that had originally called it into existence, and eventually shared the Ottoman Empire's fate.
In the counter-offensive which drove the 'Osmanlis back from
the walls of Vienna in 1683, the Hapsburgs found themselves at the
head of an anti-Ottoman coalition which included Venice, Poland,
and Russia; yet they never avenged the sieges of Vienna by laying
siege to Constantinople. The peace-treaty of Carlowitz in 1699
restored to the Hungarian Crown the greater part of the Hungarian
territory which had been lost to the 'Osmanlis in 1526; the peacetreaty of Passarowitz in 1718 actually carried the frontier considerably beyond the line along which it had stood on the eve of the
campaign of Mohacz, two centuries earlier. The peace-treaty of
Belgrade in 1739, however, revised the frontier of 1718 in the
'Osmanlis* favour and to the Hapsburgs' disadvantage. The fortress of Belgrade itself, which Hungary had always held against the
'Osmanlis during the fifteenth century and which Prince Eugene
had wrested from Ottoman hands in 1717, was retroceded in 1739
by the Hapsburg Monarchy to the Ottoman Empire ; and though
Austrian armies momentarily re-occupied Belgrade in the AustroTurkish War of 1788-91 and again in the General War of 1914-18,
Belgrade had another destiny. It finally passed out of Ottoman
hands in 1866 to become the capital of the Serbian 'successorstate' of the Ottoman Empire and it was recovered by the Serbs
from the Austrians in 1918 in order to become the capital of Jugoslavia, which is a 'successor-state' of the Hapsburg Power as well
into the heritage of the

Ottoman. As for the south-eastern frontier of the Danubian

Monarchy, it remained virtually stationary, at the line fixed in
1739, f r t ^ ie remainder of the Monarchy's existence. During the
hundred and eighty years which elapsed between the conclusion
of the Peace of Belgrade and the moment when the Hapsburg
as of the

Monarchy signed its own death-warrant

the Monarchy made only two further

in the Armistice of 1918,

acquisitions of Ottoman

or ex-Ottoman territory, and these were of trivial dimensions. 1

Between 1683 and 1739, however, the Hapsburg frontier in this
quarter had been advanced sufficiently far to relegate Vienna from
the situation of a frontier-fortress to that of an imperial capital in
the interior; and this change made itself felt in the city's fortunes

and character. The glory which Vienna had gained by keeping the
Turks at bay in 1529 and 1682-3 was tarnished by the humiliation
i The first of the two was the
acquisition of the Bukovina in 1774-7; the second was
the acquisition of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was occupied by Austria-Hungary in
1878 and annexed in 1908.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

181

of French occupations in 1805 and

1809; an d t^ie Viennese, who
had first made their name as the heroic defenders of Western
Christendom, eventually became a by-word for an attractive but
decidedly unheroic combination of fecklessness with amiability and
softness with elegance. 1
If we look more closely,

Hungary was analogous to

we

shall see that the fate of Austria-

that of Poland-Lithuania.

Just as the

Polish counter-offensive against Russia at the end of the first decade

of the seventeenth century precipitated the 'Westernization' of

Russian Orthodox Christendom and thereby rendered Poland's

previous raison d'etre, as an anti-Russian march of the Western
Society, superfluous, so the Austrian counter-offensive against the
'Osmanlis in the last two decades of the seventeenth century
precipitated the 'Westernization' of the main body of Orthodox
Christendom in the Balkan Peninsula and thereby deprived the

Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy of its raison cTStre likewise.

The parallel extends to details For example, when the 'Westernization' of Russia was taken in hand by Peter the Great, the Russian
imperial revolutionary did not obtain his Western inspiration
through the medium of his backward and hostile Western neighbour Poland. He addressed himself, by preference, to Germany
and Holland and England: countries which were then leading the
van in the progress of the Western Civilization and which were not
alienated from Russia by any unneighbourly tradition of hostility.
Similarly, in the main body of Orthodox Christendom, when
the process of 'Westernization' was initiated
in a less deliberate
and systematic way than Peter's by the 'Osmanlis and their subjects under the stimulus of the Austrian counter-offensive, the
.

'Westernizers' did not address themselves to the Hapsburgs. The

'Osmanlis turned to France, who was their natural Western ally

was the House of Austria's principal Western

As for the Orthodox Christian peoples of the Ottoman
Empire, they welcomed the Austrians at first as Christian liberators,
only to find that the status of barely tolerated 'heretics' under a

inasmuch

as she

rival. 2

In the long run, this relaxing effect of an abnormal exemption from the pressure of
has counted for more, in the evolution of the Austrian Sthos,
than the stimulating effect of the physical environment in the shape of an abnormally
For
(ii), pp. 58-60, above.)
rough country. (For the latter aspect of Austria, see II.
Vienna, as the capital of the entire Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy over a span of four
It is the Viencenturies, has outweighed the rural and highland remainder of Austria.
nese and not the Tyrolese who has set the tone of Austria in these latter days.
2 Francis I of France
actually co-operated with Suleyman the Magnificent in naval
operations against the Hapsburg Power in the Mediterranean in 1543. France had been
rewarded for her friendship already in 1535 by receiving 'capitulations' (i e. a charter of
trading rights) from the Ottoman Government in advance of any other Western Power
in
apart from the Italian republics. These 'capitulations' were confirmed and improved
1740 as a reward for diplomatic services which the French Government had rendered to
the Ottoman Government during the negotiation of the Belgrade peace-treaty between
1

the

human environment

Turkey and Austria

in 1739.

82

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Roman

Catholic regime was less to their liking than that of

explicitly licenced 'unbelievers' under the Islamic dispensation.
Tantalized, and at the same time disillusioned, by their brief spells
of Austrian and Venetian rule in the early years of the eighteenth
century, the Serbs and Greeks turned eagerly towards their Russian
co-religionists when these demonstrated the advantages of 'Westernization' by their decisive victory over the 'Osmanlis in the RussoTurkish War of I7&8-74. 1 Yet the Orthodox Christians of the
Balkan Peninsula were not long content to derive their Western
inspiration through this circuitous and stagnant Russian channel.
They soon learnt to draw the living waters from the fountain-head.
They eagerly imbibed the ideas of the American and the French
Revolution ; and they profited by a personal intercourse with the
leading nations of the West when Napoleon burst into the Levant,
with his British adversaries in his wake, in the course of the General
War of 1792-1815. Before the close of the Napoleonic Wars, the
main body of Orthodox Christendom was in ferment with the
leaven of Romantic Nationalism which was the Western spirit of
the age ; 2 and this was the beginning of the end of the Hapsburg

Monarchy.
It was in vain that the Monarchy, under the stimulus of Naporepeated blows, played a decisive part in the overthrow
of Napoleon by its military intervention in 18133 and thereafter
dominated the Congress of Vienna. While, to outward appearance,
Metternich had skilfully taken advantage of the 'restoration' of the
pre-revolutionary regime in Western Europe in order to secure for
the Danubian Monarchy a European hegemony which it had never
quite succeeded in exercising at any previous stage of its history,
the underlying reality was something altogether different.
In
the
Danubian Monarchy, in the 'post-war' period which
reality,
in
began
1815, found itself encircled, for the first time in its history,
by a single ubiquitous adversary in front and rear in Western
Europe on the one side and in South-Eastern Europe on the other4
and this adversary was the Zeitgeist of that very Western Society
leon's

See
(Athens
2 See
(Athens
3 See
1

Khrysanth6poulos, Ph.

1899, Sakellarios, 2 vols.), vol. i, pp 16-18.

Kolokotr<5ms, Th.: Arfyrjcris ^Sv^avrcov rijs 'Efoyvucys 0vXfj$, 2770-1836
1889, Estfa, 2 vols ), vol. i, pp. 48-9.
II.
(iv), p. 105, above.
* The Janus-like
physiognomy of the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy is aptly
symbolized in the double-headed eagle (a heraldic perversion of the Roman eagle, which
the Hapsburg Monarchy shared, as its official emblem, with Prussia and Russia). While
one head of. the Austrian eagle was keeping watch eastward towards the Ottoman
Empire, the other head was ever craning back westward into the interior of the Western
World; and the Ottoman pressure had no sooner begun to slacken than the Danubian
Monarchy began to divert its attention and energy disastrously from Near Eastern to
Western affairs. This tendency, which first declared itself in the Thirty Years' War, is
examined further in Part IV, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

in which the

had

Monarchy

itself inextricably

lived

183

and moved and

its

being.
situation of the Monarchy had really changed, in the
course of a century, most profoundly to the Monarchy's disadvan-

Thus the

hundred years

on the morrow of the Western

1672-1713, the Danubian Monarchy had still been
secure in front and rear alike. On its front, vis-d-vis the Orthodox
Christian World, it was then already more than holding its own
tage.

General

earlier,

War of

against the slackening pressure of the 'Osmanlis, while in its rear,

vis-d-vis its fellow-members in the Western
Society to which the

belonged, it was still performing die service and

fulfilling the function which was its raison d'etre, in its original
capacity as the carapace which the Western body social had evolved
from its own living substance in order to protect it against Ottoman
sabre-strokes. On the other hand, in 1815, though the Danubian
Monarchy had once again emerged from a general war even more
triumphantly, to outward appearance, than in 1714, its raison
The sabre
d'etre, and therewith its security, existed no longer.
whose
strokes
the West had sought protection under the
against
Austrian carapace had fallen, by this time, out of the 'Osmanli's
decrepit hands and the osseous growth of the Danubian Monarchy,
which could not be re-absorbed into the living tissues of the Western
body social now that its function had become obsolete, was simply
cramping the internal growth of the society whose life it had once
preserved against a deadly attack from an external enemy. Since
the foundation of the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy in A.D. 1526,
the cumulative effect of the Dutch, English, American, and French
revolutions had called into existence in the Western World a new
a comity of nations
in which a dynastic state like
political order
the Hapsburg Monarchy was an anachronism and an anomaly. In
attempting to restore the pre-revolutionary regime in Europe on the
basis of the principle of Dynastic Legitimacy and in defiance of
the principle of Nationality, Metternich provocatively transformed
the Monarchy from 'King Log' into 'King Stork', from a passive
incubus upon the life of the Western Society into an active internal
enemy of Western progress an enemy more harmful, in its own
fashion, than the now decrepit external Ottoman enemy which the

Monarchy

itself

Hapsburg Monarchy had formerly kept at bay.

The Monarchy spent the last century of its existence in attempts
at hindering the
all doomed to failure before they were made
inevitable revision of the political map of Europe on national lines
and in this futile endeavour there are two points of interest for
our present purpose. The first point is that, from 1815 onwards,
the new Western leaven of Nationalism was fermenting just as
;

i84

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

vigorously "among the Orthodox Christian peoples within and

beyond the south-eastern frontiers of the Danubian Monarchy as it
was among the Western peoples within and beyond the frontiers of
the Monarchy on the western side. The second point is that when
the Monarchy reconciled itself at last, under the discipline of hard
experience, to the necessity of making some concessions to the spirit
of the age, it duly succeeded in arriving at an accommodation with
the national aspirations of the Western peoples. By renouncing
the hegemony over Germany and the possession of territory in
Italy in 1866, the Hapsburg Monarchy rendered possible its own
coexistence with the new German Empire and with the new Italian
Kingdom and by accepting the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich of
1867 and its Austrian corollary in Galicia, the Hapsburg Dynasty
succeeded in identifying its own interests with the national interests
of the Polish and the Magyar as well as the German element in its
dominions. The problem which the Hapsburg Monarchy never
succeeded in solving was the problem of Nationalism in the
Balkans ; and it was its inability to arrive at an accommodation in
this quarter that eventually brought the Monarchy to destruction.
The Western weapons of Nationalism, which had not dealt the
Hapsburg Monarchy any mortal blow when they were wielded by
the Italian and German and Magyar hands that had forged them,
The discarded
proved deadly in the alien hands of the Serbs.
Danubian carapace of the Western body social, which had withstood so many blows from the Ottoman sabre, was eventually
pierced and shattered by Serbian bayonets.
Since 1918, the south-eastern frontier of the Danubian Hapsa frontier which for a hundred and eighty years
burg Monarchy
was one of the abiding landmarks in the political landscape of
Europe has been effaced by the establishment of two new national
states
which are symbolic of
Jugoslavia and Greater Rumania
the triumph of the new order. Each of these new states is a 'successor-state' both of the ci-devant Hapsburg Monarchy and of the
ci-devant Ottoman Empire; and each of them unites within its
newly drawn frontiers not only territories acquired from two
different dynastic states, but also
under the sign of the Western
of
principle
nationality
populations that have been nurtured,
hitherto, by two different civilizations. This audacious experiment
in political chemistry may succeed or fail; these synthetically produced nations may become organic unions or may disintegrate into
their constituent elements but the mere fact that the experiment is
being made is conclusive evidence that the Hapsburg Monarchy
and die Ottoman Empire are both defunct and that they have been
;

destroyed simultaneously by an identic hostile force.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

185

curious in the present 'post-war*

age, as one's train crosses
the railway-bridge over the Save, between Orsova and
Belgrade, to
reread the opening passage of Kinglake's Eothen. When, less than
a century ago, the English traveller was ferried across the frontierIt is

from the Hapsburg to the Ottoman bank, he felt as though he

were passing out of one world into another and the Austrian hussar
river

who

escorted

him

to the ferry-boat took leave of

him

as solemnly

though he were Hermes Psychopompus committing a soul to

Charon's barque on the River of Hades. To the uninitiated
English
observer and to the unsophisticated Austrian soldier alike, the
gulf
there fixed between 'West* and 'East' seemed as
in
the
great
postNapoleonic age as it had ever been but this was not the view of the
anxious-minded Rhenish statesman who at that moment, from his
cabinet in Vienna, was pulling the strings of
European diplomacy
as

like a

human spider spinning a political web. Metternich knew well

enough, by that time, that the ancient gulf had been bridged and
the ancient barriers thrown down he knew that the spiritual leaven
of Nationalism had already been carried from the 'West' into the
'East' across the obsolete dividing line; and he knew that the
;

miasma which was

from the fermentation of this

Western leaven in Orthodox Christian souls was more difficult to
exclude from the sacrosanct dominions of his Imperial Master than
political

arising

the Plague itself.

Already, Metternich had taken alarm at the outbreak of the

Greek insurrection against Ottoman rule in 1821. Clear-sighted as

he was according to his own lights, he had divined at once that this
repudiation of the Ottoman Padishah's authority by a handful of
his Orthodox Christian subjects in the remote Morea was a menace
to the authority of the Austrian Kaiser because the Greeks were
claiming Western sympathy and assistance for their cause in the
name of the Western principle of Nationality. Metternich represented to the Holy Alliance insistently, though without success, that
if their own principle of Legitimacy was to be maintained intact,
the Greek insurgents must be boycotted as outlaws and Sultan
Mahmud be supported, in maintaining his dynastic rights, as one
of the Lord's Anointed. From the Legitimist standpoint, Metternich's attitude on this occasion was entirely justified by the event.
For the triumphant success of the Greek insurgents a success
which they owed to the friendly intervention of France, Great
was an event
Britain, and Russia as much as to their own exertions
of far more than local importance. The erection of a sovereign

independent national Greek State in 1829-31 made it inevitable

that every people in South-Eastern Europe should insist upon
attaining its own national independence and national unity sooner

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

186

or later; and thus the Greek insurrection of 1821 incidentally

preordained the erection of Jugoslavia and Greater Rumania in
1918-20. Truly, Metternich's senses had not deceived him when
he heard the death-knell of the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy in
those reverberations from the clash of arms in the Morea which
fell

upon

his ears in Vienna.

curious, too, in this present 'post-war' age, to compare the

situation and the ethos of Austria with those of contemporary
Turkey on the one hand and Bavaria on the other.
It is

Out of the destruction which overtook the Hapsburg and the

Ottoman Empire simultaneously in the General War of 1914-18,
emerged an Austrian and a Turkish Republic and these
two republics bear a superficial resemblance to one another inasmuch as they both conform outwardly to the conventional type of
modern parliamentary national state with which the Hapsburg and
Ottoman empires remained fundamentally incompatible to the end
of their histories. This formal resemblance, however, between the
new Austria and the new Turkey is of little significance in the
there have

light of their profound present difference in Sthos. The Austrians

are at once the hardest hit and the least recalcitrant of the five

peoples that have emerged from the War of 1914-18 on the losing
side. They have accepted the new order passively, with supreme
resignation as well as with supreme regret. By contrast, the Turks
are the only people among the five who have taken up arms again,
after the Ajrmistice, against the victorious Powers and have success-

own

peace-treaty freely and on

a footing of equality with their late opponents, instead of having
the victors' peace-terms imposed upon them. More than that, the
Turks have seized upon the catastrophe of the Ottoman Empire as
fully insisted

upon

negotiating their

an opportunity for renewing their youth and changing their destiny.

So far from accepting the new order passively, they have welcomed
it with open arms, and have
plunged into the path of Westernization, at the heels of their former subjects the Greeks and Serbs and
Rumans and Bulgars, with the zeal of eleventh-hour converts who
are taking the Kingdom of Heaven by storm.
are we to explain these strangely diverse psychological
phenomena? Examination shows that this ethos in Turkish souls

How

something quite new. For more than five centuries from the
close of their dynamic age at the beginning of the fifteenth century
of the Christian Era down to A.D. 1919
the Turks, in all the
is

vicissitudes of their history, invariably displayed the psychological

reactions of Conservatism. In the days of their prosperity, they

waxed

fat

and kicked,

like
1

Jeshurun;

Deuteronomy

and in the days of

xxxii. 15,

their ad-

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

187

versify they either stood stock still or behaved like sullen, thickskinned mules who will not move until they are belaboured, and

then not more than one step at a time.

The former ruling minority of Turkish landlords, who found
themselves left stranded among alien minorities and under alien

by the ebb of the Ottoman tide in Europe between 1683 and

1913, used to accept their sudden and extreme reversal of fortune

rule

as passively as the Austrians have accepted theirs since 1918. They

would either abandon their ancestral lands and migrate en masse to

and squat again within the ever contracting Ottoman

frontiers or if they were too phlegmatic to make even this negative
response to the new human challenge confronting them, and were
restrained from migrating by sheer inertia, then they would resign
themselves to sinking from the top to the bottom of the social ladder
in their old homes under the new conditions. As for their fellows
who continued to rule the Ottoman Empire, they could only be
induced to 'Westernize' their institutions under force majeure, and
then always piecemeal and to the minimum degree that seemed
squat and

flit

moment

in order to keep the Empire just alive.

This stricture fairly applies to all the Ottoman 'Westernizers' from
Sultan Selim III and Sultan Mahmud II down to the Committee of

necessary at the

Union and Progress

inclusive, with

one notable exception to prove

the rule in the person of Midhat Pasha. 1 How, then, are we to

from
explain the revolutionary change in the Turkish state of mind,
an ultra- Austrian passivity to an ultra-Jacobin activity, which has

come

to pass since 1919?

And how,

for that matter, are

we

to

mind from the

explain the converse change in the Austrian state *of
heroism of the defence of Vienna in 1682-3 to the defeatism' of the
present day?
The explanation of both changes is to be found in the normal
are showing,
operation of Challenge-and-Response. The Viennese
now, the cumulative psychological effects of having lived for more
than two centuries as an 'imperial people' in the interior of the Hapswardens
burg Dominions instead of sustaining their historic role as
of the marches of Western Christendom against the 'Osmanlis. In
their unstimulating latter-day environment, they learnt to feed out
of the Dynasty's hand and when the Imperial Government's ultimatum to Serbia had precipitated the General War of I9i4-i8,they
their shepherd
obeyed the mobilization order, like sheep who follow
to the slaughter-house, with a blind faith in their Emperor Francis
he had done, he had foreseen,
Joseph's assurance that, in doing what
and made provision for, all the eventualities that might befall his
;

process of Westernization* in the Ottoman Empire

detail in Part IX, below.
*

The

is

examined in greater

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

i88

On

the other hand, the Turks

have responded, at this eleventh hour, to the challenge from the
West a challenge first presented by the triumphant defenders of
trusty

and well-beloved

subjects.

Vienna in A.D. 1683

because, in 1919, they were simply unable to
evade the issue any longer.
On the morrow of the Armistice of 1918, the Turks found themselves standing with their backs to the wall, in a situation in which
they must either conquer or die. In this supreme hour, they were
a dynasty which had created
betrayed by the Ottoman Dynasty
not only the Ottoman Empire but the 'Osmanli Turks themselves,
who were stamped, in the very name which they bore, with their
creator's own image and superscription. 1 The Turks were forced
by this betrayal to rely upon themselves and this in a struggle for
their existence. For in 1919-22 the Turks were no longer fighting
in order to preserve an Ottoman province for their PadishSh or a
fragment of Dar-al-Islam for their Caliph, They were fighting to
preserve their own homelands. The battle-field of In Onii, on
which the decisive action in the Graeco-Turkish War of 1919-22
was fought, lies in that original patrimony on the north-western
edge of the Anatolian Plateau which had been assigned to the
fathers of the 'Osmanlis

back. 2

by the

last

of the Saljuqs

more than

six

On

the day of this decisive battle, the tide of

Ottoman history, whose mighty flood had once spread from the
neighbourhood of In Onii to the neighbourhood of Vienna, at
centuries

In
length completed its mighty ebb by returning to its source.
this situation, the Ottoman Turkish people was faced with the
momentous choice between two, and only two, alternatives : annihilation or metamorphosis.
It will be seen that the final urgency of
the challenge to which the Turks have responded has been fully
sufficient to account for the potency of their eleventh-hour response.
It will also be seen that the reversal in the direction of the pressure
between the Western World and the main body of Orthodox
Christendom a reversal which first manifested itself under the
walls of Vienna in A.D. 1683
has been followed in due course
by a corresponding transfer of stimulus, which has manifested
itself, in turn, in the situation and in the ethos of the two
communities by whom the brunt of the pressure has been given

and taken.
So much for the comparison between Austria and Turkey. As
for the other comparison of Austria with Bavaria, the interest of
this lies in the fact that Bavaria and Austria were originally of one
substance. By origin, Austria is simply Bavaria's 'eastern march'
*

For the creation of the 'Osmanlis, see further Part

See pp. 151-2, above.

III.

A,

vol. ni, pp, 32-44, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

189

a cluster of Bavarian marches Upper Austria, Lower

which was first evolved by the
Austria, and Steiermark or Styria
Bavarian body politic in order to protect its eastern flank against
assaults from the Avars and Slovenes, and which afterwards became differentiated and consolidated, by a series of historical
accidents, into a separate political entity. When we formulate the
history of Austria in these genetic terms, we find ourselves enabled
to measure once again, from a new angle, the extent of the change
which has been produced in the Austrian thos by the successive
imposition and removal of external pressures.
During the last ten or twelve centuries, the country which began
life as the eastern march of Bavaria has
passed through a long series
of experiences in which the Bavarian interior has had no share.
Austria has been first stimulated by recurring waves of attack from
Avars and Magyars and 'Osmanlis and then debilitated by the
paternal despotism of the Hapsburgs ; she has performed in turn
the strangely different functions of carapace to a society in jeopardy
and metropolitan province to a Great Power ; and each phase in this
varied and distinguished history has left some mark upon her, until
the sum total has effaced her original Bavarian identity and has
transformed her character, as well as her name, into something that
is now entirely her own.
During all this time, while the transfigured eastern march of Bavaria has been playing her great part in
the life of our Western Society and in the life of the World, the
Bavarian interior has remained one of those small countries which
are 'happy in having no history*
as is signified in the fact that it
has retained the original Bavarian name which Austria has discarded. During the ten or twelve centuries that have elapsed since
Bavaria and Austria first parted company and began to go their
different ways, the Bavarian ethos has remained parochial and
exuberant and sanguine, whereas the Austrian ethos has become
oecumenical and fastidious and sceptical. The contrast between
the temperaments respectively prevalent in these two South German Catholic countries to-day cannot fail to strike the traveller who
passes from one into the other at almost any point on their long
common frontier; and it is not a contrast that can possibly be
or, rather,

explained by any difference of racial endowment. There is no

reason to suppose that, in the population of the original Bavaria,
there was any difference of race between the Bavarians of the
eastern marches and the Bavarians of the interior, nor is there any
record of substantial changes in the racial composition of either

compopulation since their subsequent segregation into separate

and it is a wholly adequate
munities. The only tenable explanation
of the difference between the Bavarian and the
explanation

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

igo

Austrian ethos at the present day is to be found in the operation of

the psychological force of Challenge-and-Response.

In the Western World over against the Far Western Christendom

Having now surveyed such illustrations of Challenge-and-Response as are offered by the various historic responses to external
of Western
Christendom, let us glance at three other frontiers of the same
society: its land-frontier vis-d-vis the now extinct Far Western
pressures

upon the

continental

Christendom 1 in the

European

alter orbis of Britain

frontiers

its

maritime

frontier,

Scandinavian Civilization,
along the seathe
North
and
Sea
the Channel
boards of England and France upon
and its land-frontier vis-d-vis the Syriac Civilization in the Iberian

vis-d-vis the abortive

Peninsula.

What has been

the genesis of the present British 'United Kingdom' ? It is a union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland
in Great Britain, together with the English and Scottish conquests
and plantations in Ireland 3 and these two kingdoms, which cover
the whole area of Great Britain between them, are the products
of a struggle for existence between half a dozen 'successor-states'
of the Roman Empire which were established, during the postHellenic Volkerwanderung, by English and Jutish barbarians who
migrated across the* North Sea from Holstein and Schleswig and
Jutland to the eastern and southern coasts of the Roman island. 4
An inquiry into the genesis of the United Kingdom thus resolves
itself into the prior question: How is it that the struggle for
existence between the primitive and ephemeral barbarian principalities of the so-called 'Heptarchy' in Great Britain has resulted
in the emergence of these two progressive and enduring statesmembers of our Western Society ? If we now glance at the historical
process by which the two kingdoms of England and Scotland have
;

eventually replaced 'the Heptarchy' on the political map, we shall

find that the determining factor at every stage has been a response
to some challenge which has been presented by the incidence of an
external pressure.

The
1

genesis of the

Kingdom

of Scotland can be traced back to

This abortive Far Western Christian Civilization has been referred to, by anticipaB (m), vol. i, p. 29, above, and is dealt with further in II.
(vii), on pp. 322-40.

tion, in I

below.

See II

At the time of

(m), pp. 86-100, above, and II.

(vii), pp. 340-60, below.
writing, some twelve years after the establishment of the Irish Free
State, the United Kingdom still includes an enclave of territory in Northern Ireland,
where the Scottish plantations of the seventeenth century were most thickly sown, as a
memorial of the fact that it once embraced the whole of the British Isles save for the
ci-devant Scandinavian Kingdom of Sodor and Man.
* This
migration has been touched upon already, on pp. 86-100, above, apropos of
the stimulus of migrations across the sea.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

191

a challenge which was presented, some nine or ten centuries ago,

to the Early English principality of Northumbria by the Picts and
Scots, who were the representatives of the abortive Far Western
Christian Civilization in an adjoining section of 'the Celtic Fringe*.
The present capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, was founded by the
Northumbrian prince whose name it bears 1 as the frontier-fortress
of Northumbria over against the Picts ; the political and cultural
nucleus of medieval and modern Scotland has been the district
called Lothian and Lothian was originally the march of Northumbria against both the Picts beyond the Firth of Forth and the Britons
in Strathclyde. The challenge was presented when the Picts and
Scots conquered Edinburgh in A.D. 954 and thereafter compelled
the principality of Northumbria to cede the whole of Lothian to
them round about the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries.
This cession raised the following issue: Was this lost march of
Northumbria, which had likewise been a march of Western
Christendom, to retain its Western Christian culture in spite of the
local change of political regime, or was it to succumb to the alien
Far Western Christian culture of its Celtic conquerors? So far
from succumbing, Lothian responded to the challenge by 'taking
;

its

conquerors captive'.
culture of the conquered territory exercised such an attraction upon the Scottish kings that they made it the seat of their
kingdom and came to feel and to behave as though Lothian were

The

homeland and as though their native Highlands were

an outlying and alien part of their dominions. In consequence, by
an historical paradox, the eastern seaboard of Scotland, from the

their ancestral

northern shore of the Firth of Forth to the southern shore of the

Moray Firth, was colonized, and 'the Highland Line* was pushed
back steadily farther towards the north-west, by settlers of English
origin from Lothian under the auspices of rulers of Celtic origin
and at the expense of a Celtic population who were the Scottish
kings' original kinsmen and who had once conquered the Lowlanders under the leadership of these very kings' forefathers.
By
a consequential and not less paradoxical transference of nomenclature, 'the Scottish language' came to mean the English dialect
spoken in Lothian, the ci-devant march of the English principality
of Northumbria, instead of meaning the Gaelic dialect spoken by
the original Scots who had first brought the Scottish name into
Britain in a migration from the north-west corner of Ireland to
Argyll during the post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung.
Thus the ultimate result of the conquest of Lothian by the Scots
1
This traditional etymology is challenged by
Oxford 1932, University Press), p. 13.

J.

A. Duke in The Columban Church

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

192

and Picts was not to set back the north-western boundary of

Western Christendom from the Forth to the Tweed but to push the
boundary forward until it embraced the whole north-western
corner of the mainland of Britain. The new Kingdom of Scotland,
which was brought into existence by the union of Lothian with the
domain of the Scots and Picts in the Highlands, took the impress
of the Western Christian culture which Lothian contributed to the
common stock of the new Scottish body politic. Scotland became
a member of the Western instead of the Far Western Christian
Society; so that the conquest of Lothian by the Scots and Picts,
which had first had all the appearance of being a redistribution of
territory between Western and Far Western Christendom to the
advantage of the latter at the former's expense, was actually turned
to the advantage of Western Christendom by the triumphant
response which Lothian made to the challenge thus presented to
her.
In virtue of this response, her transfer from English to
Scottish rule ultimately caused Western Christendom to increase
and Far Western Christendom to decrease on this sector of their
frontier in the British Isles. 1

Thus

a conquered fragment of one of the principalities of the

English 'Heptarchy* actually became the nucleus of one of the
two commonwealths which have now come to divide between them
the whole of Britain and to constitute by their union the present

United Kingdom.

This was an extraordinary feat; and it is

pertinent to observe, once again, that the fragment of Northumbria
1

The

political

union which brought the medieval and modern'Kingdom of Scotland

into existence towards the beginning of the eleventh century of the Christian Era has
several points of symmetry with the union which brought into existence the Danubian
Hapsburg Monarchy five centuries later. In the Scottish instance, Lothian plays the
part that is played in the Danubian instance by Austria. Though it is the smallest of
the component members of the union in mere territorial extent, it manages to dominate
the rest by its superiority in culture and in political ability. Again, Edinburgh corresponds to Vienna. Either city finds its destiny in being the capital of a union between
two states after having started life as the frontier-fortress of one of the two states against
the other: Vienna as the frontier-fortress of Austria (or rather Bavaria) against Hungary,
Edinburgh as the frontier-fortress of Lothian (or rather Northumbria) against the Picts.
The symmetry extends even further, for the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy sprang
from the union not of two states but of three, and so did the Kingdom of Scotland
likewise. If Lothian is the analogue of Austria and if the country of the Picts and Scots,
north of the Forth-Clyde line, is the analogue of Hungary, we find that Bohemia has its
counterpart in Strathclyde, By comparison with these substantial correspondences, it is
not a material point of difference that the dynasty which brought about the Danubian
union originated in Austria, whereas the dynasty which brought about the North British

union originated not

but in the domain of the
in^Lothian the analogue of Austria
and Scots, which is the analogue of Hungary. It was only an accident that the
Danubian Monarchy was not brought into existence by the Hungarian conquest of
Austria in A.D. 1485. If Matthias Corvinus's anticipation of Ferdinand
Hapsburg's
achievement had lasted not merely half a dozen yeais but four centuries
as it well might
have lasted
and had so precluded an Austrian ruler from performing the achievement
with enduring success forty years later, as it was actually performed by Ferdinand, then
the Danubian Monarchy would have come to be known as 'the
Hungarian Empire* and
not as *the Austrian Empire*. In that event, the symmetry between the
political structures of the Danubian Monarchy and the Kingdom of Scotland would have been comPicts

plete

down

to the very nomenclature.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

193

which performed this feat was the inarch between Forth and Tweed
and not the interior between Tweed or Tyne or Tees and Humber.
If some enlightened traveller from
Constantinople or Cordova
had visited Northumbria in the tenth or eleventh century of the
Christian Era, on the eve of the cession of Lothian to the Scots and
Picts, he would assuredly have pronounced that Lothian had no
future, and that, if any Northumbrian town was to become the
capital of a great country, the town marked out for this destiny was
not Edinburgh but York. Here was a city situated at the midpoint of the largest and richest arable plain that was to be found
in the whole northern half of the island of Britain a city which had
once been a point d'appui of the Roman Empire and had now
become a point d'appui of the Roman Church. Already, for a
moment at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries, York had
bade fair to become the capital of a great kingdom not indeed,
as a state-member of Western Christendom, but as an important
;

structural element in the rising edifice of the Scandinavian World

which was then threatening to drive Western Christendom to the

wall and to usurp its place. 1 Yet this Scandinavian Kingdom of

York rose and fell as swiftly as some solid-seeming mountain of
thick-piled cloud which dissolves into wisps before the eyes of the
astonished gazer. By the year A.D. 920, the Danish Kingdom of
York, as well as the surviving remnant of English Northumbria
north of Tees, had submitted to the suzerainty of the English King
of Wessex; and, through all the subsequent vicissitudes of Danish

and Norman conquest, Yorkshire came to be welded more and

more

new Kingdom of England.

of Yorkshire among the counties of

closely into the fabric of the

Nothing but the abnormal size

England and Scotland to-day remains to recall the fact that York
once aspired to be the capital not of a county but of a kingdom.
This aspiration came to naught in the collapse of the abortive
Scandinavian Civilization which had momentarily translated it into
a reality. In A.D. 920, when King Ragnvald of York acknowledged
the suzerainty of King Edward of Wessex, York lost her prospect of becoming the capital of a kingdom thirty-five years before
Edinburgh was assured of this prospect through being conquered
from her Northumbrian founders by the Picts and Scots in
A.D. 955.

The Northumbrian

which came nearest to emulating Edinburgh's political eminence was not York but Durham; and Durham became eminent by inheriting from Lothian the role of
city

northern march against the Scots after the incorporation of Lothian

For the conflict
Civilization, see II.
*

II

between Western Christendom and the abortive Scandinavian

(vii),

pp. 340-60, below.

194

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

As the county palatine of the medieval Kingdom

England vis-a-vis the medieval Kingdom of Scotland, Durham

itself into

of

Scotland.

acquired something of the status of an independent state and her

prince-bishop some of the attributes of a sovereign.

In the Western World over against Scandinavia

In the foregoing analysis of the differentiation between the
respective fortunes of several parts of the early English principality
of Northumbria, we have just had occasion to notice certain incidents in the Scandinavian impact upon Western Christendom.
This Scandinavian impact was the other external pressure, over
and above the pressure from the Far Western Christians of 'the
Celtic fringe', which went to the making of the Kingdom of Scotland ; and it also went to the making of the kingdoms of England

and France

likewise.

In the making of Scotland, the union between Lothian and the

domain of the Picts and Scots was not the first stage. By the time
when the Picts and Scots conquered Lothian, they were already
united with one another; but this union was not of old standing. Before the Volkerwanderung that followed the break-up of
the Roman Empire, the Picts had had the northern extremity of
Britain to themselves. During the Volkerwanderung the Scots had

migrated across the sea from Ireland and had settled in Argyll
on Pictish ground. 1 The hostility between
the two peoples had only given place to a friendly political union
between them in A.D. 843. What was the cause of this remarkable
as hostile intruders

change in their relations ? The date speaks for itself. The PictoScottish union was effected one year after the first Viking raid on

London and two years before the first Viking raid on Paris ; and
while some of the Scandinavian sea-raiders were sailing down the
North Sea into the English Channel, others had been finding their
way round the north-west coasts of Britain into Ireland. Thus the
date of the Picto-Scottish union seems to tell its own tale ; and we
may hazard the conjecture that the two peoples who before the
advent of the Vikings had been contending with one another for
possession of the northern extremity of Britain, now brought themselves to compose their feud and unite their forces in
response to
the challenge of this formidable new pressure which had suddenly
descended upon both alike from Scandinavia.
If this conjecture is right, the genesis of the
Kingdom of Scotland may be expressed in terms of the responses to two successive
challenges: first, a Picto-Scottish response to a Scandinavian
challenge, and, second, a response on the part of the Northumbrian
1

See

II.

(m), p. 86, above, and II.

(vii),

pp. 323-4, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

195

frontiersmen in the march of Lothian to a challenge from the

united Picts and Scots.
In the genesis of the Kingdom of England we can discern the
operation of responses to the same two challenges, but we find that
the challenges were delivered here in the inverse chronological
order.
In this case, the first pressure corresponding chronologically to the impact of the Scandinavians upon the Picts and
Scots
was the pressure of certain sections of 'the Celtic Fringe'
upon the English principalities of 'the Heptarchy'; the second
pressure
corresponding chronologically to the Picto-Scottish conwas the impact of the Scandinavians upon the
quest of Lothian
two English principalities which had previously marked themselves
out as the two alternative candidates for the hegemony of Southern
Britain by their respective responses to the challenge of Celtic
pressure upon the western borders of the English settlements in the
island.

Just as, in North Britain, it was not Yorkshire in the interior of the
principality of Northumbria but Lothian on the local border of
'the Celtic Fringe' that became the nucleus of an enduring kingdom, so, in South Britain, this destiny did not await the principality of Kent, in the corner of the island which lay nearest to
the focus of the Western Christian Civilization on the Continent,
nor again the principality of Essex, just across the estuary of the

Thames. Thanks to its geographical situation, Kent did indeed

become the first point d'appui of the Roman Church in Britain, as
York became the second. Yet the very geographical circumstances
which told in favour of Canterbury and York becoming archbishops' sees at the same time militated against their becoming the

On

the political plane, Canterbury never

capitals of kingdoms.
than
more
the capital of the principality of
be
rose to
anything
Kent. Political power in South Britain accrued not to Kent and

Essex in the

interior, at the point of junction

between the insular

outpost of Western Christendom and its continental main body,

but to Mercia and Wessex, the two English principalities which
were 'up against* the two southerly sectors of 'the Celtic Fringe' on
the main island of the British Archipelago.
Moreover, the relative strength of Mercia and Wessex, in the
first phase of their histories, showed itself proportionate to the
relative strength of the external pressure from 'the Celtic Fringe' to
which these two English principalities were subject. The pressure
exerted upon Mercia from Wales was stronger than that exerted
upon Wessex from the Welsh communities south of the Bristol
Channel. Though the resistance of these 'West Welsh' to the
English invaders has left an undying echo in the legend of King

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

196

Arthur, this resistance seems nevertheless to have been overcome,

with comparative ease and rapidity. The Arthurian legend ends on
a note of heroic disaster; and the front line of the 'West Welsh'
defences, which the legend locates in the neighbourhood of Glastonbury, was driven back by the founders of the English border
principality of Wessex, advancing up the Valley of the River
Thames, from the western watershed of the Thames to the distant
line of the River Tamar which now constitutes the boundary
between the counties of Devon and Cornwall. Confined, as they
thus were, to a by no means impregnable patch of territory in the
extreme south-western corner of the island, the 'West Welsh*
ceased to be formidable to the English principality of Wessex,
whereas the Welsh of Wales, from their relatively extensive and
defensible mountain fastnesses, continued to press upon the
western frontier of the adjoining English principality of Mercia.
The severity of this pressure is attested philologically by the

name Mercia itself ('The March* par excellence) and archaeologically by the vestiges of the great earthwork called 'Offa's Dyke*
which once covered the Welsh frontier of Mercia from the estuary
of the Severn to the estuary of the Dee and the military and
;

political energy generated in Mercia, in response to this external

pressure, enabled this same Mercian King Offa, when he turned
his arms from the frontier towards the interior, to come within an
ace of establishing a Mercian hegemony over South Britain. At the

time

from

when Mercia was

stimulated, by her reaction to the pressure

Wales, into indulging these great ambitions, Wessex was

prompted, by the

powerful stimulus from her 'West Welsh*

frontier,
achieve, in the interior, the less ambitious feat of
Kent
and Essex into her body politic. Thus, in the
absorbing
eighth century of the Christian Era, it looked as though Mercia
rather than Wessex were marked out, by the greater
energy of her
less

to

response to the pressure from 'the Celtic Fringe*, as the destined

nucleus of a future Kingdom of England. In the ninth
century,
however, when the challenge from 'the Celtic Fringe* was eclipsed
by the challenge from Scandinavia, these prospects were falsified.
In face of this new challenge, Mercia forfeited her
prospects of
1
to
this
while
greatness by failing
time,
Wessex, under the
respond
leadership and inspiration of Alfred, responded triumphantly and
thereby became the nucleus of the historic Kingdom of England as
it exists at the
present day.
The Scandinavian pressure upon the Oceanic (as contrasted with
the Mediterranean) seaboards of Western Christendom evoked
1

Before the close of the eighth century, Mercia had sapped her
(see Part IV, below).

succumbing to the malady of Militarism

own

strength

by

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

197

responses which resulted not only in the coalescence of the Kingdom of England out of the insular 'Heptarchy', but also in the
articulation of the Kingdom of France out of the continental mass
of Western Christendom which had once been embraced in
Charlemagne's Empire.
We have already observed that, in the tenth century, 'the Holy
Roman Empire* passed from the Carolingian Dynasty to the Ottonids and we have explained 1 this transfer of
power by the circum;

stance that, as a result of Charlemagne's conquest of

Saxony, the
stimulus of serving as the march of Western Christendom against
the continental European barbarians had been inherited
by con-

We

quered Saxony from her conqueror Austrasia.

may now consider the notorious historical fact that, when the Ottonids succeeded
the Carolingians in the Imperial office, they did not enter into the

whole of the Carolingian territorial inheritance. Of the three portions into which the Carolingian dominions had been
partitioned in
A.D. 843,2 only the eastern and the central
portion were reunited,
rather more than a century later, under the rule of Otto I
(imperabat A.D. 962~73). 3 In the western portion, the Carolingians were
succeeded, not by the Ottonids but by the Capetians (in A.D. 987) 4
and this change of dynasty was the outward visible sign of an inward psychological change which was the genesis of Trance* in the
present meaning of the name. The West Prankish crown became
the French crown when it was transferred from the head of the last
Carolingian at Laon to Hugh Capet's head at Rheims. Out of the
old undifferentiated substance of the Carolingian Empire there had
emerged, in the west, a new kingdom which thenceforward was not
;

only recognized juridically as being independent of the Holy Roman

Empire' but was also felt to be a distinct body politic, within the
larger but more rudimentary body social of Western Christendom,
in the consciousness of the French people themselves. In fact, the
birth of France in the tenth century of the Christian Era was the
and has ever remained one of the most definite
first
of those
inner geographical articulations of our Western Society which in
our day have been carried to extremes in the name of 'the principle
of nationality'.
Why was it that, when 'the Holy Roman Empire' was rescued
from disintegration by the Ottonids, it failed to reunite the western
portion of the Carolingian Empire with the central and the eastern
a See I. B
See pp. 167-8, above.
(iv), vol. i, p. 37, above.
Otto became German king (i.e. ruler of the easternmost of the three portions into
which the hentage of Charlemagne had been partitioned in A.D. 843) in A.D. 936, twentysix years before he assumed the Imperial title. The claim, implicit in this assumption, to
sovereignty over the entire Carolingian heritage was never, of course, made good either
by Otto or by his successors.
* The date of Hugh Capet's coronation at Rheims*
1

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

We have remarked above that the defence
portion under its aegis
1

98

and extension of the continental European frontiers of Western

Christendom was the original function of 'the Holy Roman Empire*
and continued to be its function in face of diverse pressures from
barbarians and from alien civilizations
through all its subsequent
from 'the Empire'
Thus
the
of
France
secession
metamorphoses.
was not due to any failure, on 'the Empire's' part, to perform its

The emergence of the Kingdom of France, like

that of the Kingdom of England, in the tenth century is rather to be
explained as the response to a new external pressure upon a different
own

special duty.

frontier of Western Christendom : the Scandinavian pressure upon

the Atlantic seaboards. From the continental pressures which it

Holy Roman Empire's' task to meet, Britain was exempt by

nature and Gaul by circumstance after Charlemagne had carried
the continental frontier of Western Christendom forward from the
right bank of the Rhine to the left bank of the Elbe. On the other
hand, the impact of the Vikings subjected Western Christendom to
a maritime pressure from which the central and eastern portions of
the Carolingian dominions were exempt, but which fell with its full
weight upon the western portion that is, upon Western Gaul
was

'the

together with Britain.

The

France and 'the Empire'

line of the original frontier between

a frontier which bisected ancient Gaul

longitudinally from the mouth of the Scheldt to the mouth of

the Rhone
is explicable as the line along which, in the ninth
and tenth centuries of the Christian Era, there was a substantial
equilibrium between two simultaneous external pressures. East of
this line, the continental pressure from Slavs and Nomads was still
felt more severely than any other, while west of the same line this
continental pressure was exceeded by the maritime pressure from
the Vikings
a pressure which overbore all others in its zone of
heaviest incidence within range of the Atlantic coast and up the
navigable channels of the rivers which gave the Viking ships an
entry from the coast into the interior.
The local responses to the maritime challenge from Scandinavia
which were made by the Western Christian Society on the Atlantic
slope of the European Continent and in the British Archipelago
were literally the making of France and England as we know them
1
These responses not only brought the two kingdoms into
to-day.
1 In the
subsequent course of Western history, the making of France and England
was completed by the mutual pressure which the two kingdoms exerted in turn upon
one another. In particular, the grinding pressure to which France was subjected by England in the last phase of 'the Hundred Years' War* evoked the tremendous French
response which was inspired by and incarnated in Joan of Arc. The military energy
generated by this French reaction against English aggression was so powerful that, after
it had driven the English into the sea, sufficient
impetus remained to carry French arms
in the opposite direction
right over the Alps and down the Italian Peninsula before
the close of the fifteenth century. The work which the Vikings had begun and the

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

199

existence but determined their centres of

gravity
their historic capitals. The Kingdom of

and assigned them

England coalesced, not

round Mercia, which failed to respond to the Scandinavian challenge, but round Wessex, which rose to the occasion. The old
capital of Wessex, however, did not become the capital of the new
English Kingdom; for Winchester, which had once lain within
range of the frontier of Wessex over against the 'West Welsh', did
not lie in the principal danger-zone in the struggle between the
English and the Danes. In the Danish ordeal, Winchester enjoyed
a comparative security for which it had afterwards to
pay by an
irreparable loss of prestige and power. When Wessex had mastered
the Danes and had grown into England in the process of
performing
the feat, the capital of the new kingdom soon
passed from Winchester, in the inglorious interior, to London, the city which had
borne the heat and burden of the day and which had perhaps given
the long battle its decisive turn in A.D. 895 by repelling the
attempt
of a Danish Armada to ascend the Thames. Similarly, the
Kingdom of France found its centre of gravity, not in Provence or
Languedoc, whose Mediterranean coastline was rarely visited by
Viking raiders, but in the Langue d'Oil, which felt the full force of
the storm from Scandinavia. Again, within the area of the Langue
a city set
d'Oil, the capital passed away from Carolingian Laon
a
hill
safely on
overlooking the sources of the Oise, far above the
highest point up to which the river was navigable for Viking craft.
The inevitable capital of the new French Kingdom was Paris in the
lie de France, a city which had stood in the breach and had brought
the Vikings to a halt in their ascent of the Seine as London had
1
brought them to a halt in their ascent of the Thames.
Thus the response of Western Christendom to the Scandinavian
maritime challenge manifested itself in a new Kingdom of France
with its capital at Paris, as well as in a new Kingdom of England
with its capital at London and at the same time it is to be observed
;

new

power on the face of the

political map, imposing though they are, do not reveal the actual
vigour and versatility of the response in its full measure. In order
to take its measure, we must add that, in the process of gaining the
upper hand over their Scandinavian adversaries, the French and
English peoples forged the potent military and social instrument of
the Feudal System, and that they also gave aesthetic expression to
that these manifestations of

creative

the emotional experience of the ordeal in national epics.

English King Henry V continued was consummated by all the neighbours of France in
unison when they fell upon Revolutionary France in 1792, and provoked an eruption of
national energy which astonished the World.
1
For details of the rise of Paris and London through their heroic responses to the
Scandinavian challenge, see the Annex to the present chapter, pp. 400-1, below,

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

200

The

English national Epic is represented by one notable work of

art the Lay of the Battle of Maldon. The French Epic, which is
represented by the Chanson de Roland and the other Chansons de
Geste, is the stem from which has sprung the mighty tree of our
Western vernacular literature a literature which has branched into
an infinite variety of genres and which has learnt to operate with as
*
many tongues as there are living languages in Western Christendom.
With regard to the origins of the Feudal System, it will suffice
to quote the following account of its emergence in England, before
the Norman Conquest, from the work of a scholar who is one of the
acknowledged masters of the subject:
:

became impossible to perform the ordinaryjfyrrf service, in frequent

expeditions and in proper equipment, on the basis of a tenement of one
hide, without help from outside. The coat of mail and the horse acquired
more and more value from a military point of view one as a means of defence in the hard struggles with the Danes, the other as a means of quick
locomotion. Well-forged helmets and swords were scarce and very
expensive. Altogether, the difference between a well-armed warrior and
a militiaman grew more and more important. This led ultimately to the
formation of a professional force of knights and sergeants-at-arms.
'The outfit of 1066 was more elaborate and costly than that of 800.
Although horses were employed in Charlemagne's armies, especially in
his scarae or picked troops, the decisive turn towards horsemanship was
taken in the Danish wars, when the "horsed" Vikings had to be caught
up and pursued by riding divisions, and the five-hide unit probably
included provision for one or two horses.
The social foundation of
the old army establishment
the status of the small free householder,
on
the
with
a hide
was entirely inadequate to meet
provided
average
the altered requirements of the art of war and of military organisation,
A unit five times as large grew up as the natural basis for the man-at-arms
in the national array of the tenth and eleventh centuries.
One might say
with
some
caution
that
the
more ancient
using political expressions
democratic arrangement had to be replaced by an aristocratic one.' 2
'It

1
The author of the Lay of Maldon has derived his technique and style from the
tradition of Beowulf, but his inspiration has quite a different source and character. The
older epic poetry in the English tongue was inspired by the experience of barbarians who
were overrunning the Roman Empire in the Volkerwanderung which occupied the
interregnum between the submergence of the Hellenic Civilization and the emergence of
the 'affiliated* Western Civilisation. The Lay of Maldon is part of a
response which was
made by this Western Civilization, after its emergence, to one of the first great challenges

with which it was confronted. Whereas Beowulf is an expression of barbarism on the

war-path, the Lay of Maldon is the expression of a civilization fighting for its life. Thus,
genetically, the true affinity of the Lay of Maldon is not with the previous English epic
poetry but with the contemporary French epic poetry which was evoked in an adjoining
province of Western Christendom by the same ordeal of the impact of the Vikings. The
Lay of Maldon and the Chansons de Geste, between them, are the outcome, in the artistic
sphere, of the collision between Western Christendom and the abortive Scandinavian
Civilization in one of the two opposing camps. In the other
camp, the outcome in the
same sphere is the Icelandic Saga. (For the part played in the genesis of the Icelandic
Saga by the stimulus of transmarine migration, see II.
(iii), pp. 86-100, above.)
*
Vinogradoff, Paul: English Society in the Eleventh Century (Oxford 1908, Clarendon
Press), pp. 30 and 34.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

Thus the Feudal System,

like the

201

Lay ofMaldon and the Chanson

de Roland, and like the kingdoms of England and France with their
new capitals in London and Paris, was an outcome of the reaction
of Western Christendom to Scandinavian pressure upon her Atlan-

seaboards and these manifold creations testify to the versatility

and the vigour of the Western response which the Scandinavian
challenge evoked. The most cogent testimony of all is afforded by
the actual outcome of the collision between Western Christendom
and its Scandinavian adversaries. Western Christendom success-

tic

defended herself, by force of arms, against the first fury of the

Scandinavian onslaught which had threatened to overwhelm her
she then passed over to the offensive by rapidly converting to her
fully

and culture the invaders who had made a forcible lodgement on her soil in the Danelaw and in Normandy and she reaped
the fruits of this moral victory when she sent forth the converted
Normans, as her knights errant, to fight in her service not less
valiantly, and at the same time far more effectively, than their pagan
ancestors had fought against her.
Little more than a century after Rollo and his companions had
made with Charles the Simple the pact which secured them a
permanent settlement on the Atlantic seaboard of France as newly
initiated members of the Western Christian fraternity, their descendants were extending the bounds of Western Christendom in the
Mediterranean at the expense of Orthodox Christendom and Islam,
and were spreading the full light of the Western Civilization, as it
now shone on the Continent in France, into the insular kingdoms
of England and Scotland which still lay in the penumbra. Physiologically, the Norman Conquest of England might perhaps be
regarded as the final achievement of an enterprise which adventurers of Scandinavian blood had been perpetually striving to
accomplish for more than two centuries. From the cultural standpoint, however, this interpretation of the Norman Conquest makes
nonsense for the Normans came to England in the eleventh century
on a mission which was the very contrary of the Danish mission in
religion

the ninth century. The Normans repudiated their Scandinavian

pagan past by coming, not to destroy the law of Western Christendom in England, but to fulfil it. On the field of Senlac, when the
Norman warrior-minstrel Taillefer rode singing into battle in the
van of the Norman knights, the language on his lips was not Norse
but French, and the matter of which he was inditing was not the
tale of Sigurd but the tale of Roland. When the Western Christian
Civilization had thus captivated the Scandinavian invaders of its
own domain, it is no wonder that it was able to set the seal upon its
in
victory by supplanting the abortive Scandinavian Civilization

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

202

Scandinavia itself and in the uttermost parts of the Earth to which

Scandinavian seafarers had penetrated. We shall have occasion to
examine this impact of the Western Christian Civilization upon
Scandinavia and Iceland and Greenland at a later point in this
volume, when we shall be considering the collision between
Christendom and the abortive Scandinavian Civilization from the
Scandinavian standpoint. 1

In the Western World over against the Syriac World in the Iberian
Peninsula

The

of Western Christendom that calls for consideration here is the land-frontier in the Iberian Peninsula vis-avis the Syriac Society in its latest phase
a phase which began when
the Arabs reintegrated the Syriac universal state in the seventh
century of the Christian Era. In the history of this frontier there
are two outstanding features. In the first place, Western Christendom came under pressure from an alien civilization at a far earlier
stage in this quarter than in any other. In- the second place, the
Powers which came into being, in response to this pressure, on the
Iberian marches of Western Christendom eventually came to play
a leading role, which was all their own, in the propagation of the
last frontier

Western

Civilization.

of these two points, we have seen that on the

North European continental land-frontier Western Christendom
was confronted at the outset solely by barbarians. In that quarter,
the Western World did not become subject to pressure from the
main body of Orthodox Christendom before the Ottoman impact
2
upon Hungary in the fifteenth century of the Christian Era, while
it was not until the sixteenth
century that the Russian offshoot of
Orthodox Christendom exerted pressure upon the West in the form
of a Muscovite impact upon Lithuania. 3 On the other hand, on the
Iberian land-frontier, Western Christendom found itself under
pressure from the Syriac Civilization at the dawn of Western his-

As

regards the

first

Indeed, this Syriac menace to the existence of Western

Christendom in its infancy was still more formidable than the
contemporary menace from the North European barbarians ; 4 and
our Western Society was awakened to its first glimmer of selfconsciousness by the ordeal of wrestling simultaneously with these
two deadly foes like the infant HSraklSs when he rose in his cradle
to wrestle with the two serpents that had been sent by a malevolent
tory.

See II. D (vii), pp. 340-60, below.

3 See
See pp. 177-9, above.
pp. 175-6, above.
4 See the
passage cited in I. B (in), vol. i, p. 30, footnote i, above, from Edward
Gibbon The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch, xlii.
i

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

203

goddess to take his life, and saved himself alive by strangling both
monsters, each single-handed.
The Arab onslaught upon the infant civilization of the West was
an incident in the final Syriac reaction against the long Hellenic
intrusion upon the Syriac domain; for when the Arabs, in the
strength of Islam, took up and completed the task which had
proved to be beyond the strength of Zoroastrians and Jews and
Nestorians and Monophysites, they did not rest until they had
recovered for the Syriac Society the whole of its former domain at
its widest extension.
Not content with reconstituting as an Arab
Empire the Syriac universal state which had originally been embodied in the Persian Empire of the Achaemenidae, the Arabs went
on to reconquer the ancient Phoenician colonial domain in the
Western Mediterranean which, in the Achaemenian age, had been
welded into a unity of its own an overseas counterpart of the
Persian Empire
under the hegemony of Carthage. For a moment
in the eighth century of the Christian Era an Arab Caliph fulfilled
the ambition which a Persian King of Kings had found himself

unable to

fulfil

in the sixth century B.C. 1

The

last

Umayyad who

Damascus was

at least nominally master of the whole

compass of the Syriac World, from the farthest limits ever attained
by the Achaemenian Empire in the east to the farthest attained by

reigned at

the Carthaginian Empire in the west. 2 In the latter direction, the

Arab commanders had crossed not only the straits of Gibraltar but
the Pyrenees in the footsteps of Hannibal in A.D. 713 ; and thereafter, though they had not emulated their great Carthaginian predecessor's passage of the Rhone and the Alps, they had broken
ground which Hannibal never trod when they carried their arms
to the Loire in A.D. 732. At the Battle of Tours, the Arabs were
attacking Western Christendom in its cradle.
The discomfiture of the Arabs by the Franks on this occasion has
assuredly been one of the decisive events in history for the Western
;

According to Herodotus, Cambyses, after his conquest of Egypt, aspired to round

Achaemenian Empire in North Africa by conquering the Napatan Kingdom up
the Nile and the oases of the Libyan Desert and the Carthaginian Empire beyond the
Syrtes. Operations against Napata and the Oasis of Ammon -were actually attempted
1

off the

with disastrous results. Simultaneously, Cambyses 'ordered the fleet to sail against
Carthage; but the Phoenicians declined to carry the order out. They explained that they
were bound to the Carthaginians by solemn pledges, and that they would be committing
an atrocity; if they made war upon their own colonists. The Phoenicians* refusal was
decisive, since the remainder of the fleet by itself was no match for the Carthaginian
forces. Accordingly, the Carthaginians escaped the Persian yoke; for Cambyses shrank
from coercing the Phoenicians, who had become members of the Persian Empire of
their own free will and were the mainstay of the Persian Navy.' (Herodotus : Book III,
ch. 19.)

3 On the eastern
front, the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin was definitively incorporated into the
Arab Empire in the years A.D. 737-41 (see p. 141 with footnote 3 above) by Nasr, while on
the western front Musa had completed the Arab conquest of the Visigothic 'successorstate* of the Roman Empire as early as A.D. 713 by occupying the Transpyrenaean
province of Septimania along the Gallic coast between the Pyrenees and the Rhfine.
,

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

204

reaction to Syriac pressure which declared itself on the battle-field

of Tours in A.D. 732 continued in force and increased in momentum

some

eight centuries later, its impetus was

carrying the Portuguese vanguard of Western Christendom right
out of the Iberian Peninsula and onward overseas round Africa to

on

this front until,

Goa and Malacca and Macao, and

the Castilian vanguard onward

across the Atlantic to Mexico and thence across the Pacific to
Manila. 1 These Iberian pioneers of Western Christendom performed an unparalleled service for the civilization which they
represented. They expanded the horizon, and thereby potentially
the domain, of our Western Society from an obscure corner of
the Old World until it came to embrace all the habitable lands
and navigable seas on the surface of the planet. It is owing to
this Iberian energy and enterprise that Western Christendom has
2
grown, like the grain of mustard seed in the parable, until it has
become 'the Great Society* a tree in whose branches all the nations
of the Earth have come and lodged. This latter-day Westernized
World is the peculiar achievement of Western Christendom's
Iberian pioneers ; and the Western energy which performed this
feat was evoked and sustained and wrought up to its high intensity
by the challenge of Syriac pressure on the Iberian front.
:

The Portuguese and

Castilian seafarers

who made their

presence
throughout the World in the first century of our modern age
(circa A.D. 1475-1575) were the heirs of frontiersmen whose spirit
had been tempered by thirty generations of strenuous border
warfare against the Moors on the Iberian marches. On this frontier,
the Franks first turned back the tide of Arab conquest from the
heart of Gaul; thereafter, under Charlemagne's leadership, they
carried their counter-offensive to the Iberian side of the Pyrenees,
where they joined forces with the remnant of the Visigoths in the
felt

fastness of Asturia;

regnum

and

eventually, during the post-Syriac inter(circa A.D. 975-1375), when the Umayyad Caliphate in

Andalusia broke up, 3 these Christian barbarians of the Pyrenaean

hinterland contended victoriously for the possession of the Umayyads' peninsular heritage with the Muslim Berbers from the
opposite hinterlands in Africa the wild Murabit Nomads from the
Sahara and the still wilder Muwahhid highlanders from the Atlas.
The dependence of Iberian Christian energy upon the stimulus
administered by pressure from the Moors is demonstrated by the
fact that this
energy gave out as soon as the Moorish pressure
The expansion of Frankdom in this direction has been mentioned by anticipation in
:

I.

(iv), vol.

i,

p. 38, above.

Matthew

When the Umayyad

Mark iv. 31-2; Luke xiii. 19.

Caliphs who had ruled the whole Syriac World from Damascus
were overthrown in A D. 750 by the 'Abbasids, a branch of the Umayyad House succeeded
in establishing itself in Andalusia, where it ruled at Cordova from A.D.
755 to 1028.
xiii.

31-2;

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

205

ceased to be exerted. In the seventeenth century of the Christian

Era the Portuguese and Castilians were supplanted in the new
world which they had called into existence overseas by interlopers
from the Transpyrenaean parts of Western Christendom the
Dutch and the English and the French and this discomfiture
overseas coincided in date with the removal of the historic stimulus
at home through the extirpation (by massacre,
expulsion, or forcible
of
the
'Moriscos'
in
the
Peninsula.
conversion)
remaining
Again, if we look farther back, we shall observe that Portugal and
Castile were only two out of the three Christian 'successor-states'
of the Umayyad Caliphate which had divided the Iberian Peninsula
between them. Why did not Aragon take her part, side by side
with Castile and Portugal, in the vaster enterprises of discovery and
commerce and conquest on which the two sister kingdoms embarked at the turn of the fifteenth and the sixteenth century? In
the immediate past, during the later 'Middle Ages', Aragon had
played a more brilliant role than either Castile or Portugal in the
life of the Western Society. She had shared in the brilliance of the
North Italian city-states and had made certain original contributions of her own
in the fields of cartography and of international
law to the North Italian medieval culture. Why was it, then, that,
just when Portugal and Castile both entered upon the brilliant
phase of their careers, Aragon allowed herself to be dominated and
Castilian neighbour P 1 The explanation perhaps lies
in the fact that the stimulus of Moorish pressure had been lost by

effaced

by her

Aragon several centuries before it was lost by either of the other

two Peninsular kingdoms. In the days of da Gama and Columbus,
both Portugal and Castile were still serving as marches of Western
Christendom against the Moors. Castile then still marched in the
Peninsula with the surviving Moorish kingdom of Granada, while
Portugal marched with Morocco in her Tangerine province on the
African side of the Straits of Gibraltar; and the Portuguese and
Castilian exploits overseas, which began in that age, were simply
diversions, to a new and wider field, of energies which had hitherto
been employed assiduously against the Moors at home. On the
The Aragonese themselves submitted passively
who had been the active and progressive element in
1

to *Castilianization"; the Catalans,

the medieval Kingdom of Aragon,

kicked against the pricks. Yet this Catalan resistance to Castihan domination has been
feeble and ineffective compared with the Portuguese. The Crown of Portugal was united
with the Crown of Castile in A.D. 1581, only 102 years after the Catalans had been yoked
with the Castilians by the union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon which came about
in 1479 through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella ten years earlier. The sequels to
these two unions were very different. The Portuguese revolted against the Castilian yoke
in 1640 and compelled the Government at Madrid to recognize the independence of
Portugal in 1663. On the other hand, the Catalans failed in their belated attempt to
recover their independence from Madrid during the War of the Spanish Succession, with
the result that Catalonia disappeared altogether off the political map from the fall of
Barcelona in 1714 down to the Spanish Revolution of 1931.

206

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

other hand, Aragon had been relegated to the interior of Western

Christendom since A.D. 1235, when the overthrow of the Muwahhid
Berbers by the Iberian Christians at the Battle of Las Navas had
confined the Moors in the Peninsula to the Granadan enclave.
Since that time, Aragon had been insulated from the Moors on
land by the intervening Castilian province of Murcia, while in the
Mediterranean her Moorish warfare had been brought to an end
1
Thus
in A.D. 1229-32 by her conquest of the Balearic Islands.
the stimulus which was the common source of Iberian Christian
energies had ceased to play upon the Aragonese at least two-and-ahalf centuries before it ceased to play upon their Castilian and
2
Portuguese neighbours ; and this may partly explain why it was that
Aragon fell out of the running before the great opportunity of overseas expansion offered itself to the Peninsular Powers, while Castile
and Portugal did not finally succeed in cutting off the source of
their own energies by extirpating the 'Moriscos* in their midst until
the stimulus of Moorish pressure at home had carried the Portuguese and Castilian pioneers to the four corners of the World.
It will be seen that the relation of the Iberian marches of
Western Christendom to the Moors resembles the relation of the
Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy to the 'Osmanlis. 3 The Peninsular
Powers, likewise, had their raisons Hire in serving as marches of
the Western Society against an alien civilization and their energies
were responses to the pressure of this alien force. They were
vigorous just so long as this pressure was formidable, and as soon
as the pressure slackened they petered out.
;

In the Andean and Central American Worlds

We may conclude our present survey of the stimulus of pressures

by making the

historic passage

from the Iberian Peninsula to

'the

New World'. When

the Spaniards broke in upon the Andean and

Central American worlds in the sixteenth century of the Christian
Era, they found the Andean Society already in a universal state
and the Mexic Society on the point of falling into one. The
Andean universal state had been established by the Incas of Cuzco ;
1
This conquest was not, of course, the end of Aragonese enterprise in the Mediterranean ; for the Balearic Isknds were stepping-stones to Sardinia and the Two Sicilies, and
these to Greece; and, by the beginning of the fourteenth century, Catalan adventurers
were harrying both their Latin predecessors and these predecessors' Greek victims on the
shores of the Aegean. Yet these latter-day Catalan filibustering expeditions into the
Levant were no substitute for the ancient border warfare with the Moors at close quarters
The Catalan victories in the fourteenth century over Greek East Roman Emperors and
Burgundian Dukes of Athens were as facile, and therefore as barren of stimulus, as the
Castilian victories in the sixteenth century over Aztecs and Incas.
* Some
part of the explanation evidently lies in the fact that Aragon, alone of the
three fifteenth-century Peninsular kingdoms, possessed no seaboard on the Atlantic, and
was thus at the same disadvantage as Columbus's native city of Genoa for participating
in the exploitation of a Transatlantic New World.
3 For this
relation, see pp. 177-90, above.
.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

207

the Central American universal state was being established by the

Aztecs of Tenochtitlan. To what did Cuzco and Tenochtitlan owe
their imperial greatness? Or, to ask the same
question, in regard
to the Andean World, in other terms Why was it that the Andean
universal state found its nucleus on a previously obscure corner of
the Andean Plateau, in the upper valley of the River Urubamba,
and not in the Basin of Lake Titicaca, where the earliest and greatest
development of civilization on the plateau has left its monument
in the ruins of Tiahuanaco ? Or, for that matter, why did not
the Andean universal state find its nucleus somewhere within the
original home of the Andean Civilization among the oases of the
Pacific coast-land?
In the light of our foregoing survey, the answer to these questions
becomes apparent when we notice the geographical fact that Cuzco
in the Andean and Tenochtitlan in the Central American World
were situated, like Rome and Macedonia in the Hellenic World, 1 in
marches which were exposed to external pressure from formidable
barbarians. Cuzco guarded the gate of the Andean World against
the wild tribes of the Amazonian tropical forest; Tenochtitlan
similarly guarded the gate of the Central American World against
the Chichimecs the vagrant hunting tribes of the North American
arid zone, whence the Aztecs themselves were recent immigrants.
Tenochtitlan always remained within close range of the northern
frontier of the Central American Society over against the Chichimecs, and Cuzco within close range of the north-eastern frontier of
the Andean Society over against the Amazonian savages, even when
the conquests of the Aztecs in the interior of the Central American
World and the conquests of the Incas in the interior of the Andean
World had reached their greatest respective extents. This extreme
difference in the range of Aztec and Inca expansion towards the
outer darkness in the one direction and towards the interior of
their own worlds in the other might seem at first sight to call for
explanation; but reflexion shows that, on the contrary, this permanent proximity of both the Inca and the Aztec capital to a
dangerous barbarian frontier, so far from requiring to be explained,
itself explains why it was that the Andean and the Central American universal state actually grew out of precisely these two nuclei.
It was the stimulus of perpetual reaction to external pressure that
evoked in the Aztecs and in the Incas alike the energy which was
required in order to perform a great feat of political construction
:

at

home.

Why did not either Tlaxcala or Cholula, rather than Tenochtitlan,

become the nucleus of the
1

incipient Central

See pp. 160-1, above.

American universal

208

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

of the interior lacked the stimulus of

external pressure from the Chichimecs of the outer darkness
a stimulus which never ceased to act upon Tenochtitlan on the
frontier. And why did the Collas of the Titicaca Basin go down
before the Incas of the Urubamba Valley in that trial of strength
between two neighbouring Andean highland confederacies which
was the beginning of the Incas' imperial career? The answer to
this latter question may be given in terms of physical geography.
'Cuzco, the ancient capital of Ttahua-ntin-suyu, the Land of the
Four Sections, otherwise the Inca Empire, lies in the drainage of
The small torrential streams that
the Amazon river-system.
flow through Cuzco pour themselves into the Urubamba, which is
a tributary of the Ucayali, which in turn empties into the Maraiion,
1
In other words, the physiojust as that does into the Amazon.'
graphy of the Inca section of the frontier between the Andean
state?

Because these

cities

and an Amazonian barbarism

Civilization

invited barbarian incursions into the

facilitated

Andean domain and

and even
therefore

kept the Andean wardens of the marches in this sector for ever on
the qui woe. On the other hand, the Collao, in the Basin of Lake
Titicaca, was safely insulated from the Amazonian savages by those
'snow-clad peaks of the Eastern Cordillera
Sorata, HuaynaPotosi,
and Illampu' which 'bite into the sky with glittering white teeth' 2
on the horizon that unfolds itself before the gaze of the visitor to
Tiahuanaco. The grimness of the physical environment in this

rough country, from which the ancient builders of Tiahuanaco had

3
perhaps derived their stimulus, may have been the undoing of their
not because it presented the
latter-day successors the Collas
Collas, any more than their local predecessors, with a physical
challenge beyond their strength, but, on the contrary, because it
shielded them from a stimulating human pressure to which their
neighbours and contemporaries, the Incas, were exposed. The
absence of this potent human stimulus in the Collao may have been
the handicap which brought defeat upon the Collas when they had
to meet the Incas in battle.

VI.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

The Nature of

the Stimulus

We have now concluded our survey of the stimulus of the human

environment when it takes the form of continuous external pressure.
Let us next examine its effect when it takes the form of social
penalization.
1
Means, P. A. : Ancient
2

Means, op.

cit.,

Civilisations of the

Andes (New York 1931, Scribner), p. 17.

p. 130.

3 See the fuller

quotation
p. 333, above.

from Means, op.

cit., loc.

cit.,

in II.

(ii) (V)

2> vol.

i,

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

The

nature of this effect

phenomena and

209

may be indicated by an analogy between

well-known fact that when

is penalized,
by comparison with other representatives of its species, through losing the use of a
particular organ or
it
is
to
to
this
faculty,
apt
respond
challenge by specializing in the
use of some other organ or faculty until it has secured an advantage
over its fellows in this second field of activity to offset its handicap
social

physical.

It is a

a living organism

in the

The

blind, for example, are apt to develop a more

is usually possessed
by people who
have not been deprived of the normal human sense of sight ; and
this enhancement of one faculty to offset the
atrophy of another
seems to occur in some degree universally and as it were sponfirst.

delicate sense of

touch than

taneously, apart from the special cases in which individuals of

eminent character a Rowland Hunt or a Helen Keller are stimulated by their personal physical handicap into making some deliberate and sustained effort of will and ingenuity. J Somewhat similarly,
we find that, in a body social, any section or group or class which is

by accident or by its own act or by the

of other members of the society in which it lives
is apt to

socially penalized

act

either

respond to the challenge of being handicapped in, or altogether

excluded from, certain fields of social activity by concentrating its
social energies upon other fields and excelling in these.
We may remind ourselves, once again, of our simile of 'the
2
The more ruthless the execution that is done
pollarded willow'.
by the pruner among the shoots that he finds sprouting in springtime out of the willow's head, the more abundant will be the
vitality that the tree will concentrate into the shoots which are
spared, and the more vigorous, therefore, will be the growth of
these surviving shoots in the course of the season.
may find an alternative simile, within the social sphere, in a
famous incident in the history of the Hellenic Society. When the
rising religion of the internal proletariat of the Hellenic World in
its universal state was persecuted by the dominant minority, the
Roman Imperial authorities were able to suppress the public practice of Christianity, but they failed to suppress Christianity itself:
they merely drove it underground. The prohibition of Christian
worship on the surface of pagan Rome stimulated the Christians
to create for themselves a new Christian Rome in the Catacombs
below the surface of the Campagna; and the City of the Catacombs

We

I Such
purposive efforts are apt to carry those -who make them to greater achievements
than are accomplished by ordinary people who are in full possession of all their faculties,
and perhaps even to greater achievements than the afflicted persons themselves -would
actually have accomplished if the challenge of physical penalization had not evoked in
them a spiritual response that made the utmost demands upon their moral and intel-

lectual as well as their physical energies.

* See I.
(lii) (6), vol. i, p. 168, above.

II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

zio

eventually triumphed over the City of the Seven Hills. The Church
rose again from the bowels of the earth in order to raise in the City
of the Vatican a dome which towers at this day above the Capitol ; x
and the early Latin peasant, who responded to the challenge of

environment by breaking in the intractable surface

of the Campagna with his plough, 2 was emulated by the latterday Christian denizen of the Roman slums, who responded to the
challenge from his human environment by visiting the Campagna
his physical

in the secrecy of the night-watches in order to carve a labyrinthine

subterranean world of his own out of the solid tufa. The monu-

ment of the Latin peasant's feat is the Roman Empire; the monument of the Christian proletarian's feat is the Roman Catholic
Church.
In surveying the effects of the stimulus of social penalizations, it
may be convenient to start with the simplest case a situation in
:

which certain physical handicaps inhibit the individuals who are

subject to them from following the ordinary avocations of the
society in which they live. Let us remind ourselves, for example,
of the predicament in which a blind man or a lame man finds himself in a barbarian society when the ordinary male member of
a situation which is apt to arise in 'the external
society is a warrior
proletariat' on the fringe of a decadent civilization on the eve of a
3
How does the lame barbarian react ? Though
Volkerwanderung.
his feet cannot carry

him

into battle in the

company of his

fellows,

hands can forge weapons and armour for other men to wield and
wear and therefore, since he cannot use all his limbs to good effect
in the normal activities of Man in the human environment into
which he has been born, he counteracts his handicap by using those
limbs in which he is sound to better effect than his fellows know
how to use them in a sleight of hand that is all his own. So he
becomes the skilled artificer who is the workaday prototype of lame
Hephaestus and lame Weland in the World of Mythology. And
how does the blind barbarian react ? His predicament is still worse
than his lame brother's, for he cannot use his hands in the smithy
to any better purpose than on the battle-field ; yet he can use them
to strike the harp in harmony with a voice that rings as clear and
sweet as any other man's, and he can use his mind to make poetry
out of the human life in which he cannot take an active part.
his

1
Gibbon, sitting among the ruins of Ancient Rome on the Palatine, and listening to
the friars singing Vespers among the ruins of Ancient? Rome on the
Capitol, was inspired
to write The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Part XIII. below.)
(See
2 See II.
(i), pp. 16-17, above.
3 This
predicament has been touched upon in II. B, vol. i, p. 190, above, apropos of
the phenomenon of the Division of Labour. For the blind bard as an
institution, see the
survey of examples that is given by Subotid, D., in Yugoslav Popular Ballads (Cambridge
1932, University Press), pp. 22-3.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

211

Nor

seeks nor finds he mortal blisses,

But feeds on the aerial kisses
Of shapes that haunt thought's wildernesses.

But from these create he can

Forms more real than living man,
1
Nurslings of Immortality.

The deeds

of god-like Achilles and Agamemnon only live on in the

verses of 'blind Thamyras and blind Maeonides'. The fame which
the barbarian warrior desires above all things, and in
quest of
which he wanders over the face of the Earth 'like as a lion that is
2
greedy of his prey', is in the barbarian poet's hand and voice and
mind to give or to withhold.
Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi, sed omnes illacrimabiles

Urgentur ignotique longa

Nocte, carent quia vate sacro. 3
In the barbarian's universe, the blind bard, who cannot wield
either warrior's sword or blacksmith's
hammer, is yet as potent as
the Galilaean fisherman who ranks as a proletarian in the Roman
census but as Prince of the Apostles in the Christian dispensation.

Homer,
shall

be

like Peter, is
first

and die

an

arbiter of

human

destinies. 4

'So the last

first last.' 5

So much for the stimulus of

social penalizations

when

these are

the automatic consequence of physical disabilities. When we pass

on to the penalization which is imposed by poverty, we may observe,
for example, in an English 'public school', that the 'commoners',
who have been born in well-to-do homes and have come to be
where they are, without exertions of their own, by reason of their
parents' capacity to pass muster and to pay the school fees, are less
apt to do hard work at school than their schoolfellows of the same
social class and social
but not personal background who are
'scholars'. The 'scholars' know that their parents could not have
afforded to send them to a school of this kind if the boys themselves
had not won 'scholarships' by their own endeavours; and they
realize that, as it has been in their childhood, so it will continue to be

when they are grown up. They will have to make their way by their
own efforts they will have to set off the handicap of starting life
;

with smaller material means than the average of their class by rising
above the average in intelligence and efficiency and application.
2 Psalm xvii. 12.
Shelley: Prometheus Unbound.
Horace: Carmina, Bk. IV, Ode 9, w. 25-8.
4 'And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church;
and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven ;
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven.' Matthew xvi. 1 8-19.
1

Matthew

xx. 16.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

214

World, but from the Oriental

its

'internal proletariat'

which had

lost

social heritage already, or from the barbarian 'external prowhich had none to lose; for there were other grievous

letariat*

losses of a personal kind that were inherent in enslavement. All

these slave-immigrants alike had lost their personal liberty; they

had been branded as human chattels instead of human beings with

human rights; they had been uprooted from their homes and
separated for ever from their families and they had been subjected
to new conditions of life which were almost beyond bearing. Their
Roman masters, who had purchased their bodies wholesale as a
speculative investment, thought only of wringing the utmost
possible profit from their labour. The Roman law treated slaves
;

with a harshness that reflected the apprehensions of a Roman

governing class which was ever conscious of the volcanic stirrings
of a servile under-world. Some of the recruits to the Roman servile
labour-force had to spend their days working in chain-gangs on the
plantations and their nights in semi-subterranean prisons ; others
were condemned to mines and quarries in which no worker's life
was worth more than a few years' purchase. The minority whose
lot was the relative independence of the slave-herdsman or the
relative amenity of domestic service were fortunate ; and it might
have seemed that even this fortunate minority had no future.
There was an ancient Greek saying that 'The day of enslavement

Man

of half of his Manhood'; 1 and this saying was

terribly fulfilled in the debasement of the slave-descended urban
not by bread alone, but by
proletariat of Rome which lived
'bread and shows'*
from the second century B.C. to the sixth
century of the Christian Era until the flesh pots failed and the
people perished off the face of the Earth. This long-drawn-out
life-in-death was the penalty of failure to
respond to the challenge
of enslavement; and no doubt that broad
of destruction was
deprives

path
trodden by a majority of those human beings of many different
origins and antecedents who were enslaved en masse in the most evil
age of Hellenic history. Yet some there were, nevertheless, who
did respond to the challenge and did succeed in
'making good* in
one fashion or another.
Some rose in their Roman masters' service until they became the
responsible administrators of great estates; and Caesar's estate
itself, when it had grown into the universal state of the Hellenic
World, continued to be administered by Caesar's freedmen. Others,
1

The

lines are placed in the

mouth of the slave-swineherd Eumaeus in the Odyssey:

evptWa Zcvs
(OJ. XVII, 11. 322-3.)
3jpap eAflonv.

r* dperffr oaroaiwrcu,
dvepor, a5r' av piv Kara, SouAiov
TJIJLIOV

Tanem

yap

et circenses* (Juvenal, Satire x,

1.

81).

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

215

whom

their masters established in petty business, succeeded in

purchasing their freedom out of savings which they made on the

share of the profits that their masters allowed them; and some of
these afterwards rose to eminence and affluence in the Roman
business-world. Others remained slaves in this world to become
philosopher-kings or fathers of churches in another; and of such
was the Kingdom of Heaven. The true-born Roman who might
justly and sincerely contemn the illegitimate power of a Narcissus
or the ostentatious wealth of a Trimalchio would delight to honour
the wisdom and serenity of the lame slave Epictetus ; and he could
not but admire
though he might not approve the enthusiasm of
that nameless multitude of slaves and freedmen whose faith was
1
moving mountains.
During the five centuries which intervened
between the Hannibalic War and the Conversion of Constantine,
the Roman authorities saw this miracle of servile faith being performed under their eyes and being repeated in defiance of their
utmost efforts to arrest it by physical force until eventually they
themselves succumbed to it. For the slave-immigrants who had
lost their

homes and

their religion

their families

and handed

it

down

and

their property still kept

to their descendants in Italy.

The Greeks brought the Bacchanalia, the

of Cybele (a goddess who long outlived the

Anatolians the worship

Hittite Society in whose
womb she had been conceived) the Egyptians brought the worship
of Isis, the Babylonians the worship of the Stars, title Iranians the
worship of Mithra, the Syrians Christianity. Syrus in Tiberim
2
dejhudt Orontes; and the confluence of these waters raised a social
issue which revealed the limitations of a slave's subjection to his
;

master.

The

was whether an immigrant religion of the internal

of the dominant
proletariat was to swamp the indigenous religion
minority of the Hellenic Society. For, when once the waters had
met, it was impossible that they should not mingle and, when once
they had mingled, there was little doubt as to which current would
Art or by Force. The
prevail if Nature were not counteracted by
Attic Athene the Keeper of
tutelary Gods of the Hellenic World
the City and Spartan Athana of the Brazen House Tyche of the
Antiochenes and Fortuna Praenestina; and even the omnipotent
Dea Roma and the Saviour Divus Caesar3 had already withdrawn
issue

1
Marcus Aurelius was impressed by the readiness of the Christians at any moment to
die for their faith, though he disapproved of its psychological basis, which he describes
as irapdragis ( ? 'mass suggestion* or 'esprit de corps*) in contrast to what seems to the
philosopher the right basis: that is to say, rational judgement (Marcus Aurelius:

Meditations, xi. 3).

2
Juvenal: Satire iii, 1. 62. It was at Antioch-on-Orontes that the followers of Jesus
were first called Christians (Acts xi. 26).
s See I. C
(iii) 00, Annex, vol. i, p. 443, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

216

from the intimate

life-giving

communion

in

which they had once

lived with their worshippers.

Excessere omnes, adytis arisque relictis,
Di quibus imperium hoc steterat. 1

the other hand, the Gods of the internal proletariat had proved
themselves to be in truth their worshippers' 'refuge and strength,
2
If these Gods and those, who
a very present help in trouble'.
now divided the allegiance of Society between them, were left to
contend with one another for the allegiance of the whole, the battle
would assuredly go as it had gone in Israel when Elijah had chal3
the Roman
lenged the prophets of Baal ; and in face of this prospect

On

between two opinions. Should

they take the offensive against these foreign religions which were
making their way, by peaceful penetration, into Roman hearts?
Should they attempt to stamp them out by pitting against their
uncanny other-worldly power the Roman World-State's irresistible
concentration of mundane force? Or should they rather welcome
unthese new Gods who were offering to fill a spiritual void
acknowledged but not unfelt that had been left in the Roman
universe by the old Gods' departure? Every one of the new Gods
Mithra
appealed to some section of the Roman governing class.
authorities halted for five centuries

appealed to the soldiers, Isis to the women, the Heavenly Bodies to

the intellectuals, Dionysus to the Philhellenes, Cybele to the fetishworshippers. In the year 205 B.C., in the crisis of the Hannibalic
War, the Roman Senate anticipated Constantine's reception of
Christianity by receiving, with official honours, the magic stone,
fallen from Heaven and charged with the divinity of Cybele, which
was the talisman of Anatolian Pessinus. 4 In the year 186 B.C.,
during the brief breathing-space between the Hannibalic affliction
and the Gracchan, they anticipated Diocletian's persecution by
5
The long Battle of the Gods, which
suppressing the Bacchanalia.
thus began and ended, was the counterpart of an earthly contest
between the slave-immigrants and their Roman masters and, in
this dual conflict, the slaves and the slaves' Gods won.
;

Caste

The same

stimulus of penalization which

administered by
poverty and by class-inferiority and by slavery is also administered
by racial discrimination in a state of society in which two or more
1
Virgil: Aeneid, Bk. II,
footnote z, above).

Psalm

11.

351-2 (already quoted in

(i) (a),

vol.
3

xlvi. i.

4 See the account of the translation of Cybele

Livy in Book XXIX, chs. 10-14.
s

I.

is

from Pessinus to

i,

on

p. 57, in

Kings

xviii.

Rome which is given by

See the account of this persecution which is given by Livy in Book XXXIX, chs. 8-19.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

217

races live intermingled without

merging into one. Such states of
are
to
arise
society
apt
by immigration in two alternative ways. An

indigenous population may be conquered by invaders who forbear

to exterminate it and disdain to coalesce with it and are therefore
constrained to tolerate it in the status of a depressed caste. J Alterna-

an indigenous population may admit peaceful immigrants

on sufferance as perpetual strangers in its midst on more or
less disadvantageous and humiliating conditions.
In both these
varieties of what is ultimately the same situation, the dominant race
is apt to reserve certain statuses and certain avocations as its own
exclusive preserves, and to impose upon the penalized race the
tively,
to live

necessity of cultivating other fields of social activity if it is to find

a living at all. The 'reserved' occupations usually include all those

which have high

the priesthood, the business of

government, the ownership of land, the bearing of arms, and the
civilian 'liberal professions'
as well as the fundamental economic
activity of Society, which has usually been agriculture in the social
economies of societies in process of civilization down to recent
times. By a process of exhaustion the penalized race is apt to find
itself virtually confined to the field of trade and handicraft; and,
just because the field is narrow, the penalized race is stimulated to
make this field all its own and to conjure out of it, by a tour deforce
which fills the dominant race with astonishment and resentment,
a harvest of wealth and power which this Naboth's vineyard would
hardly have yielded to hands not debarred from other handiwork.
The classic example of this effect of racial discrimination is the
strongly marked tendency in the Hindu Society for castes to
become coincident with occupations ; but this tendency in India is
not without parallels elsewhere. In Europe, tinkering and fortune2
telling have been monopolized by the Gipsies, and in Arabia metale
3 and other
examples are to be found in the
working by the Sunna
New World which has been called into existence, since the close
of the fifteenth century of the Christian Era, by the expansion of
Western Christendom over all the habitable lands and navigable
Round the shores of the Pacific an ocean
seas of the planet.
which has been transformed from an insulator into a medium of communication by Western maritime enterprise within the last century
the Chinese immigrant who has been admitted on sufferance
social prestige

The three possible

alternative outcomes of the impact of one society upon another

are examined further in Parts VIII and
extermination, assimilation, and caste
IX, below,
2
is not so
Strictly, perhaps, the occupational specialization of the Gipsies in Europe
much a parallel to, as a derivative from, the convergence between caste and occupation
in India, since the Gipsies are by origin a vagrant Hindu caste which has happened to
spread beyond the boundaries of the Hindu World.
3 For this
metal-working caste in Arabia, see The British Admiralty: Handbook of
Arabia, vol. i (London, no date, H.M. Stationery Office), pp. 92, 94, and 610.
1

that

is,

2x8

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

under Western control has succeeded, as coolie

and laundryman and shopkeeper, in making his fortune out of
those meagre patches of the economic field which have been
grudgingly thrown open to him. In British Malaya and Nether-

into countries

lands India to-day, there are Chinese millionaires who emulate Trimalchio's wealth without displaying his vulgarity ; and if Petronius
Arbiter's fictitious portrait of the penalized proletarian immigrant
5
c
who has made good in this world is reproduced in these authentic

Chinese counterparts in 'the real life' of our modern society,

we can

also detect a counterpart to the historic figure of the ancient slave-

philosopher in Harriet Beecher Stowe's fictitious portrait of 'Uncle

Tom': a character who emulates the serenity of Epictetus without
aspiring to his mental power.

The Negro

slave-immigrant into modern North America has

been subject to the twofold penalization of legal servitude and
racial discrimination; and at this day, some seventy years after the
first of these two handicaps has been removed, the second still
weighs as heavily as ever upon the coloured freedman. From first
to last, the Negro's sufferings at the hands of the English-speaking
peoples of the Western World have probably been still greater in
the aggregate than those of the Greeks and Orientals and barbarians who were enslaved by the Romans. The horrors of the
Delian slave-market in the second century B.C. are hardly to be
compared with those of 'the middle passage' on a Transatlantic
slave-ship in the eighteenth century of the Christian Era; and even
if we allow that, in the next stage of the slave's career, the conditions of servile life and labour on the plantations of modern
America may not have been so bad as they were on those of ancient
Italy, we must add that the Roman slave who had once landed alive
on Italian soil saw his horizon faintly yet distinctly illuminated by
a gleam of light which has never been vouchsafed to the Negro
survivor of the Transatlantic voyage nor to any of his descendants
even in the third or fourth generation.
The harshness of the Roman Law in its treatment of the slave,
so long as he remained in servitude, was mitigated by its facility in
the procedure of manumission and by its liberality in
making the
act
of
manumission
with
it
personal
carry
automatically the political

consequence of enfranchisement and these legal provisions for the

mitigation of the Roman slave's lot were implemented by social custom. The Roman masters who were merciless in exploiting their
slaves were generous in
granting them their freedom; and when
once the legal formality bad been accomplished, the social
stigma
of servile origin was extinguished in a few
generations. In the third
generation the poet Horace could afford to remind his readers that
;

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

219

he was libertino patre natiis 1 in order to point the contrast between

what he had once been and what he had since become in virtue of
his own genius and his intimacy with Maecenas. How different
from the agony with which a modern American citizen who knows
that there is a tincture of Negro blood in his veins 2 keeps watch
and ward over his secret when he has surreptitiously violated 'the
colour bar' by 'passing' from the black to the white side of the
caste-line. The Roman freedman was wholly free from the doom of
perpetual racial ostracism to which the American Negro freedman
has been condemned without any prospect of reprieve even for his
remotest posterity; and it is not surprising to observe that the
Negro, finding the scales thus permanently and overwhelmingly
weighted against him in this world, has turned to another world for
consolation.

The Negro

appears to be answering our tremendous challenge

with a religious response which may prove in the event, when it can
be seen in retrospect, to bear comparison with the ancient Oriental's
response to the challenge from his Roman masters. The Negro

has not indeed brought any ancestral religion of his own from Africa
to captivate the hearts of his White fellow citizens on the American
Continent. His primitive social heritage was of so frail a texture
that every shred of it was scattered to the winds at the first impact
of our Western Civilization. Thus he came to America spiritually
as well as physically naked; and he has met the emergency by
covering his nakedness with his enslaver's cast-off clothes. The
Negro has been adapting himself to the rigours of his new social

environment by rediscovering, in Christianity, certain original

meanings and values which Western Christendom has long ignored.
Opening a simple and impressionable mind to the Gospels, he has
divined the true nature of Jesus's mission. He has understood that
this was a prophet who came into the World not to confirm the
3
'At
mighty in their seat but to exalt the meek and the humble.
that time Jesus answered and said "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of
Heaven and Earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes." 4 The Syrian
slave-immigrants who once brought Christianity into Roman Italy
performed die miracle of establishing a new religion which was alive
in the place of an old religion which was already dead. It is possible
that the Negro slave-immigrants who have found Christianity in
America may perform the greater miracle of raising the dead to
life.
With their childlike spiritual intuition and their genius for
:

'

z
*

Horace: Satires, Bk. I, Sat. 6; Epistles, Bk. I, Ep. 20.

*A touch of the tar-brush' is the colloquial phrase.

Luke

i.

$2,.

Matthew

xi.

25; cp. Psalm

viii. 2.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

220

giving spontaneous aesthetic expression to emotional religious

of rekindling the cold
experience, they may perhaps be capable
grey ashes of Christianity which have been transmitted to them by
It is thus,
us, until in their hearts the divine fire glows again.
become the
perhaps, if at all, that Christianity may conceivably
If this
time.
living faith of a dying civilization for the second

miracle were indeed to be performed by an American Negro

Church, that would be the most dynamic response to the challenge
of social penalization that had yet been made by Man.
Religious Discrimination

pass from racial to religious discrimination, we find

that, mutatis mutandis, the phenomena are the same.
religious
denomination which is penalized on account of its persuasion by
being debarred from engaging in agriculture or in 'the liberal professions', is apt to respond, like a penalized caste, by developing an
Hindu Banya
exceptional proficiency in trade or handicraft. The
c
has his analogue in the Jew; the Arabian Sunna have theirs in the

When we

otherwise obscure North American religious fraternity at Oneida,

in New York State, whose members have made a name for themselves in the business-world as the manufacturers of 'Community
Plate'.

The

results of religious discrimination may be studied in three

different situations: first, where the adherents of the penalized

denomination are members of the same society and heirs of the

same civilization as the adherents of the privileged denomination

among whom they

second, where the respective adherents of

the penalized and of the privileged denomination belong to two
c
different civilizations which are both still going concerns' ; third,
where the adherents of the privileged denomination belong to a

which

live

a 'going concern', while the adherents

of the penalized denomination represent a civilization which only
survives as a 'fossil'. 1
The first of these situations may be illustrated from the history of
the English-speaking peoples of the Western World. In England,
the re-establishment of the Anglican Church and the galling but not
intolerable penalization of other Protestant religious denominations
after the Restoration of A.D. 1660
a penalization which did not
had the effect of
altogether cease at the Revolution of A.D. 1688
stimulating the members of the Society of Friends to distinguish
themselves in industry and banking, and other Protestant Noncivilization

is

still

list of the still extant 'fossils* of extinct civilizations, see above, I. B

(iii),
pp. 34-5, and I. C (i) (), vol. i, pp. 90-^2. The psychological phenomena of the
contact between 'fossils* and living societies are examined in Part DC, below.
1

vol.

For a

i,

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

221

conformists to prosper in shopkeeping and other forms of retail

trade. 1
fortiori, the positive persecution to which the Puritans
were exposed in England in the earlier decades of the seventeenth
century, before the English Civil War, and again the Mormons in
the United States some two centuries later, stimulated each of
these persecuted sects into reacting with proportionate vigour.
While the Quakers and other Nonconformists in eighteenth-century
England were able to exist and even to prosper in that state of life to
which it had pleased the Establishment to confine them, both the
Puritans in early seventeenth-century England and the Latter-Day
Saints in early nineteenth-century America made up their minds
that there was no room in the same country for themselves and for
their persecutors and accordingly they each, in their day, went out
into the wilderness in order to found ideal commonwealths, after

own

on virgin soil where they had only to contend with

Physical Nature and not with stronger human powers.
The achievement of the Pilgrim Fathers in breaking-in the rough
2
country of New England has been reviewed in this Study already.
It was fully equalled, in its own kind, by the achievement of the
Latter-Day Saints. In the early nineteenth century, it needed no
less courage to venture out in wagons into the unexplored hinterland of the North American Continent than it had needed in the
early seventeenth century to set sail from the shores of Europe in
the Mayflower for an uncharted American coast. Moreover, at the
journey's end, the desert basin of Utah, with the Salt Lake at its
core, offered an even more forbidding landscape for a Promised
Land than the site of Town Hill, Connecticut. Indeed, it may be
doubted whether the Mormons would ever have 'made good' in
Utah if they had not been governed by the practical genius of
Brigham Young. Happily for Joseph Smith's disciples, the first
their

heart,

khalifah of the Mormon prophet 3 played Joshua's as well as Moses*

part in this latter-day American exodus. Brigham Young had the
vision to perceive that the salt desert could be fertilized by the

sweet waters descending from its mountain rim, and he also had
the power of organization and command to carry through a great coand romantic foundaoperative scheme of irrigation. These daring
tions of new

New

commonwealths in the virgin wildernesses of Utah and

England have their place, beside the more passive and prosaic

performance of the English Nonconformists in adapting themselves

to their disabilities at home, as examples of the response which the
1

For the movement in which the English Protestant Nonconformists withdrew from
life in the seventeenth century and returned in the nineteenth, see further III. C

public
(11)

(&), vol. iii, p.

334, below.

See II.
(i), pp. 15-16, above.
3 For the
analogy between the histories of Mormonisni and of Islam, see Meyer,
Eduard: Ursprurtg und Geschichte der Mormonen (Halle 1912, Niemeyer).
1

222

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

challenge of religious discrimination is apt to evoke from those

who are exposed to it in diverse degrees. 1
The Mormon response in the United States has a parallel in
Russia in the history of the Old Believers and other dissenters from
the established practice of Russian Orthodox Christendom. These
Russian Orthodox Christian sectaries have won freedom to follow
the devices of their own hearts by going out, beyond the advancing
borders of the Russian Empire, into the wildernesses of Siberia and
the Caucasus and the Eurasian Steppe. These sectarian pioneer
settlements in no-man's-land have eventually been incorporated
into the Russian

body

politic, as

Utah has been incorporated

into

the United States

but the latter-day Czardom, in its treatment
of schismatics, exercised a politic form of discrimination which
;

was already customary in Western monarchies in the seventeenth

century. While penalizing its Nonconformists in the interior, it
tolerated and even encouraged them in the marches as unorthodox
messengers of Holy Russia who could serve to prepare her
before her, just because they were officially beyond her pale.

way

The Phanariots

The

situation arising

when

the

respective

adherents of the

penalized and the privileged denomination belong to two different

civilizations which are both 'going concerns'
may be illustrated
from the ancien regime of the Ottoman Empire as it existed down
to the Revolution of A.D. 1908.
In the Ottoman Empire, the main
body of Orthodox Christendom had been endowed, by intruders of
alien faith and culture, with a universal state which the Orthodox
Christian Society could not do without yet was unable to establish
for itself; 2 and the Orthodox Christians had
paid for their social
to
be
masters
in
their
own house. The
incompetence by ceasing
Muslim conquerors who established and maintained the Pax Ottomanica in the Orthodox Christian World exacted
payment, in the
form of religious discrimination, for the services which
they were
to
their
Christian
rendering
subjects willy-nilly; and here, as else-

where, the adherents of the penalized denomination responded to

1 We
may observe that while the sedentary Nonconformists of England learnt the

lesson of toleration and eventually imparted it to their

Anglican fellow countrymen, the
Pilgnm Fathers and the Mormons both justified their persecutors in retrospect by
persecuting others as soon as they had the power and the occasion. The ideal commonwealth which they vrent forth to found in the wilderness was not to be a
place where every
sect and every individual would be free to
worship according to private conscience but a
place in which the pioneers would be able to do unto others what their persecutors had
done unto them. The Quakers discovered this to their cost when
they came out to
Massachusetts at the Pilgrim Fathers' heels. An honourable and remarkable
exception
to the general spirit and practice of early New
England was to be found in the State of
Rhode Island, which from the outset granted freedom of conscience to all who settled on
its diminutive territory.
3 On this
point, see further, Part III. A, vol. iii, pp. 26-7, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

223

the challenge of discrimination by becoming past-masters in those

pursuits to which their activities were now confined.
In the old Ottoman Empire, none who were not f Osmanlis might
govern or bear arms and in large tracts of the Empire even the
;

ownership and cultivation of the land passed out of the hands of the
subject Christians into those of their Muslim masters. In these
circumstances, the several Orthodox Christian peoples who found
themselves forcibly united under a common Ottoman rule now came
for the first and last time in their histories
to a tacit but effective
mutual understanding. They were inhibited by the 'Osmanlis*

monopoly of sovereign power from carrying on their habitual internecine warfare with one another for the local mastery of cities and
provinces. They were stimulated, by the 'Osmanlis' monopoly of
'the liberal professions', into parcelling out among themselves the
humbler trades, which remained open for Christian practitioners,
and learning each to excel in some special occupation of their own.

By

this road, the

Orthodox Christian subjects of the Ottoman

Padishah gradually regained a footing within the walls of the

Imperial capital, from which they had been deliberately evicted
wholesale by Mehmed the Conqueror. The Turkish-speaking
Orthodox Christian Qaramanlis from the interior of Anatolia and
the Romance-speaking Orthodox Christian Vlachs from the highlands of the Balkan Peninsula succeeded in establishing themselves
in Constantinople as grocers ; their Greek-speaking co-religionists
from the islands of the Aegean Archipelago set up in business on a

more ambitious

scale; the Orthodox Christian Albanians came to

Constantinople as masons; the Orthodox Christian Montenegrins

as hall-porters

Even the bucolic Bulgars,

grip upon the land than the

and commissionaires.

who had managed

to keep a firmer
Greeks, came to find a livelihood in the suburbs of Constantinople
as grooms and market-gardeners. In Ottoman Syria, likewise, the
Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians gravitated towards the towns

and tended to specialize in trades and handicrafts, while the Arabicspeaking Muslims remained cultivators of the soil in the countryside.
Among the Orthodox Christian re-occupants of Constantinople,
who were stimuthe so-called Phanariots
there was one coterie
a
to
such
of
lated by the challenge
degree that they
penalization
actually rose to be the virtual partners and potential supplanters of
the 'Osmanlis themselves in the political administration and control
of the Ottoman Empire. The Phanar, from which the Phanariots
derived their name, 1 was the extreme north-western corner of
1

The word Phanar itself is the modern Greek for 'lighthouse*

the quarter being called

which stood here in the angle between the land-walls of Constantinople

and the south shore of the Golden Horn.
after a lighthouse

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

224

Stamboul, which the Ottoman Government had grudgingly aban-

doned

Orthodox Christian subjects as the equivalent of a

ghetto. The Oecumenical Patriarchate made its new head-quarters
here after the Church of the Holy Wisdom had been converted into
the Mosque of Aya Sofia and the Church of the Apostles demolished
to make way for the Mosque of the Conqueror. In this
apparently
unpromising retreat, the Patriarchate became the rallying-point
and the preserve of the Greek-speaking Orthodox Christians from
the Aegean Archipelago who had found their way to Constantinople
and had prospered there in trade and these 'Phanariots' developed
two special accomplishments. As merchants on the grand scale,
they entered into commercial relations with the Western World
and acquired a first-hand knowledge of Western manners and customs and Western languages. As managers of the Oecumenical
Patriarchate's affairs, they acquired a wide
practice and close understanding of Ottoman administration, since, under the old Ottoman
regime, the Oecumenical Patriarch was the official intermediary
between the Padishah and his Orthodox Christian subjects throughout the Empire and was invested, in this capacity, by
delegation,
to its

with

of the functions of sovereignty over his co-religionists.

These two accomplishments, together, made the fortunes of the
Phanariots when, in the secular conflict between the Ottoman
Empire and the Western World, the tide definitely turned against
the 'Osmanlis after their second unsuccessful
siege of Vienna in

many

A.D. 1 682-3. J

The change

introduced certain formidable complications into

Ottoman affairs of state. Before the reverse of 1683, the 'Osmanlis
had always been able to count upon settling their relations with

Western Christian adversaries and with their Orthodox

Christian subjects to their own satisfaction
by the simple application of force. Their military decline confronted them with two
new problems. They had now to negotiate at the conference-table
with Western Powers whom they could no
longer defeat in the
field; and they had to consider the feelings of Orthodox Christian
subjects whom they could no longer be sure of holding down. In
other words, the Ottoman
Empire could no longer dispense with
skilled diplomatists and skilled
administrators; and the necessary
fund of experience, of which the 'Osmanlis found themselves
destitute in their hour of need, was
opportunely placed at their
disposal by the Phanariots. In consequence, the 'Osmanlis were
constrained to disregard the
precedents and tamper with the
of
their
own
principles
regime by conferring upon the Phanariots
their

For this turn of the tide and its eventual effects

6thos, see II.
(v), pp. 179-88, above.
*

upon the Turkish and the Austrian

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

235

the monopoly of four high offices of state which were key-positions

1
in the new political situation of the Ottoman
In the
Empire.
course of the eighteenth century of the Christian Era, the political
power of the Phanariots was steadily enhanced by the specific
influence and patronage which these offices carried with them,
and still more potently by the general effect of the steady increase
in the political pressure from the West
an increase which was
inevitably accompanied by a corresponding appreciation in the
political value of the one element inside the Ottoman Empire which
was capable, at the time, of coping with the Western Question'.
hundred years after the turn of the tide under the walls of Vienna in
1683, it looked as though the result of Western pressure might be to
endow the old Ottoman Empire with a new governing class by first
forcing the 'Osmanlis to take the Phanariots into partnership and
then enabling the Phanariots to make themselves, in effect, the
senior partners in the Ottoman firm. 2
c

These four offices were the Dragomanship of the Porte, the Dragqmanship of the
and the hospodarships of the autonomous principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia.
The two dragoman ships were new creations ; the two hospodarships were existing offices
which were now placed in Phanariot hands.
The importance of the dragomanships is not to be measured by the literal meaning of
the title. The 'Osmanlis sought to 'save their faces* by giving the modest title of 'interpreters' ('dragoman* = terjumen) to Phanariot officials who, in effect, discharged the
functions of a Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and a Secretary of State for the Navy
and whose power and patronage, ex officio, were not much less extensive +*\*T\ they would
have been in any Western monarchy of the day.
As for the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, these had been founded by Orthodox Christian pioneers of Rumanian nationality who had descended from the Transylvanian highlands in the fourteenth century of the Christian Era and had wrested the
extreme south-western corner of the great Eurasian Steppe from the Nomads. The two
principalities had recognized the suzerainty of a paramount Power from the beginning of
their existence, but their original suzerain had been the King of Hungary, from whose
dominions their founders had come. The transference of their allegiance to the Ottoman
Padishah had been one of the incidents in the long duel between Hungary and the Ottoman Power which ended on the field of Mohacz; and since the political orientation of
these principalities was one of the factors on which the issue of the struggle between
Hungary and Turkey depended, the Wallachian and Moldavian Rumans had been able
to come to far more favourable terms with the *Osmanlis than any of their co-religionists
on the south side of the Danube. They had secured from the Padishah a pledge that,
under his suzerainty, they should always be governed by princes of their own faith, and
that no Muslim places of worship and no Turkish military fiefs or colonies should ever be
established on their territories. The Ottoman Government faithfully observed these
undertakings and implemented the first of them, to begin with, by placing the two Rum an
principalities under local Ruman princes. This practice was abandoned after the turn
of the tide in A.D. 1683, when the principalities acquired a new strategic and political
importance as marches of the Ottoman Empire over against the Danubian Hapsburg
Monarchy on the one hand and the Russian Empire on the other. When Peter the Great
invaded Moldavia in 1711, the reigning prince, Demetrius Cantemir, went over to his
side; and this danger-signal moved the Ottoman Government to strengthen its control
over the principalities, without violating the letter of its bond, by thenceforth appointing
Orthodox Christian princes who were not of Rumanian nationality and who had no hereditary local influence or attachments. Accordingly, from A.D. 171 1^ to 1821, the incuman arrangement
bencies of the two principalities became a perquisite of the Phanariots
which safeguarded Ottoman interests and lined Phanariot pockets at the local Romanian
1

Fleet,

population s expense.
a It was in this
expectation that the Empress Catherine II of Russia played with the
idea of re-establishing the East Roman Empire after the great Russian victory over the
'Osmanlis in the Russo-Turkish War of A.D. 1768-74.
II

226

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

In the event, the Phanariots failed to achieve their 'manifest

destiny' because, towards the end of the eighteenth century, the
Western pressure attained a degree of intensity at which its nature
underwent a sudden transformation. The purely external pressure,
of a military and diplomatic kind, which began to be exerted upon
the Ottoman Empire by the great Powers of the Western World
after the Second Siege of Vienna, was reinforced, after the American
and French revolutions, by a far more penetrating and pervasive
and disruptive pressure which was exerted, from within, by the

Ottoman peoples themselves through that process of cultural fermentation and social metabolism for which we have coined the
name 'Westernization*. The general operation of this process in the
Ottoman Empire has been touched upon already; 1 and in this
place we need only recall the two facts that the political gospel of
'Westernization' was Nationalism and that the Greeks, being the
first of the Ottoman
peoples to enter into intimate relations with the

whom

the virus of Western Nationalism

infected. Between the outbreak of the French Revolution and the
outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, the Greeks were under
the spell of two incompatible aspirations. They had not given up
the Phanariot ambition of entering into the whole heritage of the
C
0smanlis and keeping the Ottoman Empire intact as a 'going
concern' under Greek instead of Turkish management; and at the
same time they had conceived the new ambition of establishing a
a Greece which
sovereign independent national state of their own
should be as Greek as France was French
in order that the Greeks
'also' might 'be like all the nations' 2 of the Western World.
In their quest for this 'pound of flesh' the Greek nationalists
eventually overreached themselves ; but their miscalculation was
not the same as Shylock's. The legendary Jew desired his victim's
death, but forgot to stipulate for shedding his blood; the Greeks
failed to foresee that the death of the Ottoman
Empire must result
from the bloodshed which they contemplated, and that therefore
the new Greece of their dreams could be nothing but a gobbet of
the old Empire's dismembered carcass. Their discomfiture was

West, were also the

first

even more ironic than their Shakespearian prototype's; for fate

permitted them to draw and use the knife in order to expose their
miscalculation by an experiment which could never be undone.
The incompatibility of the two Greek aspirations was demonstrated
conclusively in 1821 when the Greeks attempted to realize both of

them simultaneously.

When

the Phanariot Prince Hypsilanti crossed the Pruth, from

his 'jumping-off ground' in Russia, in order to make himself master
1

See

II.

(v),

pp. 181-6, above.

Samuel

viii.

20.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

227

Ottoman Empire, and the Maniot chieftain Petro Bey

Mavromikhalis descended from his mountain-fastness in the Morea
in order to carve out an independent Greece, the outcome of both
enterprises was a foregone conclusion. The resort to arms, in itself,
of the

spelt the ruin of Phanariot aspirations, since the Phanariot ascendancy in the Ottoman Empire could only have been consummated

by an uninterrupted process of 'peaceful penetration'. Prince

Hypsilanti's armed incursion into the Danubian Principalities produced an electric effect upon the 'Osmanlis. The reed on which
they had been leaning for more than a century had pierced their
1
hand; and their fury at this betrayal nerved them to break the
treacherous staff in pieces and to stand again at all costs on their

own

In 1821, the 'Osmanlis retorted to Prince Hypsilanti's

act of war by destroying at one blow the fabric of power which the
Phanariots had been peacefully building up for themselves since
1683 and this was the first step in a process of eradicating all nonTurkish elements from the remnant of the 'Osmanlis' heritage
a process which reached its climax in the eviction of the Orthodox
feet.

Christian minority from Anatolia in 1922.

Thus the first explosion of Greek nationalism kindled the first
spark of Turkish nationalism ; but the effect of Prince Hypsilanti's
act upon the non-Greek Christian peoples of the Ottoman Empire
was, if possible, still more untoward, from the Greek standpoint,
than its effect upon the Turks. The Greek Prince's appearance in
the Danubian Principalities at the head of an armed force of Greek
filibusters made the local Rumanian population realize that they
were in imminent danger of exchanging 'King Log' for 'King
Stork'. If the Muslim 'Osmanlis had chastised their Christian subjects with whips, the Christian Phanariots showed every intention

of chastising their co-religionists with scorpions. The Rumans

turned Hypsilanti's raid into a fiasco by passively but effectively
taking the Turkish side ; and not only the Rumans but the Bulgars
and die Serbs and all the other Orthodox Christian peoples of
the Ottoman Empire made up their minds forthwith that it was
expedient for them to remain under Turkish rule until they could
be sure of exchanging it for their own national independence.
Therewith, it was decided that the Ottoman Empire should not
have its unity maintained and its life prolonged by a peaceful transference of control from the 'Osmanlis to the Phanariots, but should
be broken up by violence into a mosaic of sovereign independent

on the Western pattern. This procrustean operation, by which an association of occupational castes was cruelly
rough-hewn into a congeries of territorial nations, began with the
national states

2 Kings

xviii. 21.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

228

extermination of the Turkish Muslim landowners in the Morea in

1821 by massacre or eviction at the hands of the local Greek insurby the same 'methods of barbarism' to
gents, and was carried on
the bitter end, until it reached its term, a hundred years later, in the
massacre or eviction of the Greek and other Christian tradesmen and
artisans in Anatolia in 1922 at the hands of the Turkish nationalists.

The Qazanlis
the Phanariots just failed to secure that 'senior
partnership' in the Ottoman Empire which had seemed, in the
eighteenth century, to be their 'manifest destiny'. Yet the fact that
they came within an ace of success is sufficient evidence of the
vigour with which they had responded to the challenge of penalization. Indeed, the history of their relations with the 'Osmanlis is an
excellent illustration of the general social 'law* of Challenge-andResponse; and the antithesis between Greek and Turk, which has
attracted so much interest and excited so much animus, 1 is explicable only in these terms and not in the racial and religious terms
which have been in fashion on both sides in the popular polemics.
Turcophils and Graecophils agree in attributing the historical
differences in ethos between Greek Christians and Turkish Muslims
to some ineradicable quality of race or indelible imprint of
religion.
They disagree simply in inverting the social values which they assign
to these unknown quantities in the two cases.
The Graecophil
an
inherent
virtue
in
Greek
blood
and in Orthodox
postulates
and
an
inherent
in
vice
Turkish
blood
and in Islam to
Christianity
make the Greek the angel and the Turk the devil that healleges them

Thus,

to be.

after

all,

The Turcophil transposes his

postulates and thereby proves

a devil to his own satisfaction.

Turk an

angel and the Greek

the
common
Actually,
assumption which underlies both these special
is
contradicted
pleadings
by unquestionable matters of fact.
It is unquestionable, for instance, in the matter of
physical race,
that the blood of ErtoghruPs Central Asian Turkish followers
which flows in the veins of the Ottoman Turkish people to-day is

the

no more than an

infinitesimal tincture.

The Ottoman Turkish

people has grown into a nation out of a handful of refugees, not by

natural increase, but by assimilating the Orthodox Christian
population 2 in whose midst the 'Osmanlis have been
living ever since
the original settlement in Sultan Onii.s The
process was in full
in
the
second generation, under Ertoghrul's son 'Osman,
swing
1 It is
perhaps worth remarking that the animus of the Greeks and Turks against one
another has been surpassed by that of their respective partisans in the Western World
'
who have shown still greater fanaticism than their protege's.
* For the method of
assimilation, see Part III. A, vol. lii, pp. 28-44, below.
3 For the
challenge presented to the fathers of the 'Osmanhs by the geographical location of this settlement, see II.
(v), pp. 151-2, above.
t

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

whom the new community
had

to coin itself a

adopted as

new name. There

its

229

eponymous hero when

it

every reason to believe that

the blood of the indigenous Greek and other Orthodox Christian
recruits had swamped the blood of the immigrant Turkish Muslim
nucleus in the racial composition of the 'Osmanlis well before the
end of the first century of their existence as a distinctive community with a name of its own. If this sufficiently refutes the
a priori racial explanation of the Graeco-Turkish antithesis, we
may refute the a priori religious explanation by citing the following
description of one of the other Turkish Muslim peoples that are in
1
existence, side by side with the Ottoman Turks, at the present day r
is

'The Volga Turks are, on the whole, distinguished by their sobriety,

honesty, thrift, and industry. By their assiduity they often acquire considerable wealth. They live on the best of terms with their Russian
peasant neighbours The chief occupation of the Qazan Turk is trade, to
which he turns at once when he has acquired a small capital by agriculture.
On his commercial journeys he is always a propagandist of Islam. His
chief industries are soap-boiling, spinning, and weaving. He is sometimes
a worker in gold. He makes a good shoemaker and coachman
These
Turks are more cleanly in their houses than the Russian peasantry.
.
end
of
the
'Till the
sixteenth century, no mosques were tolerated in
the
Tatars
were
and
Qazan,
compelled to live in a separate quarter. But
of
the
Muslims gradually prevailed, so that in the
the predominance
second half of the eighteenth century there were as many as 250 mosques
.

Government of Qazan. A ukase of tolerance promulgated in I773 2

helped the cause of Islam among these Turks. Far from being won by
Russian tolerance, the Muslims of the Volga have in modem times
become more closely united than ever with the Muhammadan world.
'There has been a rapid increase in the number of mosques and a
steady improvement in the status of Muslim schools in the Government
of Qazan.
These schools have not been affected in the least by the

in the

Russian educational system.

'In consequence of the attention paid to education, the percentage of
Qazan Turks who cannot read and write is extremely low. The production
.
of printed books has also been considerable among these Muslims.
'Thus, during a period of 360 years of Russian rule, the Asiatic conservatism of these Qazan Muslims has in no way been weakened or
influenced by Russian culture. ... No conversion except among their
is
ruling families takes place, and only the quite uneducated element
3
,'
liable to be absorbed in the Russian population.
.

1 At the
present day there are approximately twice as many Turkish Muslims within
the frontiers of the U.S.S.R. as there are in Turkey.
2 In the same
year, the Ottoman Government granted its charter to the Greek OrthoThe
dox Christian community at Ayvalyq (see II.
(ii), footnote I on p. 40, above).
Russian and Ottoman Empires, being engaged at the time in a formidable war with one
another, each found it advisable to make concessions to subject minorities which were of
A. J. T.
the same civilization as the enemy Power.
3 The British Admiralty: Manual on the Turanians and Pan-Turamanism (London, no
M. Stationery Office), ch vi (iii), i, pp. 181-4.
date,

230

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

be seen

proper names in the foregoing passage

were left blank, the text might serve, as it stands, to describe the
Orthodox Christian Greeks of Constantinople under the old Ottoman regime just as well as the Muslim Turks of Qazan under the
Russian Czardom. This coincidence defies explanation on the
hypothesis that Turks and Greeks or Muslims and Christians are
what they are by reason of certain absolute racial characteristics or
indelible religious hall-marks. On the other hand, it is
just what
we should expect on the hypothesis of Challenge-and-Response.
For what has been the history of the Qazanli Turks ? Qazan was a
Muslim city which was conquered by the Orthodox Christian
Muscovites within a century of the conquest of Christian Constantinople by the 'Osmanlis; and under Muscovite rule the Qazanli
Turks have had to adapt themselves, like the Stambouli Greeks
under Ottoman rule, to a regime of religious discrimination. So
It will

that, if the

from being surprising, it is eminently natural that the Greek in

Turkey and the Turk in Russia should have met the same challenge of religious discrimination with the same response. Both
far

communities have concentrated their energies with success

upon
trade and handicraft because both have been debarred from following other walks of life as a penalty for their nonconformity with the
religion of the Power under whose ascendancy they have each
respectively had to live. In this connexion, the incidental fact that
the Greeks in Turkey happen to have been
penalized for being
Christians and the Turks in Russia for
being Muslims has made no

difference. The common experience of

being penalized on account
of religion has been the
governing factor in the development of both
and
in the course of four or five centuries their
communities;
identic reaction to this common
experience has bred them into a
likeness'
with
each
other
which
has quite effaced the diversity
'family
between the original imprints of Orthodox
Christianity and Islam.

The Levantines
This 'family

likeness' is shared

religious denominations
count of their religious

by adherents of

certain other

who have

likewise been penalized on acand

who have responded in the
allegiance
same way. Without extending our
survey beyond the bounds of the
old Ottoman Empire and the old Russian
Czardom, we may observe
that the distinctive characteristics of the Orthodox
Christian
Phanariots and the Muslim Qazanlis
reappear unmistakably both
in the Roman Catholic 'Levantines' and in the
Protestant inhabitants of the
suburb
of
Moscow which was
seventeenth-century

known

as 'the Svoboda'.

These Catholics and Protestants were

immigrants from Western

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

231

Christendom who were permitted to reside in the Ottoman and

Russian Empires on sufferance, under certain disabilities, as in our
day the Chinese are permitted to reside in countries under Western
control round the shores of the Pacific. 1 These Western residents
in a bygone Russia and a bygone Turkey were, indeed, in a less
unfortunate position than that of the Chinese residents in California or Australia at the present time, since the Chinese are the
victims of a racial discrimination from which they cannot escape by
any action which it lies with them to take, whereas the Levantines
could, and sometimes did, escape from the religious discrimination
to which they were subject by becoming "renegades'
a step which
not only raised them from the degradation of being treated as
pariahs, but threw open to them the highest positions in the Ottoman State. The same avenue of escape was open to the c Osmanlis'
Orthodox Christian subjects; and the Ottoman governing class
actually recruited, by preference and on principle, from
Christian 'renegades', Christian prisoners-of-war and Christian

was

from the time of Osman himself down to the turn

s respect, the Levantines were
of the tide in A.D. i682-3. 2 I n
in the same position as the Phanariots but in both communities
'tribute children'

religious apostacy, notwithstanding the strength of the inducements to it, remained the exception and did not become the rule ;
and the Levantine Catholics who were unwilling to renounce their
religion were subject to the same disabilities under the old Ottoman
regime as the indigenous Orthodox Christians. In Galata on the
north shore of the Golden Horn, and in the Prankish quarters in
the other 'fichelles du Levant', the Catholic ra'iyeh 3 lived a ghettolife which was not very different from the life of the Orthodox
Christian ra'Iyeh in the Phanar or the life of the Jews in the West
down to the time of the French Revolution ; and the Levantines duly
4
developed the specific virtues and vices which the ghetto demands.
It made no difference that they happened to be descended, in
physical race, from some of the most warlike and imperious and
high-spirited peoples of Western Christendom from the medieval
Venetians and Genoese and the modern French and Dutch and
English. In the stifling atmosphere of their Ottoman ghetto, they
must either respond to the challenge of religious penalization in the
:

See pp. 217-18, above.

See further, Part III. A,

vol. iii, pp. 28-44* below.

Ra'ryeh means literally 'the flock* of which the Ottoman Padishah was the shepherd.
The term was not applied exclusively to his non-Muslim subjects. The Muslim peasantry
of Anatolia were called ra'iyeh as well as the Christian merchants and ecclesiastics of
Constantinople.
* *Nos ne"gocians dans les diverses echelles . . renferm^s dans leurs kans comme dans
leur commerce.*
des prisons, ne s'embarrassent que peu de tout ce qui est etranger
et 1785, 2nd
les
Annies
en
en
et
F.:
C.
I7&4
1783,
pendant
Syrie
figypte
Voyage
(Volney,
ed. (Pans 1787, Desenne et Volland, 2 vols ), vol. i, p. 142.)
3

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

^32

same manner

as other

succumb. Again, the 'Nordic*

and
Protestant
of
tradition
the Dutch and Scottish and
physique

German

men, or

else

residents in 'the Svoboda' did not prevent the Christian

denizens of this Muscovite ghetto 1 from acquiring a strong

'family
likeness' to their Muslim neighbours and
and
contemporaries
equals
in status : the Turks of Qazan.
Moreover, if we let our eyes range farther afield over the world of
that day, we shall observe that, in the latter part of the seventeenth
century of the Christian Era, the life of the ghetto was being lived
by traders and handicraftsmen of Catholic or Protestant religion
and Western origin, not only under an Ottoman regime in Galata
and under a Muscovite regime in 'the Svoboda', but likewise under
the Mughal rulers of India on the island of
Bombay and under the
Manchu rulers of China in the 'factories' at Canton2 and under the
Shoguns of Japan on the island of Deshima.
The ingenuity and the severity with which the Japanese penalized
the Dutch have probably never been exceeded in the whole
history
of religious and racial discrimination. At
hands, Dutch

Japanese

traders endured, for more than

than any that have been inflicted

two

centuries, humiliations

worse

by Turk on Greek or by Gentile on

'Svoboda' means literally 'free-town*; yet, at the accession of Peter the Great the
atmosphere of 'the Svoboda' was essentially the same as that of Galata or the Phanar
in the same age.
2 For a
description of the conditions under which the Western merchants lived and
traded, before their 'emancipation', in the 'factories' at Canton, see Morse, H. B.: The
International Relations of the Chinese Empire (London
1910, Longmans Green) vol * i '
chs. iv and xiv, esp.
pp. 67-72:
'In 1757 an Imperial edict was issued
making Canton the sole staple, and prohibiting
alHoreign trade at any other port
'Regulations were made for the control of the foreigner, his
and his trade. , . . The
more important among them may be summarised as follows:ships
'i
Ships of war must remain outside the river, and must not enter the Bogue.
Women must not be brought to the factories; nor could guns, spears, or* other
social

Hong

merchants must not be in debt to foreigners.

Foreign traders must not engage Chinese servants.
^
Foreigners must not use sedan chairs,
*
6
116 *8 must not row for
pleasure on the river. Three days in the month fon
v
o t_ Fo^Jg
the
8th, i8th, and 28th) they might take the air at Fati (the flower
gardens acroS tie
nver) in small parties, under the escort of an interpreter, who was held, hterallv and
personally, responsible for all their misdeeds.
7- Foreigners must not present petitions ; if they have anything to represent it must

"In the Hong merchants' factories where

foreigners live, let them be under the
and control of the Hong merchants. The purchase of
goods by them must pass
through the hands of a Hong merchant; this was originally designed to
guard against
traitorous nattves misleading them and
teaching them. Hereafter the forei|n merchanS
dwelling in the Hong merchants' factories must not be allowed to
presume of their own
accord to go out and in, lest they should trade and
carry on clandestine transactions with
*8.

restraint

traitorous natives.

out of season, but, their goods sold and

'These factories provided palatial accommodation for the

foreign visitors, guests of the
Empire, but they constituted in effect a gilded cage. The only gSund for excise avail!
front of
six factories

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

Jew and the reader of the

233

a loss between admiration

for the tenacity and disgust at the servility with which these
'Nordic Protestant Occidentals held their ground and made their
money, year in and year out, under conditions which were deliberately intended to make their residence in Japan intolerable.
From A.D. 1641 to 1858,* the Dutch in Japan were rigorously 'kept
in Coventry on Deshima, a tiny island off the Japanese port of
Nagasaki ; and the privilege of being allowed to do their business in
this insular ghetto, which was accorded to the Dutch alone
among
the Western nations, had to be purchased at the price of periodic
self-abasement. One condition of the Hollanders' tenure of Deshima was that they should trample annually upon the Cross in the
presence of a Japanese official: a ceremony which was only allowed
to lapse in A.D. 1853 and was only abolished formally in i856-7. 2
Another condition was that they should pay an annual visit of
3
respect to the Shogun's capital at Yedo and should make themselves objects of public derision by cutting capers for the entertainment of the Court. 4 This was the only occasion in the year on
which the Dutch were permitted to stir outside their island prisonhouse. Yet the Dutch became so well resigned to these odious
conditions of their residence in Japan that they left it to others to
take the initiative in bringing the relations between Westerners and
Japanese on to a footing of equality ; and they showed no haste to
5
follow, even after the Americans had led the way.
The relations in which the Dutch lived with the Japanese, from
the date of their confinement on Deshima in A.D. 1641 down to the
;

story

is left at

1 On the i8th
August, 1858, a Dutch-Japanese Treaty was concluded on the pattern
of the American-Japanese Treaty which had been signed on the sist March, 1854.
2 See Murdoch, J :
History ofJapan, vol. iii (London 1926, Kegan Paul), pp. 616-17.
3 The
present Tokyo.
* In compelling the Dutch residents in Japan to demean themselves periodically in
this public manner, the Japanese authorities were deliberately seeking to make the
Western peoples and the Western Civilization ridiculous and contemptible in Japanese
eyes. Without knowing it, they were adopting one of the expedients of Spartan statecraft. In ancient Lacedaemon, the Helots were periodically compelled to exhibit themselves to their Spartan masters in a maudlin condition, in order to confirm on both sides
the impression mat the Helots were an inferior race who were born to be the slaves of the
.

Spartiates.
<
Aristotle (I think

it is) says that the Overseers (l^opot) [the chief executive officers of
the Lacedaemonian Government, who were elected annually], when they take office,
formally declare war on the Helots, in order to keep a free hand for killing Helots without
blood-guiltiness. Altogether, the Spartans' treatment of the Helots was harsh and inhuman. For instance, they used to force them to drink quantities of neat wine and then
bring them into the military messes, in order to give the young Spartiates an ocular
demonstration of what drunkenness looks like. And they used to give them orders to sing
songs and dance dances that were low and ludicrous, and not to sing or dance anything
classical. On this account they say that in the sequel, during the Theban invasion of
Laconia, when the Helot prisoners were told to sing something of Terpander's or
Alcman's or Spendo the Laconian's, they begged to be excused, on the ground that their
Spartan masters would not like it.*
Plutarch: Life of Lycurgus, ch. xxviii. Cf. eundem, Instituta Laconica, No. 30. For
Spartan institutions, see farther Part III, A, vol. iii, pp. 50-79, below.
s
Murdoch, op. cit., vol. cit., p. 618.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

234

reopening of Japan to Western commercial enterprise on normal

conditions in the middle of the nineteenth century of the Christian
Era, have their analogy in the relations between the ancient Greeks
and Egyptians from the time when the Egyptian King Amasis
(regndbat circa 569-525 B.C.) confined the Greek residents in
Egypt to the 'treaty-port* of Naucratis in the middle of the sixth

century B.C. down to the time when the Greeks were made masters
of Egypt by Alexander the Great. During those two centuries the
ancient Greeks in Egypt, like the modern Dutch in Japan, accepted
the social humiliations of a pariah status in order to earn its commercial profits, as appears plainly from the following account of the
Egyptian ritual of sacrifice in the fifth century B.C. from the hand
of a contemporary Greek observer.

'When the Egyptians have

slaughtered the sacrificial victim, they cut

Thereupon, they flay the carcase and make a fearful imprethe
cation over
head, which they then proceed to get rid of. Where they
have a market with resident Greek traders, they simply get rid of it in the
market by sale; but where there are no Greeks on the spot, they get rid
of the head by throwing it into the river. The formula of imprecation
which is recited over the head runs thus: "If any evil is impending over
us who are making this sacrifice or over the whole Land of Egypt, into
off its head.

this

head

The

let it

go!"'
situation here depicted

is

a prosaic version, 'in real

life',

of the

phantasy which Robert Louis Stevenson has played with in 'The

Bottle Imp'. The sacrificial victim's head is an object charged with
evil which the pious and sensitive Egyptian
peasant is as anxious to
get rid of as the unsophisticated Polynesian islander is anxious
to get rid of the haunted bottle. The Greek trader, who is
willing to
take the unclean head off his Egyptian neighbour's hands any
day
for the sake of a pennyworth of profit, is a sordid
counterpart of
Stevenson's sailor-man, who cheerfully carries off the bottle for the

dram and so disappears from the story. The light which

throws upon the status of the Greeks in Egypt in Herodotus's

sake of a
this

day

is

highly illuminating.

The Jews, Parsees, Nestorians, Monophysites, and Monotheletes

We have still to take note of the results of religious discrimination
in the third of our three situations: that is, where the adherents
of the penalized denomination represent a civilization which
only
survives as a 'fossil'. This situation need not be
in
surveyed
great
detail, since the phenomena are well known in themselves and do
not differ in essence from those which we have observed in the two
situations which we have examined already.
Let us glance at the various 'fossils' of the Syriac
Society which
i

Herodotus, Bk.

II, ch. 39.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

235

have been deposited, in successive social strata, during the much1

In the
interrupted and long-drawn-out course of Syriac history.
oldest stratum there are the Jews and the Parsees, who are relics of
the Syriac Society as it was in its universal state, under the Achaemenian regime, before the Hellenic intrusion. In an intermediate
stratum there are the Nestorians and the Monophysites, who are
of two abortive attempts on the part of the Syriac Society to
expel the intrusive Hellenism from its body social, and there are
the Monotheletes, who are relics of an equally abortive attempt, on
the part of the Hellenic Society 2*72 extremis, to retain its hold over a
remnant of the Syriac World. In the most recent stratum there
are the ShTls, who are the relics of a fissure in the Syriac World
which was one of the consequences of the Hellenic intrusion 2 and
which left its scar upon the Syriac body social even after the expulsion of Hellenism and the re-unification of the Syriac World
had been successfully achieved, on the whole, in the 'resumption'
of the Syriac universal state under the 'Abbasid regime and in the
establishment of a 'totalitarian' Syriac universal church in the shape
of Islam. The medium in which all these Syriac 'fossils' have been
preserved is a religious medium; their religious idiosyncrasies,
relics

which have safeguarded

their

identities

and perpetuated

their

existence in their fossil state, have also exposed them to religious

discrimination at the hands of the alien societies in the midst of

which they have managed to survive; this penalization has taken

the usual form of exclusion from certain walks of life; and it has
evoked the usual reaction in its victims. They have learnt to hold
their own in any human environment in which they are allowed to

on sufferance by excelling in those trades and handicrafts

which their activities have been compulsorily confined. 3

exist

to

(i) (6), vol. i, pp. 90-2, above, and II.

(vii), pp. 285-8, below.
partition of the Syriac World, over a span of some seven centuries, into an
eastern section which had liberated itself and a western section which had failed to
liberate itself from the Hellenic domination, see I.
(i) (b) y vol. i, pp. 75-7, above.
3 In
general, the reaction evoked by religious penalization among the representatives
of a 'fossil* civilization seems to be more thoroughgoing than the reaction which the
same challenge evokes among members of a civilisation which is stall a 'going concern*.
The 'fossils' are apt to learn how to hold their own, under penalization, in any number
1

See

For the

I.

of human environments successively or simultaneously, whereas the range of penalized

religious minorities whose civilizations are still 'going concerns* is apt to remain within
the ambit of some single society. Yet this broad distinction is by no means absolute. For
example, the Levantines and the Greeks and the Gujeratis, who are members of the
Western and the Orthodox Christian and the Hindu Society respectively, have shown
themselves as versatile as the 'fossil* Jews and Parsees and Armenians and Nestorians and
Maronites. Having served their apprenticeship in penalization under an Islamic regime

the Levantines and Greeks under the Ottoman Empire and the Gujeratis under the
they have each extended their range anto other environments: the
raj in India
Greeks into Western Europe and America; the Gujeratis into the colonial domains of
the Western peoples in East and South Africa; the Levantines into Russia and India
and the Far East. Conversely, the 'fossil* Copts have not made themselves at home
outside Egypt any more than 'the Old Believers* have made themselves at home outside
the Russian Empire or the Quakers outside the English-speaking World.

Muslim

236

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

The

Jews, for example, have overcome the social handicap which

their religious idiosyncrasy entails by holding their own successof human environfully, as traders and financiers, in a great variety
ments. They have found a place for themselves first in the Syriac
and Hellenic worlds and then in the Arabic and Iranic and Western
worlds; and during the last few centuries they have kept pace
with the expansion of Western Christendom until nowadays their
activities and interests extend, as widely as those of our modern
Western Society itself, over all the habitable lands and navigable
seas on the face of the planet. The Parsees, for their part, have
played the same role in the Hindu World as the Jews have played
elsewhere; and they have shown the same elasticity and initiative
as the Jews in using their special skill and experience to good effect
in a variety of circumstances. Having acquired their expertise in
trade and finance in a Hindu economic environment, they have
managed to turn it to account in the utterly different economic
environment which has been created in India by the impact of our
Western Civilization; and their response to the challenge of this
impact has been so much more effective than the response of
the Hindus and Muslims among whom they live that they have
profited by the ordeal of 'Westernization* to increase the economic ascendancy over their Indian neighbours which they already
possessed before the challenge from the West was presented.
The Armenian Gregorian Monophysites have shown the same
ability and adaptability in the same lines of activity as the Parsees
and the Jews, until, at the present day, the Armenian merchant,
like the Jewish financier, has become ubiquitous.
In a narrower
field, the Syrian Jacobite Monophysites have reacted like their
Armenian co-religionists, while the Coptic Monophysites have held
their own by acquiring a virtual monopoly of the local but lucrative
business of farming the land-tax in their native Egypt.
The Monophysites started their career by holding out under the
religious persecution which they had to suffer at the hands of an
Orthodox Christian regime in the Roman Empire. * The Nestorians,
for whom life in the Roman Empire was made
impossible, transferred their head-quarters to Iraq and Iran, and held their own
there, not only as

men

of business but as physicians, under the

comparativelytolerant SasanidandUmayyadand 'Abbasid regimes
and they did not perish in the social cataclysm which overwhelmed
;

The Monophysites called their Orthodox Christian oppressors 'Melchites', that is to

say 'Imperialists'-^-Orthodox Christianity (from which the Catholic Christianity of the
West had not yet differentiated itself) being the established religion of the Roman Imperial
regime under which the Monophysites Jiad to live from the year 451, when the schism
came to an open breach, down to the Arab conquest of the Roman provinces in Syria and
Egypt towards the middle of the seventh century.
1

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

237
these regions at the break-up of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, when
Baghdad was sacked, and the irrigation-system of 'Iraq put out of
action, by the Mongols.

Before this catastrophe overtook their base of operations in the

Syriac World, the Nestorians had already learnt to make themselves at home in other human environments at the ends of the
Earth. In one direction, they made their way by sea along the west
coast of India, beyond the farthest point to which the Parsee sphere
of influence extended, and established a sphere of their own at the
extremity of the Indian Peninsula, where their descendants or converts survive to this day as 'Saint Thomas's Christians' in Travancore. In another direction, they ventured out overland, beyond the
farthest outposts of the Syriac World in Transoxania, into the heart
of the great Eurasian Steppe, and made their way, from oasis to
oasis, across the whole breadth of the wilderness until they emerged
on the other side in China. These continental Nestorian pioneers
who once won a footing in Central Asia and in the Far East have
left no survivors. Yet, although in this sense they have been less
successful than their co-religionists who followed the maritime
route to India, 1 they have succeeded in making a greater mark upon
the history of Mankind during their briefer day*
In the Far East the Nestorians were an active element in Society
in the age of the T'ang (imperabant A.D. 618-907) ; and in the oases
of the Eurasian Steppe they succeeded in converting the sedentary
Turkish Uighurs and came near to establishing a distinctive Far
Eastern Christian Civilization in the midst of the supremely adverse
human environment of Nomadism. 2 It is true that this tour de

The prospect was compromised in A.D. 737-41,

of
when the oases
Transoxania, which had been the 'jumping-off
ground' of the Nestorians in their overland venture, were permanently incorporated into the Arab Empire and were thereby
transferred from the sphere of Nestorian Christendom to the sphere
of Islam. The coup degrdce was delivered in A.D. 1203-6, when the
the Karayits 3 and
semi-Nestorianized Nomads of the high steppe

force

was

abortive.

were successively
the more powerful and progressive Naimans
defeated by the pagan chief of the Mongols, Chingis Khan. The
Basin of the Orkhon, over which the Karayits and the Naimans
ranged at the time, was a key-position; and the conquest of its
* Even in
India, Nestorianism has now lost its heritage ; for, in the third quarter of the
seventeenth century, the allegiance of Saint Thomas's Christians was usurped, under
false pretences, by the Jacobite Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch. (See above, I. B (iii),

vol.

i,

footnote 3

on

p. 35.)

This abortive Far Eastern Christian Civilization

on pp. 369-85, below.

s
Wang Khan, the prince of the
legendary 'Prester John*.

Karayits,

is

discussed further in II.

was perhaps the

fvii),

historic original of the

z3 8

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

contemporary occupants was the

career.

It is

decisive step in Chingis'

interesting to speculate what the future of Nestorian
first

Christendom might have been if Wang Khan the Karayit and not
Chingis Khan the Mongol had won the day in A.D. 1203, or again if
Tayan Khan the Naiman had won in 1206.
was, the Nestorian pioneers in the Nomadic World
were able, thanks to their local monopoly of the elements of a higher
culture, to hold their own after the overthrow of their Karayit and
Naiman patrons; and the Mongol conqueror took them into his
service as scribes and accountants and recorders. For the best part
of a century, while the centre of gravity of the Mongol Empire still
remained on the Steppe and its seat of government in Trester
John's' country at Qaraqorum, on the head-waters of the Orkhon,
the archives of the Great Khan's Court were kept by Nestorian
Christian secretaries in a Uighur Turkish dialect conveyed in a
Syriac Alphabet. The Nestorians even made some distinguished
Mongol converts. Hulagu Khan, who sacked Baghdad and devastated "Iraq (the original point of departure of the Nestorian
Dispersion) in A.D. 1258, had a Nestorian wife; and Hulagu's

Even

as

it

advance-guard, which captured Damascus in A.D. 1260, was commanded by a Nestorian general. It will be seen that the history of
these Nestorian Christian Turkish Uighurs bears a certain resemblance to the history of the Orthodox Christian Greek Phanariots.
They just missed their 'manifest destiny' ; yet, in response to the
challenge of penalization, they had developed certain special accomplishments which so enhanced their social value in the human
environment in which they lived that they were virtually taken into
1
partnership by the rulers of a great empire.
As for the Maronite Monotheletes, they have served an apprenticeship as clerks and traders in the Arabic World
especially in
the fat land of Egypt which lies on the threshold of their own lean
Lebanese fastness and they have known, like the Jews and the
Parsees and the Armenians, how to profit by the recent economic
expansion of the Western Society over the face of the planet. The
original field of Maronite commercial enterprise in Egypt now
counts for less in the Maronite economy than the larger and more
lucrative fields which the Maronites have found for themselves in
the United States, in Latin America, and in the French Colonial
Empire in West Africa. Similarly, the Isma'IlI Shi'is (alias Assassins
alias Khwajas) have served an
apprenticeship in India and have
profited by 'the opening-up of Africa', where they have found a
i
For the role pkyed by the Nestorians in the Mongol Empire, see Vkdimirtsov B.Y
The Life of Chingis Khan (English translation : London 1930,
Routledge) ; and Barthold
W.: Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (English translation: London 1028 Luzac)
'

pp. 386-92.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

new

239

of enterprise in the British protectorates and colonies and

mandated territories along the East-African seaboard of the Indian
Ocean. At the opposite extremity of the Arabic World, the 'Ibadi
Kharijites have held their own in a Sunm environment as a mercan1
tile class in the
Maghrib.
field

So much for the reactions to the challenge of religious discrimination which can be observed among the 'fossils' of the Syriac
Society. If we turn from these to the 'fossils' of the Indie Society,
we can observe at least one reaction of the same nature to the same
challenge among the Jains in India, who, together with the Hinayanian Buddhists in Ceylon, are relics of the Indie Society as it was
before the Hellenic intrusion and who thus correspond in stratum
to the Jews and the Parsees. 2 In Bengal and Assam at the present
day, retail trade is a perquisite of Jain shop-keepers from the State
of

Marwar

in Rajputana. 3

For the 'Ibadls, see Gautier, E. F.: Les Siecles Obscurs du Maghreb (Paris 1927,
Payot), pp. 303-4:
'Les Mzabites actuels sont assurement les descendants des ibadites rost&nides, mais
ils ont beaucoup chang
en mille ans. Us ont subi une transformation qui est frequence
1

dans la socie"te orientale. Comme les Armemens, comme les Parsis, comme les Juifs, qui
sont Texemple le plus eclatant, les Mzabites depuis recroulement de Tempire sont
devenus une sorte de tribu, ou plutdt de nation constitute par des siecles d'lntermariage
et speciahsee dans le maniement de Pargent, ou, par developpement atavique progressif,
ils
ont^pass^ maitre.^ Malgre" reparpifiement des individus dans toutes les villes de
ou il y a un mouvement d'affaires possible, la cohesion de la nation
FAlgejrie, partout
mzabite, qui est incroyablement forte, son patriotisme hargneux et profond&nent m<prisant, sont assures uniquement par le lien religieux. Cette croute protectrice religieuse
s'est incessamment epaissie de siecle en siecle, elle s'est consolide'e d'une armature compliquee de subtilites thologiques et de pratiques cultuelles minutieuses.*
a For the 'fossils' of the Indie
Society and their stratification, see I. B (iii), vol. i,
p. 35, and I. C (i) (i), vol. i, pp. 90-2, above.
3 The remarkable
resemblance, in Strips and occupation, between the Marwaris on the
one hand and the Jews, Parsees, Armenians, and Maronites on the other is apparent in
the following series of concordant testimonies from a number of independent authorities :
*Of the four well-known castes ofIndia, viz., the Brahmana, the Kshatriya, the Vaishya,
and the Sudia, the principal caste engaged in banking is the Vatshya. Among the
Vaishyas are included the Jainas, Marwaris and Chettis who are the most important
bankers in India. . . . The Martoaris, who are either Jamas or Vaishnavttes, come from the
Marwar State of Rajputana and Central India. The majority are settled as permanent
residents in Central India, but some of them travel from one place to another in search of
business. Quite a number of Mancari merchants and bankers have migrated to trade
centres like Bombay and Calcutta, whence they return home either when trade is slack
or to perform religious ceremonies
Very few of them are educated on Western lines
and fewer still are acquainted with English commercial practice, but the way in which
they conduct their business is remarkable. Gifted with a natural knack for trade, the
Marwari boys quickly learn their arithmetic and accounting and start work in their
family shops, where they soon pick up the necessary technique. To give an instance of
their efficiency, while an English-educated graduate of an Indian university may take five
minutes to work out on a piece of paper the compound interest on a given sum, the
Marwari boy will get an answer correct to the nearest pie mentally, without the aid of
pen and paper, in less than half a minute. Of course they are unfamiliar with the modern
progress in their craft which is taking place in foreign countries, but, in their own sphere,
they are by no means wanting in capacity.' (Jain, L. C. : Indigenous Banking in India
(London 1929, Macmillan).)
'Almost every province has its peculiar trade-castes. The Mawaris of Rajputana are,
however, found almost everywhere, and in Assam they are of more importance than the
natives of the province.' (Anstey, Vera: The Economic Development of India (London
1929, Longmans Green), quoting from the Imperial Gazetteer*)
'The Marwaris, whose home is in the Marwar State of Rajputana, have an evil repute
as usurers and skinflints. They are found in all the great trading cities, and much of the

2 4o

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

The Ashkena%im, Sephardim, Donme, and Marranos

Having now made some survey of the stimulating effects of
religious discrimination over a wide field, we may pause, before
proceeding to the next point in our study, in order to test the
potency of this stimulus by our usual comparative method. The
test can be applied here in two ways. We can compare the gthos
displayed by members of a religious denomination when they are
being penalized on account of their religion with the fethos of the
same people, or their co-religionists, when the penalization has been
partly or wholly remitted. We can also compare their ethos with
the ethos of co-religionists to whom the stimulus of penalization
has never been administered.
To start with the first of these two comparative tests, we can
observe a series of gradations in the present 6thos of diverse communities of Jews who are subject to penalization in different degrees
of rigour or laxity.
At the present time, the Jews who display most conspicuously
the well-known fethos which is commonly called 'J ewi s h'> and
which in Gentile minds is popularly assumed to be the hall-mark of
Judaism always and everywhere, are the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern
Europe who, in Rumania and in the adjoining territories which used
to be included in the so-called 'Jewish Pale' of the ci-devant Russian
Empire, are still being kept morally, if not juridically, in the ghetto
by the backward Christian nations among whom their lot is cast.

The

'Jewish* ethos is already less conspicuous among the 'emancipated' Jews of Holland, France, Great Britain, and the United
States ; and when we consider how short a time has
passed since the

emancipation of the Jews took place, and how far from being
complete their moral emancipation still is, even in the enlightened
countries of the West, we shall not underrate the significance of the

legal

change of

fethos

which

already apparent here.

may also observe that, among the emancipated Jews of the
West, those of Ashkenazi origin, who have come from 'the Jewish
Pale', still appear distinctly more 'Jewish' in ethos than the rarer
is

We

of Northern India (London 1907, Constable).)

*Marwari, literally a native of Malwa or Marwar. Most of the Marwaris found in
Bengal are bankers and traders, usually Jains. The name gives no definite indication of
caste
In fact all traders from Rajputana and the neighbouring districts are commonly
called Marwaris.' (Risley, H. H.: The Tribes and Castes
of Bengal (Calcutta 1891, Secre-

tariat Press).)

a territorial name, meaning a native of Marwar. At times of

census, Marhave been returned as a caste of Jains, i.e., Marvaris who are Jains by
religion. The
Marvaris are enterprising traders, who have settled in various parts of Southern India
and are, in the city of Madras, money lenders.'
(Thurston, E.: Castes and Tribes of
Southern India (Madras 1909, Government Press).)
See also the Report of the Calcutta
University Commission (London 1917, H.M.
*Marvari

varis

Stationery Office, 3 vols.), vol.

i,

p. 25.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

241

Sephardim in our midst, who have come originally from Dar-alIslam; and we shall account for this difference by reminding
ourselves of the diversity in the history of those two Jewish
communities.

The Ashkenazim

are descended from Jews who took advantage

of the opening-up of Europe by the Romans and made a Jewish
perquisite of the retail trade in the semi-barbarous Transalpine

Since the conversion and break-up of the Roman

provinces.
Empire, these Ashkenazim have had to suffer doubly from the
fanaticism of the Christian Church and from the resentment of the
barbarians.
barbarian cannot bear to see a resident alien living

a life apart and making a profit by transacting business which the

barbarian lacks the skill to transact for himself; and the barbarian
neophytes of Western Christendom have been humiliated by the
superior ability and filled with envy by the superior prosperity of
the indispensable Ashkenazi Jew. Acting on these feelings, they
have penalized the Jew as long as he has remained indispensable

and have expelled him as soon as they have become

capable of doing without him; and accordingly the rise and expansion of the Western Civilization since the days of Charlemagne
and Otto I 1 have been accompanied by an eastward drift of the
Ashkenazim from the ancient inarches of the Roman Empire in
the Rhineland to the modern marches of Western Christendom in
'the Pale*. In the expanding interior of Western Christendom, the
Jews have been evicted from one country after another as successive
Western peoples have attained a certain level of economic efficiency,
to them,

while, in the advancing continental fringe, these Jewish exiles

from the interior have been admitted and even invited into one
5
country after another, in the initial stages of 'Westernization , as
commercial pioneers, only to be penalized and eventually evicted
once again as soon as they have once again ceased to be indispensable
in their latest transitory asylum.
In 'the Pale* and in Rumania, this long trek of the Ashkenazi
Jews from west to east across the Continent of Europe has been
brought to a halt and their martyrdom has reached its climax; for

Western Christendom with Russian

Orthodox Christendom, the Jews have been caught and ground
between the upper and the nether millstone. In the fullness of
time, the local barbarian converts to Western Christianity on this
extreme eastern verge of Western Christendom have acted after
their kind. As they have gradually improved their own economic
capacities, they have progressively penalized the Jews in their
midst and have eventually begun to cast them out. This time,
here, at the meeting-point of

II

See

II.

(v),

pp. 166-74, above.

242

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

however, the evicted Ashkenazim have been unable to find a fresh

asylum by trekking still farther eastward. Beyond the eastern
boundary of 'the Pale', 'Holy Russia' has barred their way.
For the Jews, Russian soil has been forbidden ground from the
time when Western and Russian Christendom originally made
contact with one another on the Continent in the fourteenth
century of the Christian Era right down to the Russian Communist
Revolution of A.D. 1917. This barrier did not fall when Russia
opened her doors to the Western Civilization in the generation of
Peter the Great; and it did not fall thereafter when the eastern
marches of Western Christendom were incorporated politically
into the Russian Empire. The old frontier between Muscovy and
the United Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, which the Partition of
Poland obliterated for the Christian subjects of the Czar, remained
in force for the Jew as an eastern limit which he was
absolutely
forbidden to pass. It was fortunate indeed for the Ashkenazim that
by this time the leading nations of the West, which had been the
first to evict the Jews in the Middle Ages, had risen to a
height of

economic efficiency at which they were no longer afraid of exposing

themselves to Jewish economic competition in a free field with no
favour. The emancipation of the Jews in the West came just in
time to give the Ashkenazim of 'the Pale' a new western outlet when
their old eastward drift was brought up short against the blank wall
of 'Holy Russia'. During the past century, the tide of Ashkenazi
migration has been ebbing back from east to west from 'the Pale'
and Rumania into England and the United States. It is not to be
wondered at that, with these antecedents, the Ashkenazim whom
this ebb-tide has deposited among us should
display the so-called
Jewish' ethos more conspicuously tiban their Sephardi co-religionists
whose 'lines' have 'fallen' 1 in comparatively pleasant places.
To the author of this Study, the spiritual and political duress
under which the Ashkenazim have had to live their life in 'the Pale'
was brought home by the following two anecdotes which were
recounted to him in 1919, during the Peace Conference of Paris,
by
Dr. Chaim Weizmann in order to explain why this great statesman
and scientist the most distinguished member of the Ashkenazi
community in his generation had become a convert to Zionism.
The first anecdote was this. In Dr. Weizmann's boyhood, at
Vilna, there was a young Jewish sculptor of great promise who was
expected to become one of the historic exponents of the Jewish
culture. The young man's promise was fuelled, but
Jewry's hope
was disappointed; for the chef d'ceuvre in which this Jewish artist
eventually gave expression to his genius was a statue of the Russian
:

Psalm

xvi. 6.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

243
Orthodox Christian Czar Ivan the Terrible! Under the duress of
'the Pale', Jewish genius had been perverted to the glorification of
Jewry's oppressors. It was as if the chefd'oeuwe of Jewish literature
in the second century B.C. had not been the Book of Ecclesiastes or
the Psalms but some panegyric, in the Isocratean manner, upon
Antiochus Epiphanes. Truly, that statue of a Russian Czar by the
hand of a Vilna Jew was as great an eyesore for Jewish eyes as the
statue of Zeus which the Seleucid once set up in the Temple of
Yahweh at Jerusalem an 'abomination of desolation standing where
:

it

ought not'.
Dr. Weizmann's second anecdote was an incident which had

happened to himself

as a

grown man before

his migration

from

Vilna to Manchester.
piece of urgent business made it indisfor
him
to
break the Russian law then in force, under the
pensable
Czardom, by trespassing beyond the eastern boundary of 'the Pale'
in order to have a personal meeting with a friend in Moscow. As
a precaution against the vigilance of the Russian police, it was
arranged beforehand that Dr. Weizmann should travel from Vilna
to Moscow in a train arriving at nightfall, do his business in his
friend's house during the night, and return to Vilna by a train
leaving Moscow before dawn; but this arrangement fell through.
For some reason, the friend whom Dr. Weizmann had come to see
was unable to keep the appointment; and Dr. Weizmann found on
inquiry that there was no return-train to Vilrta earlier than the
train which he had been intending to take. How should he pass the
night hours ? To engage a room in a hotel would be tantamount
to delivering himself up to the police. Dr. Weizmann solved the
the streets of
problem by hiring a cab and driving round and round
Moscow until the hour of his train's departure. * And that', he concluded, 'was how I had to pass my time on my one and only visit to
the capital of the Empire of which I was supposed to be a citizen!'
Such anecdotes as these sufficiently explain the ethos of the
c
Ashkenazi immigrants from the Pale' into the more enlightened
countries of the modern Western World; and the less highly
'
accentuated Jewishness* of the ethos which we observe among the
Sephardi immigrants from Spain and Portugal is explained by the
antecedents of the Sephardim in Dar-al-Islam.
"
The representatives of the Jewish Dispersion in the dominions of
the Sasanidae and in those provinces of the Roman Empire which
ultimately fell to the Arabs and not to the North European barbarians found themselves in a happy position compared with their unfortunate co-religionists in the Rhineland. Their status under the
regime of the 'Abbasid Caliphate was certainly not less favourable
1

Mark

xiii.

14;

Matthew

xxiv. 15;

Luke

xxi. 20;

Daniel

ix.

27.

244

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

than the status of Jews to-day in those Western countries where the
Jews have been 'emancipated'; and it did not become intolerable
when the Caliphate broke up and the Syriac Society finally dissolved in the interregnum from which the 'affiliated' Arabic and
Iranic societies subsequently emerged. The historic calamity of the
Sephardim was the transfer of the Iberian Peninsula from the

domain of the Syriac to the domain of the Western Civilization: a

transfer which began towards the close of the tenth century of the
Christian Era and was consummated, some five centuries later, in
the conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella. The change of
J
and
regime was effected, from beginning to end, by force of arms
local
the
calamity which this violent social change entailed for the
Sephardim, in common with the Muslimin among whom they lived,
was extreme in its severity. The Muslims and the Jews who came
under Christian rule in the Iberian Peninsula were not offered the
choice of retaining their old religion and culture under the new
regime at the price of penalization, as the Ashkenazim were permitted to live under Western Christian domination on the other
side of the Pyrenees or the Orthodox Christians and the Levantines
under Muslim domination in the Ottoman Empire. In the Iberian
Peninsula, the conquered communities had to choose between the
three alternatives of annihilation, expulsion, and conversion. In
Spain, the choice was presented to the Jews during the century
which began with the great persecution of AJD. 1391 and ended with
Ferdinand and Isabella's edict of expulsion in 1492. Let us glance
at the latter state of those Peninsular Sephardim who saved their
lives in one of the two alternative ways and whose
posterity there;

fore survives

down

to this day.

Peninsular Sephardim who preferred to go into exile rather than

to be received into the Roman Catholic Church
or rather than to
remain forced and insincere converts to the Roman Catholic faith
found asylum among the enemies of Catholic Portugal and Spain :
the Portuguese Sephardim in Protestant Holland, the Castilian
Sephardim in Muslim Turkey, and members of both communities
in tolerant Tuscany,2 The 'Osmanlis gave asylum to the Jewish
refugees from Castile for several reasons.
1

For the

above.
a

effect

They

of this warfare upon the Iberian Christians, see

felt

II.

the normal
(v),

pp. 203-6,

For the eventual dispersion abroad of the descendants of the Sephardi Jews who
were forcibly converted in Castile in A.D. 1391 and in Portugal in A.D. 1497, see
Roth, C. :
A History of the Marranos (London 1932, Routledge), especially chapters viii-xi.
The
history of the Peninsular Sephardi community which was founded at Leghorn in A.D.
*593 (see op. cit., pp. 214-19) by Spanish and Portuguese crypto-Jewish refugees who
were able to return openly to their ancestral faith under the Tuscan Government's
protection, may be compared with the history of the autonomous Greek community which
was founded in the last quarter of the eighteenth century at Ayvalyq under the aegis of
the Ottoman Padishah. (See II. D (ii), p. 40, footnote
x, above.)

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

245

human sympathy for the victims of their enemies (and the United
Kingdom of Castile and Aragon was the principal enemy of the
Ottoman Power in the Mediterranean) they inherited the normal
Muslim tradition of liberality towards Jews and they had a special
;

raison d'etat for

welcoming Jewish immigration into their dominions

at this juncture.

While the

had been rounding off their conquests and

confirming their supremacy in the Iberian Peninsula, the 'Osmanlis
had been rounding off their own conquests in the Balkan Peninsula
and Anatolia and were anxious to confirm their supremacy likewise
in their own domain. They were not, however, at liberty to confirm it by cutting the Gordian Knot in the Occidental fashion; for,
in the eyes of the Islamic Law, Jews and Christians as well as Muslims had certain fundamental and inalienable rights in virtue of
their common belief in the One True God. The recipients of the
Torah and the Bible, as well as the recipients of the Qur'an, were
'People of the Book' and to non-Muslim 'People of the Book' who
had succumbed to Muslim arms the Muslim conqueror was instructed to offer a less cruel choice than the three alternatives which
were offered to vanquished Muslims and Jews by the Christian
Church Militant in Spain. His Catholic Majesty cut the knot by
giving any vanquished miscreants who did not conveniently dispose
of themselves by fighting to the death a choice between conversion
and expulsion. The Muslim conqueror must give them the choice
between conversion and toleration the condition of toleration
being the acceptance of a status of inferiority and the payment of a
special super-tax. In other words, the Muslim conqueror was bound
by the Islamic Law to face the problem of having permanently
under his rule an alien population which was subject to penalization
but not devoid of rights. This problem was a severe test of statesmanship in a situation in which the dhimmls were the majority and
the Muslims the minority; and this was the situation in which the
Ottoman Padishah found himself after the Ottoman Empire had
been rounded off by Ferdinand and Isabella's older contemporary
Mehmed the Conqueror. Ottoman statesmanship sought to find a
Castilians

solution for

its

problem by giving the Castilian Jewish refugees

asylum and taking them into partnership.

The 'Osmanlis were confident of their own ability to fill the roles
of rulers and soldiers and peasants, in which the immigrant Castilian
Jews would have neither the power nor the inclination to compete
with them. On the other hand, they knew themselves to be incompetent to supplant the conquered Greek Orthodox and Levantine
Catholic Christians in the field of handicraft and trade; and at the
same time they were afraid that these tolerated but unreconciled

246

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

native subjects might remain too strong for the safety of the Ottoman Commonwealth if even in this limited field they were permitted

to retain a monopoly. Accordingly, the Ottoman Government not

only gave the Castilian Jews asylum in its dominions but carefully
Salonica, Adrianople,
planted them in the chief commercial centres
these Jews should
that
and Constantinople itself with the intention

take the lion's share in the one field of social activity which the
'Osmanlis themselves were unable to occupy. This intention was
fulfilled.

The Sephardim, whose

ancestors had made themselves

fifteen or twenty centuries before the

past-masters in this field some

Christian subjects of the 'Osmanlis were confined to it, were easily
able, with the Ottoman Government's political support, to draw the
main threads of Near Eastern commerce into their own hands.
Under the Ottoman regime, they prospered commercially in the
Near East as they had once prospered commercially in the Iberian
Peninsula. At the same time
and this is the significant point for
our present purpose
they developed under the Ottoman regime
a quite different ethos from the Jewish Sthos as we know it in the
West, because the treatment which they received at the 'Osmanlis'
hands was quite different from the treatment which Jews have
customarily received at the hands of Westerners.
The psychological effect of four centuries of the Ottoman regime
upon the descendants in the Near East of these Sephardi refugees
from Castile was once brought home to the writer of this Study by
an incident which came under his personal observation.

One day in August 1921 some eight years and more after Salonica,
,

with

Sephardi population of eighty thousand souls, had passed

by conquest out of Ottoman jurisdiction into Greek, I found myself
its

travelling

by

train

from Salonica to Vodena in the same carriage

with three Sephardi school-teachers going on a holiday and one

Greek officer going to rejoin his regiment. The holiday-makers
two girls and a man were in high spirits, and they gave vent to
their mood by breaking into
song. They sang in French the 'culture language' in which the modern Near Eastern Jew has found
the necessary supplement to his hereditary Castilian vernacular.
After they had been singing for some time, the Greek lieutenant
broke his own silence. 'Won't you sing in Greek for a
change ?' he
said* 'This country is
part of Greece now, and you are Greek
citizens.' But his intervention had no effect. 'We
prefer French'
the Jews answered, politely but
firmly, and fell to singing lustily in
French again, while the Greek lieutenant subsided. There was one
person in the carriage, however, who was even more surprised at
the Jewish teachers' reply to the Greek officer than the Greek himself, and that was the Prankish spectator.
Seldom, he reflected,
:

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

247

would a Jew have shown such spirit in such circumstances in France

or England or America. The incident bore witness to the relative
humanity with which the Jews in the Ottoman Empire had been
treated by the 'Osmanlis and it also had a wider and more interesting significance. It was evidence that the Jewish ethos was not
something ineradicably implanted by Race or something indelibly
ingrained by Religion but was a psychic variable which was apt
;

to vary in response to variations in Gentile behaviour in different

times and places.

This inference

supported by other varieties of Jewish ethos

within the Sephardi community itself. For instance, there is the
Donme: 1 a fraction of the immigrant Castilian Jewish community
in the Near East which has been in communion with Islam for some
two and a half centuries. 2 These ci-devant Jews have parted company with their former co-religionists without wholly merging
themselves in the fraternity of Islam. They have remained in some
c
degree a peculiar people', neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. Nevertheless, their rapprochement, so far as it has gone, towards the ruling
element in the society in which they live has been accompanied by
a visible diminution of the distinctively 'Jewish' element in their
thos.
that is, the descendants of
fortiori, in the Marranos
those Peninsular Sephardim who were induced or compelled some
four or five centuries ago to be received into the Roman Catholic
Church rather than go into exile 3 the distinctive Jewish characteristics have been attenuated to vanishing point.
There is reason to believe that in Spain and Portugal to-day there
is a strong tincture of the blood of these Jewish converts in Christian
veins, especially in the upper and middle class. Yet the most acute
is

psycho-analyst might find it difficult, if samples of living upper

and middle class Spaniards and Portuguese were presented to him
for examination, to distinguish those who had from those who had
not a Jewish strain in their physical race. Indeed, in most cases
our psycho-analyst would have no psychic data here to go upon in
attempting to separate the sheep from the goats; for in most cases
he would be unable to detect in his subjects any sense, either conscious or sub-conscious, of their Jewish antecedents, even where
1

*D6nme*

is

a Turkish verbal noun meaning 'conversion*.

The Donme community consists of the descendants of those ex-Castilian Ottoman

Jews who followed Sabbatai Zevi: a Smyrniot Jew who proclaimed himself Messiah in
2

A D. 1648. In 1666, the year in which the Smyrniot Messiah was to enter into his kingdom, the Ottoman Government, which had left him completely at liberty to propagate
his claims for eighteen years, at last took the precaution of mteming him; and thereafter
Sabbatai obtained his release by making a volte face and proclaiming his conversion to
Islam, in which his example was followed by his disciples. For Sabbatai Zevi's career,
see Kastein, J. : The Messiah of Isrrrir: Sabbatai Zevi (London 1931, Lane).
3 A
genuine choice'between conversion and expulsion was offered to the Castilian Jews
between A.D. 1391 and A.D. 1492. On the other hand, in AJX I497> the Portuguese Jews
were coerced into apostasy wholesale. (See Roth, op.

cit.,

pp. 55-62.)

248

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

the Jewish physical strain was actually present. The forced converts themselves and the first few generations of their descendants
may have remained crypto-Jews the next few generations may have
preserved some memory of their ancestors having only been Gentiles and Catholics in outward form ; but, when once the traditional
social barriers had been broken down by the formal act of conversion, the perpetual intercourse and repeated intermarriage between the posterity of the converts and the hereditary members
of the society into which their forefathers' act had initiated them
;

must gradually have produced

its full

psychological effect among

the great majority of the ci-devant- Jewish families With the passage
of time, a generation must have arrived in which the Jewish consciousness and the Jewish gthos were totally extinct. 1
Thus, in Jewry, we find a graded sequence of types Ashkenazi,
in
Sephardi, Donme, crypto-Jew, and ci-devant-Jewish Catholic
which the Jewish ethos varies in intensity through all the degrees
from maximum to vanishing point; and we observe that these
variations in the intensity of the Jewish fethos correspond to variations in the severity of the penalization to which Jewry has been
subjected by the Gentiles. The distinctive ethos of the penalized
religious denomination becomes less and less sharply accentuated
.

as the penalization is progressively remitted; and this social law is

not valid only for the Jews. Its operation can be illustrated from the

history of other penalized sects

whose

reactions

we

have examined

above.

Nabobs and Sahibs

Examples are afforded by the history of those Western Christian

traders who have lived the ghetto-life, under alien
regimes, in the
1 This final
extinction of the Jewish consciousness and Sthos in the Marranos is of
to judge by a remarkable passage in chapter xi of George
surprisingly recent date
Borrow s The Bible in Spain. For the author arrived off the coast of the Peninsula on the
loth November, 1835, and wrote the preface to his book on the 26th
November, 1842,
so that the incident recorded in chapter xi must have occurred between these two dates
that is to say, if the tale is to be taken literally as the record of an actual
experience and
is not to be interpreted as a
literary artifice for conveying the 'feel* of a crypto-Jew's
existence as Borrow had reconstructed this in imagination from a
book-study of the
history of the Marranos in earlier centuries. Be that as it may, Sorrow's description of
his alleged encounter and conversation with the
mysterious Abarbenel on the road to
Talavera is eminently worth reading; and, since the passage is far too long to
quote in full,
and far too fine a piece of literary art to be quoted at all except
verbatim, the writer of
this Study must be content to refer his readers to it and
urge them to re-read it for themselves. The authenticity of Sorrow's
alleged encounter with a living Marrano in Spain
appears by no means incredible in the light of the well-authenticated fact that, in Portugal, a rural population of Marranos has come to notice, and has even
begun to return
publicly to its ancestral faith, since the overthrow of the Monarchy and establishment of
the Republic in A.D. 1910 (See Roth, op. cit.,
Epilogue.) The survival of crypto-Jewish
communities in the Iberian Peninsula over a span of more than four centuries is
amazing;
and our amazement will be increased when we consider
that, throughout the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries of the Christian Era, this subterranean
Jewish community was
being weakened all the time by a steady drain of its more active and enterprising members,
who lost no opportunity of emigrating in order to return publicly to their ancestral
religion in a Dutch or Tuscan or Ottoman asylum.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

249

Ottoman Empire and Russia and India and the Far

East. These
Western
Christian
residents
in
Oriental
counformerly penalized
tries have all been 'emancipated' from their
ghettos successively in
the course of the last two and a half centuries : the 'Niemci' from
the Muscovite Svoboda' in the time of Peter the Great the French
and English from their 'factories' on the coasts of India after the
death of Awrangzlb the Franks from their segregated quarters in
the lichelles du Levant after Bonaparte's landing in Egypt in AJX
1798; the 'South Sea Barbarians' from their 'factories' at Canton
after the Anglo-Chinese 'Opium War' of A.D. 1839-42; the Dutch
from Deshima after the visit of Admiral Perry's squadron toYedo
Bay in A.D 1 853 The nature and manner and extent of the 'emancipation' have been different in each case ; but there is one thing that
can be said of all these cases with equal truth. In all the cases, a
more or less uniform 'Jewish' ethos, which these Western residents
under an alien regime had developed in response to a more or less
uniform penalization, has faded or vanished altogether as the social
conditions conducive to it have been mitigated.
The most astonishing case is that of the servants of the English
*

In this case, the reversal of fortune

was rapid and extreme. Within the span of less than a century, the
Company's servants rose from being a bevy of clerks and shopkeepers who were permitted to do their business on suiferance on
the fringe of 'the Great Mogul's' dominions until they found themselves the undisputed masters of India and acknowledged heirs
of 'the Great Mogul' himself, who only retained a shadow of his
East India

Company

in India.

hereditary sovereignty as the Company's protege and pensioner.

The change of ethos which the English in India underwent in the
course of this century was fully commensurate with their change in
status. The 'Nabob' of the eighteenth century became the 'Sahib' 1
of the nineteenth. In the character of Jos Sedley, Thackeray has
simply given a touch of caricature to a life-like portrait of the 'AngloIndian' 2 as he continued to be until after the turn of the century.
Yet already the revolutionary change of circumstances in India had
made Thackeray's picture an anachronism. The Battle of Waterloo,
which is signalized in fiction by Jos Sedley's headlong flight, was
won as a matter of historical fact by a 'sepoy general' ; and in the
1 This title
'Sahib*, which has come to be applied to the_ Englishman in India, is an
Arabic word which, in its classical usage, means *a companion of the Prophet Muhammad*. The application of a title with this connotation to the infidel son of a shopkeeper
shows how completely 'the nation of shopkeepers* was transfigured in the Indian imagination when it succeeded the Mughals in the role of being the rilling race;! and this, in
turn, shows how profound a change must have taken place in the ethos of the English
in India themselves, since it is evident that the Indians have always taken us approximately at our own valuation.
a
'Anglo-Indian* in the original sense of English resident in India, and not in the
latter-day usage of the name as a euphemism for 'Eurasian*,

250

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

decade of the Sikh Wars, when Thackeray was writing Vanity Fair

the typical servant of the East India Company was no longer a

chicken-livered Jos nor even a ruffianly Clive, but an evangelical
soldier or administrator of heroic build a John Lawrence or a John
Nicholson.
:

Emancipated Nonconformists
Another illustration of our point is offered by the history of the
Huguenots. In France down to this day the Huguenots continue to
display the distinctive ethos of a penalized religious denomination,
in spite of the fact that they have been 'emancipated* officially since
'

the time of the Revolution. Like the Quakers in England, they still
tend to hold aloof from public life and to devote themselves with

conspicuous success to private business. On the other hand, the

descendants of those Huguenots who emigrated at the close of the
seventeenth century from France to the Protestant countries have
been subject to no such inhibition; and in the annals of modern
England and Germany and South Africa the descendants of Huguenot refugees have distinguished themselves in every walk of life,
not only in business but in the army and in the civil service and in
Lasalle and Ledebour, Joubert and Dufour-Feronce are
examples of Huguenot names which have made a mark in German
politics.

and South African

history.

In England, the ethos of the non-Anglican Protestant denominations shows signs of a corresponding modification
not, in this case,
in response to more favourable conditions which have been secured
by migration into an alien environment, but in response to an
improvement of conditions at home. 'The Nonconformist Conscience' has lost some of its sharpness since
Nonconformity has
ceased to be incompatible with membership in the English Governing Class, while on the other hand the Quaker Conscience has led
the members of the Society of Friends to pursue their old ideals in
a wider field of social action as the religious
disqualifications which
once circumscribed their activities have been removed. In both
these otherwise dissimilar cases, the remission of a
previous penalization has had one common effect. It has resulted in both the

Quakers and the Nonconformists ceasing to be 'peculiar peoples'.

It has led both to come out of their shells in order to live
for good
or not for good, as the case may be
the ordinary life of the world
around them. 2
Vanity Fair was written during the years 1846-8.
This tendency, which was at work all through the nineteenth
century, was brought
to a head by the General War of
1914-18, in which the Nonconformists on the whole
identified themselves with the policy and outlook of the
Governing Class while the
guakers found themselves moved to uphold their own unchanged ideals in public action
1

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

251

Emancipated Ra'tyeh
In the Orthodox Christian World, the same point is illustrated by
the diversity of gthos, in post-war Greece, between two sections of
the population on the one hand, the indigenous inhabitants of 'the
Old Kingdom', within the frontiers as they stood before the wars of
1912-22 and, on the other hand, the new citizens whom the present
Greek Republic has acquired partly through the transfer of Macedonia and Western Thrace, with their Greek inhabitants, to Greek
from Ottoman sovereignty, and partly through the fnfh-nc into
Greece of Greek refugees from Eastern Thrace and Western Anatolia after the failure of the Greek Government to wrest these latter
territories from Turkish hands. At the time of
writing, some ten
years after the Peace Settlement of Lausanne, the contrast between
these two elements in the population of Greece is still
conspicuous.
:

most important feature of diversity in the social

of the country.
The old citizens and the new citizens of the Greek Republic are
conscious, on both sides, of a certain m&sintelligence with one another.
Yet the differentiation of ethos out of which this tendency towards
misunderstanding arises cannot be much more than a century old;
for, little more than a century ago, before the Greek Revolutionary
War of 1821-9, the whole of the present territory of Greece, with
the insignificant exception of the Ionian Islands, was still embraced
It

is,

and

in fact, the

political life

within the Ottoman Empire, so that in that generation the influence

of the Ottoman environment was operative upon the ancestors of
the present old citizens and new citizens of Greece alike. The
present difference of ethos is to be explained by the fact that the
new citizens have remained under the Ottoman regime down to the
present generation, while the old citizens have been exempt from
the Ottoman regime for some three or four generations past. Instead of remaining members of a penalized religious denomination

under an alien ascendancy, they have been living, during these last
three or four generations, as citizens of a Greek national state on the
Western pattern. In this new environment, they have lost much of
the ethos of the old-fashioned Ottoman ra'iyeh and have acquired
something of the ethos of the modern Occidental. Though the time
has been short, the psychological change which has been induced
by the new conditions of the human environment has been sufficiently great to establish a perceptible psychological barrier between die two sections of the Greek people now that they have been
The blunting of 'the Nonconformist Conscience* is reflected in the
the
Liberal Party. The entry of the Quakers into public life is proof
post-war decay
claimed by the mighty works of philanthropy which have been performed in every part
of the World by the Society of Friends since 1914. In these works, the Inner Light has
made itself outwardly manifest. Si momtmentum reqiuris, drcumspice.
on a grand

scale.

253

THE .RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

reunited in a single commonwealth after

of segregation.
Assimilationists

and

little

more than

a century

Zionists

Greek national

upon the
descendants of the Greek ra'iyeh of the old Ottoman Empire has a
bearing on a modern movement in Jewry: the movement called
This

effect of citizenship

in a

Zionism.
The ultimate aim of the Zionists

is

state

to liberate the Jewish people

from the peculiar psychological complex induced by the penalization

to which they have been subject for centuries in the Gentile World.
In this ultimate aim, the Zionists are at one with the Assimilationist
School among the 'emancipated* Jews in the enlightened countries
of the West. They agree with the Assimilationists in wishing to
3
cure the Jews of being 'a peculiar people
They part company with
them, however, in their estimate of the Assimilationist prescription,
which the Zionists reject as inadequate for coping with the malady.
The ideal of the Assimilationists is that the Jew in Holland,
France, England, or America should become a Dutchman, Frenchman, Englishman, or American, as the case may be, 'of Jewish
religion*. They argue that there is no reason why a Jewish citizen
of any of these enlightened countries should fail to be a completely
satisfied and satisfactory member of Societyjust because he happens
to go to synagogue on Saturday instead of going to church on Sunday. To this argument, the Zionists have two replies. In the first
place, they point out that, even if the Assimilationist prescription
were capable of producing the result which its advocates claim for
it, it is only applicable in the enlightened countries in which the
Jews have been granted 'emancipation'. It offers no solution for the
Jewish problem in Eastern Europe, where the regime of the ghetto
still virtually prevails and where bona fide
'emancipation' is not in
1
the
In
second
and
this
is
the
more trenchant of the
prospect.
place
two Zionist attacks upon the Assimilationist position the Zionists
contend that, even in the most enlightened Gentile community in
the World, the Jewish problem cannot be solved by a Gentile- Jewish
'social contract' under which the Gentile
'emancipates' the Jew
and the Jew 'assimilates' himself to the Gentile. This attempt at
a contractual solution is vitiated, in the Zionists' view,
by the false
.

1
This passage was written before the 'Aryan* outbreak against the Jews in Germany
which accompanied the German National-Socialist Revolution of 1933. This appalling
recrudescence of militant anti-Semitism in one of the leading countries of the Western
World still further strengthens the already strong Zionist case. For the German outbreak of 1933 can only be compared in its brutality, its hysteria, and its thoroughness
with the Castilian outbreak of AJD. 1391. If this could happen in the present age in a
country in which the Jews had long since been emancipated, toen where in the World can

the Jewish Diaspora feel itself really secure?

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

253

premise which vitiates the classical 'social contract theory of Rousseau. It presupposes that human beings are social atoms and that a
human society is an aggregate of these atoms which is held together
by a legal nexus between the individuals as, in the physical universe,
an aggregation of physical atoms is held together by the laws of
Physics according to the 'classical' physical science of the nineteenth
century. The Zionist, arguing ad hominem, insists that the Jew, at
any rate, is not in fact an autonomous individual who can make
and unmake his social relations as he pleases To be a Jew is to be a
.

human

being whose social environment is Jewry. It is an essential

part of the Jew's individuality that he is a member of the living
Jewish community and an heir to the ancient Jewish tradition. He
cannot cut off his Jewishness and cast it from him without selfmutilation; and thus, for the Jew, an emancipation-assimilation
contract with a Gentile nation has the same kind of consequence as
the legal instrument which turns a free man into a slave. It 'deprives

him of half of his manhood'. 1

A Jew who, by process of emancipa-

and

assimilation, attempts, in a social contract with his Gentile

neighbours, to turn himself into a Dutchman or a Frenchman or an

tion

*
Englishman or an American of Jewish religion' is simply mutilating
his Jewish personality without having any prospect at all of acquiring the full personality of a Dutchman or whatever the Gentile

nationality of his choice may be.

Thus, in the Zionist view, the emancipation and assimilation of
the Jew as an individual is a wrong method of pursuing a right aim.

Genuine

indeed the true solution for the Jewish

problem and ought therefore to be the ultimate goal of Jewish
endeavours ; but the Jews can never escape from being *a peculiar
assimilation

is

people' by masquerading as Englishmen or Frenchmen. If they are

to succeed in becoming 'like all the nations', 2 they must seek assimilation on a national and not on an individual basis. Instead of trying
to assimilate individual Jews to individual Englishmen or Frenchmen, they must try to assimilate Jewry itself to England and France.
Jewry must become a nation in effective possession of a national
home, and this on the ground from which the historic roots of
Judaism have sprung. When a new generation of Jews has grown
in Palestine in a Jewish national environment, then, and not till
then, the Jewish problem will be solved by the reappearance in the
World of a type of Jew which has been almost non-existent for the

up

past two thousand years a Jew who has genuinely ceased to be "not
as other men are'. 3
Though the Zionist Movement as a practical undertaking is only
:

See the ancient Greek proverb quoted in the present section on p. 214, above.

Samuel

viii.

and

20.

Luke

xviii. 1 1*

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

254

half a century old, its social philosophy has already been justified
by results. In the Jewish agricultural settlements that have been
founded in Palestine within the last fifty years, the children of the

ghetto have been transformed out of all recognition into a pioneering

peasantry which displays many of the characteristics of the Gentile
European colonial type in the New World. The Zionists have made
no miscalculation in their forecast of the effect which the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine would have upon Jewry
itself.

The

tragic misfortune into

which they have

fallen, in

com-

pany with the Mandatory Power, is their inability to arrive at an

understanding with the existing Arab population of the country:
prior claimants and possessors who have been roused to resistance
by the very spirit of Western Nationalism which has been the
inspiration of Zionism itself.
Ismlfllts

andlmdmis

Lastly, we may take note of the difference between the Isma'ili

Shfis of India, who display to-day, as strongly as ever, the distinctive characteristics of penalized
religious denominations, and
Imami Shfis of Persia, whose ethos at the present day is at the

posite extreme of the psychological gamut. In the modern

antithesis to the characteristic thos of penalized

World,^the
denominations

the

op-

Western
religious

the spirit of Nationalism; and the closest indigenous analogue of Western Nationalism which Western observers
have detected in the modern Islamic World is the spirit of the
is

Imami ShTI Persians. 1 Indeed, the modern Persians may be called

a nation and modern Persia a national state without
any flagrant
,

Persia, differs at the present day

about as widely as the spirit of

from the

spirit of Isma'ili

Shi'ism
France or England or any of the
other territorial nations of the West differs from the
spirit of Jewry.
as
a
matter
of
historical
the
Yet,
fact,
present differentiation of the
Imami ethos in Persia from the Isma'ili in India is of recent date,
like the differentiation in ethos between the
Jewish agricultural
colonist in Palestine and the Ghetto-Jew of 'the Pale' or between
the Greek citizen of Greece and the Greek
ra'iyeh of the Ottoman

Empire.
1 In recent
times, of course, the Islamic Society has become infected with the virus of
Western Nationalism itself, and this infection has not attacked the Persians as

as it has attacked certain other Islamic

peoples

violently

: for
instance, the Egyptians and, above all
Osmanlis. ^This Western type of Nationalism in the Islamic World
is, however'
something exotic; and if we search for a counterpart of Western Nationalism in the
Islamic Society as that society was before the
process of 'Westernization* began, then we
snail fend this counterpart
among the Muslims of Persia and not among those of the Ottoman Empire. This point has been touched upon already in I. C
Annex I,> vol. i i
(i)
* ' \
(6),
/
P 393 with footnote i, above.

the

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

Little

more than four

255

centuries ago, the Imamis, like the other

ShTah, were 'dispersed abroad' among a Sunni majority

in Persia, Bahrayn, Hasa, Syria, and elsewhere, 1 and in this situasects of the

tion they duly displayed, like other ShTls, those characteristics of a

penalized religious denomination with which we have now become

familiar. The situation of the Imami sect was revolutionized at
the beginning of the sixteenth century of the Christian Era, within
the short span of a single generation, by the life-work of one man :
Isma'flShsQiSafawI. This militantapostleof Imami Shi'ism changed
thedestiniesofhisfaithbythevictoriesofhissword. Imami Shi'ism,
as Shah Isma'il found it, was the persuasion of a scattered and
persecuted sect ; as he left it, it was the established church, and very
nearly the exclusive religion, of an empire which embraced the
whole of Persia. 2 In modern Persia, from Shah Isma'lTs time onwards, the Imamis have ceased to be the 'peculiar people* which the
Isma'flis have continued to be in India. While these other ShTis
have remained what they always were, the Imamis in Persia have
become the people of a great country. They have become the
Persian nation, which is master in its own house and is free to practise its national religion without being penalized by any man. In
the course of four centuries, this profound change of circumstance
has produced the profound change of ethos to which we have drawn
attention above. There were, however, certain Imami communities
for example, those in Syria and in Hasa
whose homes were too
distant from Shah Isma'Il's base of operations to be included in the
empire which he carved out; and these Imami ShTis beyond the
borders of Persia have never ceased to display the ethos which all
Imamis formerly displayed in common with the Isma'ilis. 3
Fossils in Fastnesses

So much

for the evidence that the ethos

and aptitudes which

are

characteristic of penalized religious denominations tend to disappear if, and when, and in proportion as the penalization is remitted.

Annex

See

For Shah Isma'iTs work, see

pp. 358-65, above.

with Annex I, above.
(i) (6), vol. i, pp. 69-70,
3 The Imami Shi'is of
'Iraq are a special case; for 'Iraq is a former province of Shah
Isma'il's empire which was eventually conquered from the Safawis by the 'Osmanlis
after having changed hands several times in a series of wars which lasted more than a
century (A.D. 1534-1639). The TmamT ShTls of 'Iraq are in the same situation as their
co-religionists in Syria and in Hasa, inasmuch as they have been subject to the political
ascendancy of a Sunni majority. They are in a different situation, inasmuch as their
subjection has not been unbroken. For a brief interval, the Imami Shi'is of 'Iraq were
masters in their own house, as their more fortunate co-religionists in Iran have continued
to be ever since the day when Shah Isma'il released the Imamis from the house of
bondage in Iran and 'Iraq alike. In consonance with this peculiar^history^ the Sthos of
the Shi'is in 'Iraq has become something intermediate between their ethos in Persia and
their e"thos in those places where they have always been under Sunni domination. Jn
our Western political terminology, 'Iraq is a Persian terra irredenta and the 'Iraqi Shi is,
though mostly Arabs by language, may be regarded almost as a Persian minority under
I.

alien rule.

(i) (6),

I, vol. i,
I.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

256

This evidence seems to indicate that the characteristics in question

are not innate and ineradicable qualities, but rather symptoms of a
particular response to a particular challenge
symptoms which have
no greater permanence than the challenge and the response out of
which they arise. We shall find this indication confirmed if we now

compare the ethos of penalized denominations with that of co-religionists to whom the stimulus of penalization has never been administered. We shall observe that those who have never
undergone
tribulation resemble those who have come out of tribulation in
being
freefromthe distinctive and unmistakable characteristics which those

who are actually suffering tribulation almost invariably display.

The Osmanlis draw a sharp distinction between the 'fresh-water*
French, English, and so on, and their 'salt-water namesakes. The
'fresh-Water* Franks are those who have been born and bred in
'

Turkey in the Levantine atmosphere and have duly responded by

developing the Levantine character. The 'salt-water* Franks are
those who have been born and bred at home in Frankland and have
come out to Turkey as adults at an age when their character has
already been formed. The Turks have been intrigued to find that
the great psychological gulf which divides them from the 'freshwater' Franks does not intervene when
they have to deal with the
Franks from beyond the sea. The Franks who are
geographically
their compatriots are
psychologically aliens ; the Franks
from a far country turn out to be men of like

who come

passions with the

Turks themselves. This apparent paradox has

asimple explanation.
The Turk and the 'salt-water* Frank are able to understand one
another because there is a broad similarity between their
respective
social backgrounds. They have each
in
a
social
environgrown up
ment in which they have been masters in their own house. On the
other hand, they both find
difficulty in placing themselves en rapwith
the
'fresh-water'
Frank because the 'fresh-water* Frank
port
has a social background which is
equally foreign to both of them.
The 'fresh-water* Frank the Frank brought
up in Turkey is not
a son of the house but a child of the
ghetto ; and this peculiar social
environment has induced in him an 6thos from which the Frank
brought up in Frankland and the Turk brought up in
have

Turkey

both remained free.

This Turkish dichotomy between the 'fresh-water* and the 'saltwater* Frank, within the
body social of a civilization which is still
^
'fossils*

""-

** VTJJAJ

of which

AJJA^JLJ.

ouj. Tj-vt.

we have knowledge

JLLJL

nix;

J.UJ..LU.

UA

Iv/ooJLLo

IOJT TLU.C

are preserved in one or other

of two alternative situations which are
entirely dissimilar. In the
present chapter up to this point, we have confined our attention to

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

'fossils'

which have been preserved in the shape of penalized

257
re-

denominations 'dispersed abroad among the Gentiles'; and

seen that 'fossils' in this situation, if they survive at all,
succeed in holding their own by learning to excel in the narrow
field of social activity to which their Gentile neighbours and masters
are apt to confine them. There is, however, another situation in
which 'fossils' can and do maintain themselves in existence on easier
terms. Instead of working their way through the fabric of some
Gentile body social until they find a precarious lodgement in its
crevices, like flints in chalk, they may segregate themselves into
some fastness where they can be sure of being left in peace by the
Gentiles round about; and most of the 'fossils' of winch we have
hitherto taken account have in fact been preserved partly in such
fastnesses and not solely in dispersion. We can substantiate this by
a cursory survey.
For example, the Jewish 'Diaspora' 1 in the variant forms of
Ashkenazim and Sephardim and Donme and crypto- Jews is not
the only shape in which the Jewish 'fossil' of the extinct Syriac
Civilization survives to-day. Side by side with the conspicuous
majority of Jewry which has held its own by learning to endure the
life of the ghetto, there are other Jews
less numerous and less
notorious but not less interesting to the student of history
who
have held their own by withdrawing into mountains and deserts
where they have converted the primitive inhabitants to Judaism and
have themselves reverted more or less to the primitive way of life.

ligious

we have

Such are the Jewish peasantry and artisans in the highlands of the
Yaman, in the south-western corner of Arabia; the Jewish highlanders called the Falasha in Abyssinia; the Jewish highlanders
in the Caucasus ; and the Krimchaks of the Crimea
a Turkishspeaking Jewish community that is believed to be descended from
the Khazar Nomads who were converted to Judaism in the eighth
century of the Christian Era at a time when they were ranging over
the Don-and-Volga section of the Eurasian Steppe. 2
Similarly, the Nestorian 'fossil' of the Syriac Civilization is not
represented solely by craftsmen in the cities of 'Iraq, or by 'Saint
Thomas's Christians' in Travancore, who are the Nestorian 'Diaspori'. There is also a Nestorian peasantry in the secluded uplands
along the western shore of Lake Urmia, in North-West Persia; and
there are (or were till yesterday) Nestorian 'wild highlanders' in the
Aia<rrropd is an ancient Greek word meaning 'dispersion' which was adopted by the
Jews as a name for that section of Jewry which came to be dispersed abroad among the
Gentiles of the Hellenic World after the intrusion of Hellenism upon the Syriac World
through the destruction of the Achaemenian Empire by the action of Alexander the
1

Great.

For further information about these Jews in fastnesses, see the Annex to the present
chapter on pp. 402-12, below.
2

II

258

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

the same among the Monohas its foil in the Armenian

physites. The Armenian 'Diasporii
round the shores of
peasantry which used to cultivate the uplands
Lake Van and the Armenian 'wild Highlanders' who used to live

Hakkiari highlands of Kurdistan. It

is

in the fastness of Sasun, on the watershed between

the headwaters of Tigris and Euphrates, and in the fastnesses of
The Coptic 'Diaspora'
Hajjin and Zeytun in the Cilician Taurus.
their

own

life

of Cairo and the Delta has its foil in the Coptic peasantry of the
who
Sa'Id, and also in the Christian 'wild Highlanders' of Abyssinia,
are adherents of the Coptic Monophysite Church and whose local
the Coptic Patriarch of Alexanprelate ('Abuna') is an appointee of
dria. The Jacobite 'Diaspora' in Syria has its foil in the Jacobite

between
highlanders of the Tur 'Abdin a fastness on the watershed
frontiers
Tigris and Khabur near the meeting-point of the post-war
between Syria, 'Iraq, and Turkey. Among the Monothelete Lebanese we can make the same dichotomy between the Lebanese
and
emigrant who sets up shop in Egypt or West Africa or America
his brother who stays at home to cultivate the terraced flanks of 'the
:

Mountain'.
In the ShTah, we find that the Isma'ili 'Diaspora' in India and
East Africa likewise has its foil in the Isma'Ili highlanders of the
Jabal Ansariyah in Northern Syria an untamed Isma'iH community
which is descended from a garrison once established in this Syrian
fastness by 'the Old Man of the Mountain' in the militant phase of
the sect, in the age of the Crusades. The Shf ah has also thrown off
the religious community of the Druses a 'fossil' which now survives
:

in fastnesses only

and

is

no longer to be found in dispersion

at all. 1

1 *The Druses were the adherents of an esoteric

non-proselytizing religion founded in
the eleventh century after Christ by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi'amri'llah, and they
took their name from Al-Hakun's apostle Ad-Darazi. In matters of religion the Druse
community was divided into a hierarchy of initiation-classes. There was the "spiritual
section" (qism-ar-Ruhani), subdivided into the chiefs (ar-Ru'asa), the intelligent (al*uqala), and the excellent (al-ajawid); and the "corporeal section", subdivided into the
lords (al-umara) and lie ignorant (al-juhhal). Initiation was open to women as well as
men. Like many other small and peculiar sects which have managed to survive, the
Druses tended to withdraw into mountain fastnesses. At the date when the French and
one in the
British mandates were introduced there were four main Druse strongholds
Lebanon east of Bayrut, the second in the extreme south-west of the Lebanon, the third
on the western slopes of Mount Hermon, and the fourth in the Jabal-ad-Duruz an
isolated mass of rugged and ill-watered mountains which rose abruptly between the
fertile corn-lands of the Hawran to the west and the Hamad steppe to the east. The
central shrine of the Druse religion, Khalwat-al-Biyad, lay in the Mount Hermon district,
while the chief political focus of the Druse community had formerly lain in the Lebanon ;
but during the past two centuries
and especially after the migration which followed the
French military intervention in 1860 and the organization of the autonomous sanjaq of
the Lebanon in 1861-4
tk e political centre of gravity had shifted to the most remote
and militarily strongest of the Druse fastnesses: the Jabal-ad-Duruz (as it came to be
called^ar excellence). During the period under review the mandatory authorities estimated
that there were 48,000 Druses in the Jabal (out of a total population of about 60,000),
40,000 in the Lebanon east of Bayrut, 2,000 in the south-west, 7,000 in the Mount
Hermon district, and 7,038 in the British mandated territory/ (Toynbee, A. J. : Survey
of International ajfahs, 1925, vol i (London 1927, Milford), pp. 406-8.)

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

259
the other hand, the antithesis between 'fastness' and 'dispersion' presents itself, once again, among the Greek Orthodox
Christian ra'iyeh of the old Ottoman Empire, in the striking contrast between the two sections which took up arms
simultaneously
in A.D. 1821 at opposite extremities of the Ottoman dominions, with
incompatible aspirations and diverse fortunes : the merchants and
administrators of the Phanar and the 'wild highlanders' of the Mani. 1
This brief survey of the dichotomy between 'fossils in dispersion'
and 'fossils in fastnesses' yields a uniform result. The 'fossils' preserved in fastnesses, where they have never been subject to penalization, display no symptoms of the ethos which is characteristic of
the same 'fossils' where they are found in dispersion in the shape of
penalized and specialized minorities. The Jewish peasant in the
Yaman has much more in common with his Muslim fellow-worker
on the land than with his Jewish co-religionist in the ghetto; the
Jewish tribesman in Abyssinia or the Caucasus has much more in
common with the Christian or Muslim tribesmen round about who
lead the same turbulent and predatory life in the same highlands.

On

VII.

The

Law

THE GOLDEN MEAN

of Compensations

We have now reached a point at which we can bring our present

argument to a head* We have ascertained that civilizations come to
birth in environments that are unusually difficult and not unusually
easy ; and this has led us on to inquire whether or not this is an in-

some

law which may be expressed in the formula:

'the greater the challenge, the greater the stimulus.' We have pursued this inquiry by our customary empirical method. We have
made a survey of the responses which are evoked by five types of
the challenges of hard countries, new ground, blows,
challenge
and in all five fields the upshot of our
pressures, and penalization
survey appears to attest the validity of the law which we have formulated above. We have still, however, to determine whether its validity
is absolute or limited. If we increase the severity of the challenge ad
inftnitum, do we thereby ensure an infinite intensification of the
stimulus and, by the same token, an infinite increase of energy
stance of

social

* See the
It is one
(vii), p. 262, below.
present chapter, pp. 226-7, above, and II.
of the curiosities of History that the Mani, which became a fastness of Orthodox Christendom under the Ottoman regime, had previously served as the last fastness of Hellenism.
The fact is recorded by the learned East Roman Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus
(imperabat A.D. 912-59):
*The inhabitants of the fastness of Mani are not of the same stock as the [Moreot]
Slavs but are descended from the ancient Romans; and down to this day they are locally
called Hellenes because once upon a time, long ago, they were idolaters who bowed down
to idols like the ancient Hellenes. These people were baptized in the reign of Basil of
glorious memory \imperabat A.D. 866-86], and they have been Christians ever since.'
(Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Imp&to Admirdstrando, ch. 50.)

26o

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

in the response which the stimulus evokes when the

challenge is
to
do
Or
reach
a
we
responded
successfully?
point beyond which

an increase in severity brings in diminishing returns

And if we go

beyond this point, do we reach a further point at which the challenge

becomes so severe that the possibility of responding to it successfully is eliminated altogether? If the former of these two alternatives proves to be the truth, then we shall be able to lay down the
law of 'the greater the challenge the greater the stimulus' without
qualification. In the other event, we shall have to enter the caveat
that some challenges may be excessive, and we shall then have to
qualify the law of 'the greater the challenge the greater the stimulus' by formulating an
overriding law to the effect that 'the most
is
to be found in a mean between a
stimulating challenge
deficiency
of severity and an excess of it'.
Where does the ultimate truth lie ? At first thoughts, we may
incline to the view that 'the greater the
challenge the greater the
is
stimulus'
a law which knows no limits to its
validity. We have
not stumbled upon any palpable limits at any
point in our empirical
so
and
there
are
several
celebrated extreme cases of the
far;
survey
of
the
law
which
we
have
hitherto held in reserve.
operation
We have not yet cited the example of Venice a city built on
piles driven into the barren mud-banks of a salt lagoon which has
surpassed in wealth and power and glory all the cities built on terra
firma in the fertile plains of the Po and the
Adige. Nor have we
cited the example of Holland
a country which has
actually been
from
the
sea
and
which
has
be
to
salvaged
protected in perpetuity
by dykes against submergence under the encircling waters that stand
high above the level of the land. Yet Holland has distinguished
herself in history far above any
parcel of ground of equal area in all
the rest of the great North
European plain which stretches

away

above sea-level from the eastern

margin of the Polders to the
western foot-hills of the Urals.
Holland is assuredly the original, 'in real life', of that
imaginary
land which Goethe's Faust redeems from the waters of the Baltic
when he is working out the redemption of his own soul from the
toils of
Mephistopheles. In this land, as Faust describes his work,
safe

Eroflh* ich Raume vielen Millionen,

Nicht sicher zwar, doch tatig-frei zu

wohnen;

Griin das Gefilde, fruchtbar; Mensch und Herde

Sogleich behaglich auf der neusten Erde,
Gleich angesiedelt an des
Hiigek Kraft,

Den aufgewaLzt kuhn-emsige Volkerschaft

Im inneren Her ein paradiesisch Land
Da rase draussen Flut bis auf zum Rand,

THE GOLDEN MEAN

Und

wie

261

sie nascht,

gewaltsam einzuschiessen,
die Liicke zu verschliessen.
Ja! diesem Sinne bin ich ganz ergeben,
Das ist der Weisheit letzter Schluss:
Nur der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben,

Gemeindrang

Der

eilt,

1
taglich sie erobern muss.

What

challenge could be more extreme than the challenge presented by the sea to Holland and to Venice ? What more extreme,
again, than the challenge presented by the Alps to Switzerland?
And what responses could be more magnificent than those which
Holland, Venice, and Switzerland have made? The three hardest
pieces of country in Western Europe have stimulated their inhabitants to attain the highest levels of social achievement that have yet
been attained by any of the peoples of Western Christendom.
less well-known but not less impressive
example of a heroic

response to an extreme challenge from Physical Nature is offered

by a survey of the places which were the historical nuclei of Modern
Greece. One political nucleus was the Phanar a remote corner of
Stamboul which the Ottoman Padishah had assigned to the Greeks
as a kind of Christian ghetto. The Phanariots responded by be2
coming adepts in the Western art of diplomacy. One cultural and
economic nucleus was Ayvaly q : a rocky peninsula on the Anatolian
coast which seemed so barren that the Ottoman Padishah was content to grant his Greek subjects an exclusive right of occupancy.
The Greek settlers made the barren rock bear olives and imported
Western culture into their commonwealth as the return-cargo for
their exports of olive-oil. 3 Another economic nucleus was Ambelakia a village perched high on the flank of Mount Ossa, overlooking the defile of Tempe, which made a livelihood by spinning and
4 Another was the Macedyeing cotton for the Western market.
donian village of SMtishta which stands marooned among the stony
hills that flank the upper valley of the Haliacmon over against Pindus. In the eighteenth century, after the Danubian Hapsburg
Monarchy, in its counter-offensive against the Ottoman Power, had
pushed its south-eastern outposts deep into the Balkan Peninsula,
the Greeks of SMtishta made a livelihood by organizing an overland
caravan-traffic for exchanging the dyed cotton goods of Ambelakia
and other products of the Ottoman Empire for the products of the
:

1 Goethe:
Faust, 11. 11563-76. The last two lines here quoted have been quoted
already in vol. i, p. 277 and in the present volume, p. 17, above.
2 See II.
(vi), pp. 222-5, above.
3 See II.
(ii), footnote on p. 40, above.
4 See the interesting account of Ambelakia which is given by Clarke, E. D,: Travels,
Part II, section lii, ch. 9, pp. 285 sqq. (London 1816, Cadell and Davies.) Dr. Clarke
visited Ambelakia on the 23rd-^24th December, 1801. The red dye used by the Ambelakiots was a local product obtained from the Valona oak.

D
D

z6z

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

West. The commercial houses of this out-of-the-way Macedonian

village had their branches in Budapest and Vienna and Leipzig and
Dresden. 1 As for the maritime nuclei, Hydhra and Petses and
Psara and Kasos are uncultivable limestone islands; Trik6ri is a
rocky peninsula; Galaxidhi is a tiny harbour on the least inviting
stretch of the coastline of the Gulf of Itea. Yet these six maritime
communities, between them, built up a thriving Greek merchant
marine ; and when their seamen diverted their energies from trading
to fighting at the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, their
light craft swept the Ottoman Navy off the seas as effectively as the
light craft of Elizabethan England dealt with the Spanish Armada.

places which distinguished themselves during the War of

Independence in the fighting on land, the Mani, whose warriors
struck the first blow, 2 is a peninsula which is almost entirely occu-

As for the

pied by a lofty mountain-range and is almost entirely destitute of

both soil and water. The soil is so meagre that it will grow neither
cereals nor vines nor even olives, but only prickly pears. The water
is so scarce that there are only three springs in the whole country,
which has to depend for the rest of its supply upon rain-water
collected in cisterns. 3 Similarly Suli, which played its part in a
preliminary duel with Ali of Ydnnina, is ensconced in the wildest
and barrenest highlands of Epirus, while Mesolonghi, which is
celebrated for the siege in which Byron died, is a fishing-village on a
mud-bank in a lagoon an embryonic Greek counterpart of Venice.
Venice and Holland and Switzerland, Mesolonghi and Mani and
Hydhra : do they not all testify with one accord that our law of 'the
greater the challenge the greater the response' holds good absolutely,
without limitation? At first thoughts, the answer to this question
c

appears to be plainly in the affirmative; yet certain cautionary

second thoughts are suggested by a closer comparative study of
these particularly telling illustrations which we have just assembled.
It is quite true that in all these
places the challenges to which the
inhabitants have responded so magnificently have been severe to an
extreme degree ; but it is also a fact that these superlative challenges

have one feature in

common which

mitigates their severity considerably. Extreme though they are in degree, they are limited in
range to one only out of the two realms which together constitute
the total environment of any human society. These
challenges are,
1

When the writer of this Study visited Sha*tishta in the summer of 1921, he was shown

portraits of ancestors

all dressed up in wigs and powder and

patches and crinolines
which had been painted during their residence in the commercial centres of the West and
had been brought home to Shatishta to be preserved as memorials.
2 See II. D
(vi), pp. 226^-7 and 259, above.
3 The writer tested the
rigours of the Mani for himself in the spring of 1912, when he
walked down to the tip of the peninsula on his own feet and returned, hors de combat, on

mule-back.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

263

challenges in the realm of the physical environment, and

in that realm only. Before, therefore, we can properly assess the
severity of the total challenge with which the inhabitants of these
all alike,

places have been presented by their environment as a whole, we

have to examine the human environment as well, and to ascertain
what challenge, if any, has been presented here. As soon, however,

we

follow this line of inquiry up, we observe that in all these

places the exceptional severity of the challenge from the local physical environment has carried with it an exceptional immunity from
as

certain specific, and possibly not less formidable, challenges from

the human environment which have actually been presented to
the inhabitants of the regions round about. The very barrenness
or inaccessibility, in which the exceptional severity of the physical
challenge has consisted, has served as a shield and buckler against
those human challenges inasmuch as these physical drawbacks have
deterred or frustrated certain potential human aggressors.
This secondary and compensatory effect of the physical challenge
is no mere matter of speculation. It is manifest in the histories of
all the three places in Western Europe and thirteen places in Greece

which we have just passed under review.

For example, the superlative physical challenges from the sea
which have been presented to Venice and Holland have not only
administered to them a physical stimulus which their neighbours
have lacked, but have incidentally served to shield them from a
human ordeal to which their neighbours have been exposed. Venice
on her mud-banks, insulated from the continent by her lagoons,
was exempt from foreign military occupation for little short of a
thousand years from the day when the Franks evacuated her in
A.D. 810 to the day when the French took possession of her in A.D.
1797. Holland, likewise, within her girdle of canals, was saved from
from
foreign military occupation for the best part of two centuries
her armistice with Spain in A.D. 1609 until she was overrun by the
French revolutionary armies in 1794-5. -^ a Dutch statesman once
remarked in a famous conversation with a king of Prussia, these
Dutch canals were comfortably deeper than the height of a Pomeranian grenadier; and they could be made to flood the country far
and wide at a few hours' notice. 1 What a contrast to the histories
the respective neighbours of Venice
of Lombardy and Flanders
and Holland on terra firma which notoriously have been the two
habitual battle-fields of Europe. It will be seen that, in Dutch and
:

Venetian history, the sea has played a dual role the sheltering role
* When the French invaded Holland in
1794-5, 'General Winter', who was to defeat
them in Russia eighteen years later, was fighting on their side. Holland's girdle of protecting waters was frozen hard, and the Dutch fleet itself, fast bound in the ice, was captured
by the French cavalry an incident that is perhaps unique in naval and military history.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

264
of a guardian angel as well as the stimulating role of a Satan or a
and so it has been in Swiss history with the Alps.
Mephistopheles
The mountains have not only stimulated the Swiss to earn by dairyfarming and watch-making and other ingenuities the livelihood
which Alpine agriculture could not afford them. The Alps have
also served the Swiss in a simpler and more direct way by helping
to drive out and keep out the Hapsburgs and the Burgundians and
a whole series of human aggressors.
The thirteen nuclei of Modern Greece which we have passed in
review reveal the same phenomenon of compensation in the sphere
of the human environment for a challenge in the sphere of Physical
Nature. In all these cases, the physical challenges of remoteness
and stoniness and waterlessness and mountainousness were unquestionably stimulating in themselves, but they also had a protective value in the human sphere which was of first-rate historical
importance.
It is a well-known social law that when and where the Government is incompetent or corrupt or high-handed or malevolent, or is
vicious in all these ways, or in several of them, at once, the subject's
chance of prosperity depends on his escaping the Government's
notice or failing to excite the Government's cupidity. In these
adverse social circumstances, the normal values of the physical environment are inverted. When the Government is immoderately
rapacious in "taking up that which it 'laid not down and reaping
that* which it *did not sow', 1 the fertile field
actually yields less
sustenance to the cultivator than some patch of stony ground which
is beneath the notice of the tax-farmer; and a situation on the brink
of a fine harbour or on the route of the king's
highway is actually
less remunerative to the merchant and the craftsman than a fastness
in the hills where he is out of sight and reach of the
king's armies
5

and

officials

and

couriers,

who make

their

way by commandeering

food and lodging and ships and carts and horses and coolies from
the local inhabitants of the harbourside and the roadside. Such
circumstances came to prevail in the Ottoman Empire
during the
two centuries and a half that elapsed between tfie death of Sultan

Suleyman the Magnificent in A.D. 1565 and the outbreak of the

Greek War of Independence in A.D. 1821 and the sites of the
places
which have been the historical nuclei of Modern Greece are all in
conformity with the social law which we have just formulated.
Why did the Padishah leave the Phanar to the Greek Orthodox
Christian inhabitants of Constantinople when he
expelled them
from all the rest of Stamboul? Why did he grant the Albanian
Orthodox Christian colonists of Hydhra the privileges of
;

complete

Luke

xix. 22.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

265

and almost complete immunity from Imperial

did
he
confer on the Greek colonists of Ayvalyq, in
Why
addition to the privilege of local self-government, the even more
remarkable and precious concession that no Muslim should retain
the right of residence within their parochial boundaries ? Simply
because he regarded the Phanar as an uninhabitable hole in a
corner, and Hydhra and Ayvalyq as uncultivable wastes. He was
not taking the children's bread and casting it to dogs. He was
merely allowing the Christian dogs to eat of the crumbs which had
fallen from their Muslim masters' table. 1
Why, again, were the
Ambelakiots allowed to spin and dye and make money unmolested ?
Because Ambelakia was perched on the flank of Ossa at a safe altitude, or, in other words, at such a height that when the village
caught the Ottoman extortioner's eye as he rode, far below, through
the vale of Tempe, his laziness got the better of his greed, with the
consequence that he rode on sullenly to plunder some poorer village
within easier reach. 2 And why were the Christian Greeks of SMtishta allowed to make fortunes out of their caravan-traffic ? Because
their Muslim Greek neighbours had done them a double service
when they drove them out of the fertile valley-bottom into the
barren uplands. They had not only compelled them
at a profitable moment
to turn their attention to commerce instead of agriculture, but they had also jostled them into a cranny in the hills
where they could accumulate wealth unnoticed. Why, lastly, did
the Maniots and the Suliots retain their autonomy and their arms
and their warlike spirit ? Because it had not been worth the Padishah's while to follow them up into their barren highland fastnesses,
as it was eminently worth his while to take and hold the orangegroves of Sparta and the currant-plantations of Elis and the masticvillages of Chios and the harbours of Patras and Nauplia and the
dome of Aya Sofia and the gardens of the Seraglio. It is evident
that the sites of our thirteen nuclei of Modern Greece cannot be
local self-government

taxation

Matthew

xy. 26-7.
'Thus Empire, as vast and large as it is, is yet dispeopled, the villages^ abandoned, and
whole provinces as pleasant and fruitfull as Tempe or Thessaly uncultivate and turned
into a desart or wilderness
all which desolation and mine proceeds from the tyranny
and rapine of the Beglerbegs and Pashaws; who either in their journies to the possession of
their Government, or return from thence, expose the poor inhabitants to violence and
injury of their attendants, as if they had entred the confines of an enemy or the dominions
of a conquered people. In like manner, the insolence of the horse and foot is unsupportable; for, in their marches from one countrey to another, parties of 20 or 30 are
permitted to make excursions into divers parts of their own dominions, where they not
onely live upon free quarter but extort money and cloaths from the poor vassals, taking
their children to sell for slaves, ... so that, rather than be exposed to such misery, and
licence of the soldiery, the poor people choose to abandon their dwellings and wander
into other cities, or seek for refuge in the mountains or woods of the countrey/ (Rycaut,
Sir Paul: The Present State of the Ottoman Empire (London 1668, Starkey and Brome),
p. 170.)
For the break-down of the Ottoman system, to which these evils were due, see Part III.
A, vol. Hi, pp. 44-50, below.
2

266

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

accounted for completely until the exceptional local mildness of the

human environment as well as the exceptional local rigour of the
physical environment is taken into the reckoning.
We have evidently te reckon with the same combination of factors in interpreting the contrast, which we have noticed in a previous
1
passage, between the respective achievements of two modern comwho have been
the Lebanese and the Nusayris
munities in Syria
fellow-sufferers with the modern Greeks from the misgovernment
of the Ottoman Empire in its period of decline. In seeking to
account for the prowess of the Lebanese, we must take into account
the political seclusion as well as the physical rigour of their forbidding mountain fastness. And conversely, in seeking to account for
the stagnation of their neighbours the Nusayris, we must bear in
mind the political disadvantages which the relative openness and
agreeableness of the Jabal Ansariyah has entailed.
'Leurs montagnes sont communement moins escarpees que celles du
Liban; elles sont en consequence plus propres a la culture; mais aussi
elles sont plus ouvertes aux Turks et c'est par cette raison, sans doute,
qu'avec une plus grande fecondite en grain, en tabac a fumer, en vignes
et en olives, elles sont cependant moins peuplees que celles de leurs
voisins les Maronites et les Druzes.' 2
;

Having caught

this glimpse of 'compensations' in the

human

environment in the course of surveying certain superlative challenges from the physical environment which we had not examined
before, let us now glance once again at some of those other illustrations of Challenge-and-Response which we have passed in review
in earlier chapters of the present Part. When we thus extend our
horizon, we shall find evidence of a 'compensatory' interaction between the physical and the human environments which is operative
in both directions. There are not only challenges from the
physical
environment but also challenges from the human environment
which have demonstrably tempered their own severity by producing
an incidental compensatory effect in the complementary field. Let
us first complete our survey of compensations accruing in the
human sphere from challenges encountered in the physical, and
then go on to consider the instances in which the
compensation is
physical and the challenge human.
The severity of a challenge in the physical sphere may be compensated in the human sphere in several alternative ways, as is
apparent from the illustrations which we have just been

already^

examining.
1

IL

site

which presents unusual physical

difficulties to

on

I?,
jFh T PP- 55-7, above.
Volney, C. F.: Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte pendant les Annies 1783, 1784
2nd ed, (Pans 1787, Desenne et Volland, 2 vols.), vol. ii, pp. 7-8.
2

et

1785,

THE GOLDEN MEAN

its

occupants

may secure them at the same time an unusual freedom

from human molestation because the

inaccessible to outsiders or because
at once.

We

267

or
forbidding in both senses

site is either unattractive

it is

have seen

that, in Orthodox Christendom in the latter days

Ottoman Empire, the Greek 'squatters' in the Phanar and in
Ayvalyq were compensated for an 'ineligible location' and for a
stony soil by the very fact that these physical blemishes made both

of the

sites unattractive to

the

dawn

the 'Osmanlis. Similarly, in Ancient Greece, at

of Hellenic history, the stoniness of Attica not only stimu-

challenge but also brought them compensation by proving unattractive to the immigrant 'Dorians'. In
Ancient Syria, likewise, at the dawn of Syriac history, the Israelite
'squatters' were compensated as well as stimulated by the stoniness
of the Hill Country of Ephraim
a physical blemish thanks to
which these highlands overlooking the highway between Egypt and
lated the Athenians

by

its

Shinar had been preserved as an untenanted no-man's-land from

time immemorial until the Israelitish infiltration. 2 Thus, too, in
the Hindu World, when it was being visited by the calamity of
Muslim invasion, the deserts and forests of Rajputana not only
stimulated those Hindus who responded to their physical challenge,
but also brought them compensation by offering little or no attraction to the Muslim invaders. The Muslims, descending upon India
from the Iranian Plateau, did not rest till they had conquered the
whole of the Indus Valley down to the coast of the Indian Ocean
and the whole of the Ganges Valley down to the coast of the Bay of
Bengal; but they were content to leave the Rajputs their independence in the 'bad lands' that occupied the angle between the two
river-systems, notwithstanding the fact that Rajputana skirts the
banks of the Sutlej and the Jumna as closely as the Hill Country of
Ephraim overhangs the lowlands of Philistia and the Vale of Esdraelon. If we extend our survey to the Andean World, we may also
conjecture that the builders of Tiahuanaco were compensated for
the bleakness of the upland basin of Lake Titicaca3 by immunity
from molestation on the part of their powerful neighbours in the
maritime plain.
In a later age, after the Titicaca Basin had been broken in by the
efforts of the ancient pioneers, its latter-day inhabitants, the Collas,
were compensated for the lesser effort of keeping the bleak uplands
under cultivation by being shielded against molestation from another
quarter.

The domineering

snow-peaks, which sent

winds and raging blizzards to blight their crops,

1

See
See

II.
II.

D
C

pp. 37-42, above.

(u) (5) 2, vol. i, p. 322, and II.
(ii),

See

(v), in

down

chilly
also served the

II.
(ii), pp. 52-5, above
the present volume, p 208, above.

268

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Collas as a rampart against the warlike savages of the tropical

Amazonian forest, who were effectively kept at a distance by their
1
These Amazonian savages would
inability to cross the snow-line.
have found the Collao attractive enough if the mountains had not
rendered it inaccessible to them; and thus, from the Collas' standpoint, the mountains had a twofold aspect. Though physically oppressive they were

humanly protective. In fact, the Andean snows

have played here the same dual role as the high altitudes of Shatishta
and Ambelakia or the depression of Holland below the level of the
sea. In each of these instances, a
physical blemish has not only
acted as a stimulus but has also brought its own compensation with
it in the human
sphere by conferring the boon of inaccessibility.

We may

observe that a similar compensation is apt to be conferred by the physical ordeal of transmarine migration. The emigrants from the zone of post-glacial desiccation in North Africa who
became the fathers of the Minoan Civilization in Crete by respond2
ing to the challenge of the sea were compensated in the human
sphere for the physical perils of navigation. We may read the same
tale in the history of England.
In the Volkerwanderung which
accompanied the break-up of the Roman Empire, those continental
North-European barbarians who took to the sea in order to invade
the Roman island of Britain chose a harder
path than their comrades who drifted into the Roman provinces on the mainland. On
the other hand, throughout the whole course of Western
history,
from the first emergence of our Western Civilization until the recent
inventions of the submarine and the
aeroplane, the descendants of
the seafaring Jutes and Angles have been
enjoying the compensation that has accrued from their forefathers' ordeal.
They have
been reaping the profits of an insularity which has been the
perthe descendants of the
petual envy of their continental neighbours
land-loping Saxons and Franks and Sueves and Lombards.
In the modern age of Western
history, the same ordeal of migration across the sea has
a
similar compensation to all those
brought
victims of religious persecution in
Europe who have found freedom
of worship in the New World.

Where the remote Bermudas ride

In the ocean's bosom unespied,
From a small boat that row'd along,
The listening winds received this song:
'What should we do but sing His praise
That led us through the watery maze
Unto an isle so long unknown
And yet far kinder than our own ?
i

See

II.

(v), p.

308, above.

See

II.

C (ii)

(6) 2, vol.

i,

pp 323-30, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

269

Where He

the huge sea-monsters wracks 3

That lift the deep upon their backs,
He lands us on a grassy stage,
Safe from the storm's and prelate's rage;

And

in these rocks for us did frame

temple where to sound His name.

Oh! Let our voice His

Till

it

praise exalt
arrive at Heaven's vault,

Which thence

(perhaps) rebounding

may

Echo beyond the Mexique bay!'

Thus sung they in the English boat
A holy and a cheerful note;

And

the way, to guide their chime,

falling oars they kept the time.

all

With

The English seafarers in whose mouth this song of thanksgiving

has been placed by a seventeenth-century poet were Presbyterian
emigrants who had been rewarded for braving the perils of the
Atlantic by being led to an earthly paradise in the Antilles. Their
compensation was, indeed, in both kinds ; and the physical delights
of a tropical island
which are depicted by Andrew Marvell in the
loveliest lines of his poem 1
had the same enervating effect upon
these English navigators that we have seen them have upon Polynesian navigators on the other side of the planet. 2 To-day the song
sounds only faintly off the coast of the Bermudas; yet the singers'
pious hope has been fulfilled; for their voice has indeed rebounded
from 'Heaven's vault' till it echoes now 'beyond the Mexique bay'
in stentorian reverberations. The song of these English Presbyterian seafarers who found freedom of worship in an earthly paradise
in the Bermudas has become the song of their kinsmen and coreligionists who have likewise crossed the Atlantic to find the same
religious freedom in a prosaic eldorado on the North American
Continent. And voices from every quarter of the overseas world
are singing in chorus : the voice of French Huguenots who have
found freedom of worship in South Africa, and the voice of Irish
Catholics who have found it in Australia and in Spanish America as
well as in the United States.
still have to glance at certain instances in which a site that
presents unusual physical difficulties to its occupants is not only

We

inaccessible to outsiders but

is

unattractive to

them as

well.

Where

the physical features of a site thus make it doubly forbidding, the

compensation in the human sphere accrues in double measure.
This has been the good fortune of Venice and of Hydhra: a
1

These

See

lines

II.

have been omitted in the quotation above.

(i),

pp. 13-15, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

270

mud-bank and a rock-reef which have both been protected from

molestation by the twin safeguards of insularity and barrenness.

The same

double compensation has accrued to the inhabitants of

other barren islands in the histories of other societies besides Western and Orthodox Christendom: to the Icelanders, for example, in
Scandinavian history 1 and to the Tyrians and Aradians in Syriac
2
3
history and to the Aeginetans in Hellenic history and to the first
human occupants of the Cyclades, who share with the Eteocretans
the honour of being the fathers of the Minoan Civilization. 4

The

fathers of all the other 'unrelated' civilizations

may

likewise

have enjoyed this double protection against their neighbours in

compensation for the severity of the physical challenges to which
they have courageously responded. At least, we may conjecture
that when the fathers of the Egyptiac and Sumeric and Sinic civilizations had plunged into those jungle-swamps which
they transformed in course of time into fields and cities, they did not find
themselves compelled, like the Jews when they were rebuilding the
walls of Jerusalem, to do their work with one hand while
they held
a weapon in the other. 5 It seems more probable that these
primeval
and
Sumeric
and
Sinic
unlike
Nehemiah's
Egyptiac
pioneers,
Jewish
were
left
in
their
fellow
men
to
contemporaries,
peace by
wage and
win their titanic war against Physical Nature. They may have had
to suffer from human molestation at an earlier
stage, when they
were still living in the open. Some such human pressure accentuated, in the Egyptiac and the Sumeric case, by the gradual desiccation of the Afrasian Steppe in the
post-glacial age
may even have
been the proximate cause of their taking their momentous
plunge
into a howling wilderness which no human
had
ever
being
attempted
to penetrate before them. When once, however,
they had descended
into their terrestrial hell, we may
suppose that their former neighbours were both unable and unwilling to follow in
pursuit of them.
The fathers of the Mayan Civilization may have secured a similar

immunity from molestation by plunging into the tropical forest,

and the fathers of the Andean Civilization by
settling on the arid
coastal plain and mounting on to the bleak
plateau in its hinterland.
3

Again, those 'fossil remnants of extinct civilizations that have survived in fastnesses 6 all owe their
to the same double safe^

preservation

guard.

A combination of unattractiveness with inaccessibility is the

common

characteristic of the Jewish fastnesses in the

Caucasus and

in the

Yaman, the Jewish and Monophysite fastnesses in Abyssinia,

the Nestorian fastness in Hakkiari, and the Monothelete fastness in
2 See II. D
pp 86-100, above
5 $?'
4 See IL C
(U
9
(6)
2' of
SVf"
'-*^
bee the ?
.Book
Nehemiah, ch. iv.
See II. D (vi), pp. 256-9, above, with the Annex.
'

T'
'

s
5

(il)

(il),

pp. 51-2, above.

above.
*' PP- 3*8-3

2 voL
>

THE GOLDEN MEAN

the Lebanon.

We

271

have already taken note of two instances of this

type in glancing at the Greek Orthodox fastnesses of the Mani and

Suli in the old Ottoman Empire. It was a combination of unattractiveness with inaccessibility that saved both Suli and the Mani from
ever feeling the full weight of the Ottoman oppression which crushed
the life out of the Greek ra'iyeh in the neighbouring vales of Yannina and Sparta. Hence the Suliots and the Maniots
protected as
well as stimulated by the physical hardness of their highland strongholds
were able to play active and decisive parts in the creation of
Modern Greece. The same twofold compensation in the human
sphere has accrued to the New Englanders from the physical hardness of Town Hill, Connecticut, and to the Mormons from the
diverse but not less formidable physical hardness of Utah. It is not
only because these new-found fastnesses in the North American
wilderness have been stimulating to their occupants, but also because
they have been at the same time unattractive and inaccessible to
outsiders, that they have served iheir occupants so well and have
assisted them to make the marks which they have succeeded in
making on our Western history.
Let us now examine the inverse case in which the challenge is
delivered in the human sphere while the compensation accrues in
the physical.
The experience of the 'fossils in fastnesses', which we have been
examining just above, is precisely inverted in the experience of the
'fossils in dispersion'. The Jews, for example, who survive in the
fastnesses of the Caucasus and Abyssinia have responded successfully to a challenge from the physical environment and have been
compensated by immunity from penalization at Gentile hands.

These Jewish 'wild highlanders' are as free, and as upstanding, as

their Monophysite and Muslim counterparts Inversely, the Jews of
the 'Diaspora' have successfully responded to the human challenge
of religious penalization and have been compensated for their Babylonish captivity among the Gentiles by the presence of those flesh
pots to which their ancestors used to look back with such regret
after Moses had led them forth into the wilderness out of the fat
.

land of Egypt.
The exercise of holding their own in a hostile
human environment has not only stimulated the Jews of the Dispersion to activity. It has also enabled them, in diverse Gentile
societies in successive ages, to keep their footing in the market-place
and their seat in the counting-house and to take their tribute from
the golden stream of commerce and finance, instead of having to
put up with the poverty-stricken life of the wilderness that has been
led by their Abyssinian and Caucasian co-religionists.

See

II.

(i),

pp. 24-5, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

272

somewhat similar relation between the diverse experiences through which the fathers of the 'unrelated* and the

There

is

'related* civilizations

have passed.

The

fathers of the 'unrelated'

have responded to a
physical challenge and have been compensated by immunity from
civilizations, like

human

the

'fossils

in fastnesses',

Inversely, the fathers of the 'related' civilizations, like the 'fossils in dispersion', have been compensated in
physical values for responding to a human challenge. The dynamic

molestation.

by which a 'related' civilization is generated is the secession of a

proletariat from a dominant minority; and this is a human, not a
physical, ordeal. The insurgent proletariat which initiates a new
civilization by passing through this ordeal successfully is compensated by inheriting a physical habitat, ready made, from its
act

predecessors instead of finding itself compelled to create a new

physical habitat for itself out of the virgin wilderness ; and this
compensation is not in human currency but in physical. It takes
the form of a reprieve from physical hardship in place of that reprieve from human molestation which is granted to the pioneer who
initiates a new civilization by wrestling with Physical Nature in
the virgin wilderness.
This same phenomenon of physical compensation for successful
response to a human challenge may be illustrated by other examples.
have just observed that the 'fossils in dispersion are compensated
for their endurance in holding their ground in a hostile religious
environment by the golden opportunities for economic gain which
this ground, so hardly held, affords them. There is an
analogy to
this in the experience of those emigrants from lean countries to fat
countries who find their ordeal, not in holding their ground in
spite
of persecution, but in changing their ground under
pressure of

We

'

The

resulting situation is substantially the same* The

Hadramiin Java, the Scotsman in England, and the French-Canadian
in the United States are all
responding, like the Jew in the Gentile
to
the
World,
challenge of an alien human environment; and, like

poverty.

the Jewish 'Diaspora' again, they are

being compensated for theis*
endurance of this human ordeal by 'reaping where'
they have 'not
sown', inasmuch as they are participating in the material prosperity
which has been built up by the work of other men's hands in a
country which is not the immigrants' home.
can see our 'law of compensation' likewise at work in certain
otherwise very diverse historical situations.
For example, the militant pioneers who extended the bounds of
the Far Eastern Civilization in
Japan by carrying on a frontier2
warfare against the indigenous barbarian inhabitants of the

We

Kwanto,

See

II.

(vi),

pp. 212-13, above.

See

II.

(v),

pp. 158-9, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

273

were compensated in the economic field for their military exertions.

Their strenuous life in the marches not only gave them a stimulus
which was conspicuously lacking in the interior at the court of the
c

Cloistered Emperors' in Yamato; it also brought them a direct

material reward ; for the soil of the Kwanto, where they were carv-

ing out new fiefs for themselves at the barbarians' expense, was
considerably more productive than the soil of Yamato : the region
which was the original home of the Far Eastern Civilization in
Japan and in which the Japanese Imperial patrimony was situate.
In weighing the causes of the momentous revolution in which the
preponderance passed from Yamato to the Kwanto in the course of
the twelfth century of the Christian Era, we must give due weight
to this economic factor. We must recognize that the wardens of the
marches did not owe their triumph solely to the superiority in moral
which their military training had given them over their unwarlike
peers at the Court. They also owed it in part to the superiority in
wealth which had accrued to them incidentally as their compensation in the economic field for their exertions in the military field.
The 'law of compensation' has also to be reckoned with in accounting for the rise of the cities of Paris and London in and after
the ninth century of the Christian Era. In an earlier passage of
this Part, 1 we have noticed the stimulus which was administered to
these two cities of Western Christendom by pressure from Scandinavia.
have now to observe that the rivers which Paris and
London respectively commanded had a twofold social function.
They served as waterways not only for Viking raids but for international commerce; and the commanding situations of the two
cities, athwart the courses of the Seine and the Thames, had more
than one effect upon their civic fortunes. Standing where they

We

Paris were marked out, as we have already

observed, to bear the brunt of the sea-raiders' attacks upon England
and France; but, by the same token, they were also marked out to
draw to themselves the lion's share of the two kingdoms' waterborne commerce. In other words, the ordeals of ninth-century
London and Paris carried with them their own prospective compensation; and in this respect the history of the Londoners and the
Parisians is not incomparable to the history of the Jews dispersed
abroad among the Gentiles. In both cases, we have the spectacle of
stood,

London and

a community holding its ground tenaciously against intense hostile

pressure; and in both cases, again, we find that it is rewarded
doubly for its tenacity. It not only gains a moral stimulus from its
act of resistance, but it also obtains a material compensation for its
moral ordeal in virtue of the fact that the position from which it
1

See II.

D (v), pp. 198-9, above, and also the Annex to that chapter on pp. 4001, below.
T

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

274

refuses to be driven out

by persecution or by force of arms, as the
is a position of unique commercial profitableness.
case may be
The existence of this 'law of compensation' and the wide range

which we have now perhaps satisfied ourselves,

may give us warning not to press to extremes our other law of 'the
of

its

operation, of

greater the challenge the greater the stimulus'. Before we allow

ourselves to be convinced, on evidence, that this other law holds
good without limitations, we must make sure that our evidence will
stand the test of the supplementary 'law of compensation' which

has

now come

to light.

When we are confronted with a triumphant

response to some challenge from the environment which is apparently superlative in its severity, we must not accept this evidence
at its face value until we have made sure that the total environment
has been taken into consideration. We must always bear in mind
that the environment is twofold
a physical environment and a
human and that a challenge which is delivered in either one of
these two realms and which appears superlatively severe at first
sight, may prove on closer inspection to be tempered and attenuated
by some compensation which it carries with it in the complementary
realm, whichever of the two that may be. This is what we actually
found when we examined the most extreme examples of Challengeand-Response in the physical realm which we could call to mind:
the examples of Venice and Holland and Switzerland and the thirteen historical nuclei of Modern Greece. Thereafter, when we
extended our horizon, we again found our 'law of compensation' at
work in the most extreme example of Challenge-and-Response in
the human realm that can well be imagined: the example of the
Jewish 'Diaspora'. We have not, however, come across any example
of a triumphant response to a challenge which has
presented itself
with uniformly superlative severity in the physical and in the human
realm simultaneously. This argumentum ex silentio does not, of
course, go very far; but it goes far enough to suggest a doubt as to
whether our law of 'the greater the challenge the greater the response'
does retain its validity when the challenge is at once extreme in
degree and relentless in presenting itself over the whole range of the
total environment, instead of
unobtrusively offering compensation
in one of the two realms for the
conspicuous severity of its incidence
in the other.

How is a

challenge proved excessive?

Are we, then,

to conclude that the validity of this law is not

absolute but limited ?
can hardly draw that conclusion from the
negative fact that no instance of a
to an un-

We

triumphant response
come to our notice.

mitigatedly superlative challenge has actually

THE GOLDEN MEAN

275

we

are to establish a convincing proof, it must be founded on

must be able to present unequivocal instances
positive evidence.
in which a challenge has proved to be excessive ; and the excessiveIf

We

ness of a challenge will not be conclusively demonstrated by the

mere fact that a particular party has failed to respond to the challenge in question on a particular occasion.
This will prove nothing in itself, because almost every challenge
that has eventually evoked a victorious response turns out, on
inquiry, to have baffled or broken one respondent after another
before the moment when, at the hundredth or perhaps the thousandth summons, the victor has entered the lists at last. This is the
notorious 'prodigality of Nature*; and, in the field of the histories
of civilizations, a host of examples spring to mind.
For instance, the physical challenge of the North European forest
effectually baffled Primitive Man, Unequipped, as he was, with
implements for felling the forest trees, and ignorant of how to turn
the rich underlying soil to account by cultivation, even if he had
been capable of clearing it of its sylvan encumbrance, Primitive Man
in Northern Europe simply avoided the forest and squatted on
sand-dunes and chalk-downs which his successors afterwards scornfully rejected as 'bad lands' when the forest was falling at last under
the blows of their axes. For Primitive Man, the challenge of the
temperate forest was actually more formidable than the challenge of
the frozen Tundras; and in North America his line of least resistance
eventually led him Pole-ward beyond the forest's northern fringe to
find his destiny in creating the Eskimo Civilization 1 in response to
the challenge of the Arctic Circle. Yet Primitive Man's experience
does not prove that the challenge of the North European forest was
excessive in the sense of being altogether beyond human power of
effective response; for where Primitive Man was baffled, the barbarians who followed at his heels were able to make some impression
with the aid of tools and technique acquired from the rising civilizations with which they were in touch, until, in the fullness of time,
the pioneers of two latter-day civilizations came and saw and conquered. Before the close of the fourteenth century of the Christian
Era, the Northern forest had been effectively taken in hand and
mastered
by Western Christian pioneers in Europe and by Orthodox Christian pioneers in Russia all the way from the coast of the
Atlantic to the foot-hills of the Urals.
Some fifteen centuries before that, in the second century B.C., the
southern vanguard of the North European forest in the Basin of the
Po had been subdued by the Roman pioneers of the Hellenic Civilization after having baffled the Romans' barbarous and primitive
1

For the arrested

civilization

of the Esquimaux, see III. A, vol.

Hi,

pp. 4-7, below.

276

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

predecessors from time immemorial. The Greek historian Polybius,

who visited this country immediately after it had been opened up
and been turned to account by Roman enterprise, has put on record
his personal observations. He draws a striking contrast between
the inefficient and poverty-stricken life of the Romans' Gallic predecessors, whose last survivors were still living this life in the backwoods at the foot of the Alps, 1 and the cheapness and plenty that
prevailed in the adjoining districts which the Roman colonists had
taken in hand.* It could never have occurred to Polybius, with this
contrast before his eyes, to imagine that the Padane forest was
invincible simply because the miserable remnant of the Gauls survived as a specimen of one community which had failed to respond
to the forest's challenge. In Polybius's day, the testimony of the
forest-bound Gallic kraals was given the lie by the opposing testimony of a thriving Roman country-side which now held the field, a
stone's throw off, on ground which the forest had still been holding
victoriously against Mankind a few years before. But suppose that
an earlier Greek historian let us say, a Herodotus
had been able
to anticipate Polybius's visit to the Po Basin by some three centuries .
He would have arrived on the scene at a moment when the Gallic
avalanche had just descended from the Alps and was overwhelming
the Etruscan prospectors who had ventured out north of the
Apennines. After watching the discouraging spectacle of barbarism
evicting the forerunners of civilization from a country which the
barbarian was patently incapable of turning to account for himself,
our Herodotus might well have returned to Hellas to report that the
Padane forest was invincible and that the Etruscans, who had lightly
taken up its challenge, had paid the inevitable penalty for their presumption by incurring the Envy of the Gods. The moral of this
imaginary story may be expressed in the words of Solon's warning
to Croesus : 'Respice finem.' 3 The suggested inevitability of the
Etruscans' failure was disproved within three centuries by the
Romans' success. It is evident that a challenge is not proved unanswerable by the fact that some attempts to answer it have failed.
It has first to be shown that the series of failures has been unbroken
from beginning to end of the story.
Polybius's sketch of the Basin of the Po in the latter part of the
second century B.C. bears a curious resemblance to the picture of
the Basin of the Mississippi at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of the Christian Era which has been drawn for
us in detail by a host of modern Western travellers. The contrast
*

(Bk.

Polybius, Bk. II, ch. 17.

.
original of the Latin proverb

The Greek
I,

ch. 32).

is

pkced

s
Polybius, Bk. II, ch. 15.
in Solon's mouth by Herodotus

THE GOLDEN MEAN

277

between the last of the Gauls still starving within reach of plenty
and the Roman pioneers who have compelled the primeval forest to
yield up its hidden wealth at the summons of their axe and spade
has been reproduced on another continent, at an interval of some
two thousand years, in the modern contrast between the last of
the Redskins and the American pioneers in the primeval forest of

Kentucky or Ohio.
The Americans have responded victoriously to a sylvan challenge
by which their Red Indian predecessors were baffled. 1 Indeed, they
have increased the productivity of the soil and subsoil which they
have conquered from the trees to such a degree that to-day, when
the territory of the United States is occupied by 120 million people
of European origin with a conspicuously higher standard of living
than is enjoyed by their kinsmen and contemporaries who have not
left their European homes, it is calculated that the
present Red
Indian population of the United States is not less numerous and
possibly more numerous than the Red Indian population of the
same territory some three centuries ago, before the first progenitor of the 120 million European intruders ever set foot on this American soil. 2 In other words, practically the whole of the present
national income of the United States is derived from wealth that
has been extracted direct from Physical Nature by the in-comers,
and little or none of it is derived from wealth which has been robbed
from the indigenous occupants (as the Inca's gold and silver was
robbed from him by the Spanish conquistadores of Peru). On this
showing, the present national wealth of the United States gives a
fair economic measure of the difference between the ineffectual Red
Indian response and the triumphant American response to the
The monument
physical challenge of the North American forest.
the seventeenth century of the Christian Era, when the English and French
North America appeared on the scene, the Red Indian occupants of the vast
area which is now covered by Canada and the United States had not begun to master the
North American forest, though they did not lack an incentive for mastering it since they
had already acquired the art of maize cultivation from the adjoining Mexic World. (See
II. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, p. 265, above.) For the question whether an indigenous civilization,
'affiliated' to the Mexic, would or would not have emerged eventually in North America
if the European Civilization of Western Christendom had not intervened, see the footnote on pp. 265-6 in II.
(ii) (a) 2, vol. i, above.
2 If this calculation is
correct, it bears eloquent testimony to the extent of the difference
in degree between American and Red Indian economic efficiency, but it does not, of
course, justify any retrospective condonation of the treatment which the Red Indians
have received at American hands. (See II. C (ii) (a) i, vol. i, pp. 211-14, above.)
statistical result, however interesting and remarkable, is impotent to undo crimes that
have been committed and cruelties that have been suffered in real life. Though the
present Red Indian population of the United States may be neither less numerous nor
less well off than the Red Indian population of the same territory three centuries ago, the
present representatives of the indigenous race are confined to an insignificant fraction of
the area over which their predecessors once ranged, and they are descended from only a
minority of the tribes which the European intruders found in existence on their arrival.
The suffering and the wrong involved in the extermination of the majority of the Red
Indian tribes and the alienation of the greater part of the territory over which they used
to roam are hard facts which no figures can explain away.
1

By

colonists of

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

278

of the American pioneer's victory over the forest is the present aspect
of the United States and, in face of the forest's ultimate defeat by
Man, which this aspect now proclaims to the World, it is patent that
the different aspect which the same territory wore three centuries
ago, in an age when the North American forest was still dominant
over the local representatives of the Human Race, afforded no valid
evidence at all of the forest's invincibility. An Aztec explorer, visiting the Far North before A.D. 1600, would have been in grievous
error if he had returned home to report that the Northern forest
was invincible after observing the ineffectual efforts of the Algonquin and the Iroquois to plant their maize between the serried treestems. For, by A.D. 1600, the formidable conquerors of the North
European forest were already girding up their loins to cross the
North Atlantic and repeat their exploit in a New World.
The story of Man and the Forest is reproduced in the stories of
Man and Mineral Oil and Man and the Air.
Like the forests of Europe and North America, the oil-fields of
Azerbaijan have challenged one human society after another to
master them for human ends before the challenge has eventually
been answered. The Nomads, who are the earliest recorded tenants
of the Azerbaijani Steppe, appear to have made no use whatever of
the mineral wealth which was oozing out and welling up from below
the surface of their cattle-pastures. The Syriac Society, which supplanted the Nomads in Azerbaijan in the early part of the sixth
1
century B.C., when the Medes overcame the Scyths, was not unaware of the peculiar natural phenomenon which was native to this
remote border province on the outer edge of the Syriac World ; yet,
under the Syriac dispensation, the oil of Azerbaijan was harnessed
solely for a religious purpose, without ever being turned to economic
account.
few conspicuous natural gushers were imprisoned in
towers in order that the rising jet might minister to the Zoroastrian
cult of Fire by feeding a perpetual flame at the summit and even
this ritual use of the mineral only lasted as
long as the local prevalence of the Zoroastrian religion. When Zoroastrianism gave way to
Islam and the Syriac Civilization was superseded, in due course, by
the 'affiliated' Iranic Civilization, these
perpetual flames ceased to
burn and the sole use which Man had so far made of Mineral Oil
became obsolete. Yet the Azerbaijani oil-field was not destined to
elude economic exploitation to the end of Time. The economic
potentialities of this unexploited mineral resource did not escape
the attention of Peter the Great when he
passed that way in AJD.
1723 en route for the conquest of the Caspian provinces of Persia; 2
;

See II. D (v), pp. 136-8, above.

See Bruckner, A.: Peter der Grosse (Berlin 1879, Grote), pp.
480 and 518.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

and although in

279

other things, the intuitive genius of this

Russian changeling anticipated the laborious discoveries of Homo
Economicus in the West by the best part of two centuries, Peter's
economic reconnaissance of the Azerbaijani oil-field was a true
portent of things to come. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century of the Christian Era, Baku was conquered again, and this
time permanently, by a Russia which still retained the impetus
towards economic Westernization that Peter had communicated to
her; and, in the course of the same century, Baku Oil became one
of the staple commodities of a Western economic system which had
come to embrace the whole World and all Mankind. Indeed, at the
present day, the mastery of Man over Oil has become so complete
that it looks as though he might substitute oil for coal
as he has
to be his ordinary fuel and
already once substituted coal for wood
standard generator of light and heat and mechanical power. Thus
the successive failures of the Nomadic and Syriac and Iranic civilizations to respond to the challenge of the Azerbaijani oil-field were
not, after all, good evidence that this challenge was inherently
this, as in

insuperable.
As for the challenge of the Air, the myths of human Icarus and
human Phaethon, who fell to destruction when they presumed to
imitate the flights of their superhuman sires, convey a profound
conviction that the Air
unlike the Forest or the Jungle-Swamp or
the Desert or the Sea
is for ever destined to defeat the utmost
efforts of human daring and ingenuity. Nor has this conviction of
the Air's invincibility been limited to those Hellenic minds which

have given

expression in Mythology. It has been taken

for granted by all men in all ages; and even in our own Western
Society, which has triumphantly conquered the Air in our day, the
older generation now alive in this year 1933 has grown up in the old
assumption. The writer of this Study well remembers how, when
he was a schoolboy, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, the possibility of effective flight by aircraft heavier than
air was still a theme for tales of mystery and imagination in the vein
of Jules Verne or Edgar Allan Poe.
When we turn from the physical to the human environment, we
find the same.
challenge which has defeated one respondent is
afterwards proved by a victorious response on the part of some
it its classic

competitor to be not insuperable.

Let us reconsider, for example, the relation between the Hellenic
Society and the North European barbarians. In a previous passage
of this Part, we have already examined the effect of the pressure
from the barbarians upon the Hellenic World ; J but the pressure
later

See

II.

(v),

pp. 160-6, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

280

was reciprocal, and there was a counter-effect of Hellenic pressure

upon the barbarians which has a bearing upon our present subject
of inquiry. As the Hellenic Civilization radiated deeper and deeper
into the continental European hinterland of the Mediterranean, one
confronted with a question of
layer of barbarians after another was
life and death. Was it going to succumb to the impact of this potent
alien social force and suffer a disintegration of its own social fabric
in order to become raw material for assimilation into the tissues of
the Hellenic body social ? Or was it going to hold its own and resist
assimilation and be enrolled, in virtue of its resistance, in the recalcitrant external proletariat of the Hellenic Society instead of

merging

This
identity in that of the Hellenic Society itself?
was presented by the Hellenic Civilization successively to

its

challenge
the Celts and to the Teutons. In the earlier of these two ordeals,
the Celts eventually broke down; but in the second ordeal the
Teutons proved that the Hellenic challenge was not insuperable by
responding to it victoriously now that their turn had come.
The break-down of the Celts was impressive, because the Celts
had had a good start and had taken spectacular advantage of it to
begin with. The Celts were given their opportunity by an error of
tactics on the part of the Etruscan settlers along the west coast of
content with
Italy. These overseas converts to Hellenism were not
securing their foothold on the Italian coastline nor even with ex-

panding inland up to the foot of the Apennines. The Etruscan

pioneers rashly crossed the Apennine watershed and scattered far
and wide over the Basin of the Po right up to the foot of the Alps. 1
In expanding on this scale, they were vastly overtaxing their strength ;
and the consequence was as auspicious for the Celts who happened
as it was disasto be the layer of barbarians immediately affected
trous for the Etruscans themselves. The sudden initial access of
Etruscan pressure had stimulated the Celts to react against the
2 and now an
aggressors
equally sudden relaxation of the pressure
;

tempted the barbarians to pass over to the offensive. The result

was a furor Celticm which was sustained for some two centuries.
Before the end of the fifth century B.C., a Celtic avalanche,
descending from the Alps, overwhelmed the weak Etruscan outposts
in the Po Basin. In the early decades of the fourth century, the
invigorated barbarians were sweeping across the Apennines and
3
sacking the walled cities of Italy, including Rome itself, and were

pp. 85-6, and the present chapter, p. 276, above.

Celts had been in contact with the Etruscans
before their reaction took a violent form in the fifth century B.C. is emphasized by
H. Hubert in Les Celtes et VExpansion Geltique jusqu'd l*poque de la Tene (Paris 1932,
Renaissance du Livre), p. 331.
3 For Rome's
recovery from the Clades Alliensis of 390 B.C., see II.
(iv), pp. 1012,
above.
1

See

The length of the tone during which the

II.

(iii),

THE GOLDEN MEAN

281

sending out flying columns of raiders right to the extremity of the

Italian Peninsula. A century later, they were playing the same
havoc in Peninsular Greece. In 279 B.C. they burst through the
northern bounds of Macedonia and remained masters for four years
(279-276 B.C.) of a country which had just imposed its hegemony
on all the other states of Greece and overthrown the Achaemenian
1
Their range of action was immense. One wing of the
Empire.
horde which had descended the Danube to fall upon the heart of the
Hellenic WorldswervedeastwardandcrossedtheDardanelles instead
of heading for Pella and Delphi ; and these Celts made a permanent
settlement
an Asiatic 'Galatia'
on the Anatolian Plateau. Other
Celtic hordes, bursting out in the opposite direction, descended the
Rhine and the Seine and the Loire to the shores of the Ocean and

some across
swept on
taking seas and mountains in their stride
the Channel into the British Isles and some across the Bay of Biscay
or the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula. Nor were these Celtic
migrants mere marauders. Inept though they were in material
as they showed in their inability to master the forest2
technique
the Celts nevertheless succeeded, under the stimulus which came to
them from Etruria and Macedon and Marseilles, in developing a
3
style of their own which is sufficiently distinctive to enable our
modern Western archaeologists to plot out the course and extent of
these Celtic migrations on the basis of the remains of the Celtic
culture which have come to light.
During those two centuries of Celtic exuberance (circa 425-225
B.C.), it looked as though the Celts might actually overwhelm the
Hellenic World by breaking into its citadels in Italy and Greece and
enveloping its flanks in Spain and Anatolia simultaneously; and
then, when this Celtic terror was at its height, the barbarians missed
their chance. They were driven out and kept out of the Italian
Peninsula by the Romans and out of the Greek Peninsula by the
Antigonids. In Anatolia, the scourge of their marauding expeditions stimulated the local 'successor-states' of the Achaemenian
Empire to co-operate to the extent of confining the obnoxious Celtic
B.C., the Macedonians had committed the same error of tactics
European frontier that the Etruscans had committed on theirs
a century earlier. King Philip Amyntou, the Macedonian counterpart of Peter the Great,
had stimulated the Celts by extending his rule into the interior of the Balkan Peninsula;
and thereafter Philip's son and successor Alexander the Great, and Alexander's general
and local successor Lysimachus, had both diverted the energies of Macedonia from
Europe to Asia, leaving the continental European frontier invitingly open for barbarian
1

on

In the fourth century

their

own

reprisals.
a See

continental

275-6, above.
type of culture which, in the technical terminology of our archaeologists^ is
known as 'La Tene*, after the site, at the outflow from the Lake of Neuchatel, on which
the first striking examples of this culture were unearthed. The five phases into which
the la Tene culture is analysed by the archaeologists on the strength of its material
remains are believed to cover, in all, a span of five centuries, from the fifth century to the
last century B.C. See Hubert, op. cit., and the Cambridge Ancient History t vol. vii, ch. ii.
3

The

pp*.

282

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

intruders within narrow bounds in the least desirable part of the

country. In the Balkan Peninsula, in the basins of the Maritsa and
the Danube, the Celts were exterminated by the indigenous repreThracians and Illyrians and the
sentatives of European barbarism
as soon as these had recovered from the first shock of the
like
Celtic onslaught. In the Iberian Peninsula, they were rolled back
by the North African barbarians who gave the Peninsula its Iberian name. The last hope for the Celts lay in Hannibal's brilliant
attempt, in his passage of the Alps, to set the Celtic avalanche in

motion again at its original starting-point; 1 and this hope was forlorn,
since the hour of Hannibal's intervention was not the eleventh but
the thirteenth. The definitive defeat of Hannibal by Rome in the
year of the third century B.C. spelled the doom of Hannibal's
Celtic allies. It was thenceforth inevitable that the encounter between the Celtic barbarism and the Hellenic Civilization should end
in a Celtic defeat, and that this defeat should be inflicted by Roman
hands. Within little more than two centuries after the close of the
Hannibalic War, the Celts had been absorbed into the Hellenic
body social through being incorporated into the Roman Empire
from the banks of the Po to the banks of the Rhine and the Danube
and from Celtiberia to Gallograecia. They had been followed up
by Roman Imperialism from the Continent on to the island of
Britain and from the British mainland on to their last sanctuary on
the Isle of Mona. Their discomfiture was complete. 2
This disintegration of the Celtic layer of European barbarism by
the radiation of Hellenism exposed the Teutonic layer, which lay
next behind the Celtic, to the action of the same formidable disintegrating force. How must the prospects of the Teutons have
a Diodorus of Agyrium or a
appeared to a Hellenic historian
Strabo of Amaseia
who had lived to see Caesar conquer Gaul 3 or
to hear Caesar's successors debating whether it were worth their
while to conquer Britain ?* With the Celtic debacle in his mind, our
last

See II.
(v), pp. 161-2, above.
Hubert, in op. cit., on pp. 155-6, writes the epitaph of the Celts in the following
terms:
*La Civilisation de la Tene commence avec 1'age d'or de la civilisation grecque. Ce
sont les innovations de celle-ci qui ont provoque les innovations qui caracterisent cellela. Les surfaces de contact se sont depuis lors regulierement accrues
et, malgre* quelques
apparences contraires, Finfluence des Mediterraneens et la masse des importations
1

__
les civilisations de PEurope Centrale
originalite ne s'etait r^velee.*

par

aux dviKsationYplus ^anceeldiTMidi, pareUle

3 The narrative of Diodorus's A

Library of Universal History stops at Caesar's invasion
of Gaul in the year 58 B.C. ; but certain later events are mentioned by Diodorus incidentally: e.g. Caesar's crossing of the Rhine and invasion of Britain, as well as his death and

apotheosis.
* 'Caesar the

God [i.e. Divus Julius] landed on the island [of Britain] on two occasions,
but each time he withdrew again in a hurry without accomplishing
anything much or

THE GOLDEN MEAN

283

quite rationally forecasting the future in the light of the

would assuredly have been inclined to pronounce that, for
past
the barbarians of Europe, the challenge of Hellenism was insuperable and that, however lustily the Teutons might storm and rage, as
historian

the Celts had once stormed and raged, at the first encounter with
the pioneers of the conquering civilization, the Teutons, like the
Celts, were bound to be discomfited in the long run.
An observer who had watched Caesar throw Teutonic Ariovistus,
neck and crop, out of Gaul or Augustus push the Roman frontier
forward from the Rhine to the Elbe, right into the Teutonic domain, would hardly have guessed that the boundaries of the Roman
Empire on the European Continent were destined to relapse to the
line of the Rhine and remain at the line of the Danube instead of
continuing to advance, at the Teutonic barbarians' expense, until
they reached a 'natural frontier' at the neck of the European Peninsula, along the lines of the Vistula and the Dniestr. Yet, in despite
of the historical precedents, this was what actually happened. The

Roman expansion succeeded in

Roman statesmanship to accept the Rhine- Danube line

Teutonic resistance to

compelling
the longest
line that it is possible to draw across the face of Europe
as the
permanent European frontier of the Roman Empire; and, when
once this was decided, the game was in the Teutons' hands and their
ultimate victory was only a matter of time.
On a stationary military frontier between a civilization and a
1
barbarism, time always works in the barbarians' favour; and, besides this, the barbarians' advantage increases (to borrow Malthus's
famous mathematical metaphor) in geometrical progression at each
arithmetical addition to the length of the line which the defenders
of the civilization have to hold. The unsubdued Teutonic tribesmen
pressed ever harder upon the fine-drawn line of the Roman frontier
along the Rhine and the Danube; and they were so far from being
threatened by the fate of the Celts that they soon began to assume a
threatening aspect themselves in Roman minds as the most forpenetrating far into the interior. . . . Lately, however, some of the local chiefs have
entered into friendly relations with the Government of Caesar Augustus by sending
embassies and paying other attentions; and they have gone so far as to dedicate monuments on the Capitol and to place the whole island virtually at the Romans' disposal.
There would be no advantage, however, in a military occupation of the island in view of
the heaviness of the duties which the Britons are compelled, as it is, to pay to the Imperial
Treasury on all imports from Britain into Gaul and exports from Gaul into Britain.
(These exports consist of ivory bracelets and necklaces and amber beads and glass-ware
and other rubbish.)
military occupation would not pay, because it would require at
least one legion, with some cavalry, to extract revenue from the islanders by direct
taxation, and the cost of this force would swallow up the net increase in receipts (allowing
for the fact that direct taxation could not be imposed without a simultaneous reduction
in the customs tariff). Nor could force be employed without a certain amount of risk.'
(Strabo: Geographic^ Bk. IV, ch. v. 3, pp. 200-1.)
1 This law of the barbarian frontiers of civilizations is examined further in Part
VIII,
below.

284

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

midable contingent in the recalcitrant external proletariat by which

the now stationary frontiers of the Empire had come to be encircled.
The Teutons, unlike the Celts, were proof against the assaults of
Hellenic culture, whether these were delivered by soldiers or by
traders or by missionaries. Even when they succumbed, on the eve
triumph, to the spiritual assault of the Syriac
religion which had just conquered the Hellenic Society itself, they
made their Christianity their own by opting for Arianism instead of
adopting the Catholicism which became prevalent on the Roman
side of the now fast-crumbling military front. And when the Roman
of their

final military

Empire

finally collapsed,

solution with

it,

and the Hellenic Society went into disthe Teutons were in at the death. It was these

European barbarism, rather than the

Sarmatians and the Huns of the Eurasian Steppe or the Arabs and
the Berbers of Afrasia, who delivered the coup de grace.
Greek
a Priscus or a
historian of the fifth century of the Christian Era
Zosimus would have been in no danger of making that mistake
which might so easily have been made by a Diodorus or a Strabo
some four centuries earlier. In an age when Visigoths and Vandals
were harrying the Peloponnese and holding Rome to ransom and
occupying Gaul and Spain and Africa and seizing the command of
the Mediterranean, it had long ceased to be possible to argue that
the challenge of Hellenic culture and Roman arms was insuperable
for the barbarians of Europe, just because this challenge had once
defeated the Celts. The Teutonic victory robbed the Celtic defeat,
in retrospect, of the apparent historical significance which it had
seemed to possess at the time when it had been consummated.
There are other obvious illustrations of the same theme in
the realm of the human environment which we
may cite more
representatives of continental

briefly.

For example, the

spiritual poverty of the indigenous Roman

a
religion presented
standing challenge to foreign religions when
once Rome's military career had brought her into cultural contact

with foreign communities.

Was some

alien religion to

respond to

by filling the awful void in Roman souls

which had yawned open during the seismic convulsions of the
Hannibalic War? The Roman numina knew no magic formula for
this challenge victoriously

1
closing this spiritual breach. Would some foreign divinity close it
by leaping in, as the mythical Curtius once upon a time had closed
a physical abyss in the Roman forum? The Hellenic
Dionysus
leapt into the breach straightway and was
swallowed

straightway
up
without constraining the gulf to close over his head. Yet the sum-

On this point, see Warde-Fowler, W. The Religious Experience of the Roman People
(London 1911, Macmillan), Lectures xiv and xv.
i

THE GOLDEN MEAN

mary suppression of the Dionysiac propaganda

285
in

Roman

Italy by
authorities in the second century B.C. was after aU no
proof that this challenge of the Roman spiritual void was insuper-

the

Roman

where the Hellenic Dionysus suffered

Christ descended into hell and re-ascended as a

able; for,

defeat, the Syriac

victor. Five cen-

turies after the suppression of the Bacchanalia by the Roman Senate

in the year 186 B.C., 1 the Roman Government itself acknowledged

the victory of Christianity in the conversion of the Emperor Constantine the Great.
Again, the intrusion of Hellenism upon the Syriac World in the
train of Alexander the Great presented a standing challenge to the
Syriac Society. Was it, or was it not, to rise up against the intrusive
civilization and cast it out? Confronted with this challenge, the
Syriac Society made a number of attempts to respond ; and aU these
attempts had one common feature. In every instance, the antiHellenic reaction took a religious movement for its vehicle. 2 Nevertheless, there was a fundamental difference between the first four of
these reactions and the last one. The Zoroastrian and Jewish reactions were failures; the Nestorian and Monophysite reactions
were failures ; the Islamic reaction was a success.
The Zoroastrian and Jewish reactions were attempts to combat
the ascendancy of Hellenism by bringing into action two religions
which had both been rife already in the Syriac World before the
calamity of the Hellenic intrusion befell it. In the strength of Zoroastrianism, the Iranians, who had been the political masters of the
Syriac World before Alexander overthrew the Achaemenian Empire,
rose up against Hellenism and expelled it, within two centuries of
the conqueror's death, from all the region east of the Euphrates. At
the line of the Euphrates, however, the Zoroastrian reaction reached
its limit. The remnant of Alexander's conquests was salvaged for
Hellenism by the intervention of Rome; and in A.D. 628, after the

Arsacids and the Sasanids had been beating upon this Roman frontier
for nearly 700 years, it actually stood perceptibly farther east than
the line along which Pompey had first drawn it in 64 B.C. 3 Thus the
Zoroastrian reaction never succeeded in dislodging the intrusive
alien civilization from the Syriac terra irredenta. Nor did the Jewish
reaction succeed in its more audacious attempt to liberate the homeland of the Syriac Civilization from the Hellenic incubus by an
uprising from within. The Jewish people was too weak in arms and
numbers and Syria lay too near to the reservoirs of Hellenic energy
for the Jewish reaction to be able to achieve even that measure of
i

a
3

See
See
See

II.

pp. 215-16, above.

i, pp. 90-2, and II.
(6), vol. i, pp. 75-6, above.

(vi),

C (i)
L C (i)
I,

(6), vol.

(vi),

pp. 234-6, above.

286

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

success which was achieved by the Zoroastrian reaction ; and the

momentary triumph of the Maccabees over the Seleucids was effaced
by an overwhelming disaster when the Romans intervened. In the
great Romano- Jewish War of A.D. 66-70, the Jewish community in
Palestine was ground to powder; and the Abomination of Desolation, which the Maccabees had once cast out from the Holy of Holies,
came back to stay when Hadrian planted on the site of Jerusalem
the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina. The debris of this devoted
Syriac people which took up the Hellenic challenge so gallantly and
was shattered so remorselessly by the impact of Rome is drifting
about in the World down to this day, as the ash-dust once floated in
the atmosphere, and tinged the colours of the sunset on the other
side of the planet, for weeks after the great eruption of Krakatoa.
This pulverized social ash is familiar to us as the Jewish 'Diaspora*.
The scattered survivors of Jewry are left with the cold consolation
of remembering that their forefathers volunteeredtm a forlorn hope
and went down to destruction in a splendid failure.
As for the Nestorian and Monophysite reactions, they were two
alternative attempts at turning against Hellenism a weapon which
the intrusive civilization had forged for itself from a blend of

Hellenic and Syriac metal. In the syncretistic religion of Primitive

Christianity, the essence of the Syriac religious spirit had been
Hellenized to a degree that rendered it congenial to Hellenic souls ; x
and, for the Syriac underworld, this was perhaps the bitterest fruit
of the Hellenic ascendancy. The Hellenic dominant minority had
discovered the pearl of great price that lay buried in the field of
Syriac culture, and now the hated intruder was actually carrying

heirloom away. The Nestorian and Monoprecious Syriac

reactions
were
physite
attempts to snatch Christianity out of those
sacrilegious Hellenic hands and to save it for the Syriac heirs of the
this

Heavenly Kingdom. They were attempts to de-Hellenize Christianity and thereby to restore it to a pristine Syriac purity. Yet the
Nestorian and Monophysite reactions failed in their turn; and
they
both really failed in the same way, in spite of the diversity of their
theological tenets and their political fortunes. It made little difference that their theological divergences from the middle
path of the
Catholic Faith were in diametrically opposite directions to one
another. It made little difference that Nestorianism was
ignominiously driven out beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire to consort
with Zoroastrianism in the limbo east of Euphrates, whereas Monophysitism held its ground in Syria and Egypt and Armenia, and defied the Melchite
as Judaism had
hierarchy, without being blasted
x

Mithraism, which was Christianity's contemporary and its most formidable rival in
the competition for the spiritual conquest of the Roman
Empire, was of a corresponding
alloy. It was a Hellenized version, not of Judaism, but of Zoroastrianism.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

287

been blasted in an earlier encounter by the Roman thunderbolt.

The fundamental reason why Nestorians and Monophysites both
alike failed was that both were attempting an impossible feat of
spiritual alchemy. The Hellenic alloy which both were seeking to
eliminate from Christianity was really indispensable. Christianity
was a syncretism or nothing; and although either one of the two
blended elements might be reduced to a minimum by the alchemist's
art, it could never be reduced to zero. By reducing the Hellenic
element in Christianity as far as they could, the Nestorians and
Monophysites were merely impoverishing Christianity without
being able to rid it completely of the foreign alloy which, on a Syriac
valuation, was so much intractable dross. The Nestorians and
Monophysites were not so much defeated by the resistance of the
Melchites as they were paralysed by an irreconcilable contradiction
in their own souls. A religion which contained an irreducible residuum of Hellenism in itself could never inspire a whole-hearted
anti-Hellenic crusade.

Greek contemporary of the Emperor Heraclius, who had witnessed the ultimate victory of the Roman Empire in its last trial of
strength with the Sasanidae and the ultimate victory of the Melchite
hierarchy in its last trial of strength with the Nestorian and Monophysite heretics, might have been betrayed, about the year 630 of
the Christian Era, into giving thanks to God for having made the
Earthly Trinity of Rome and Catholicism and Hellenism invincible.
First Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and then Nestorianism and
Monophysitism, had taken up the Hellenic challenge, and now all
these Syriac reactions had failed to achieve their common aim.
Surely these four failures were conclusive proof that the challenge
presented by the ever dominant Hellenism to the ever prostrate
Syriac Society was insuperable ?
In the year 630, this conclusion would have forced itself upon
the reason of almost any intelligent citizen of the Catholic GraecoRoman Commonwealth, to whichever side his personal sympathies

And

very moment, the fifth

Syriac reaction against Hellenism was impending; and this fifth
reaction was to give the lie to the apparent significance of the other
four by succeeding triumphantly where they had all failed alike.
The Emperor Heraclius himself, who had spent his life in vindicating the work of Alexander and Ponipey, was condemned by a
malicious Destiny not to taste of death until he had seen 'Umar the
Successor of Muhammad the Prophet coming into his kingdom to
undo Alexander's work and Pompey's work and Heraclius's own
work and this utterly and for ever For Islam accomplished everything which Judaism and Zoroastrianism and Nestorianism and

might happen to

incline.

yet, at that

288

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

severally and successively attempted in vain.
the eviction of Hellenism from the Syriac World. It

Monophysitism had
It

completed

reintegrated, in the shape of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, the Syriac

universal state which Alexander had ruthlessly cut short, before its

term had run out or its mission been fulfilled, when he overthrew
the Achaemenidae. Finally, Islam endowed the Syriac Society, at
last, with an indigenous universal church and thereby enabled it,
suspended animation, to give up the ghost in the
assurance that it would not now pass away without leaving offspring.
When the 'Abbasid Caliphate broke up and the Syriac Society went
into a tardy dissolution, the Islamic Church became the chrysalis
out of which the new Arabic and Iranic civilizations, 'affiliated* to
the Syriac Civilization, were to emerge in due course at the end of a
after centuries of

post-Syriac interregnum.
may also reconsider, from our present standpoint, the challenge which was presented to Western Christendom by the impact
of the Ottoman Power. During the fourteenth century of the
Christian Era, the 'Osmanlis had succeeded in imposing the Pax
Ottomanica upon the warring communities of Orthodox Christendom in the Balkan Peninsula. By the turn of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries the issue between Orthodox Christendom and
the "Osmanlis was closed, and a new issue was presented. Were the
warring communities of Western Christendom to have peace imposed on them now, as it had been imposed on the warring communities of Orthodox Christendom already, by the drastic discipline
of an Ottoman conquest ? Or would the Western Society succeed in

We

effectually countering this danger by evolving from its

social some kind of carapace which would be sufficiently

own body
broad and

and tough to be impervious to Ottoman blows ?

In the fifteenth century this protective function was assumed by
the Kingdom of Hungary and, after a century-long ordeal, it proved
to be beyond Hungary *s permanent capacity. Hungary's failure was
dramatically proclaimed in her crushing defeat at the hands of
Sultan Suleyman in the Battle of Mohacz; and we may imagine
some Venetian observer who had escaped from the battle-field alive
reporting home that the 'Osmanlis were invincible and advising the
Government of the Republic to agree with their Ottoman adversary
quickly whiles they were in the way with him, before his cavalry
had time to cross the Julian Alps and descend upon the Venetian
possessions on the Italian mainland. On the morrow of the Battle
of Mohacz, it might indeed have appeared to the shrewdest
judge
thick

of public affairs that the Ottoman challenge to Western Christendom was unanswerable. Yet this judgement was invalidated, before
1

See

I.

(i)

(), vol.

i,

pp. 72-7, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

289

the calendar year was out, by the establishment of the Danubian

Hapsburg Monarchy.
This 'ramshackle empire' must indeed have appeared, at the
moment of its improvisation, to be a house built on the sands,
which was bound to fall as soon as ever *the rain descended and the
floods came and the winds blew and beat upon' it. 1 How could this
jerry-built structure be expected to stand when the house of Hungary had fallen?
Hungary had been a historic kingdom with a
tradition and an esprit de corps. The Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy
was a pile of rubble thrown together out of the nearest materials
that came to hand: an incongruous amalgam of Hungarian debris,
salvaged from Ottoman clutches, with a miscellaneous backing of
half a dozen contiguous kingdoms and lands the marches of Styria
and Austria, the duchies of Carinthia and Tyrol, the Kingdom of
Bohemia. Surely this new Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy could
not succeed where the old Kingdom of Hungary had failed ? Surely
it must fall, with a greater fall than that of
Hungary, when the
Ottoman conqueror resumed his offensive? Such expectations,
which assuredly were prevalent in rational minds in AJX 1526, were
nevertheless destined to be falsified in 1529 and refuted for ever
In the first siege of Vienna, the Danubian Hapsburg
in 1683.
Monarchy survived the impact of the force to which Hungary had
succumbed on the field of Mohacz. In the second siege of Vienna,
the Ottoman Power was thrown into a recoil from which it never
rallied. Thus the outcome of the Battle of Mohacz was not, after
all, a proof that the Ottoman challenge was unanswerable for the
Western World. So far from that, the shattering of the first antiOttoman carapace of Western Christendom actually stimulated the
threatened society to provide itself with a new carapace of sufficient
massiveness to withstand the blows under which the original carapace had given way.
The foregoing examples indicate that we have not yet found the
right method for dealing with the problem now before us. We are
if
concerned at the moment to lay hands on unequivocal instances
such are to be found in which a challenge has proved to be
excessive, and we have now ascertained empirically that we cannot
reach our goal by the process of demonstrating that some challenge
has been too much for a particular respondent on a particular
occasion or even for a succession of respondents on a series of
:

bound
to be incomplete because we cannot here apply the method of
exhaustion. The inference suggested by a thousand successive
occasions.

failures

However long the

may be

is

invalidated, at the thousand-and-first encounter,

1

II

catalogue, the demonstration

Matthew

vii.

25.

2QO

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

by a single anomalous and quite unpredictable success. This method

of inquiry, therefore, is a false route, and we must make for our
goal along some other line of approach.
Comparisons in Three Terms

Can we

see

some

alternative

method of research

that promises

Let us try the effect of starting our inquiry from the

have started
opposite end. We have made no progress when we
from instances in which a challenge has defeated a respondent. Let
us now start from instances in which a challenge has administered
an effective stimulus and has evoked a successful response. In
previous chapters of the present Part, we have had occasion to
examine many instances of this kind, and in many of these cases we
have conducted our examination comparatively. We have compared the example of a successful response to a challenge with some
other historical situation in which the same party (or a comparable
party) has responded with less success to the same challenge (or to
a comparable challenge) when the challenge has been less severe.
Let us now reconsider some of these comparisons between two terms
and see whether we cannot increase our two terms of comparison
better results

to three.

Let us look in each case for some third historical situation in which
the challenge has been not less severe but more severe than in the
situation from which we have started. If we succeed in finding a
third term of this kind, then the situation from which we have
started
a situation in which it is already established, by empirical
observation, that our challenge does evoke a successful response
becomes a middle term between two extremes. At these two
extremes, the severity of the challenge is respectively less and
greater than it is at the mean. And what about the success of the
response? In the situation in which the severity of the challenge
is less than the mean
degree, we know that the success of the

response

have

still

We

likewise apt to be less than it is in the middle term.

to ascertain what kind of response is evoked in our third

is

which the severity of the challenge is

above the mean and not below it. Here, where the severity of the
situation: the situation in

challenge is at its highest, shall we find that the success of the

response is at its highest also ? Suppose that we find, on examination, that an enhancement of the severity of the challenge above
the mean degree is not accompanied by any corresponding increase
in the success of the response but that, on the contrary, the
response
actually falls off, just as it falls off when the severity of the challenge
is not enhanced but diminished ? If this
proves to be the outcome of
our inquiry, we shall have discovered that the interaction of Chal-

THE GOLDEN MEAN

subject to the well-known 'law of diminishshall conclude that there is a mean range of

lenge-and-Response
ing returns'.

We

291

is

severity at which the stimulus of a challenge is at its highest ; and

assuming that the height of the stimulus is our criterion of value

we

On

shall call this degree of severity the optimum.

this stanwe
shall
certain
dard,
pronounce
presentations of a given challenge

be

and

certain other presentations of the same challenge to be 'excessive', on the common ground that both alike are
apt to evoke less successful responses than those which are evoked

to

'defective',

by the challenge

at the optimum degree at which its effect upon

the
most stimulating. Having sketched this new line
respondents
of inquiry, let us follow it out in order to discover experimentally
whether it does lead us to the goal for which we are making.
is

Norway

Iceland

Greenland

For example, let us reconsider the stimulating effect which was

produced upon the Norsemen by their transmarine migration from
Scandinavia to Iceland. The effect is indisputable. It was in Iceland and not in Norway or in Sweden or in Denmark that the
abortive Scandinavian Civilization achieved

both in

literature

and in politics.

its

greatest triumphs
the conditions of

And what were

the stimulus that evoked this supremely brilliant response ? There

are two conditions which are conspicuous: the transmarine migration across arctic seas and the exchange of a bleak and barren
country-side in Norway for an Icelandic country-side which was
bleaker and barrener. As far as we can judge, these two conditions
together constituted the Icelandic challenge which stimulated the

Scandinavian Society to surpass itself. Now, suppose that the same

challenge had been repeated with redoubled severity; suppose that
the Norsemen had been challenged by their physical environment
to traverse twice the width of arctic waters that separates Iceland
from Scandinavia, and to settle on the farther shore in a countryside which was as much bleaker and barrener than Iceland as
Iceland itself is bleaker and barrener than Norway. Would this
repetition of the same challenge with twice its Icelandic severity have
resulted in a repetition of the Scandinavian response with twice its

Would

Thule beyond Thule have bred

a Scandinavian community whose literature had twice the literary
merit of the Icelandic Saga and their polity twice the political genius
of the Icelandic Commonwealth ? This question is not hypothetical
for the conditions which we have postulated were actually fulfilled
when the Scandinavian seafarers pushed on from Iceland to GreenIcelandic brilliance?

this

land.

And

the answer to the question

1

See

II.

(lii),

is

not uncertain; for the

pp. 86-100, above.

292

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

which the Scandinavian culture had attained in Iceland

was nowhere and never surpassed. Though Greenland supplanted
Iceland as the Ultima Thule of the Scandinavian World, it did not

brilliance

supplant

it

as the focus of Scandinavian culture.

which that culture had

The

height to

remained its zenith.

As it turned out, the conditions of enhanced severity, which had
evoked so brilliant a response from the Norsemen who migrated
from Norway to Iceland, brought in diminishing returns when they
were imposed upon the emigrants to Greenland in double measure.
The Greenlanders made hardly any contribution to Norse litera1
ture; they did not distinguish themselves in politics; and they
betrayed a most un-Scandinavian-like lack of drive in failing to
follow up and clinch the great geographical discovery
the discovery of America which was within their grasp.
By the time when they had reached Greenland, the Scandinavian
explorers had attained the threshold of the New World. They had
already put behind them the longest and most formidable stage of
the journey.

risen in Iceland

The relatively clement south-west coast of Greenland,

which they had chosen for the site of their settlements, faces the
north-east coast of Labrador across waters that are scarcely wider
than the North Sea; and this side of Greenland is not more distant
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence than it is from Iceland. Within the
forty years immediately following the Norse colonization of Greenland in AJD. 985-6, there were no less than five separate occasions
on which Norse voyagers, sailing for Greenland or from Greenland,
2 It is
accidentally or deliberately made the North American coast.
remarkable that these Scandinavian voyages to America all occurred
during the first four decades of an occupation of the adjacent coast
of Greenland which lasted altogether for more than four centuries
and the failure to follow these reconnaissances up appears all the
more extraordinary when we bear in mind the usually high standard
of adventurousness and hardihood which prevailed
among the
Scandinavian seafarers in general in the Viking Age. Moreover, in
this instance, the Scandinavian settlers in Greenland had a
special
incentive for indulging in the traditional
diversion
and
Viking
exercising the traditional Viking virtue. Over a span of little less
than half a millennium, the Greenlanders were
being slowly worsted
in a tragic losing battle
against a physical environment which was
too severe for even the Scandinavian
spirit to endure permanently
the ordeal of keeping alive in it.
During all this time, there was
a
knowledge in Greenland of a temperate country to the south
land of vines
which had been proved to be within sailing distance
;

are credited with the so-called 'Greenlandic Adi

Lay* in the Poetic Edda.
See Gathorne-Hardy, G. M. : The Norse Discoverers of America (Oxford
1921, Milford); and Kendnck, T. D.: A History of the Vikings (London 1930, Methuen), ch. xv.

They

THE GOLDEN MEAN

393

of Greenland by the voyages of the Greenlanders* own ancestors.

Yet the descendants of the Scandinavian heroes who had made
their way across the Arctic Ocean to Greenland as a work of
supererogation, almost for the sport of braving the elements, were not
spurred on by the imminent danger of extinction in their Greenlandic settlements to save their souls alive by making the easier
transit to Vinland.
They did not follow in the wake of their
inquisitive ancestors in order to find new homes in a temperate
clime where they and their descendants could look forward to living
in perpetuity a life of reasonable ease. 1
What are we to make of this strange

and melancholy story? Its

the
that
of
Greenland was excessive,
meaning surely
challenge
and that the reason why the abortive Scandinavian Civilization
actually attained it$ zenith neither in Greenland nor in Norway but
in Iceland was that in Iceland the challenge to which the Scanis

dinavian Civilization was the response happened to be presented

in the optimum degree of severity
a degree which was a mean
between the lesser and the greater degree of severity in which
the same challenge was presented in Norway and in Greenland
respectively.

Maine
The Vinland on which the Scandinavian seafarers had failed to
secure a foothold at the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries of
the Christian Era was successfully colonized, rather more than six
centuries later, by English maritime pioneers of Western Christendom who boldly steered straight across the open Atlantic instead of
skirting the great Oceanic void and following the Scandinavian
route through arctic waters where Iceland and Greenland offer
themselves as stepping-stones. This bold Western seamanship had
its reward for New England
as Vinland was christened by EngDixie

Massachusetts

lish colonists who made themselves at home there in the seventeenth century
presented a physical challenge which had a potent
stimulating effect. We have studied this physical challenge on the
site of Town Hill, Connecticut ; z and we have traced the steps by
which the New Englanders were led on to the mastery of the whole
North American Continent through their successful response to the
have seen
severe conditions of the New England environment. 3
how, in the last round of the struggle between the diverse communities which had been established by European colonists along
the Atlantic seaboard of North America, the New Englanders
'knocked out their Southern kinsmen whose ancestors had likewise
braved the perils of the passage from England across the open

We

For

traces

pp. 282-97.

of abortive attempts at later dates, see Gathorae-Hardy, op. cit.,

3 See II.
See II.
(ii), pp. 65-70, above.
(i), pp. 15-16, above.

394

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Atlantic in the seventeenth century, but had settled in the treacherously genial clime of Virginia and the Carolinas. After two and a
half centuries of exposure, in their respective settlements overseas,
to the relaxing climate of the South and to the stimulating climate

New England,

these two offsprings of a single English stock had

been differentiated to a degree of which the measure is given by the
outcome of the American Civil War. Evidently the challenge of the
physical environment, which has evoked such a triumphant response

of

which it is presented in New England,

remains stimulating at the somewhat milder degree in which it is
presented in New York State and New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
but becomes distinctly relaxing at the lower degrees to which it falls
on the southern side of the Mason and Dixon Line. In geographical
terms, we may say that, along the North American Atlantic seaboard, the Mason and Dixon Line marks the southward limit of the
optimum climatic area in the sense of the area in which the challenge of the physical environment evokes the most effective human
response. We have now to ask ourselves whether this area of
highest climatic stimulus has another limit on the northern side
and, as soon as we have framed this question, we are aware that the
answer is in the affirmative.
at the degree of severity in

The

northern limit of the optimum climatic area actually partitions New England ; for New England, small as it is compared to
the whole range of the North American seaboard from Florida to
Labrador, is by no means homogeneous within itself. When we
speak of New England and the part which it has played in North
American history, we are really thinking of three New England
States out of the five of Massachusetts and Connecticut and Rhode
Island rather than New Hampshire or Maine though the two latter
states have just as good a title to the family name of New England
as their three more distinguished sisters. 1
Historically, Maine is a
mere offshoot of Massachusetts and she only acquired her separate
statehood in the year 1820, at a date when the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, with Maine as its annex, had already been in existence for the best part of two centuries. Thus the tie between
Maine and Massachusetts is perhaps as close as that between any
two other states in the Union. 2 The combined influences of geo:

graphical propinquity and common racial stock and common tradition and long-maintained common government have been at work
to hold these two New England States
together. And yet the

1 This
cannot be said for the state of Vermont, which falls into the same group as New
Hampshire and Maine sociologically, but is historically an offshoot of New York State
and therefore not strictly a part of New England by origin.
* It is
certainly closer than the tie between Virginia and West Virginia or between
North and South Carolina.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

diversity of their history

present time

up

to date

and of their character

295
at the

extreme.
Massachusetts has always been one of the leading English-speaking communities on the North American Continent. She has succeeded in maintaining this position in spite of the immense political
and economic changes which, in the course of the last hundred and
fifty years, have accompanied and followed the establishment of the
Union and the expansion of the United States across the continent
from Atlantic to Pacific. On the other hand, Maine has always been
unimportant and obscure, not only before but since her erection
into a separate State. Massachusetts to-day is still one of the principal seats of North American industrial and intellectual activity,
while Maine survives as a kind of 'museum piece'
a relic of seventeenth-century New England, a land of woods and lakes which is
still inhabited by woodmen and watermen and hunters.
These
children of a hard country now eke out their scanty livelihood by
serving as 'guides' for the pleasure-seekers who come from far and
wide out of the North American cities to spend their holidays in this
Arcadian State, just because Maine is still what she was at a time
when many of these great cities had not yet begun to arise out of
the virgin wilderness. Maine to-day is at once one of the longestsettled regions within the frontiers of the Union and one of the
least urbanized and least sophisticated.
How is this contrast between Maine and Massachusetts to be
explained ? It would appear that the hardness of the New England
environment, which stands at its optimum in Massachusetts, is
accentuated in Maine to a degree at which it brings in diminishing
returns of human response to its challenge. In other words, the
optimum climatic area along the North American Atlantic seaboard
has a northern limit at the northern boundary of Massachusetts
which corresponds to its southern limit at the more celebrated
Mason and Dixon Line. If it is a fact that, beyond the southern
boundary of Pennsylvania, the challenge of the physical environment becomes deficient in severity and therefore positively relaxing
in its effect upon human energies, it is also a fact that, beyond the
northern boundary of Massachusetts, the same challenge becomes
excessive in severity and therefore repressive. And, in terms of the
human response, the effects of repression and of relaxation are
identical. In areas in which either of these two conditions prevails,
the human respondent to the challenge is not stimulated to respond
with as great effect as in the optimum area in which the highest
physical stimulus is administered by a challenge of mean severity
between the relaxing and the repressive extreme.
The operation of 'the law of diminishing returns', which begins
is

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

2g6

to reveal itself in the contrast between

Maine and Massachusetts,

comes out much more clearly if we extend our survey farther northwards to the rest of the English-speaking communities along the
Atlantic seaboard of North America. New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia, which occupy the mainland between Maine and the Gulf of
St. Lawrence, are the least prosperous or progressive provinces of the
Dominion of Canada with the exception of their north-eastern neigh-

bour, Prince Edward Island. On the northern side of Cabot Strait, the
Island of Newfoundland is the least reputable of all the self-govern1
ing communities of the British Commonwealth of Nations. On the
northern side of the Strait of Belle Isle, the English-speaking fisherfolk along the bleak and barren north-east coast of Labrador are
fighting, at this day, the same tragic losing battle against overwhelming physical odds that was once fought out to the death, on
the opposite side of Davis Strait, along the south-west coast of
Greenland, by those forlorn Scandinavian pioneers whose last
survivors perished some five centuries ago.

Brazil
If

la Plata

we

Patagonia

turn our attention to the Atlantic seaboard of South

we

observe the same phenomena there mutatis

mutandis. In Brazil, for example, the greater part of the national
wealth and equipment and population and energy is concentrated
in the region lying south of the 2oth degree of southern latitude
and east of the River Parana. This region is only a small fraction of
the vast territories of the Republic, yet in social importance it far
outweighs the much larger fraction that extends along the Atlantic
coast from the 2oth parallel up to the point where this coast strikes
the Equator at the mouth of the Amazon (not to speak of the vast
hinterland, which includes almost the whole of the Amazon Basin).

America,

shall

Moreover, Southern Brazil

in civilization to the
farther south : the Republic of Uruguay and the Argentinian State of Buenos Aires. It is evident that,
along the South American Atlantic seaboard, the equatorial sector
is not
stimulating but positively relaxing, and that the optimum
climatic area
in the sense of the area in which the
challenge of the

adjoining regions that

itself is inferior

lie still

physical environment evokes the most effective human response

begins south of the 2Oth parallel (south) and is nearer to its best in
the neighbourhood of the Rio de la Plata than in the
neighbourhood
of the Tropic of Capricorn.

Where, then,

is 'the

high light of this optimum area to be found

1 This
passage was written before the suspension of the constitution of Newfoundland,
and the reassumption of a certain measure of local financial and administrative
responsibility and control on the part of the Government of the United Kingdom, at the end of

AJD. 1933.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

The

297

Buenos Aires has the advantage over the city of Rio de

Janeiro by some dozen degrees of latitude. If we follow the coast
farther southward through another dozen degrees of latitude beyond
Buenos Aires, shall we find ourselves in a region which is as much
city of

superior in civilization to Central Argentina as Central Argentina

is to Southern Brazil?
The answer is in the negative.
shall
find
the
and
of
effectiveness
the
human
actually
vigour
response to
the physical environment beginning to fall off before we have
rounded the bight of Bahia Blanca and reached Parallel Forty.
Farther south than that, we shall find ourselves traversing the bleak
plateau of Patagonia which is still tenanted by a stalwart but sparse

We

and primitive population of vagrant hunters. If we push on still

farther south again and cross the Strait of Magellan, we shall find
ourselves among the numbed and starved savages who just manage
to keep alive among the frosts and snows of Tierra del Fuego. Thus
in the Southern, as in the Northern, Hemisphere the Atlantic seaboard of America contains an optimum climatic area which has
limits in both directions. In either hemisphere, this area in which

the physical environment evokes the most effective human response

passes over on the one side into an area in which the challenge is
not of sufficiently stimulating severity and on the other side into
another area in which the. challenge is so severe that its excessive
stimulus brings in diminishing returns.

The Pacific Seaboard of South America

Let us next re-examine the Pacific seaboard of South America,
which has engaged our attention before. We have observed 1 that
the original home of the Andean Civilization on this seaboard lay,
not in Valparaiso or in any of the other green valleys which open
out upon rfie Central Chilean sector of the coast south of the 3oth
parallel, but among the oases which hold their own against the
coastal desert along the North Peruvian coast, from the Tumbez
Valley on the north to the Nazca Valley on the south inclusive.
have also observed that, in Valparaiso, the physical environment
does not present that challenge which is presented in the valleys of
Tumbez and Chimu and Rimac and Nazca a challenge which once
evoked the Andean Civilization as the human response to it. The
North Peruvian Coast has given birth to an indigenous civilization
because of its relative severity, and the Central Chilean coast has
failed to do the like because of its relative geniality. Are we to infer
that other sectors of the South American Pacific coast would have
evoked still more vigorous and effective human responses than the
North Peruvian coast, supposing that the physical challenges which

We

See

II.

(ii)

(i) 2, vol.

i,

pp. 322-3, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

The answer
they presented to Man had only been still more severe
zgS

in the negative; for any such fancy is ruled out by the fact that
two coasts of this very character are actually to be found in immediate proximity to the North Peruvian coast, on either side of it,
is

and that neither of these still more forbidding stretches of coast has
been any more successful than the less forbidding coast of Central
Chile in emulating the unique cultural achievement which the
North Peruvian coast has to its credit. Certainly the Andean Civilization did not emerge in the Earthly Paradise of Central Chile but
neither did it emerge in the unmitigated desert which dominates
the seaboard of Northern Chile and Southern Peru between the
30th parallel and the I5th; nor again did it emerge in the tropical
forest which smothers the seaboard of Ecuador.
On these two latter stretches of coast, the challenge of the physical
environment was presented with an excess of severity which is well
brought out in the following descriptions by an expert hand
;

'Along the Ecuadorian coast, conditions prevail which accord with the
usual conception of the tropical environment; for in that part of the
Andean area there exist tangled forests crowded with unkempt trees
draped in trailing mosses: forests wherein Man must combat warm,
humid, and enervating air and a too-luxuriant vegetation, not to mention
vast stretches of marsh or of spongy, unwholesome soil. . . . The island of
Puna, at the mouth of the Guayas River, presents a delightful park-like
aspect, embellished by sightly trees that raise graceful heads above the

general expanse of grass and low shrubs. But even this comparatively
charming part of the coast is replete with swamps, formerly the abode of

Coasdand Ecuador . . . varies . . within

yellow-fever mosquitoes. . .
itself to a marked degree, some of it
being, seemingly, almost incapable of
human
the
of it being, apparently, not unprorest
society,
supporting
.

Mankind. Yet in no part of it, so far as we now know, was any

well-balanced culture produced and set upon a rational career. True,
manifestations of advanced material culture
stone-carving, potteryhave been discovered there by archaeologists ; but
making, &c.
they
are almost certainly the product, in every case, of cultural influences
from outside the region. Thus, as a whole, the Ecuadorian coast is one
of those habitats wherein Man was unable to
progress without help from
outside
or at any rate did not
but wherein, once advanced culture
was introduced, it could be carried on.' 1
pitious to

As

for the Peruvian coastal desert,

it

not uniform throughout its

length; for in the northern half of the
Peruvian coast it is low
some three or four hundred feet, at most, above
the valley floors
and it slopes perceptibly towards the sea. ... In the
southern part of the coast, on the other hand, the desert
plain lies at an
altitude of two or three thousand feet above the
and
the river itself,
sea,
'is

Means, P. A.: Ancient

Civilisations of the

Andes (New York 1931, Scribner), pp. 6-7.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

299

at a distance of
only twenty miles from its mouth, is, as in the case of the
at
an altitude of a thousand feet or more and is
inMajes River,

hemmed

inexorably by the adjacent but even higher desert plains. It is little to be

wondered at, therefore, that in valleys of this type let us say, from that
of Lomas southwards into Northern Chile
no great cultural advances
were ever made save as the result of outside influences.' 1

Thus

the stimulating desert of the North Peruvian coast is succeeded, farther south, by a repressive desert which reaches its acme
of oppressiveness in the Nitrate Coast : a
howling wilderness which
has only become a bone of contention between three Latin- American Republics in these latter days when its chemical deposits have
acquired a commercial value.

'There

in Northern Chile none of the scenic beauty that marks the

change from bleak mountains to the warm, green valleys of the coastal
desert of Peru. In the latter case, the streams reach the sea, and the
valley walls enclose cultivated fields that fill the valley floor. In Peru the
is

a yellow, haze-covered horizon

picture is generally touched with color
on the bare desert above, brown lava-flows on the brink of the valley,
grey-brown cliffs, and greens ranging from the dull shade of algarrobo,

and

the brightness of freshly irrigated alfalfa meadows.

is no hint of water until one reaches the foothills of the Andes far beyond the Coast
Range and across the intervening
desert. Where water occurs it is so small in volume that its effects are
almost completely hidden in the depths of steep-walled ravines, so that
in many places one may look for miles along the Andes without seeing
a single trace of vegetation or human life.' 2
olive

fig trees to

In Northern Chile there

be seen that, in point of severity, the Pacific seaboard of

South America from the 5th to the i5th parallel (south) presents a
challenge which is a mean between two extremes, like the Atlantic
seaboard of the same continent from the zoth to the 4Oth parallel
or the Atlantic seaboard of North America from the 39th to the
43rd parallel (north), or again like Iceland. In Iceland, the challenge
of the physical environment is a mean between extremes in Norway
and in Greenland; in Massachusetts it is a mean between extremes
in South Carolina and in Labrador in Uruguay it is a mean between
extremes in Amazonia and in Tierra del Fuego. Similarly, on the
North Peruvian seaboard of South America, which has given birth to
the Andean Civilization, the challenge of the physical environment is
a mean of optimum severity between the excessive geniality of Central Chile and the excessive severity which is displayed, in diverse
ways, by both the Nitrate Coast and the seaboard of Ecuador.
This Andean illustration is perhaps more illuminating than the
It will

Op.

Bowman,

cit.,

pp. 12-13.
I.

Publication No. 5

American Geographical Society Special

Desert Trails of Atacama
(New York 1924, American Geographical Society), pp. 11-12.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

3 oo

geographical and climatic expression works

out less simply than theirs. In all the other instances above cited,
the mean or optimum challenge is presented in an area which
happens to be situated geographically in between the two areas in
others, just because

its

which the challenge is respectively insufficient and excessive. In

the two other American instances, again, the mean challenge coincides with a climatic mean of relative temperateness between two
climatic extremes which verge respectively towards tropical and
towards arctic conditions. In the Andean instance, on the other
hand, the excessive challenge is presented alike by two areas which
are situated on opposite sides of the optimum area and which have
one being
nothing in common with one another in their climates
a humid region smothered under a tropical forest and the other an
arid region where inorganic chemical deposits coat an otherwise
naked desert. The insufficient challenge, again, is here presented
in an area which is not sub-tropical but temperate in climate, and
which is separated geographically from the area of optimum challenge by one of the two areas in which the challenge is excessive.
In this Andean instance, therefore, the 'mean' which we are studying cannot be mistaken for anything but what it really is. Here,
clearly, it has nothing to do with a geographical 'mean' in the sense
of a central location, or again with a climatic mean in the sense of a
climate that is relatively temperate. It reveals itself unmistakably
as a 'mean' between a greater and a lesser degree of severity in a

a 'mean' which
challenge presented to Man by his Environment
is also an 'optimum' because, at this mean
degree of severity, the
challenge evokes a more vigorous and more effective human response

evoked by it either when its severity is greater (for whatever reason) and therefore 'excessive' or again when it is less and
therefore 'insufficient' from the standpoint of the human
respondent.
In the light of this Andean illustration, we can now pursue our
survey with clearer insight.
than

is

Magyars Lapps
Another illustration of the working of

Votyaks

this law is offered by the

of
the
migrations
Finnish-speaking peoples. From their original
habitat at the east end of the North
European forest, astride the
Urals, where some of these peoples have never ceased to live their
old life in its old environment, other
peoples of the same family
have migrated into one or other of the two
regions of entirely
different physique which
the
forest-belt on the north and on
adjoin
the south. The ancestors of the
Lapps, migrating northwards, have
exposed themselves to the challenge of the Tundras, while the
ancestors of the Magyars,
migrating southwards, have

exposed

THE GOLDEN MEAN

301

themselves to the challenge of the Eurasian Steppe. The social

consequence of the change in physical environment has been very
different in these two cases.

'The consanguineity of the Hungarians and Laplanders would display

the powerful energy of climate on the children of a common parent; the
lively contrast between the bold adventurers who are intoxicated with
the wines of the Danube and the wretched fugitives who are immersed
beneath the snows of the polar circle. Arms and freedom have ever been
the ruling, though too often the unsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians,
who are endowed by Nature with a vigorous constitution of soul and body.
Extreme cold has diminished the stature and congealed the faculties of
the Laplanders ; and the Arctic tribes, alone among the sons of men, are
ignorant of war and unconscious of human blood: an happy ignorance,
1
if reason and virtue were the
guardians of their peace!'

The Lapps on

Tundras have sunk considerably below the

sylvan ancestors; the Magyars on the Hungarian
their

of their
Alfold have risen far above it. It is evident that the ordeal of exchanging the life of the forests for the life of the Steppes is sufficiently
severe to be stimulating, whereas the change from forest to Tundra
is so inordinately severe that its effect on those who have endured it
has been, not stimulating at all, but positively repressive.
level

Reactions to Changes of Climate

Let us next consider the effect of migration from countries with
a damp, cloudy, foggy, heavy climate
the climate which prevails
in England and along the adjoining continental coasts of the North
Sea from Flanders to Jutland to countries with climates that are
drier, sunnier, clearer, and lighter. In the course of our Western
history, a change of climate in this direction has been made by the
medieval emigrants from the original Duchy of Saxony to the new
marches wrested from the Slavs beyond the Elbe. 2 In modern
times, a similar change has been made by the Dutch emigrants to
the Transvaal and by the English emigrants to New England. In
each of these three cases the change of climate has produced on
those who have made it a stimulating effect which can be measured
at the present day in the difference of ethos between the Brandenburger and the Hanoverian or between the Afrikander and the

Hollander or between the Yankee and the Englishman. In regard

to this stimulus, however, a distinguished American climatologist
strikes a warning note:
'The people of the Eastern and Central United States are more
but not necessarily more
nervous and active than those of Europe
efficient.
They are alternately stimulated and relaxed by frequent
.

Gibbon, Edward: The History of

See II. D (v), pp. 168-9, above.

the Decline

and Fatt of the Roman Empiret

ch. Iv.

302

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

changes from day to day, and in this are like horses that are well driven.
In the spring and autumn, however, the combined effect of ideal temperature and highly invigorating daily changes spurs them to an astonishing
degree of effort. Then comes the hot summer or the cold winter, either
of which is debilitating. People do not diminish their activity at once,
especially in the winter. They draw on their nervous energy, and thus
exhaust themselves. They are like horses which pull on the bit and,
when urged a little, break into a run, straining themselves by their
extreme speed. Then they are pulled up so suddenly that they are
thrown back on their haunches and injured. In Germany somewhat the
same conditions prevail, although not to so great an extent. England
apparently comes nearer to the ideal than almost any other place. The
climate is stimulating at all times, both by reason of abundant storms
and because of a moderate seasonal range. It never, however, reaches
such extremes as to induce the nervous tension which prevails so largely
in the United States.' 1

warning justified? When we are comparing the climatic

influences of England and Holland and Hanover with those of New
England and the Transvaal and Brandenburg, the question cannot
be answered off-hand. The points on either side are so evenly
matched that, when we try to strike a balance, it seems equally
reasonable to pronounce, with Dr. Ellsworth Huntington, that
England, after all, "apparently comes nearer to the climatic ideal
than any other place', or to make out that, on the whole, the more
violent stimulus of New England is apt to evoke a more effective
response. But suppose that we raise the violence of the stimulus to
Is this

higher degree. Suppose that we substitute California on the

Pacific coast of North America for New England on the Atlantic
coast, and the African highlands of Kenya Colony on the Equator
for the African highlands of the Transvaal on the
Tropic of Capriand
the
Polish
or
the
Russian
section
of
the
North European
corn,
for
the
Prussian
section.
that
we
make
these substiplain
Suppose
tutions, which all have the effect of heightening the violence of the
stimulus, and then repeat our previous question in these alternative
terms. On the whole and in the long run, does the climate evoke
the more effective response in England or in California ? In Holland
or in Kenya Colony? In Berlin or in Warsaw or Moscow ? When
the question is framed in these alternative and
sharper terms, the
answer is not in doubt; for it is evident in every case that when the
violence of the climatic stimulus is increased to that
degree it brings
in diminishing returns of human
response.
As for California, Dr. Ellsworth Huntington's verdict hi this case
will be accepted without hesitation.
a

still

Huntingdon, Ellsworth: Civilisation and Climate, 3rd ed.

University Press), pp. 225-6. Compare pp. 403-4.

(New Haven 1024 Yale

THE GOLDEN MEAN

303

'The chief defect of the climate of the California coast is that it is too
uniformly stimulating. Perhaps the constant activity which it incites
The people of Calimay be a factor in causing nervous disorders.
fornia may perhaps be likened to horses which are
urged to the limit so
that some of them become unduly tired and break down.' 1
.

As

highlands, we may take note of the widely

different estimates that are current to-day among competent observers in regard to the prospects of the White Race in Kenya
Colony and in the Transvaal respectively. To-day, no serious person doubts that the White Race has already proved its ability to

make

for the

itself at

Kenya

home

in the Transvaal

and even to increase and

multiply there. On the other hand, no serious person to-day is yet

convinced that the White settlers in Kenya Colony will prove able
to bring up their children in the country, or that a native-bred
generation of Whites, even if it is actually reared in the Kenya
highlands by a tour deforce, will display the physical and psychic
stamina of its European-bred parents.
As for the climatic stimulus of the North European plain, which
rises in violence at each farther remove from the moderating influence of the Atlantic, it may be an open question whether it attains
its optimum degree on this side or on that side of the Elbe. At any
a perrate, that is a burning question of modern German politics
petual source of friction between the Rhinelander or the Westphalian and the true-blue ost-elbisch Prussian; and, in this German
family quarrel, a foreigner will be chary of taking sides. He will not
readily commit himself on the question whether the ost-ettnsch
Prussian dominion over the western half of North Germany and the
Prussian hegemony over Germany as a whole is or is not an inevitable political outcome of Prussian pre-eminence in vigour and
efficiency. He will be content to agree that the optimum climatic
area on the North European plain is to be found in the neighbourhood of the Elbe, on whichever side of the Elbe it may be. On the
other hand, he will hardly hesitate to pronounce that this optimum
climatic area, which begins at least as far west as the Elbe, does not
extend as far east as the Vistula; for, whatever may be the respective merits of Hanoverian phlegm and Prussian alertness, 'the law
of diminishing returns' quite manifestly comes into play where
Prussian alertness froths over into Polish effervescence and Polish
effervescence evaporates into Russian exaltation.
The successive rise and fall in the curve of the human response
to a steadily rising climatic stimulus reveals itself to the eye of any

who passes by train through Hanover and Berlin and Posen

and Warsaw en route for Moscow. From Berlin eastwards, the

traveller

Huntington, op.

cit.,

p. 225.

3o4

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

curve unmistakably declines, and at each stage farther eastwards

the decline becomes progressively steeper. If the traveller varies

and proceeds from Berlin east-north-eastward through

Konigsberg to Kovno, the same impression of a cultural fall succeeding a cultural rise in the course of his journey will be borne in
upon him more forcibly; for, on this route, instead of feeling himself descending a cultural slope all the way, he will have at a certain
his route,

point the sensation of falling headlong over a cultural precipice. At

the frontier between East Prussia and Lithuania, as he is transported over the few yards of permanent way that link the German
railway station of Eydtkiihnen with the Lithuanian station of Wir-

he will experience instantaneously as great a cultural transihe would experience in the course of travelling the whole
distance from Frankfurt-on-Oder to Brest-Litovsk. In the experience of the writer of this Study, this is the most precipitous
cultural frontier that he has ever crossed
not excepting the passage
of the Save between Semlin and Belgrade or the passage of the Ohio
between Cincinnati and Kentucky.
Up to this point in our examination of the comparative effects of

ballen,
tion as

of their severity, we have been considering situations in which a

challenge is presented in different degrees simultaneously in two or
more separate geographical areas. Let us next consider the case
in which the challenge rises or falls from one degree to another,
through some process of climatic or other environmental change,
in one identic area successively,

Let us examine, for example, the tropical sylvan environment

occupying the northern part of Guatemala and the western part of
Honduras in which the Mayan Civilization once emerged. We
have noticed that this low-lying tropical forest presents a much
severer challenge than the adjacent highlands
overlooking the Pacific
Coast ; and we have concluded that the Mayan Civilization emerged,
as it did, in the forest and not on the highlands
just because the
greater severity of the sylvan challenge evoked a more vigorous and
effective human response. 1 But
suppose that, some time after the
had
to
the
Mayas
responded
challenge of the forest by transforming
the forest into fields, the climate of Central America had
undergone

some change which accentuated the challenge presented by the

local physical environment to Man.
Suppose that there had been a
considerable increase in humidity. Might not this have rendered
the challenge of the tropical forest
prohibitively severe, and at the
same time have rendered the challenge of the highlands
adequately
stimulating ? As a matter of fact, at the present day, the sites of the
i

See

II.

(ii) (6)

2, vol.

i,

p. 321, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

305
Mayan cities lie derelict, untenanted by Man and overwhelmed by the
1
resurgent forest, while the highlands are the seat of the local variety
such as it is
of the Latin-American version of our own Civilization. 2 Is it not possible that this undoubted interchange of social

and highlands may be due to some climatic

change in the sense which we have suggested ? One of the foremost

roles

between

forest

living climatologists has advocated this hypothesis persuasively.

'The most surprising thing about the Mayas is that they developed
their high civilisation in what are now the hot, damp, malarial lowlands
where agriculture is practically impossible.
hundred miles away, on the
coasts of Yucatan or in the Guatemalan highlands, far more favourable
conditions now prevail. There, agriculture is comparatively easy; the

climate, while not bracing, is at least good for the torrid zone; and
malarial fevers are rare. To-day, the main cities lie in these more favourable regions ; the energetic part of the population is there, and the interior
lowlands are hated and shunned by all except a degraded handful. In
the past, the more favourable localities were occupied by people close
akin to the Mayas, yet civilisation never rose to any great height. Ruins
are found there, but they are as far behind those of the lowlands as the
cities of Yucatan are to-day behind those of the United States. 3
*In explanation of these peculiar conditions, several possibilities suggest themselves. First, we may suppose that the Mayas were the most
remarkable people who ever lived
.A second possibility is that, in the
time of the Mayas, tropical diseases were less harmful than at present
It may be ... that a fairly satisfactory explanation will be found if the
two preceding possibilities are joined with a third, namely, a climatic
change such that the dry conditions which prevail a little farther north
prevailed in the Maya region when these people attained eminence.
Such a shifting of zones would increase the length of the dry season
which now comes in February and March. This would diminish the
amount of vegetation and cause scrub to take the place of dense forest.

Under such conditions, agriculture would become comparatively easy.

Fevers would also greatly diminish, for in the drier parts of Yucatan
they are to-day relatively mild; and the lowland plain would be the
natural site of the chief development of civilisation, just as is the case in
other countries.' 4

The hypothesis expounded in

the foregoing passage might be accepted in principle without our necessarily following Dr. Huntington in his estimate of the degree of the climatic change involved.
If the climate of Mayaland at the time of the genesis of the Mayan
Civilization really differed from the climate of the same area at the
present day to the same extent and in the same sense as the present
climate of Yucatan, then the fathers of the Mayan Civilization were
Part II.

Huntingdon, op.

See IL
(ii),

ntington's works.-

cit.,

pp. 330-2.

(u),

p. 34,

p. 35, above.

above/ with the

3o6

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

not confronted with the sylvan challenge at all, and we should have
to regard their achievement as a response to some other challenge
which is now beyond our knowledge. It is not necessary, however,
to press Dr. Huntington's hypothesis thus far. It seems more
reasonable to suppose that the Mayan Civilization was actually
evoked by the challenge of the tropical forest, as we have already
seen reason to believe, and that this particular interplay of Challenge-and-Response does explain why the civilization emerged
where it did instead of emerging either on the Yucatan Peninsula
or in the highlands. At the same time, we may follow Dr. Huntington so far as to conjecture that, at the time when the challenge of
the forest evoked the Mayan response, the challenge was presented
in a degree of severity which was stimulating, and that the subsequent abandonment of the Mayan cities to the resurgent forest may
at least in part, to some climatic change which
accentuated the sylvan challenge to a degree of severity that was

have been due,

prohibitive.

also have a bearing on the

of
other
'unrelated*
civilizations
besides the Mayan.
genesis
have found reason for thinking that the Egyptiac and Sumeric
civilizations, for example, were generated in response to a climatic
change which is supposed to have overtaken Afrasia after the passing
of the Tluvial Age* (the Afrasian variant of the European *Ice Age').
have suggested that the fathers of these two civilizations performed their feat of mastering the valleys of the Lower Nile and the
Lower Tigris and Euphrates in response to the challenge presented
by the desiccation of the Afrasian Steppe. They took their plunge
into the forbidding jungle-swamps because their former habitat in
the neighbourhood was beginning to turn from a genial savannah

Dr. Huntington's hypothesis may

We

We

into an inhospitable desert.

The

ordeal of transition to the difficult

environment of the un-reclaimed river-valleys from the easy environment which the savannah had provided before desiccation set
in was the dynamic event by which, in our view, the fluvial civilizations were brought to birth. 2 We may now observe that the wilderness of the river-valleys, formidable though it was at the time when
the fathers of the fluvial civilizations came to
grips with it, was
nevertheless not quite so formidable then as it must have been in
the preceding period,
If

we

are right in conjecturing that the desiccation of Afrasia in

the 'post-pluvial' age was the
challenge which impelled the fathers of
l
For the extent to which it is possible to accept Dr. Ellsworth Huntington's explanaf
tion of the rise and fall of the Mayan Civilization in Northern Guatemala
and likewise
his complementary explanation of the vicissitudes of the
Syriac Civilization at Palmyra
see II.
(vii), Annex I, below. For alternative explanations of the abandonment of the
Mayan cities of 'the Old Empire', see I. C (i) (6), vol. i, footnote 2 on p. 126 above.
a See II.
(ii) (6) 2, vol. i, pp. 304-6, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

307

the fluvial civilizations to descend into the river- valleys out of their
former habitat on the surrounding savannah, then, ex hypothesi, the

new environment which they were entering must have been tending
become easier at the same moment, and for the same reason, that
the old environment which they were
abandoning was becoming
more difficult. For the process of desiccation which Afrasia was
to

undergoing in this 'post-pluvial* age was part and parcel of a widespread climatic change which was simultaneously melting the icecap in Europe, and therefore, a fortiori, it must have been at work
on the savannah and in the
ubiquitously throughout Afrasia itself
alike.
At the same time, this uniform physical change
river-valleys
would evidently produce diverse and even contrary social consequences in these two different Afrasian environments. A process of
desiccation which was actually making the Afrasian savannah less
easily habitable than it had been during the preceding 'pluvial' age

by reducing the

local

quantum of humidity from the optimum

quantity to an insufficiency, must have been making it less difficult

for
to cope with the Nilotic and Euphratean jungle-swamps,

Man

which had previously been kept uninhabited by an excess of humidWe know, from the sequel, that the ordeal to which the
ity.
fathers of the Egyptiac and the Sumeric Civilization exposed themselves, when they eventually plunged into the jungle-swamps under
these changing conditions, administered a stimulus which evoked,
in both instances, a brilliantly successful response. Must we not
suppose that if, for some reason, they had been moved to attempt

the conquest of these same jungle-swamps at an earlier time, before

the pluvial conditions had begun to abate, the ordeal would have
proved so inordinately severe that its effect, instead of being stimulating, would have been repressive ? In that event, the Nilotic and
Euphratean pioneers, instead of being rewarded for their hardihood

by becoming the fathers of two great civilizations, might have been

punished for their audacity by becoming the slaves of their new
environment and not its masters the fate which has actually over:

taken the miserable 'Web-Feet* in a subsequently deposited section of the Tigris-Euphrates delta. 1
If the foregoing argument is sound,

we have

reached the conclusion that the physical challenge by which the Egyptiac and
Sumeric civilizations were evoked was a mean between two extremes. On the one hand, the conditions of life on the Afrasian
savannah in the pluvial age were not sufficiently severe to bring any
civilizations to birth on the other hand, the severity of the conditions in the lower valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates in the
;

pluvial age

was

excessive.
*

See

II.

(ii)

The
(&) 2,

necessary conditions of 'mean

vol

i,

pp. 316-18, above.

or

3 o8

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

'optimum' severity were realized in the Afrasian region for the

f
first time when the post-pluvial climatic change from exuberant
humidity towards desiccation came to mitigate the previously excessive challenge of the river valleys to a degree at which it ceased
It was in
to be impossible for Man to respond with success.
these circumstances that the Egyptiac and Sumeric civilizations
were born.

The same conclusion applies to the physical challenge by which

our own Western Civilization and the Russian offshoot of the
Orthodox Christian Civilization have been evoked in a different
environment at a later date. The physical environment in which
these two civilizations have eventually come to birth is Northern
Europe; and during the pluvial-glacial age, when the Nilotic and
Euphratean jungle-swamps were prohibitively water-logged, the
birth of any civilizations in Northern Europe was prohibited, just

The

ice-cap then still

covered with its dead weight the whole region which in this present
the ice by the
post-glacial age has been conquered successively from
forest and from the forest by Mankind. Let us now ask ourselves
as decisively,

by the incubus of the

ice-cap.

what would have happened if the fathers of our Western Civilization and the fathers of the Russian Orthodox Christian Civilization
had been moved for some reason to attempt the conquest of
Northern Europe before the ice-cap had receded. The answer
undoubtedly is that in that event, instead of becoming the fathers
of two great civilizations, they would have suffered the same kind of
fate as we have imagined the fathers of the Egyptiac and the Sumeric
Civilization suffering in punishment for a premature attempt to
If imporconquer the Nilotic and Euphratean jungle-swamps.
tunate pluvial pioneers would have been punished by being
depressed to the social level of the modern 'Web-Feet* in the
Basra- *Amarah-Nasiriyah triangle,

importunate

glacial

pioneers

would probably have been punished in a corresponding way by

being depressed to the social level of the modern Lapps on the
frozen tundras. 1
If this analogy holds, then the physical challenge which has
helped to evoke the Western Civilization in Northern Europe and

the Orthodox Christian Civilization in Russia

is

likewise to be

viewed as a fruitful mean between two extremes which have both

been sterile. In Northern Europe and Russia, as in the lower valleys
of the Euphrates and the Nile, the severity of the conditions was
excessive in the glacial-pluvial age, in common contrast to its insufficiency in the same age on the Afrasian savannah. In Northern
Europe and Russia, the necessary conditions of 'mean' or 'optimum*
1

See the quotation from Gibbon on p, 301, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

309

were realized for the first time when the post-glacial climatic change melted the ice-cap and conjured up the North European forest in its place. It is under these new conditions of 'mean'
severity that a region which was formerly inimical to Life has given
hospitality to two great civilizations in the fullness of Time.
severity

Scotland

Ulster

Appalachia

Let us next consider an instance in which the challenge has been

not exclusively physical but partly physical and partly human.
At the present day, there is a notorious contrast between Ulster
and the rest of Ireland. While Southern Ireland is a rather oldfashioned agricultural country, Ulster is one of the busiest workshops in the modern Western World. The city of Belfast ranks in
the same company as Glasgow or Newcastle or Hamburg or Detroit
and the modern Ulsterman has as great a reputation for being efficient
as he has for being unaccommodating.
In response to what challenge has the Ulsterman made himself
what he now is ? He has responded to the dual challenge of migrating to Ulster across the sea from Scotland and contending, after his
arrival in Ulster, with the native Irish inhabitants whom he found
in possession and proceeded to dispossess. This twofold ordeal
has had a stimulating effect which may be measured by comparing
the power and wealth of Ulster at the present day with the relatively
modest circumstances of those districts on the Scottish side of the
border between Scotland and England and along the Lowland fringe
of 'the Highland Line* from which the original Scottish settlers in
Ulster were recruited some three centuries ago by King James I/VI.
The comparison reveals that, in the course of the intervening centuries, the dual challenge presented by Ulster has administered a
;

noteworthy stimulus to those descendants of the original Scottish

settlers who have remained on the Irish soil on which King James
once planted their ancestors.
The modern Ulstermen, however, are not the only living representatives of this stock; for the migratory habit, once acquired, is
apt to persist and the Scottish pioneers who migrated to Ulster in
the seventeenth century begot 'Scotch-Irish* children and grandchildren who re-emigrated in the eighteenth century from Ulster to
North America. At the present day, the twice-transplanted offspring of these 'Scotch-Irish' emigrants to the New World survive,
far away from their kinsmen in Ireland and their kinsmen in Scotland, in the fastnesses of the Appalachian Mountains : a highland
;

zone which runs through half a dozen states of the North American
Union from Pennsylvania to Georgia.
What has been the effect of this second transplantation upon the

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

io

Scotch-Irish stock ? In the seventeenth century King James's colonists crossed the sea from Scotland to Ulster and took to fighting 'the
Wild Irish' instead of 'the Wild Highlanders'. In the eighteenth
to become 'Indian
century, their grandchildren crossed the sea again

North American backwoods. Obviously this American challenge has been more formidable than the Irish challenge,
and this in both its aspects. In the human sphere, the 'Red Indian'
heathen was of course a more savage adversary than the 'Wild Irish*
Catholic (however wilfully the difference may have been ignored

fighters' in the

his Protestant fanaticism). 1

the physical sphere, the Appalachian Mountains are wilder in
and vaster in scale than any landscape in Scotland or in

by the Scotch-Irish frontiersman in

In

scenery

Ulster, with the consequence that the Scotch-Irish immigrants who

have forced their way into these natural fastnesses have come to be
isolated and segregated here from the rest of the World to a much

greater extent than their ancestors ever were, or than their cousins
ever have been, in their Irish and Scottish habitats. In terms of the
total environment, the severity of the challenge has been enhanced

in the transition from Ulster to Appalachia to such a degree that

'the law of diminishing returns' has come into operation with unmistakable force.
If the modern citizen of industrial Belfast has in some respects

outstripped his Scottish cousin who has never migrated from the
rural neighbourhoods of 'the Highland Line' and the English
Border, he has certainly not been outstripped in his turn by his
American cousin who has migrated for the second time from Ulster
to the Appalachian fastnesses. On the contrary, the stimulus which
was once administered by the migration from Scotland to Ireland,
so far from being reinforced by the subsequent migration from Ireland to America, has been more than counteracted
as we shall
find if we now compare the Ulsterman and the Appalachian as they
each are to-day, some two centuries since the date when they

parted company.
Let us compare them, for example, on the point of their respective proneness to bloodshed
a point on which Ulster has by no
means a good record. The old war to the knife between intrusive
:

Protestants and indigenous Catholics is still carried on by gunmen

from the windows of Belfast; and at this day the toll of political
murders is heavier in the capital of Ulster than in any other great
3
Yet even in Ulster, where this political
city of Western Europe.
bloodshed still persists, there is no longer any survival of the family
1

See

These

II.

(a) i, Annex, vol. i, pp. 465-7, above.

were written before the National-Socialist Revolution

(ii)

lines

beginning of the year 1933.

in

Germany

at the

THE GOLDEN MEAN

311

blood-feud which has remained one of the regular social institutions

of 'the Mountain People* of Appalachia. The Ulsterman, again, is
unlikely to forget the sea, considering that one of his principal
industries is shipbuilding, whereas the Appalachian, whose ancestors
actually crossed the Atlantic five or six generations ago, has lost
touch with the sea so completely that he no longer attaches any
clear meaning to the word itself
which is preserved in his vocabulary solely through its occurrence in his folk-songs. In the third
place, the Ulsterman has retained the traditional Protestant standard of education, whereas the Appalachian has relapsed into
illiteracy and into all the superstitions for which illiteracy opens the
door. His agricultural calendar is governed by the phases of the
Moon his personal life is darkened by the fear, and by the practice,
;

He

poverty and squalor and ill-health. In

particular, he is a victim of Hook- Worm a scourge which lowers
the general level of vitality in Appalachia just as it does in India and
for just the same reason. (The children persist in going about barefoot, and their parents either cannot afford to give them shoes, or
will not take the trouble to insist upon their wearing them, or are
too ignorant to be aware that Hook- Worm gains entry into human
bodies through sores in naked soles.)
In fact, the Appalachian 'Mountain People' at this day are no
better than barbarians. They are the American counterparts of
the latter-day White barbarians of the Old World the Elfis and
Kabyles and Tuareg, the Albanians and Caucasians, the Kurds and
the Pathans and the Hairy Ainu. 1 These White barbarians of
America, however, differ in one respect from those of Europe and
Asia. The latter are simply the rare and belated survivals of an
ancient barbarism which has now passed away all around them and
it is evident that their days, too, are numbered.
Through one or
extermination or subjection
other of several alternative processes
2
these last lingering survivals will assuredly disor assimilation
appear within the next few generations, as other survivals of White
barbarism have disappeared in other parts of the Old World at
earlier dates in the Scottish Highlands in the eighteenth century 5
and in Lithuania in the fourteenth. 4 It is possible, of course, that
barbarism will disappear in Appalachia likewise.
Indeed, the
process of assimilation is already at work among a considerable
number of Appalachians who have descended from their mountains and changed their way of life in order to earn wages in the
of witchcraft.

lives in

North Carolinian
i

*
s

cotton-mills.

In this

case,

See II. C (ii) (a) i, vol i, p. 236, above.

For these processes, see further Part VIII, below.
* See
See II. C (ii) (a) i, vol. i, p. 237, above.

II.

however, there

(v),

is

no

pp. 172-4, above.

312

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

corresponding assurance; for the White barbarism of the New

World differs from that of the Old World in being not a survival
but a reversion.
The 'Mountain People' of Appalachia are ci-devant heirs of the
Western Civilization who have relapsed into barbarism under the
depressing effect of a challenge which has been inordinately severe
and their neo-barbarism is derived from two sources. In part, they
have taken the impress of the local Red Indians whom they have
exterminated. 1 Indeed, this impress of Red Indian savagery upon
the White victors in this grim frontier-warfare is the only social
trace that has been left behind by these vanquished and vanished
Redskins. For the rest, the neo-barbarism of Appalachia may be
traced back to a ruthless tradition of frontier-warfare along the
border between Western Christendom and 'the Celtic Fringe'
which had never died out among their ancestors in the British Isles
and which has been revived, among these Scotch-Irish settlers in
;

North America, by the barbarizing

severity of their Appalachian

environment.
On the whole, the nearest social analogues of the
Appalachian 'Mountain People' of the present day are certain
'fossils' of extinct civilizations which have survived in fastnesses
2

and have likewise relapsed

into barbarism there

such 'fossils' as
the Jewish 'wild highlanders' of Abyssinia and the Caucasus or the
Nestorian 'wild highlanders' of Hakkiari. 3
It will be seen that industrial Ulster is a social
'optimum' between
rural Scotland on the one hand and barbarian Appalachia on the
other; and that this 'optimum' is the product of a response to a
challenge which, in point of severity, presents itself as a 'mean'
between two extremes. The challenge to which King James's colonists were exposed in Ulster was
distinctly more severe than the
that
had
been faced by their ancestors along the English
challenge
Border or 'the Highland Line'. On the other hand, it was very
much less severe than the challenge which afterwards presented
itself to their Scotch-Irish descendants when these
migrated from
Ulster to North America in order to become
'Indian-fighters' in the
Appalachian hills. The contrast between rural Scotland and industrial Ulster bears out, as far as it
goes, the law of 'the greater the
:

'The wilderness masters the colonist. It finds him a European in

dress, industries,
modes of travel, and thought. It takes him from the railroad car and puts him in
the birch canoe. It strips off the
garments of civilization and arrays him in the hunting
- *.
shirt
and the
-w M*.WUMMJM,A.
moccasin. It puts
jui,o him in the
uaw J.ug
cabin UA
of the
U1C VsJllGJLUJ&CC
Cherokee MHO.
and Iroquois
log ltlUJJ.l
llOQUOlS anu
and
runs an Indian palisade around him. Before long he has gone to
planting Indian corn and
plowing with a sharp stick; he shouts the war-cry and takes the scalp in orthodox Indian
fashion. In short, at the frontier the environment is at first too
strong for the man.*
(Turner, F. J.: The Frontier in Amencan History (New York 1921, Holt), p. 4.)
* See IL C
(11) (a) i, Annex, vol. i, on pp. 465-7, above.
3 See II. D
(vi), pp. 256-9, above, and the Annex dealing with Jews in fastnesses, on
'
r

tools,

J.L.

pp. 402-12, below,

J.JJJ.U.

J.AJ.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

313

challenge the greater the response'; but in the sharper contrast

between industrial Ulster and barbarian Appalachia we see this
particular law overridden by the general 'law of diminishing returns' :
a law which, in any situation, infallibly comes into operation at some
point or other when things are pushed to extremes.
In this sequence 'Scotland
Ulster
Appalachia', the challenge
is on the borderline between the
physical sphere and the human;
but the operation of 'the law of diminishing returns' appears quite
as clearly in other instances in which the challenge is presented in
the human sphere exclusively.
Reactions to the Ravages of War
Let us reconsider, for example, the effects of the challenge of
have observed above 1 how the Athenians responded
devastation.
to the devastation of Attica at Persian hands in 480-479 B.C. and the
French to the devastation of France at German hands in A.D. 1914have seen that, in both these instances, a great calamity has
18.
acted as a potent stimulus; and we have also seen that, in one
instance at least, this stimulus has been worth the price, when we
have compared the achievements of the Athenians in the post-war
period with those of the Thebans. Thebes escaped devastation
and thereby missed the stimulus of devastation in the Persian War ;
and in the sequel Thebes was outstripped by her neighbour who
had come out of great tribulation. Thus the contrast between the
fortunes of Athens and Thebes in this historic case bears out the
law of 'the greater the challenge the greater the response' ; but again
Let us now add a third term
it only bears it out so far as it goes.
to this series and compare the sequels to the devastation of Attica in
480-479 B.C. and of France in A.D. 1914-18 with the sequel to the
devastation of Italy by Hannibal in 218-201 B.C. Hannibal succeeded in inflicting deeper wounds on Italy than the Persians inDid this greater
flicted on Attica or the Germans on France.
calamity act as a stimulus likewise ? And, if it did, was the potency of
the stimulus proportionately higher ? The answer to both parts of
this question is decidedly in the negative. The devastation of Italy,
unlike that of France or Attica, did not turn out to have been a blessing in disguise. On the contrary, the devastated area in the South
became the seat of a social cancer which ate into the vitals of the
Roman Commonwealth until the whole fabric of Roman economic
and political life was destroyed. In post-war Roman Italy, there
was no genuine parallel to the renovation of agriculture in post-war
Attica and of industry in post-war France. In Italy the devastation
administered an economic stimulus which proved transitory and

We

We

See

II.

(iv),

pp. 107-11, above.

3 i4

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

social response which proved all too difficult to

after its ill effects had become apparent.

evoked a

What happened

is

well known.

The

revoke

devastated arable lands of

Southern Italy were transformed partly into pasture-lands and

olive orchards, according to the local
partly into vineyards and
of the terrain and the
degree of the devastation and the local nature
new rural economy, planting and stock-breeding alike, was worked
by slave-labour, in place of the free peasantry which had once
tilled this soil before Hannibal's soldiery burnt the peasant's cottage
and before the weeds and briars invaded his deserted fields. This
;

revolutionary change from 'subsistence-farming* to 'cash-cropfarming' and from husbandry to the application of a servile 'manvalue of the
power' undoubtedly increased for a time the monetary
produce of the land but the social value of this temporary increase
in the aggregate amount of the national income was offset by a
;

concurrent increase in the inequality of its distribution and was

more than counteracted by the attendant social evils the depopulation of the country-side and the congregation of a pauper proletariat
of ci-devant peasants in the towns. The attempt to arrest these evils
through legislation, which was made by the Gracchi in the third
generation after Hannibal's evacuation of Italy, only aggravated the
distemper of the Roman Commonwealth by precipitating a political
revolution without bringing the economic revolution to a halt;
into civil war; and, a century after
political strife became inflamed
of
Tiberius
the tribunate
Gracchus, the Romans acquiesced in the
establishment of a permanent dictatorship by Augustus as a drastic
remedy for a desperate state of affairs. Thus the devastation of
Italy by Hannibal, so far from stimulating the Roman people as
Xerxes' devastation of Attica had once stimulated the Athenians,
actually gave them a shock from which they never recovered a shock
which revealed its demoralizing and debilitating effects in the political
collapse of the Roman Republic and in the economic decay of Roman
Italy and ultimately in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
In this sequence, again, we see the law of 'the greater the challenge the greater the response' first of all borne out and then overIt is borne out in the contrast between the fortunes of
ridden.
Athens and the fortunes of Thebes in and after the War of 480-479
B.C. It is overridden by 'the law of diminishing returns' in the contrast between the fortunes of Athens in and after that war, when
Xerxes had chastised her with whips, and the fortunes of Rome in
and after the War of 218-201 B.C., when Hannibal had chastised
Rome with scorpions. The chastisement of devastation, which is
stimulating when it is administered with Persian vigour, becomes
deadly when it is inflicted with Punic intensity.
:

THE GOLDEN MEAN

3*5

Chinese Reactions to the Challenge of Emigration

Let us reconsider, again, the effects of the challenge of emigration upon the modern Chinese.
have seen above 1 that when the
Chinese coolie emigrates to Malaya or Indonesia, he is apt to reap
a reward for his enterprise. By facing the social ordeal of leaving
his familiar home and entering an alien social environment, he ex-

We

changes an economic environment which is congested and povertystricken for one in which he has a chance of bettering himself, and
not infrequently he profits by this chance to the extent of making
Suppose, however, that we intensify the social ordeal
the price of economic opportunity. Suppose that, instead
of sending our Chinese emigrant to Malaya or Indonesia we send
him to Australia or California. In these 'White Man's countries'
his fortune.

which

is

he gains admission at all, will undergo an

ordeal of vastly greater severity. Instead of merely finding himself
a stranger in a strange land, he will have to endure deliberate and
sometimes malignant penalization, in which the Law itself will disour enterprising

coolie, if

criminate against

him

instead of

coming

to his aid as

it

aids

him

in

British Malaya, where an official Trotector of Chinese* is appointed

by a benevolent Colonial Administration. Does this severer social

ordeal evoke an economic response of proportionately greater vigour ?

This question is answered in the negative when we compare the
levels of prosperity which are in fact attained by the Chinese 'Diaspori' in California and Australia with the levels attained in the
Philippines and Malaya. The comparison shows conclusively that

the social ordeal to which the Chinese are everywhere subject abroad
brings in diminishing returns when it is intensified from the Malayan
to the Australian or from the Philippine to the Californian degree.

Slavs

Achaeans

Teutons

Celts

Let us next reconsider the challenge which a civilization presents

to a barbarism a challenge that has been presented in Europe to
:

successive layers of barbarians, in successive ages, by the radiation

of various civilizations into the interior of this once dark continent.
When we study this drama in its European setting, our attention
is caught by one instance in which the challenge has evoked a
is
response of extraordinary brilliance. The Hellenic Civilization
to
perhaps the finest flower of the species that has ever yet come
bloom; and this Hellenic Civilization was generated, in response to
a challenge from the Minoan Civilization, by the European Barbarism. When the maritime Minoan Civilization which had arisen
in the Aegean Archipelago established a footing on the European
*

In U.

(vi),

on pp. 217-18.

3 i6

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

continent, along the seaboard of the Greek Peninsula, the Achaean

barbarians of the European hinterland were neither exterminated
nor subjected nor assimilated. Instead, they managed to retain
their identity as an 'external proletariat' of the Minoan 'thalasso'
cracy without failing to learn the arts of the civilization which they
were holding at bay. In due course, these ci-devant continental

barbarians took to the sea.

'thalassocrats'

on

their

own

Eventually they overcame the Cretan

element. 1 And the Achaeans were the

true fathers of the Hellenic Civilization which emerged, in its turn,

in the Aegean area after the Minoan Civilization had been swamped
by the Achaean Volkerwanderung.
The Achaean claim to the paternity of Hellenism is vindicated,
as we have seen, by a religious test; for the Gods of the Olympian
Pantheon, who were the paramount and universal objects of Hellenic worship, display manifestly in their lineaments their derivation from these Achaean barbarians who had constituted the
'external proletariat' of the Minoan World, 2 while any vestiges of a
universal church derived from the Minoan 'internal proletariat' are
only to be found, if at all, in the side-chapels and the crypts of the
temple of Hellenic religion: in certain local cults and subterranean
3
mysteries and esoteric creeds. This reaction of the Hellenic Society
to the religious test is strikingly different from the reaction of our
own Western Society, in which a universal church derived from the
'internal proletariat' of an antecedent civilization has served as the
chrysalis of the new civilization and has never ceased to be its most
important institution. On the other hand, in the religious history of
Western Christendom, the religion of the antecedent civilization's
European 'external proletariat' the primitive Teutonic heathenism
and the Arianism by which this heathenism was superseded on the
has left even less trace than
eve of the Teutonic Volkerwanderung
has been left by the religion of the Minoan 'internal proletariat' in
the religious history of Hellenism. These diverse results of the
religious test plainly give us warrant for ascribing the paternity of
the Hellenic Civilization to the Achaeans, and for seeing in this
great feat of creation the response of these European barbarians to
a challenge which the radiation of the Minoan Civilization had presented to them.

The measure

of the stimulus in this instance is given by the

which still outshines every other civilization that has ever come into existence up to the present. And we
can also measure the stimulus which was received from the Minoan
Civilization by the Achaeans in another way.
can make a direct
brilliance of Hellenism,

We

a
3

See
See
See

I.
I.
I.

C (i)
C (i)
C (i)

(6), vol.
(6), vol.

i,

(&), vol.

i,

i,

pp. 92-3, and II.

pp. 95-7, above.
pp. 97-100, above.

(v),

p. 160, above,

THE GOLDEN MEAN

317

comparison between the fortunes of this Achaean layer of European

barbarians and the fortunes of another layer which happened to be
so remote and so effectively sheltered that it remained virtually
immune from the radiation of any civilization whatsoever for some
two thousand years after the Achaeans had received the Minoan
challenge and had made their brilliant response. These inviolate
barbarians were the Slavs, who had ensconced themselves in the
Pripet Marshes when these dregs of the Continent had been yielded
up to Man by the retreating ice-cap. In this fenny fastness, which
temptation to trespassers, the Slavs went on living the
primitive life of the European Barbarism for century after century,
while the history of the Hellenic Civilization, which had been begotten by their Achaean kinsmen, played itself out from start to
finish. When the wheel of Hellenic destiny came round full circle,
and the Teutonic Volkerwanderung ended the long drama which
the Achaean Volkerwanderung had begun, the sluggard Slavs were
still where they had been and what they had been some two thouoffered

little

sand years

earlier.

was only when the Teutonic Volkerwanderung itself was approaching the end of its course that the Slavs were at last routed out
of their ancient fastness by the Avar Nomads, who had been
tempted to stray beyond the limits of their native Eurasian Steppe
in order to take a hand in the Teutons' game of pillaging the wreckage of the Roman Empire. In the strange environment of an
It

agricultural world, these lost children of the Steppe sought to adapt

their old manner of life to their new circumstances. On the Steppe,
the Avars had made their living as herdsmen of cattle; in the

on to which they had now trespassed, these herdsmen found that the appropriate local live-stock was a human
peasantry, and they therefore set themselves, rationally enough, to
become herdsmen of human beings. 1 Just as they would have
cultivated lands

order to stock some

newly conquered pasture-land, so they now looked round for human
cattle to re-stock the depopulated and derelict provinces of the
Roman Empire which had fallen into their hands. Ranging the
interior of the European Continent on this quest, the Avars found

raided their

Nomadic neighbours'

cattle in

In sedentary societies, it is often cast up as a reproach against Nomads who have

strayed off the Steppe tn paries agricolarum that they tend to treat their sedentary subjects
as 'human cattle*. Yet a sedentary and not a Nomadic society created the religion which
conceives of its Lord as 'the Good Shepherd*, and which represents him as enlisting
fishermen in his service with the invitation 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men* (Matt. iv. 19). The metaphor of the shepherd (ra*i) and his flock (ra'iyah) was no
doubt derived by the Christian Church, at second or third remove, from the Nomads of
the Afrasian Steppe, and it ill becomes us to foul our own nest by blaspheming against
the source of one of the most pregnant similes in the imagery of the Christian Religion.
For a critique of Nomadism, on and off the Steppes, as one of the 'arrested* civilizations,
see Part III. A, vol. ui, pp. 7-22, below*
1

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

3 i8

forced their way into the

Slavonic fastness they herded off its helpless denizens in droves ;
and they stationed these captive droves of Slavonic human cattle in
avast circle round about the outlying enclave of the Eurasian Steppe

what they wanted in the

Slavs.

They

in the Hungarian Alfold where the Avars had pitched their own
camp. This, it appears, was the process by which the Slavs made
1
and the last of the
their belated and humiliating d6but in History
Hellenic historians has been moved by a faint stirring of the old
Herodotean curiosity to record the impression which was made on
the senile Hellenic mind, towards the latter end of the sixth century
j

of the Christian Era, by the first appearance of these Slavonic

innocents abroad, when they came wandering all unarmed, out of
the back of beyond, across the stricken field of the secular conflict
between Teutons and Romans. Here is the passage in the annals of

AJX 591

men

of Slav race without weapons or military equipment were

captured by the Imperial Body-Guard. Their only baggage consisted of
harps, and they carried nothing else with them. The Emperor cross-

'Three

examined them regarding their nationality, their habitat, and their

reasons for trespassing upon Roman territory. They explained that they
were Slavs by nationality and that their homes were on the boundary of
the Western Ocean. The Khaqan [of the Avars] had sent emissaries
to their countrymen with a view to raising military forces and had
lavished generous presents upon their chieftains. The latter had accepted
the gifts but rejected the proposed alliance, on the plea of being disheartened by the length of the journey, but they had followed this up by
dispatching the individuals just captured to the Khaqan on a mission of
apology. It had taken them fifteen months to accomplish this journey.
Forgetful of the privileges of ambassadors, the Khaqan had determined
to prevent their departure; whereupon the three emissaries, who had
heard of the really extraordinary reputation of the Roman People for
wealth and hospitality, had procured an opportunity to withdraw to
Thrace. They carried harps because they were not trained to bear arms.
Their country was ignorant of iron, and this accounted for their peaceful
and harmonious

They strummed on stringed instruments because

they did not know how to speak with the voice of trumpets. They were
people among whom war was unheard-of; and it was only natural that
life.

there should be a bucolic note in their musical

technique.
'This story inspired the Emperor with such respect for the tribe that
he determined to offer hospitality to these visitors from the back of
beyond, whose gigantic build and huge limbs extorted his admiration.
He sent them under escort to Heraclea.'

These amiable but unpractical representatives of the European

1

See Peisker,

srlin

J.-

Die

alter en

Beziehungen der Slawen %u Turko-Tataren und Germanen

Kohlhammer); and The Eaepansion of the Slavs

ii (Cambridge
1913, University Press), ch. xiv.

1905,

y, vol.

'heophylactus Simocatta:

Cambridge Medieval

Universal History, Bk. VI, section n,

10-16.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

Barbarism in

3*9

most secluded fastness were obviously the worse

for the age-long immunity from human stimulus which they and
their ancestors had enjoyed.
It was assuredly better for them
when, a few years later, the Khaqan of the Avars
losing patience
with their lack of spirit
turned from blandishments to violence and
dragged the Slavs out of their seclusion by main force. The shock
administered by this Avar coup de main was the making of the Slavs
and the beginning of Slavonic history. It would have been better
still for these victims of Avar ruthlessness if
they had been aroused
by some less brutal human stimulus at an earlier date, as once, some
two thousand years before, the radiation of the Minoan Civilization
had awakened a response in the Achaeans. The Achaeans did not
lack skill with the harp. Indeed, there is no Slavonic minstrel,
historic or legendary, who has won the fame of a Phemius or a
Demodocus or a Homer. But Achaean hands had not neglected
other arts. In their intercourse with the Minoans, the Achaeans
had made themselves masters not only of the harp but of the sword
and of the oar, and thereby masters of their environment and their
fate. This contrast between the Achaeans and the Slavs shows two
things. It shows that, for a primitive society, complete immunity
from the challenge of encounters with civilizations is a very serious
handicap. It also shows that this challenge has a stimulating effect
when its severity is of a certain degree. There is a third point,
however, which we still have to determine. Suppose that we
its

accentuate the challenge ; suppose that we raise the degree of the

energy with which the Minoan Civilization irradiated the Achaean

Barbarism to higher and higher potencies

shall

we

thereby

elicit

brilliant response on the barbarians' part? Or

reach a degree at which 'the law of diminishing returns'
comes into play and the potency of the action ceases to be stimulating and becomes destructive ? Let us make the experiment by
applying our empirical method of inquiry. Between the Achaeans
and the Slavs, there have lain several other layers of European
barbarians who have been exposed to the radiation of various civilizations in diverse degrees.
What experiences have these other
barbarians had ?
One instance in which European barbarians have succumbed to
a radiation of destructive intensity has come to our notice already.
We have seen how the Celts were eventually exterminated or subjected or assimilated by an overpowering radiation of Hellenism in
a Roman medium, after a transitory outburst of Celtic energy in
response to an earlier stimulus which the Celts had received from
Hellenism through the medium of the Etruscans. 1 We have

more and more

shall

we

See the present chapter, pp. 279-83, above.

320

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

contrasted the ultimate failure of the Celts with the relative success
of the Teutons in holding their own against the Hellenic impact.
have noted that the Teutonic layer of European barbarians, unlike the Celtic layer, resisted the disintegrating action of Hellenism
to such effect that the Teutons were able to take their place in the
'external proletariat' of the Hellenic World and to dispatch the

We

Hellenic Society in its death-agonies with a coup degrdce. By comparison with the Celtic d&dcle, this Teutonic reaction to Hellenism
was a success ; but as soon as we compare the Teutonic achievement with the Achaean, we are reminded that the Teutons gained
1
nothing better than a Pyrrhic victory.
The Teutons came in at the death of the Hellenic Civilization
only to receive their own death-blow, on the spot, from the rival
proletarian heirs of the defunct society. The victor on this field was
not the Teutonic war-band but the Roman Catholic Church into
which the Eternal proletariat' of the Hellenic Society had incorporated itself; and this victory of the Church over the barbarians
was complete before the end of the social interregnum which the
break-up of the Roman Empire had brought with it. Before the
close of the seventh century of the Christian Era, every one of
those Arian or heathen Teutonic war-bands that had ventured to
trespass on Roman ground had been either converted to Catholicism
or wiped out of existence; and, as converts to Catholicism, the surviving barbarian intruders renounced the pretension to bequeath to
the future any positive contribution of their own except a racial
strain of uncertain social value. The new civilization, 'affiliated' to
the Hellenic Civilization, which emerged in the West when the postHellenic interregnum came to an end, was related to the antecedent
civilization through the 'internal proletariat' and not through the
'external proletariat'. Western Christendom was essentially the
creation of the Catholic Church
in contrast to Hellenism, which
was essentially the creation of the Achaean barbarians. Thus the
Teutons showed themselves unequal to the situation at the crucial

point at which their Achaean counterparts had consummated their

own brilliant achievement. The Teutons made the great refusal
which Esau made when he sold his birthright to Jacob. 2 They had
1

See

I.

(i) (a),

vol.

i,

pp. 58-62, above.

For the replacement of pagan by Christian themes in the English version of the
Teutonic Epic, see I. C (ui) (), Annex, vol. i, p. 449, footnote 2, above. This compromise,
however, did not save the Teutonic Epic from a premature death; for the abandonment
of the pagan poetic themes was soon followed by an abandonment of the
pagan poetic
forms as well. For a striking account of the Teutons' repudiation of their own heritage
in the domain of literature, see Ker, W. P. Epic and Romance (London 1923,
Macmillan),
PP- 45-7- 'In mediaeval literature, whatever there is of the Homeric kind has an utterly
different relation to
popular standards of appreciation from that of the Homeric poems
in Greece
English epic is not first, but one of the least, among the intellectual and
:

literary interests of

King

Alfred.'

THE GOLDEN MEAN

321

not the spirit to compete with the Catholic Church for the paternity
of a new civilization.
Let us now arrange our series of the challenges delivered by
various civilizations to successive layers of the European Barbarism
in the order of an ascending scale of severity. The Slavs were long
immune from the challenge altogether and were patently the worse
for being without the stimulus. The Achaeans were presented with
the challenge of the Minoan Civilization and made the brilliant
response of becoming the fathers of Hellenism. The Teutons held
their own against the challenge of the Hellenic Civilization but were
discomfited thereafter by the challenge of Catholicism: a universal
church which first took shape as an embodiment of the Hellenic
'internal proletariat' and which eventually made itself into the
the Western Christendom into
chrysalis of a new civilization
which the progeny of the Teutonic war-bands was incorporated.
The Celts were discomfited by the antecedent challenge of the
Hellenic Civilization, against which the Teutons managed to hold
their own. It is evident that the radiation from the Minoan Civilization to which the Achaeans were exposed was of the 'optimum'
degree, and that this degree represents a mean between the insipid
immunity of the Slavs and the overwhelming bombardment of
Hellenic radiation to which the Celts succumbed. It is further
evident that 'the law of diminishing returns' comes into operation,
in this particular field of Challenge-and-Response, when the severity
of the challenge is raised to some point between the degree at which
the challenge of the Minoan Civilization stimulated the Achaeans
and the higher degree at which the challenge of the Catholic Church
proved too much for the Teutons.
Does our empirical method enable us to define more closely this
point at which 'the law of diminishing returns' is here brought into
play ? Yes, it does ; for the encounter in which the Teutonic trespassers on Roman ground succumbed to the Catholic Church was
not the only conflict in which the Church was compelled to engage
with European barbarians. Before it succeeded in bringing our
Western Civilization to birth and ensuring that the child should
live, the Church had to fight for her own life against two separate
rear-guards of the 'external proletariat' of the Hellenic World which
had not been drawn into the post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung when
the Teutonic advance-guard swept over the derelict provinces of the
Roman Empire circa A.D. 375-675. These two rear-guards were the
Celts of 'the Celtic Fringe' that had remained beyond the range of
effective Roman rule in the British Isles, and the Teutons of Scandinavia: a region which had lain beyond the zone of Roman border
warfare on the European Continent. It was these Far Western Celts
ii

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

322

and Far Northern Teutons who proved themselves the Church's

most formidable adversaries. The reckless Teutonic advance-guard,
exposing itself all unprepared to the Church's counter-attack on a
battle-field ill suited to barbarian weapons and barbarian tactics,
was defeated by the Church without much difficulty. The prudent
Celtic and Teutonic rear-guards of the European Barbarism held
themselves in reserve and sought to beget new civilizations of their
own in place of Hellenism, as Hellenism itself had once been be-

Minoan

by the barbarian Achaeans. These high ambitions brought first the Far
Western Celts and then the Far Northern Teutons into conflict
with the Catholic Church, since in Western Europe there was not
gotten, in^place of the antecedent

Civilization,

room

for several separate civilizations

all related to Hellenism in
different fashions and degrees
to grow up side by side simul-

In both these conflicts the Church eventually won the

day and the ambitious barbarians were forced, after a hard struggle,
to accept defeat. Yet these Celts and these Teutons of the rearguard, unlike their Teutonic kinsmen who perished before them in
taneously.

came very near to achieving the same success as their

Achaean predecessors. They both did succeed in begetting new
civilizations before they severally succumbed and
though these two
fiie

van,

were abortive, they did not pass into limbo

before they had each taken a recognizable shape which can be
given a name. We may call them the abortive Far Western Christian
Civilization and the abortive Scandinavian Civilization. Let us
take a glance at each of them.

embryonic

civilizations

The Abortive Far Western Christian Civilisation

The distinctive feature of the Far Western Christian Civilization
of 'the Celtic Fringe' was its attitude towards
Christianity. Unlike
the Gothic converts to Arianism or the
English converts to Catholicism, the Celtic barbarians who survived to accept Christianity did
not take the alien religion as they
happened to find it. They moulded
it to fit their own barbarian social
heritage, instead of allowing it to
break up their native tradition and instal itself
uncompromisingly
in the vacuum. In modern scientific
terms, the Christianization of
the Celtic rear-guard was not
revolutionary but evolutionary.
'No other race showed such
originality in its way of taking Christianity.
.
. The Church felt no
obligation to be severe towards the caprices of
the [Celtic] religious
imagination; it gave free play to popular instinct;
and the outcome was a cult which was
perhaps the most thoroughly
steeped in Mythology and the most closely analogous to the Mysteries of
Hellenic Antiquity of any cult recorded in the annals of
1
Christianity.'
.

Renan, E.: Essais de Morale et de Critique (Paris 1850, L<vy), pp. 4-17-8 and 44,2
quoted by Gougaud, L., in Let Chritienth deltas (Paris 19x1,
Gabaldaj,p. 58 In^he

THE GOLDEN MEAN

323

This originality showed itself even among the Celts of Britain,

whose native genius had been subjected, under the Roman regime,
to the standardizing impress of a latter-day cosmopolitan Hellenism.
The relatively short span of perhaps not more than two centuries

that intervened between the spread of Christianity through the

Roman Island and the invasion of the English barbarians sufficed
to produce, in Pelagius, a British 'heresiarch' who caused a stir

throughout the Christian World of his day. The nascent Far

Western Christendom, however, was to find its focus not in Roman
Britain but in barbarian Ireland. Pelagius himself was possibly of
Irish origin; but while Pelagius 's work was ephemeral, both in

and on the Continent, the work of his British contemporary

Patrick, who evangelized Ireland, was of enduring importance. If
Britain

certain scholars are right in supposing that the historical home of

this triumphant British apostle of Ireland lay in a neighbourhood

the traditional

home

of the British hero King Arthur, 1

whose name is associated in legend with the leadership of a forlorn
hope, the coincidence may be taken as symbolic. For virtue was
going out of Britain into Ireland at the very time when the spearhead of the English Volkerwanderung was piercing Britain's opposite flank. In the course of the fifth and sixth centuries of the
Christian Era, Ireland increased and Britain decreased until the
centre of gravity of the insular Celtic World passed over decisively
from the 'Roman' to the 'barbarian' island.
The English transmarine Volkerwanderung, which dealt the
British Celts a crushing blow, made the Irish Celts' fortune. While
the Britons bore the brunt of the English invasion, the Irish were
not only immune from English attack themselves but actually emulated the English in harrying their unhappy British kinsmen. When
the Roman defences of Britain broke down, the Irish raided the
west coast of the derelict Roman insular dominion as the English
were raiding the east coast and it was as a captive, carried away on
one of these Irish raids, that Patrick first set foot in Ireland. These

that

is

English translation of the last-mentioned work, which has been published by pom L.
Gougaud after an interval of twenty-one years under the title Christianity in Celtic Lands
(London 1931, Sheed and Ward), the author criticizes, as overdrawn, the picture of
Celtic idealism which is given by Renan in the essay entitled 'La Poe'sie des Races
Celtiques', in which the above-quoted passage occurs. (See Gougaud: Christianity in
Celtic Lands, p. 19.)
1 On this location of the obscure
Bannaventa, see Bury, J. B.: The Life of Saint
Patrick (London 1905, Macmillan), pp. 17 and 322-5. The most convincing alternative

4jJUivc,L0Aky

Jtxcoay,

4ij^rpi*Juu,j.A,

AV,

*1O~'3 W ^*

"-"* i.

UJLC

t.n.\ji.\j\j.giii.y

AXVJUACUJI

bwu^juico

JLM.

Patrick's own description of his family background make it difficult, a priori, to suppose
that he can have been born and brought up in a district of North Britain which had only
just been included within the frontiers of the Roman Empire, even at the time of the
Empire's farthest extension in this quarter, and which had almost certainly been abandoned to barbarism again thereafter some time before the date of Patrick's birth.

324

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

the English in making

fifth-century Irish raiders likewise emulated
these were not
permanent settlements on British soil; and though
one of them
comparable with the English settlements in scale,
raiders from Dalriada, in the north-east corner of Ire-

'

planted by
land, on the opposite British coast, at the point where the intervening
was destined to become the nucleus of one of
seas are narrowest
the two enduring kingdoms into which the petty and ephemeral
successor-states of the Roman Empire in Britain were eventually
consolidated. 1 The most valuable boon, however, which the Irish
obtained from the English Volkerwanderung into Britain was not
this opportunity of taking a modest share of the British spoils. The
main effect of the English Volkerwanderung upon Irish fortunes
was to segregate Ireland immediately after the seeds of Christianity
had been sown there from those ci-devant Roman territories in the
western part of the European Continent in which a new Christian
Civilization, oriented towards Rome, began to emerge during the
post-Hellenic interregnum. It was this segregation, at the most
formative stage of early growth, that made it possible for the embryo
of a separate and distinctive Tar Western Christian Civilization',
with its nucleus in Ireland, to emerge simultaneously with the
emergence of the nascent Continental Western Christendom.

*The Irish culture

Roman

Civilisation.

differed considerably from the general EuropeanIt is true, Christianity had penetrated to this

...

westernmost land of Europe; but in countless other respects Ireland had

remained outside the spread of civilisation, so that the peculiarly Celtic
culture had had time to develop in its richest and most unique form.
Christianity had taken root very early and had produced small hermitlike monastic settlements which were the leading force in the Irish
Church. They were in a sense the heirs of the struggle waged by the
ancient Druids on evil spirits with the aid of conjuring, and were at the
same time consecrated to an inner religious life and an external missionary
A curious adventurous asceticism drove hermit societies
activity.
twelve monks and an abbot, corresponding in number to the Redeemer
and His disciples to the outermost islands, in one case even to distant
.

had stepped upon the island/ 2

originality of the Far Western Christian Civilization, as it

Iceland, before any other

The

human

foot

emerged in

Ireland, is manifest alike in its ecclesiastical organization, in its ritual and hagiography, and in its literature and art.
In Ireland conspicuously, and to some extent also in^Wales and in

* For the
origin of this new Dalriada on British soil, see II.
(lii), p. 86, and II.
(v),
p. 194, above. It is one of the well-known curiosities of history that the Scottish name,
which originally belonged to the Irish Celts and was carried from the old to the new
Dalriada by Irish settlers, should have lost its association with Ireland and have become
exclusively associated with a kingdom that is situated in Britain and with a language that
is not Celtic but Teutonic.
2
Olrik, A. : Viking Civdtsation (English translation: London 1930, Allen and Unwin),

pp. 107-8.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

325

in the literal
Brittany, the life of the Celtic Church was 'cellular'
as well as the metaphorical sense. It resided in the monasteries,

which were sometimes federated in clusters (familiae) round some

mother-foundation
the most famous example being the Familia
Columbae which clustered round lona. 1 A monastic cell or cluster
of this kind was apt to be established, as a nucleus of the embryonic
civilization, in each of the cantons into which barbarian Ireland was
politically articulated. The initiative seems usually to have been
taken by the local chieftain and the cells and clusters thus established were governed by abbots
sometimes spiritual, sometimes
who in many places were required to be of the founder's
temporal
;

The
name for

kin.

Irish called their monasteries in Latin civitates

the Latin
the city-states of the Hellenic World which had become
bishops' sees after the advent of Christianity. The Irish civitates
resembled their continental European namesakes in being the seats
of bishops but here the resemblance ceased ; for the Irish civitates
were monasteries and not towns 2 the episcopal office in an Irish
monastic civitas was sometimes held by the hereditary abbot himself 3 and sometimes by a tame bishop living in the monastery under
the abbot's control 4 and these Irish cloistral bishops had no mutually
;

There were even bishops who had

and therefore no fixed point of
at all. Conversely, there were non-

exclusive territorial jurisdictions.

no connexion with a monastery

residence or zone of jurisdiction

episcopal monasteries which were independent, de facto, of episco5
pal control.
This monastic organization of the Celtic Church was an extreme
development of a tendency which had declared itself to some extent
in Early Christian Egypt ; 6 but, on the whole, it is less reminiscent
of Christian than of Buddhist or Manichaean ecclesiastical institu-

See Duke, J. A.: The Columban Church (Oxford 1932, University Press).
Perhaps the closest parallel to this Irish Society with its monastic nuclei is the outpost of the Orthodox Christian Society which was established in Calabria by means of
Basilian monastic foundations in the ninth and tenth centuries of the Christian Era.
These monastic foundations in Calabria provided rallymg-points for the settlement of
Orthodox Christian refugees from Sicily. (See Gay, Jules: L'ltahe Meridionale et
V Empire Sysanttn: AD 867-1071 (Paris 1904, Fontemoing)
3 *The titles
"bishop" and "abbot" are used almost indiscriminately for the rulers of
Armagh during the 6th and 7th centuries, justification for this usage being that every ruler
held in fact the two (almost equally distinguished) offices.' (Ryan, J. Irish Monasticism:
Origins and Early Development (London 1931, Longmans, Green and Co.), p. 171.)
At Armagh the two offices weie divorced between A.D. 750 and A.D. 790 (op. cit., p. 172).
* In this event, the abbot monopolized the administration, while the bishop devoted
so much so that in Ireland the
himself to sanctity and learning (Ryan, op. cit., p. 172)
word abbot became synonymous with executive authority of any kind, spiritual or
secular (Gougaud: Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 83). For examples of tame bishops,
see Ryan, op. cit., pp. 180 and 301-2.
s
of the
Ryan, op. cit., p. 178. The most famous case of the kind is the constitution
Familia Columbae, of which the Abbot of lona was the head. For the Abbot of lona was
always only a presbyter, though the abbots of the affiliated monasteries were often
bishops. (Duke, op. cit., p. 120; Gougaud: Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 136.)
6 For the
ancestry of Irish monasticism, see Ryan, op. cit., p. 407.
*

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

3*6

for the Irish itinerant bishops, there are parallels in the

its dispersion abroad among
history of the Nestorian Church after
1
the oases of the Eurasian Steppe; but the very notion of a bishop
without a diocese was repugnant to the Orthodox and Roman

As

tions.

churches, whose conceptions of ecclesiastical organization were

churches had
thoroughly territorial owing to the fact that these
taken
grown up within the framework of the Roman Empire and had
for granted its systematic territorial articulation into municipalities

and provinces. 2

As

for ritual, the Celtic

Church became doubly

differentiated

from the Roman Church by its conservative attitude towards Roman

innovations and its proneness to innovations of its own. It did not
Church
adopt the innovations which were made by the Roman

during the period of segregation (circa A.D. 450-600) in the method

of reckoning the date of Easter. 3 On the other hand, it did adopt
& peculiar form of tonsure ; 4 and it depossibly from the Druids
veloped a hagiography of its own in which the Celtic Saints eclipsed,
or at any rate attained an equal eminence with, the most exalted
Saint Patrick, for
figures in the Old and the New Testament.
instance, was equated with Moses and Saint Bridget with the Virgin

Mary herself. 5
The literary studies which

Christian liturgical requirements kept

the
post-Hellenic interregnum bore fruit
everywhere during
in Ireland in a greater mastery of the Latin Classics than was retained by the Christian Church in the ci-devant Roman provinces
on the Continent where Latin remained the vernacular language.
More remarkable still, the Irish ecclesiastical scholars contrived to
alive

See

II.

For

Irish monasteries

pp. 237-38, above.

and bishops, see Bury, J. B. : The Life of Saint Patrick (London
1905, Macmillan), pp. 174-84. and 375-9; Gougaud: Les Chrdtientes Celtigues, pp. 315-19
and 232-4; Gougaud: Christianity in CelticLands, pp. 66-75 ; Ryan, S. J., the Rev. J. : Irish
Monasticism: Origins and Early Development (London 1931, Longmans, Green and Co.).
According to Ryan, Saint Patrick's organization was clerical rather than monastic,
though Patrick approved of monasticism (pp. 92-3). The ecclesiastical centres (civitates)
established by Patrick resembled monasteries (pp. 94 and 88-9). "The place of monasticism in the church founded by Saint Patrick was important but secondary 1 (p. 96).
However, *the clerical community at Armagh was reorganized and reconstituted on a
formally monastic basis* before the end of the fifth century (p. 101). In the early sixth
century, Irish monasticism received an impulsion from Britain (pp. 1 14-16). And about
the middle of the sixth century, under the British influence of Gildas, the Irish sees were
transformed into monasteries (pp. 165-6). The influence of three Britons
St. David,
St. Cadoc, and Gildas
upon Irish monasticism is also emphasized by Duke in op. cit.,

on

(vi),

p, 50.

According to Bury (in op cit , pp. 371-4), the method of reckoning which prevailed
in Ireland in the sixth and seventh centuries was a method which had been discarded by
the Roman Church as early as A.D. 343. In other words, the Irish method was prePatrician; and Bury conjectures that it had been introduced into Ireland before Patrick's
probably from Britain.
Bury, op. at., pp. 142-4 and 183 and 239-43

arrival
4

Gougaud

Christianity in Celtic Lands,

p. 204.
s

Gougaud: Les

271-2.

Cfatiientes Celtiques, pp. 260-6;

Christianity in Celtic Lands, pp.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

327

recapture a command of the Greek language and literature, at a time

when the knowledge of Greek was extinct in Latin Christian countries that were much less remote geographically than Ireland was
from the living reservoir of Greek that survived in the East Roman
1
Empire. At the same time, the ardour of the Irish in studying the
culture of the Hellenic Society from which their own embryonic
culture had received its impetus did not prevent them from developing a vernacular literature of their own in the line of their pagan
Celtic tradition. 2

And

they showed their independence in the

technical domain by working out a specifically Irish adaptation of
the Latin Alphabet. 3
The new style of art which emerged, during the post-Hellenic
interregnum, in the nascent Far Western Christian World 'drew its
and
inspiration from many seemingly incongruous sources
welded their several elements together into a singularly harmonious
4 There were elements from the
Early Central European Iron
unity'.
.

* The channel
through which the Irish acquired their knowledge of Greek remains a
mystery. Gougaud suggests Theodore of Tarsus, who taught Greek to a number of
English pupils on the testimony of Bede (Htstona Ecclesiasttca, iv. 2, and v. 20 and 23).
But this seems hardly likely, considering that Theodore arrived
England just after the
conflict between the Roman and the Celtic Church had come to a head at the Synod of
Whitby, and considering further that this Greek Aichbishop of Canterbury took a
strongly anti-Celtic line himself (Christianity tn Celtic Lands, p. 423). Gougaud points
out (in Les Chi e'tientds Celttques, pp. 247-9) that the Irish mastery of Greek is nonproven for the period of Irish scholarship anterior to the ninth century of the Christian
Era. On the other hand, the genuineness of the ninth-century Irish Hellenists (e.g.
Johannes Scotus Engena) is beyond question. (For details of John Scotus's proficiency
and Sandys, J. E.:
History of Classical
Greek, see Gougaud, op. cit., loc. cit
in Celtic
In
Christianity
473-8Scholarship (Cambridge 1903, University Press), pp.
Lands, on p. 309, Gougaud cites the warm testimony which is given to John Scotus by his
contemporary, the papal librarian Anastasius, for his feat in making a Latin translation
of the Greek Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita.) In Christianity in Celtic Lands, on p. 308,
Gougaud comes to the conclusion that 'in the second half of [the ninth] century a
limited number of Irish emigrants on the Continent gave proof of some acquaintance
with the [Greek] language*. But he finds no proof of Greek studies in the Irish schools in
Ireland (op. cit., p 248). It was on the Continent that the Irish acquired their unusual
learning, the evidence for which is all to be found in Continental manuscripts (op.

cit.

pp. 250 and 309).

is the apparently matter-of-fact way in which zeal for studies, the

Its explanation in Ireland
is worked into the Irish system
as
the
as
well
lower,
higher
which oreis probably to be sought in the native schools of druids, fathi, filid, bards,
ceded Christianity. The monks were felt to be the successors of the two orders first
to apply themselves not only to religion, but
and thus were
of

'Noteworthy ...

mentioned

expected
these,
also to the cultivation of the intellect. When they likewise took up the study of the native
the life of the country was
language' and liteiature, their extraordinary position
instead of being
assured
(Ryan, op. cit., p. 408 ) The pre-Christian bardic schools,
abolished when the monastic schools were instituted, were simply reorganized (apparently

,
~
performing complementary functions and mutually J-~-._4rn
H.: Tto JSarZy /ruft Monastic Schools (Dublin 1923, Talbot Press), pp. 71-8). 'The
union of the two cultures in the monastic schools probably began about A.D. 600 (Ryan,
Irish language was definitely fixed before
op. cit., p. 377). The Latin orthography of the
the end of the seventh century (Ryan, op. cit., loc. cit.).
-,....
Christianity
3 On this Irish
script, see Gougaud: Les Chrfaentts Celtiques, pp. 333-5
in Celtic Lands, p 368; Ryan, op. cit., p. 380.
4 Macalister, R. A. S.: T/ze Archaeology of Ireland (London 1928, Methuen), p. 264.
Vide ch. vi, 'The Principles of Irish Christian Art', and ch, vii, 'The Expression of
Ireland', $a$$im<
Decorative Chrisliajn Art
-

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

328

the culture of the pagan Celts at the time

Hellenic World in the fifth to third cenof their
turies B.C. 1 There were elements from the art of the Eurasian
into Western Europe by the SarSteppe, which had been brought
matian Nomads who broke through the Roman frontier, in company
of the Teutonic trans-frontier barbarians, in the
with the

Age

La Tene
impact upon the

culture of

vanguard
2 There were elements from Helpost-Hellenic Volkerwanderung.
lenic art, and from the Syriac art which had eventually dominated
and permeated and transformed Hellenic art from end to end of the
Roman Empire. This new art was not confined to Ireland or even
to 'the Celtic Fringe* as a whole. It was a common possession of the
whole North European external proletariat of the Roman Empire. 3
It was in Ireland, however, that it attained its zenith
particularly in
the illumination of parchment manuscripts and in the carving of stone
and the influence of this Irish art radiated into England
crosses
and Scandinavia, 4 and impressed itself upon the kindred art there,
besides making itself felt in Continental Western Christendom.
Within a century of Saint Patrick's mission in Ireland (Patricius
in Hibemia Fidempropagdbat circa A.D. 432-61), the embryonic Far
Western Christian Civilization, derived from the germs which he
had planted, had not only developed on its own distinctive lines but
had actually shot ahead of the nascent Western Christian Civilization on the Continent. This initial superiority of the Insular over
the Continental culture was due in part to the positive cause which
we have considered already the creative reaction of an indigenous
Celtic Barbarism to an intrusive Christianity during a century and
a half of segregation
and partly perhaps to the negative advantage
which Ireland enjoyed during the post-Hellenic interregnum in
being immune from the Prankish and Lombard invasions which
devastated Gaul and Italy only less cruelly than the English invasion
devastated Britain. 5 But, however the superiority is to be explained,
the fact is manifest. It was doubly proved, when the period of
segregation came to an end towards the close of the sixth century of
the Christian Era, by the warmth of the welcome which Irish
missionary monks and scholars received in Britain and on the Continent, and by the eagerness with which English and Continental
students sought out the Irish monastic schools, where foreigners
were generously furnished with food and lodging and books and
*

For

The

this impact and its

repulse, see Dp. 279-82 and 319, above.
distinctive contributions of this Eurasian art were* the Animal Style* and
Tolychromy* (see Rostovtzeff, M.: Iranians and Greeks in South Russia (Oxford 1922,

Clarendon Press)).
* For the influence of Irish on Scandinavian
Macalister, op.

art,

Macalister, op. cit., p. 264.

see Olrik, op. cit., pp. 117-18,

pp. 340-3.
s For the heaviness of the
yoke which the Lombards imposed
Annex, pp. 395-9, below.

and

cit.,

upon

Italy, see II.

D (lii),

THE GOLDEN MEAN

1

329

The

period of Irish cultural superiority over the

Continent and over Britain may be conventionally dated from the
foundation of the monastic university of Clonmacnois in Ireland in
A.D. 548* to the foundation of the Irish
monastery of St. James at
Ratisbon circa A.D. 1090. Throughout those five and a half centuries, it was the Irish who imparted culture and the English and
the Continentals who received it. But this transmission of culture
was not the only social consequence of the renewal of contact between the Insular and the Continental Christendom of the West.
Another consequence was a contest for power. In this conflict, the
issue at stake was whether the future civilization which was to
emerge in Western Europe should derive from an Irish or from a
Roman embryo and the Irish were defeated in this trial of strength
long before they lost their cultural ascendancy.
The issue was raised by the great movement of missionary expansion to which the Irish monks were inspired, by their peculiar
spirit of 'adventurous asceticism'^ i n the latter part of the sixth
century of the Christian Era. In this manifestation of youthful
energy, monastic Ireland anticipated papal Rome. While Pope
Gregory the Great's emissary Augustine did not cross the sea from
the Continent to Britain, on his mission of converting the pagan
English, until A.D. 597, St. Columba had already crossed the sea
from Ireland to Britain circa 563 to found a Christian cell on the
Island of lona among the Scots whose forefathers had migrated
thither from Ireland a century or so before 4 while, circa 590, St.
Columbanus had crossed from Ireland to Britain and from Britain
to the Continent itself. Columbanus reached the Lake of Constance in 610 and crossed the Alps in 613 ; and the simultaneous
settlement, in the latter year, of Columbanus himself at Bobbio
and of his companion Gallus at the spot where his name was afterwards commemorated in the monastery of St. Gall, 5 anticipated
teaching gratis.

1
Bede: Historia Ecdesiasuca, iii. 47. For a list of distinguished foreign students who
studied in the Irish monastic schools, see Graham, H. : The Early Irish Mgnastic Schools
(Dublin 1923, Talbot Press), pp. 84-90. The list includes Welsh, English, and Prankish
names among them, the name of Willibrord, the apostle of the Frisians (Gougaud:
Christianity in Celtic Lands, pp . 257-8) The Northumbrian English refugees who studied
in Ireland learnt to speak Gaelic and even to write in it (op cit., p. 248). There are Irish
verses which are attributed to the Northumbrian King Aldfnd (regnabat A D 686-705),
the son of the King Oswiu who presided, with such momentous results, at the Synod of
Whitby (see pp. 334-6, below). On the question of English and Continental students
in Ireland in the seventh and subsequent centuries, see also Gougaud: Leg Chretientls
Celtiques, pp. 25X-2.
2 The earliest of all the Irish monasteries seems to have been Cell
Enda, on the largest
of the Arran Islands, whose eponymous founder died in A D. 530. (Gougaud: Christianity
3 See the
in Celtic Lands > p. 67.)
quotation from Olrik on p. 324, above.
4Duke points out (in op. cit., on p. 12) that Columba died in the year of Augustine's

arrival.

points out (in Christianity in Celtic Lands on pp. 143 and 158) that a
organized
regularly
monastery was not established at St. Gall till nearly a century after
the eponym 3 death on that spot.
*

Gougaud

330

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

by twelve years the

arrival

of the

Roman

missionary Paulinus

in York.

Pressing boldly into the interior of the Continent, Columbanus

founded his first Continental cluster of cells in the heart of the
Prankish dominions, on the borders of Burgundy, Swabia, and
Austrasia, at Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines and the choice of
these sites testifies to the founder's strategic intuition. It is no
the
accident that Luxeuil lies within a hundred miles of Metz
eventual
lines
in
the
point of intersection of the two co-ordinate
and within less than a hunstructure of Western Christendom 1
dred miles of La T&ne, which lies in the heart of the region from
which the Celtic barbarians had expanded a thousand years earlier
in their counter-attack upon the Hellenic World in the fifth to third
centuries B.C. 2 At Luxeuil the pioneer Celtic monk Columbanus
and his companions, like their prototypes the pioneer Celtic barbarians at La Tene, commanded an ideal base for operations in all
lies at the outlet of the
quarters of the Continent. While La
Lake of Neuchatel in the upper basin of the Aar, in the gap between the Jura and the Alps, Luxeuil stands by the head- waters of
the Saone, in the gap between the Jura and the Vosges. From
either base, it is equally easy to descend upon the basin of the Rhone
and the basin of the Rhine and hardly less easy to reach the basins
of the Seine and the Danube. The Celtic war-band at La T&ne and
the Celtic fraternity at Luxeuil each, in their day, took full advantage of the commanding strategic position in which they found
themselves. Their expansions over the face of the Continent from
these two neighbouring starting-points followed identic routes and
;

Tne

were pursued with an equal energy.

The likenesses and the differences between the

first

and the

last

of the Celtic expansions cannot fail to exercise a historian's imagination.

The very closeness of the physical points of resemblance
brings into relief the sharpness of the spiritual contrast. The first
Celtic expansion was a warlike Volkerwanderung, the last an ascetic
pilgrimage and while the legendary barbarian war-lord Bellovesus
came to destroy the Hellenic culture, the historical Christian mis;

sionary Columbanus trod in Bellovesus's footsteps in orderto re-sow

the seeds of culture in lands where Bellovesus's Teutonic barbarian
successors had trampled the harvest of Hellenism into the mire.
At Luxeuil, Celtic monks reoccupied a derelict Roman watering3
place, as a Celtic war-band had once occupied a derelict Etruscan
See I. B (iv), vol. i, pp. 37-9, above.
See pp. 279-82 and 319, above, for this Celtic counter-attack upon the Hellenic
World and its failure.
3
Gougaud points out (in Christianity in Celtic Lands on p. 83) that Celtic monasteries
were in the nature of pioneer settlements, and that deserted sites were favourite locations
for them.
1

THE GOLDEN MEAN

331

Milan; but the difference in the circumstances was allimportant for Etruscan Milan had been laid desolate by the Celtic
invaders themselves, whereas the Irish reoccupants of Luxeuil reinhabited a Roman site which had been desolated by others, and
dedicated it to a nobler service than its original use. At Bobbio,
Columbanus founded a Celtic monastery in an Apennine valley
city at

which the Celtic invaders of Italy in the fifth century B.C. had
never reached; 1 and this latter-day Celtic stronghold in Liguria,
commanding a passage across the Apennines from Northern Europe
to Rome, was not an outpost of barbarism but a light of freshly
kindled civilization shining in the darkness of a barbarized Italy.
The sister foundation of St. Gall a still more famous daughter of
Luxeuil
occupied an equally commanding position on the high
road leading out of Western Europe into the Danube valley, where
it radiated a
light of equal brilliance upon the darkness of a still

pagan Bavaria.
There is, however, one point of likeness between the two Celtic
expansions on the Continent which is of the highest historical
importance. In the seventh century of the Christian Era, as in the
fourth century B.C., the expanding Celts came into collision with
Rome and in the second of these encounters they were defeated as
decisively as they had been defeated a thousand years earlier.
The conflict between the Irish and the Roman Church in the
seventh century was perhaps the inevitable result of a profound
difference of Sthos which had arisen during the century and a half of
segregation, and which declared itself as soon as the Irish missionary
expansion brought the two parties into contact again. Under the
stress of the breakdown of the Hellenic Society and the break-up
of the Roman Empire, the Roman Church had sought to save the
situation by salvaging, and making its own, those traditions of
discipline and unity for which the defunct secular Roman order had
formerly stood, whereas the Irish Church, in its peculiar isolation
and security, had indulged, if not cultivated, a libertarian genius.
When these two thus sharply differentiated churches met, it was
the Irish Church that bridged the physical gulf and the Roman
Church that took the human offensive.
The temporary segregation of the Irish Church had been involun2
and when the Irish pioneer-missionaries
tary and not deliberate
on
landed
the
Continent
and thereby re-established coneventually
tact with Continental Christendom, they were evidently unconscious of having drifted away from Roman practice themselves and
;

unaware that Roman practice had parted company with

theirs.

There is, however, some shadow of evidence for Celtic settlements in the northwestern Apennines as early as the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. (See Hubert, op. cit.,
a On this
pp. 333-32.)
point, see Bury, op. cit., pp. 213-15.
*

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

332

They simply continued on their own course, on the assumption that

their native Irish Christianity was the Christianity of the Catholic
Church ; J and in their intercourse with their Continental co-religion-

and the
including the Pope himself, they exhibited the freedom
their
in
self-confidence to which they were accustomed
dealings
among themselves.
Columbanus, for example, appears to have established his cluster
of monasteries in Burgundy without consulting the local Burgundian
ecclesiastical authorities; he certainly introduced his own Irish
monastic rule 2 and he celebrated Easter according to a method of
reckoning, still employed in Ireland, which had been discarded on
the Continent since A.D. 343.3 When he was taken to task on this
last account by the representatives of the Gallican Church, he
counter-attacked by upbraiding the Pope himself, in an open letter,
for adhering to the newfangled Continental system. The particular
Pope whom Columbanus thus roundly threatened in A.D. 600 with
the penalty of being 'looked upon as a heretic and rejected with
scorn by the Churches of the West* was none other than Gregory
the Great himself: the very incarnation of the new Roman ecclesiastical imperialism! Columbanus wrote with equal frankness to the
Gallican synod at Chalon-sur-Saone before which he was arraigned
in A.D. 603 ; and he addressed a third letter on the Paschal Con4 His
troversy to one of Gregory's successors on the Papal throne.
independent attitude towards the authorities of the Continental
Western Church on this question of ecclesiastical practice, and his
equal independence in denouncing the political and personal crimes
of the Prankish Queen Brynhild, 5 eventually led to his being evicted
from Gaul in A.D. 610 whereupon the Irish saint followed the
example of Saint Paul and turned his back upon his co-religionists
in order to preach to the Gentiles. He travelled on from Christian
Burgundy into pagan Bavaria, and it was thus that he reached Lake
Constance 6 but this was not the end of his pilgrimage. For in
A.D. 612 he left the shores of Lake Constance and descended, from

ists,

This assumption seems to underlie the concluding passage in St. Columbanus's letter
synod at ChSlon-sur-Sa6ne before which he was arraigned in A.D. 603. (See

to the

below.)

2 The attractiveness of the Irish Christian culture to the Continental Christians of

the day is illustrated by the fact that 'the rule of Saint Columbanus soon became the
object of such veneration that, towards the middle of the seventh century, many Gallic
cloisters adopted it simultaneously with the rule of St. Benedict*.
(Gougaud, Les
Chritientis Celtzques, p. 146; cp. Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 141.)
3 See
p. 326, above.
For Columbanus's three letters on the Paschal Controversy, see Gougaud: Les
Chretientts Celtiques, pp. 180-3 and Kerr, W. S. : The Independence of the Celtic Church
in It eland (London 1931, S P.C.K.), ch. v. An attempt to explain away the conflict
between Columbanus and the Papacy in particular, and between the Irish Church and
the Roman Church in general, is made by Ryan in op. cit., on pp. 302-5 ; but this exposition is not convincing. Duke points out (in op. cit., on p.
131) that, in Adamnan's Life of
St. Columba, the Papacy is never mentioned.
5 For
6 See
details, see Ryan, op. cit., pp. 308-12.
p. 329, above.
',

THE GOLDEN MEAN

333

unexpected quarter, upon Italy; and his spirit was so far from
being broken by his experiences in the Paschal Controversy that, between his settlement at Bobbio in 613 and his death two years later,
hefound time to engage in another controversy with anotherpontiff 1
This independent spirit of Irish Christendom, which Columbanus displayed in the seventh century, was still alive in the ninth.
On the moral plane, the spirit reveals itself in a gloss written by
an Irish hand and in the Irish language on the margin of a nintha
century manuscript of the Epistles of St. Paul
'To go to Rome is great labour and little profit. Thou wilt not find the
King that thou goest to seek there unless thou bring Him with thee. It is
since thou goest out to meet certain
folly, frenzy, insanity, unreason
death
that thou shouldest call down upon thee the wrath of the Son of
this

Mary.'

With the moral

conveys in two
Pilgrims,

insight of this ninth-century Irish gloss, which

sentences the theme of Tolstoy's fable of the

Two

we may equate the intellectual vigour and originality of the

ninth-century Irish Hellenist, philosopher, and theologian, Johannes

Scotus Erigena the giant of the Carolingian Renaissance, whose
like was not seen again in Western Christendom until the Italian
Renaissance of the fifteenth century. In his magnum opus De
Divisions Naturae (scriptum circa A.D. 867), Erigena dared to present
Philosophy as an independent discipline on an equal footing with
Theology, and to declare that where philosophic reason and theo3
logical authority conflict, reason and not authority must prevail.
The struggle for power which was perhaps rendered inevitable
by this striking difference in ethos between the libertarianism of
Ireland and the authoritarianism of Rome was brought to a head
by a competition for the conversion of the still pagan barbarians of
:

For Columbanus's

Chapters', see Kerr, op.

a

The Codex

are given in

letter to Pope
cit., ch. xii.

Boniface

IV on

the Controversy of 'the Three

Boernerianus in the Royal Library at Dresden. Translations of the gloss

Chrdtientts Celtiques, pp. 158-9; and in Zimmer, II.. The

Gougaud: Les

New

York 1891, Putnam) , p 1 26.

Irish Element in Mediaeval Culture (English translation :
For a critical examination of this gloss, see Gougaud: Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 169.
3 For
Johannes Scotus see Gougaud: Les Chretient&s Celtiques t ch. vui, especially pp.
280-1 ; Christianity in Celtic Lands, pp 288-9 J Zimmer, op. cit , pp 57-60 ; Sandys, J. E. :
History of Classical Scholarship (Cambridge 1903, University Press), pp. 4.73-8.

y 1but
Erigena' s independence of mind showed itself not only in the domain of Philosophy
also in that of Physical Science. For example, he believed in the existence of the Antipodes. In this belief he had perhaps been anticipated by an eighth-century Irish
missionary scholar, Virgil, bishop of Salzburg (episcopabatur A.D. 767-84), wno was
denounced on this account to Pope Zacharias by the English missionary Boniface. The
pope gave orders that if Virgil really did believe in the Antipodes, he was to be excommunicated and unfrocked. In this controversy, the Irishman appears to have got the
better of the Englishman; for, after holding the aee of Salzburg against Boniface since
A.D 745 as a mere presbyter, Virgil became a bishop after Boniface had become a martyr.
(For this Irish Virgil, see Gougaud: Les Chrettentes Celttgues, pp. 242-3; Christianity in
Celtic Lands, p. 15 1 ; Sandys, op. cit., p. 448 ; Hodgkin, T. : Italy and her Invaders, vol. vii
(Oxford 1899, Clarendon Press), pp. 122-3. Some scepticism in regard to Virgil's
supposed views is exhibited by Gougaud in Christianity in Celtic Lands on p. 256.)

334

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Northern Europe on the Continent and in Britain. It was manifest

that
in a region where there was no room for two separate civilizathe unitary
tions to come to birth and grow up side by side
Western Christendom of the future would spring from whichever
of the two embryonic societies that were now emerging at opposite
extremities of this region should succeed in capturing the barbarian
hinterland. The battle between the Irish and the Roman competitors for the privilege of becoming the creators of our Western
Civilization was fought out, between the years 625 and 664, in the

northernmost English successor-state of the Roman Empire, Northumbria, and was decided in the latter year at the Synod of Whitby.
The race between the Roman and the Irish Church for the

Northumbria was closely run. The Roman missionary

Paulinus reached York in A.D. 625, and in 627 he converted the
who
Northumbrian prince Edwin the founder of Edinburgh 1
had asserted a political hegemony over the larger part of Britain.
In 633, however, Edwin lost both his dominion and his life in battle
with the pagan Penda of Mercia and Christianity was reintroduced
into Northumbria by Edwin's successor Oswald the representative
of a rival dynasty who had repaired in exile to lona and had been
converted to Christianity there. The new ruler of Northumbria
naturally sought missionaries for his subjects in the sanctuary where
he had found his own faith. He addressed himself to lona and
not to Rome; and the monks of lona, who had already converted
the Picts, in the northern extremity of Britain, from their islet-cell
prize of

off the west coast, now established a

of Britain on the islet of Lindisfarne

new

the east coast

(Holy Island) as a base of
operations for evangelizing Oswald's Northumbrians in the first
instance and the rest of the English in due course.
In the middle of the seventh century, when Northumbria was
under this Irish ecclesiastical ascendancy, the prospects of the Far
cell off

Western Christendom in Britain seemed promising. The Irish

Christians were not alienated from the English
by the implacable
hatred that animated the British Christians of Wales and West
Wales and Strathclyde; for, during the recent Volkerwanderung,
the Irish and the English had never crossed one another's
path,
since their common victims, the Britons, whom
they had assailed
simultaneously from opposite sides, had always interposed a human
'buffer' between them. The
English barbarians, on their part, were

even more susceptible to the attractions of the

superior Irish culture which was offered to them
by the lonan missionary Aidan than
the somewhat less barbarous peoples who had
recently welcomed
the advent of Columbanus on the Continent.
Moreover, the North*

See

II.

(v), p.

191, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

umbrian

335

which was Aidan's immediate field of work,

recovered momentarily in 655, under Oswald's brother and successor Oswiu, the hegemony which it had already won and lost
under Oswald's predecessor Edwin. Thus a number of social and
political factors were working together for the cultural union of the
Teutonic with the Celtic peoples of the British Isles under the
aegis of a common Far Western Christendom. In these circumstances, Northumbria was unexpectedly recaptured for the Roman
Church by the influence of Eanfled, Oswiu 's queen, who had been
brought up in the Roman practice, and by the energy of Wilfrid, a
native Northumbrian cleric who had become an ardent Romanizer.
At the Synod of Whitby, where the issue was decided in A.D. 664,
the rival claims of Rome and lona were nominally debated on the
principality,

merits of the Paschal Controversy; but this trivial point of ritual

was merely the test question in a trial of strength between two
ecclesiastical powers, and King Oswiu gave his allegiance to Rome
because he came to the conclusion that Peter was stronger than

Columba. 1

The consequences

of Oswiu's decision were momentous. The

immediate external effect was the restoration of a uniformity of
practice in the Western Church. The Picts, the Irish, the Welsh,
and the Bretons successively accepted the Roman Easter and the

Roman

tonsure in the course of the eighth century; and lona itself

submitted as early as the year 716. Yet even this half-century's
delay deprived the lonan missionaries of all the ground which they
had won by a century of effort in Britain. They had to evacuate
Northumbria on the morrow of Oswiu's decision in 664,2 and all
Pictland east of the Grampians on the morrow of an identic decision
which was taken by the Pictish King Nectan in 710. Moreover, in
making this formal act of submission to Rome, Celtic Christendom
publicly renounced its independence without obtaining any countervailing material benefits for the questions of Easter and the tonsure, which had been taken as the test questions in the struggle
for power, were by no means the only points on which the Celtic
Churches had become peculiar. The residue of the Celtic peculiar!;

Oswiu by quoting the text: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock
Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give
unto thce the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth
shall be bound in Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in
1

Wilfrid convinced

I will build

my

was genuine, and (11) whether Colman could quote any text showing that equivs
powers had been granted to Columba. When Colman answered the first of these two
questions in the affirmative and the second in the negative, Oswiu closed the debate by
opting for allegiance to Rome, 'lest, when I come to the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven,
there should be none to open them, he being my adversary who is proved to have the keys*.
a
They still held out in the Northumbrian monasteries particularly at Lindisfarne,
which appears to have dung to the lonan practice for another half-century (Duke,
op.

cit.,

pp. 102-6).

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

336
ties

was

still

Western Christendom
remaining in some sense beyond

sufficient to incline the rest of

to regard the Celtic Christians as

the Catholic Pale; and these Celtic ecclesiastical peculiarities did
either in Wales or in Brittany or in Scotnot entirely disappear
until the close of the twelfth century.
land or in Ireland

Thus, from the date of the Synod of Whitby onwards, the emwas thrust back again into
bryonic Christendom of the Far West
the state of isolation from which it had been released for a moment
But the
by the missionary efforts of a Columba and a Columbanus.
last state of this abortive Far Western Christendom was worse than
the first. For the iron which had entered into the soul of the Welsh
with the agonies which they had suffered during the English Volkerwanderung now entered into the soul of the Irish likewise with
the humiliation of their rebuff from Northumbria. The whole of
the Celtic Fringe was thus now alienated from England and at the
same time the English had become much more formidable than
before to the surviving insular Celts as an aggressive hostile force.
Instead of being a swarm of pagan barbarians who were as abhorrent to the Continental Christians as to the British Christians
themselves, the English had now become the obedient humble
servants of the new ecclesiastical empire of Rome
fighting the
Papacy's battles and receiving in return the Papacy's support.
From the latter part of the seventh century onwards the pressure
of England upon the Celtic fringe had the whole weight of Conti;

nental Western Christendom behind it ; and this weight gave the

subsequent English drives against the Irish an irresistible impetus.

The

first

of these

new

drives

was made, not in the British

Isles

but

on the Continent, where, in the early decades of the eighth century,

the outer fringe of the Continental Teutonic countries under Prankish political suzerainty
was
Frisia, Hesse, Thuringia, Bavaria
won for the Roman Church by the English missionary Boniface

(baptizatus Wynfrith) not so

much from

a primitive paganism as
from the Far Western Christianity of the pioneer Irish missionaries
whom Boniface found already at work in this field. The English
champion of Rome deliberately ousted these Irish pioneers who
had blazed the trail for,him, in order that on the Continent, as in
Britain itself, the Roman Church might enter into the Celtic Church's
1
In the British Isles, more than four centuries
missionary labours.
1
For Boniface's devotion to the Papacy and warfare against his own Irish predecessors in the Central European mission field, see Gougaud, Les Chrttientfs
Celtiques,
pp. i53-5> and Hodgkin, T.: Italy and her Invaders, vol. vii (Oxford 1899, Clarendon
Press), pp. 81-4. Zimmer points out (in op. cit., p. 32) that Boniface's immediate forerunner, Willibrord, the apostle of Frisia, was Irish-trained. (Seep 329, footnote i, above.)
For the measures taken by the Continental ecclesiastical authorities to restrain the Insular
vagantes, from the second quarter of the eighth century onwards, see Gougaud: Christianity in Celtic Landst pp. 165-7.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

337

the

Anglo-Roman alliance against the Celts was still in operation. King Henry IFs raid in A.D. 1171, which completed the iirst
step in the long-drawn-out English conquest of Ireland itself, was
made on the authority of a Papal Bull. 1
Henry IFs expedition to Ireland opened the third act of a tragedy
in which the first act had been closed by the Synod of Whitby. The
later,

intervening second act was the Irish reaction to the ordeal of the
Scandinavian Volkerwanderung. In contrast to the foregoing Teutonic Volkerwanderung which had accompanied the break-up of
the Roman Empire, the Scandinavian outbreak did not spare Ireland and the Far Western island which had been immune from
the storms of the fifth to seventh centuries was harried in the ninth
to eleventh centuries as cruelly as Britain or the Continent. The
Vikings first completed the eradication of Irish influence from
Britain by sacking Lindisfarne in A.D. 793 and lona in A.D. 802 2
and thereafter they dealt such heavy blows to the nascent Far
Western Christian culture in Ireland itself that not a single Irish
3
monastery escaped, and, as far as is known, not a single work in
Latin was written in Ireland during the ninth century of the
Christian Era (the century in which the scholarship of the Irish
4 The Irish did not
refugees on the Continent stood at its zenith).
yield any more tamely to their Scandinavian assailants than the
English or the French; and in the end the physical progress of
Scandinavian conquest in Ireland was arrested definitively by the
Irish victory in which Brian Boru met his death at Clontarf. Yet
the same Scandinavian challenge that was literally the making of
England and France, because it stimulated the French and English
5
peoples to the optimum degree, presented itself to Ireland, in her
renewed isolation, with such excessive severity that she could win
no more than a Pyrrhic victory.
The repulse of the physical assaults of Scandinavian raiders on
France and England was followed by a spiritual counter-offensive
on the part of Continental Western Christendom and the outcome
was a rapid and thorough-going cultural conquest of the Scandi;

The Bull Laudabiliter, addressed to King Henry II of England by Pope Hadrian IV

D. 1 155, was the response to a request which the King had made for Papal approval
of his projected enterprise. The Pope acceded to the King's request on the ground that
*

in

an English conquest of Ireland would enlarge the bounds of the Church and bring
knowledge of the Truth to ignorant and barbarous peoples. The authenticity of this Bull
has been disputed without, apparently, being effectively impugned. (See Gougaud: Les
Chretientes Celtiques, p. 367, Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 408; and Kerr, op. cit.,
pp. 151-2.) The history of the three-cornered relation between Rome, England, and
Ireland

is

discussed further in

Annex

II,

below.

Gougaud:

Gougaud: Les Chrtient6s Celtiques, p. 358.

For the victorious response of the French and English

Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 391.

in the subsequent visitations of A.D. 806 and 825.
3 Gougaud: Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 392.
5

Scandinavians, see
II

II.

(v),

pp. 198-202, above.

At lona, the monks were massacred

to the challenge

from the

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

338

secured a physical lodgement on French

and English soil. In three or four generations the descendants of
the Norse assailants of Western Christendom became her Norman
:
champions ; and a filibustering band of freelance Norman knights,
which crossed St. George's Channel in A.D. 1169, was the advanceguard of King Henry IPs expedition to Ireland. On the other hand,
the victory of Clontarf, which was 'the crowning mercy' in the long
Irish struggle against the same Norsemen, was not followed by any
corresponding conversion of the Scandinavian intruders who still
managed to keep their footing on the coasts of Ireland to the culture
of the Irish hinterland. Notwithstanding the manifest attractiveness and assimilative power of the Irish culture, and the profound
cultural interactions which did in fact take place between Ireland
and Scandinavia, the 'Ostmen', in their five surviving city-states on
Irish soil, z remained a people apart; and on a minor scale they
played the same role towards Ireland as the English. In the first
phase of the Scandinavian Volkerwanderung, before the conversion
of the intruders to Christianity, the Viking masters of the Irish
coasts and seas isolated the Irish people from the main body of

navian intruders

who had

as effectively as they had been isolated by

the lodgement of the pagan English in Britain during the first phase
of the Teutonic Volkerwanderung of the fifth and sixth centuries.
In the second phase, the converted Ostmen, like the converted
English, stole a march upon the Irish by entering into more intimate
relations than the Irish themselves had established with Continental
Western Christendom. In the twelfth century, when Ireland succumbed successively to the ecclesiastical authority of Rome and the
political authority of England, the Ostmen lent themselves readily
(though ultimately to their own undoing) as instruments in both
these deadly assaults upon Ireland's independence.
Thus the embryo of a Far Western Christian Civilization, which
showed such promise of life towards the close of the post-Hellenic
interregnum, was ultimately rendered abortive by the strain of
having to respond to a series of challenges which were excessive in
their severity. It was a forlorn hope for the Celtic abbot Colman,
in his islet off the coasts of Ultima Thule, to emulate the
prowess
of the Oecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople by trying conclusions with the successor of the Apostle at Rome; and it was a
forlorn hope for the Irish to emulate the
prowess of the English
and the French in resisting the onslaught of the Norsemen. The
gallantly of the Irish in facing these fearful odds did not enable
them to survive in a human environment which was
insuperably

Western Christendom

On this

For these

above.

point see II.

five

(v), p. 201,

above.

Scandinavian city-states on the coasts of Ireland, see

II.

D (ni)"*p. 08
*
v

'

THE GOLDEN MEAN

339

and instead of creating a new civilization of their own it

was their fate to be laid under contribution by the very competitors
who were robbing them of their birthright of independent creation.
Irish scholarship was made to minister to the
progress of the Continental Western Christian Civilization when Irish scholars, fleeing
from Ireland as refugees from Scandinavian onslaughts, were enlisted in the service of the Carolingian Renaissance; 1 and Irish art
and literature served to inspire the art and literature of the Scandinavian aggressors themselves 2 and thus likewise helped to enrich the
culture of Continental Western Christendom indirectly, through a
side channel, when the abortive Scandinavian Civilization succumbed
in its turn to a rival which proved more than a match for the Teutonic
as well as the Celtic rear-guard of the North European Barbarism. 3
These Irish contributions to the life of a Western Civilization of
non-Irish origin were not even the most conspicuous contributions
which medieval Western Christendom levied from the vanquished
and discarded peoples of 'the Celtic Fringe'. In spite or possibly
of the predominant part which the Irish had played
just because
the
Celtic
Christian peoples in inspiring the embryonic Far
among
Western Christian Civilization with its abortive vitality, the Latin
(unlike the Scandinavian) genius was not attracted by the exuberant
adverse

In the twelfth century, when the possibilities

of the French Epic had been exhausted and when French poets were
on the look-out for some exotic inspiration, they found what they
wanted not in Ireland the Celtic island which had almost wrested
from the Latin Continent the role of creating the new Western
Civilization
but in Britain: a Celtic island which had fallen out
of the running before the race between the Irish and the Latins had
begun. It was no 'matter of Ireland' but 'the matter of Britain'
that appealed to a Chretien de Troyes and if the Celtic imagination
is a living force in the World to-day, it lives in the legend of the
heroic failure of Arthur, and not in the history of Columba's or
Irish imagination.

Columbanus's heroic success.

The measure of the difference in ethos between the Irish vein of
the Celtic imagination, which left the Latin mind cold, and the
Welsh vein, which took the Latin mind by storm, is given by a
significant dissimilarity in the treatment of a mythical Celtic theme
which the Welsh and the Irish had each cultivated in their respec-

manners. The peoples of 'the Celtic Fringe', with the Atlantic

at their backs and a host of formidable aggressors ever bearing

tive

down upon them from

the Continent, were naturally inspired to

seek imaginative relief from the pressure of an adverse human
1

Gougaud:

See pp. 340-60, below.

Christianity tn Celtic Lands, p. 311.

See p. 328, above,

340

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

environment by dreaming of an Elysium hidden in the bosom of

the Ocean: a magic island which a Celtic hero might reach under
the guidance of superhuman powers who would never give right of
way to the hero's alien adversaries. This Elysium is the common
dream of the Far Western Celtic peoples; it is the bourne alike of
the Irish
King Arthur and of Saint Brendan ; but, in the British and
heroic cycles, the hero's magic westward voyage is made in utterly
different circumstances. The vanquished British warrior is wafted
away to Avalon in order to find an asylum where he may depart this
weary life in peace; the adventurous Irish Saint bends his sails
towards the island of his dreams in order to lead a new life on this
Earth in a land of hope. The fantasy of Avalon consoled the grief
of the Britons when the waters of the English conquest were going
or
over their souls the fantasy of Saint Brendan's Isle inspired
the feat of the Irish when they were anticipating the
reflected
;

Norsemen

in the discovery of the Faroes

and of Iceland. 1

The Abortive Scandinavian Civilization

It will be seen that, in the hard-fought contest between Rome
and Ireland for the privilege of becoming the creator of a new
Western Civilization, Rome only just succeeded in gaining the
upper hand. And when the nascent Western Christendom which
was thus enabled to develop from a Roman embryo was still in its
infancy, it had to engage, after the briefest breathing-space, in a
second struggle for the same prize this time in conflict with the
Teutonic rear-guard of the North European Barbarism which had
been holding itself in reserve in Scandinavia.
In this conflict between the Scandinavians and Western Christendom, the issue was as doubtful as it had been in the foregoing
conflict between the Irish and the Roman Church, while the circumstances were more formidable. On this occasion, the trial of
strength was made on the military as well as on the cultural plane
the contest was on a far larger material scale and the two contending parties were severally stronger, and also more alien from one
another, at the time of decision in the ninth century, than the rival
Irish and Roman embryos of Western Christendom had been at
the decisive moment in their antecedent contest, some two centuries
earlier.
On the one hand, the superiority in strength of ninthcentury Western Christendom over its seventh-century Roman
embryo is conspicuous. The measure of the difference is given by
the political and cultural vitality of the eighth-century Western
Christian Civilization as this was manifested in the lives and works
of its great protagonists a Bede and a Boniface, a Liutprand and a
;

For the Irish monks who preceded the Norsemen in Iceland, see Gougaud: ChrisLandst pp. 131-2.

tianity in Celtic

THE GOLDEN MEAN

341

Charles Mattel, and, above all, a Charlemagne. On the other hand,

the Scandinavian adversaries of the Carolingians surpassed the
Irish rivals of Pope Gregory the Great or Bishop Wilfrid in weight
of numbers and power of action at least as conspicuously as ninth-

century Western Christendom surpassed seventh-century Western

Christendom in the same respects.
The history of the Scandinavians in and after the post-Hellenic
VSlkerwanderung of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries of the
Christian Era was in some ways like the contemporary history of
the Irish and in some ways different from it.
To consider the points of likeness first the Scandinavians, as
well as the Irish, had been drawn within the ambit of the Hellenic
external proletariat before the break-up of the Roman Empire and
in Scandinavia, as in Ireland, the effect of the ensuing Volkerwanderung was to insulate this portion of the barbarian hinterland,
rather abruptly, from the cultural radiation, proceeding out of the
body social of the moribund Hellenic World, to which it had
:

been exposed.
Just as Ireland was isolated from Roman Christendom before the
end of the fifth century by the interposition of the pagan English
invaders who had crossed the North Sea and made a lodgement in
the Roman island of Britain, so Scandinavia was isolated from
Roman Christendom before the end of the sixth century by the

latterly

interposition of the pagan Slavs, who drifted overland along the

southern shores of the Baltic, from the line of the Niemen or the

Vistula to the line of the Elbe and the Saale, into the vacuum left
by the emigration of the Goths, Vandals, Heruli, Warni, Lombards,

and other Teutonic barbarians who had evacuated this region because they had been implicated in the post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung and had been lured away by its spell to inflict and suffer
destruction in the derelict provinces of the Roman Empire, while
the Scandinavians, in 'the back of beyond', had stayed at home.
Thus, before the close of the post-Hellenic interregnum, the Scandinavians found themselves isolated from their fellow Teutons, as the
Irish were isolated from their fellow Christians, by a wedge of more

barbarous interlopers. 1
*
'The conditions for a separate Scandinavian development were not created until
the Migration of Nations, which definitely broke the bonds uniting the northern Teutonic tribes with their southern neighbours. The Angles and Saxons travelled to England ;
the Svevi and Goths moved southward. The lands along the Baltic werejfor a time
deserted, but were slowly filled with a new population. Slavic tribes trickled in from the
. .
east, settling the shores of the Baltic as far west as Holstein.
'Thus sharp boundaries of language had been drawn around the North, and at the same
time the unrest in Central Europe had cut off the ancient connexions with the South.
There had once been physical contact with the Romano-Germanic Civilization; now the
bridge had been broken, and the North was thrown on its own resources/ (Olrik, op,
.

cit.,

p. 8.)

343

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

There was, however, one difference between the Scandinavian

and the Irish situation which was of fundamental importance and
While the previous cultural radiation put of the
lasting effect.
Roman Empire into Ireland had just succeeded in kindling a spark

of Christianity in Ireland before the interposition of the English,

the feebler incidence of the same radiation upon Scandinavia had
failed to produce the same effect there before the interposition of
the Slavs. While the Irish barbarians were converted in the fifth
barbarians who overran
century and the vanguard of the Teutonic
the Continental provinces of the Roman Empire were converted as
1
the rear-guard of the Teutons in
early as the fourth century,
Scandinavia were still pagans in the sixth century when segregation
overtook them; and they therefore remained pagans so long as the
when it came to an end.
segregation lasted and emerged as pagans
Thus the cultural histories of Ireland and of Scandinavia during

In
their respective segregation-periods were markedly different.
North
Ireland, in this age, there was a mingling of the old wine of
this
and
Barbarism with the new wine of Christianity;

European
mingling had produced a creative fermentation

the potential genebefore the segregation-period had reached

sis of a new civilization
2 In
its close.
Scandinavia, during the corresponding age, the inand
digenous North European Barbarism 'stewed in its own juice'
though the old wine did notably improve by keeping (as it had
improved under the same treatment in the same region on other
;

occasions before), 3 it was not, as in Ireland, miraculously changed,

by a fresh infusion, into a new vintage.
1 With the
exception of the Franks, who were not converted until A.D. 496. This
retardation in the conversion of the Franks is noteworthy, but its effect was mitigated by
the fact that the Franks had already settled on Roman ground, where they were exposed
to all the influences of the Roman Christian culture. Moreover, the Franks were converted to Catholic Christianity direct, instead of passing from paganism to Catholicism

through an intermediate stage of Arianism, like the Goths, Vandals, and Lombards.
2 For a sketch of this
embryonic Far Western Christian Civilization which emerged in
Ireland during the segregation period, see pp. 324-8, above.
3 Before the abortive
attempt at creating a Scandinavian Civilization, and the conseinto Western Christendom, between the eighth and the
of
Scandinavia
quent absorption
eleventh century of the Christian Era, the North European Barbarism had had a long
history in Scandinavia; and there is one feature in its history here which is distinctive and
recurrent because it arises from the permanent geographical relation of Scandinavia to
the Continent. On a sociological view, Scandinavia has always been virtually an island,
since the cultural radiation to which it has been subject has always travelled to Scandinavia across Continental Europe and thence, in the last stage of the journey, over the
Baltic or the North Sea; and this sociological insularity has made Scandinavia particularly
prone to segregation. Accordingly, during the long age of Barbarism, during which the
Primitive Savagery of Northern Europe was being irradiated by the several contemporary
or successive influences of the Egyptiac and Minoan and Sumenc and Hittite and Hellenic and Syriac civilizations, it frequently happened that some particular element or
aspect or phase or emanation of one or other of these incoming cultures remained in
being, within the secluded area of Scandinavia, and underwent new local developments
there, long after it had become obsolete, not only in the focus of the civilization which
had originally created it, but even in the intermediate zones of barbarism across which
the cultural radiation had passed en route to Scandinavia from its point of origin. This
peculiarity of Scandinavian cultural history in the age of barbarism becomes apparent at

THE GOLDEN MEAN

343

'The Northman, cut off from association with the outside world,
turned his attention inward. ... In certain respects he became a barbarian again. The stately chieftain in his Romanized garb was transformed back into a long-bearded viking ; his Damascene blade was replaced
by a heavy sword of iron or a 'troll' of a battle-axe he wished not to be
buried in a coffin in the Southern fashion, but again piled up a mound of
earth over the dead, as did his ancient forefathers. He was like the
legendary^hero Sinfjotli, who when ten years old was sent out into the
forest to live as a wolf in order that he
might be hardened for the great
deed that awaited him. In the same manner the Northman was thrown
back upon his own rude nature. He tried his strength against the sea,
hunted seals and whales, caught small fish and large fish, went up on the
mountain heights after reindeer or after Lapp tribute, or cleared his forest
and dreamed his long heavy winter dream.' 1
;

There was a deep difference here, in life and in outlook, between

Scandinavia and Ireland in the segregation-period; and this difference, at this stage, produced a further differentiation between the
courses of Scandinavian and of Irish history in the following stage,
when the Irish and the Scandinavians successively re-entered into
contact with Continental Roman Christendom. This subsequent
and consequent differentiation was threefold. In the first place, the
Scandinavians did not begin to develop a positive civilization of
their own until after they had re-established contact with Roman
Christendom, whereas the emergence of an embryonic Far Western
Christian Civilization in Ireland had preceded the re-establishment
of contact between the Irish and the Roman Church. In the second
place, the re-establishment of contact between the Scandinavians
and Roman Christendom was made on Prankish and not on Scandinavian initiative. Charlemagne's thirty years' war of attrition against
the Continental Saxons (A.D. 772-804), in which the Continental
frontier of Roman Christendom against the North European Barbarism was carried forward overland from the Ruhr to the Eider,
both anticipated 2 and precipitated 3 the Scandinavian sea-raids upon
a glance to any one who visits the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. The
cannot fail to observe that the Swedish relics, here displayed, of the North European 'Stone Age' and 'Bronze Age* and 'Iron Age* are the finest local relics of these
successive phases of the North European Barbarism that are anywhere to be seen. At
first thoughts, it seems paradoxical that the finest products of a culture should have been
produced on the outermost fringe of the culture's geographical range; but second
thoughts discern that the geographical remoteness of Scandinavia is precisely the explanation of its technological pre-eminence, when the factors of segregation and 'time-lag* are
taken into account* The barbarians of Scandinavia eventually carried the techniques of
*the Stone Age* and 'the Bronze Age* to higher degrees of excellence than were ever
achieved in either technique by the barbarians of the Continent for the simple reason that
the Scandinavians, segregated in their alter orbis, were continuing to work in stone for
many centuries after the Continentals had abandoned stone for bronze and thereafter to
work in bronze (when once they had adopted it) after the Continentals had taken to iron.
1
Olnk, op. cit., pp. 9-10,
2 The earliest recorded Scandinavian sea-raids
upon Western Christendom took
T. D.:
and
time
between
the
some
History of the
786
(Kendrick,
793.
place
years
3 See II.
(hi), pp. 86-7* above.
Vikings (London 1930, Methuen), pp. 3-4.)

visitor

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

344

the coasts of Gaul and the British Isles. On the other hand, in the
re-establishment of contact, two centuries earlier, between the Irish
and the Roman Church, Roman Augustine's landing in Britain had
at least been forestalled, even if it cannot be shown to have been
on the Continent. The
inspired, by Irish Columbanus's landing
third line of differentiation between Scandinavian and Irish history,
which is inherent in the other two, is perhaps the most important.
The collision between the Irish and the Roman Church was pacific ;

the collision between the Scandinavians and Western Christendom

was a clash of arms.
The Scandinavian Volkerwanderung, like other Volkerwanderungen, was the reaction of a barbarian society to the impact of a civili-

The

post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung, which had drawn

the Scandinavians' Continental Teutonic kinsmen into its vortex
and had left the Scandinavian rear-guard stranded, had been a longterm reaction to the Transalpine expansion of the Roman Empire.
The Scandinavian Volkerwanderung which followed in course of
time, some four centuries later, was a short-term reaction to the
abortive evocation of a ghost of the Roman Empire by Charlemagne
and the Carolingian epigoni. 2 The Carolingian Empire was a fiasco
zation. 1

was both grandiose and premature. It was an ambitious

political super-structure piled up recklessly upon rudimentary social
and economic foundations 3 and the arch-instance of its unsoundness was the tour de force of Charlemagne's conquest of Saxony,
which brought the Carolingian Empire and Scandinavia into direct
because

it

contact with one another.

During the two preceding centuries,

when Scandinavia had been

segregated from Roman Christendom, Continental Saxony had

acted as a kind of buffer or middle term between the Scandinavian
peoples and the Prankish 'successor-state' of the Roman Empire.
The people of Saxony, during this period, had certain affinities with
the peoples both north and south of them. They were related
equally to Franks and to Scandinavians inasmuch as all three
peoples were Teutons. At the same time, the people of Saxony
were especially akin to the Scandinavians inasmuch as the
ruling
elements among them had originally come from the North
during
the post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung, when they had turned their
faces towards the Continent and had conquered their fellow barbarians between the Eider and the Ruhr, instead of
turning their
faces towards the sea like their kinsmen and namesakes who conquered Britain. Like the Scandinavians, again, these Continental
*

The

below.

nature and geneses of Volkerwanderungen are examined further in Part VIII,

'

See

The weakness

II.

(111),

pp. 86-7, above.

of the Carolingian Empire

is

examined further in Part X, below.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

345

Saxon conquerors and their indigenous Teutonic subjects had remained faithful to their primitive Teutonic paganism when both
the Franks and the transmarine Saxons had become converts to

Roman

Christianity.

On

the other hand, the subject element in

Saxony was partly Prankish in origin and spoke a kindred Teutonic

dialect which the Saxon conquerors themselves adopted.
Thus
Saxony, before Charlemagne's war, was a potential bridge between
Roman Christendom and Scandinavia a bridge over which some
:

successor of Boniface might have led the Scandinavians into the

fold of Roman Christendom by the great missionary's pacific
methods. Charlemagne's militancy ruled out this possibility.
When Charlemagne set out in A.D. 772 to bring Saxony within
the fold of Roman Christendom by force of arms, he was making
a disastrous breach with the policy of peaceful penetration
conducted by Irish and English missionaries on the Continent for a
which had effectively extended the borders of Concentury past
Christendom
tinental
at the expense of the Continental Barbarism
the
conversion
of the Bavarians and Thuringians and
by achieving
1
Hessians and Frisians.
And this change of policy was not only
morally retrograde it was even militarily disastrous ; for though
the tour deforce of a Prankish conquest of Saxony was eventually
achieved, it was a Pyrrhic victory. The ordeal of the Franco- Saxon
Thirty Years' War overtaxed the limited resources of the Carolingian Empire and overstrained the weak tissues of the nascent
;

Western Society which had been burdened with

this

ponderous

unitary political regime. By the time when the Carolingian offensive had been carried to the line of the Eider, its force was spent ;
the rash advance stopped dead; and it was inevitably and immediately followed by a counter-attack in which the Scandinavians
avenged
awaking, full of vigour, from their 'heavy winter dream'
of
the
Franks
the
exhausted
the
wrongs
prostrated Saxons.
upon
In fact, the convulsive expansion of the Prankish Power over the
basins of the Weser and the Elbe, which came to this abrupt halt
at the neck of the Danish Peninsula, aroused in the souls of the
the notorious
Scandinavians the same demoniac furor barbaricus
2
that had once been awakened in the souls of the
Berserker rage
Celts when the ambitious expansion of the Etruscan Power over
the Basin of the Po had come to a halt at the foot of the Alps. 3
*

See

p. 336, above.
Berserkers, i.e. warriors who went into battle without defensive armour, were an
institution of the North European Barbarism which was not confined to the Scandinavian
Barbarism of the Vikmg Age. There were Celtic Berserkers in Transalpine Gaul in the
third century B.C. The Transalpine Celtic mercenaries (Gaesatae) whom the Cisalpine
Celts enlisted when they made their supreme effort to break the power of Rome, fought
naked at the Battle of Telamon in 225 B.C. (See Polybius, Bk. II, chs. 22, 28, and 30.)
3 For the relation between the Etruscan
expansion and the Celtic avalanche, see
pp. 276 and 280, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

346

and driving force, the' Scandinavian, like the Celtic,

'movement was a tremendous expansion of the life-force of the
1
race'; and the Scandinavian expansion in the eighth to eleventh
centuries of the Christian Era surpassed the Celtic expansion of the
fifth to third centuries B.C. both in extension and in intensity: in
'In its origin

the impetus of its attack; in the sweep of its geographical range;

in the narrowness of the margin by which it just failed to overwhelm
the civilization against which it was directed; and in the brilliance
of the embryonic civilization which it created on its own account.
The abortive envelopment of the Hellenic World by the Celts,
which had carried the right wing of the North European barbarian
assailants of Hellenism into the heart of Spain and their left into
the heart of Asia Minor, 2 was dwarfed in geographical scale by the
operations of the Vikings, who threatened to envelop Orthodox as
well as Western Christendom by extending their left wing into
Russia and their right into North America. Again, the two Christian

which were assaulted by the Scandinavians were in

greater jeopardy when the Vikings were attempting to force the
passages of the Seine and the Thames and the Bosphorus past Paris
and London 3 and Constantinople, than the jeopardy in which the
Hellenic Civilization found itself at the moments when the Celtic
war-bands were actually masters of Rome and of Macedonia. 4 In
a still higher degree, the abortive Scandinavian Civilization which
began to unfold itself in Iceland before its chill beauty melted into
formlessness under the warm breath of Christianity,
surpassed in
both achievement and in promise the rudimentary Celtic culture of
civilizations

La Tene.s

We

have already observed that the short bloom of the Scandinavian Civilization in Iceland was evoked
by the same stimulus as
the long bloom of the Hellenic Civilization in I6nia: the
peculiar
stimulus which

given to barbarians by a Volkerwanderung which

carries them overseas. We have taken a
comparative view of the
Icelandic and the Ionian achievements in the two fields of
political
is

organization and literary art; and it would be superfluous at this

point to enlarge upon the character of the abortive Scandinavian
Civilization, and its resemblance to the successful Hellenic Civili6

any

farther.?

We

likewise absolve ourselves from recapitulating the account which we have already given of the Scandinavian assault upon Western Christendom and its ultimate failure. 8
zation,

may

' P
97
\
rV
'o
See II.
(v), pp. 198-9, above.
4 See
above.
pp. 280-1,
'

s
3

For the La Tene

See PP-

culture, see p. 281, above,

pp. 86-100, above.
8 3uestlon see
I For
v rt?
father pp 356-7, as well as Annex V, below.
8
these events, see II.
(v), pp. 196-202, above.

See

II.

(Hi),

THE GOLDEN MEAN

347

We may pass on at once to

consider the successive consequences of

this failure as far as
they concern Scandinavia.
The first of these consequences was that the Scandinavian invaders who had made a forcible lodgement on the soil of Western
Christendom, in the Danelaw and in Normandy, were at once lost
to the Scandinavian Society, as
irrevocably as if they had been
annihilated, through their rapid conversion to the religion and
culture of their invincible Western Christian adversaries. The en-

listment of the converted

Normans

Western
Christendom's service was the first signal piece of evidence which
showed that, in this encounter, Western Christendom and not
Scandinavia was the victor. We have noticed this metamorphosis
of the Normans already; but this was only the first stage in the
Christian counter-attack. In the second and final stage, both the
Western and the Orthodox Christian Society carried the war,
which they had already won on their own ground, into the enemy's
country, and rendered the nascent Scandinavian Civilization abortive by conquering the whole vast extent of the New World in
the North which Scandinavian enterprise had called into existence. 2
It is noteworthy that these successive triumphs of Western
Christendom over Scandinavia were obtained by a reversion to
the tactics which Charlemagne had discarded. The self-defence of
Western Christendom against the Vikings' assaults had been conducted, perforce, on the militant lines on which Charlemagne had
rashly embarked and on which the Scandinavians had followed
Charlemagne's lead with a vengeance. But as soon as a militant
Western defensive had brought the militant Scandinavian offensive
to a halt, the Westerners resumed the peaceful tactics of Augustine
and Boniface, which Charlemagne had abandoned with such disastrous consequences. One hundred and seven years after the end of
Charlemagne's Great Saxon War, a Charles who was nicknamed
'the Simple' was able at last to set bounds to the mischief which
had been done by Charles 'the Great' by making another new
as knights errant in

departure in policy

this

time in exactly the opposite direction

from that which had been taken by

his

more famous namesake and

In the treaty concluded in A.D. 911 between the Carolingian Charles the Simple and the Viking Rollo, the barbarian
intruder was permitted to retain in peace his conquests on Prankish
from which the lawful Prankish sovereign would scarcely
soil
on condition that he enrolled
have been able to eject him by force
a
of
the
citizen
Western Respubttca Christiana; and the
himself as
sequel proved that the Carolingian statesman who made this compact had been right in believing that he was getting the best of the
ancestor.

In

II.

(v),

on

p. 201, above.

See

II,

(v),

pp. 201-3, above.

348

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

bargain. This resumption of the policy of peaceful penetration

in place of the policy of force in dealing with the Northern barbarians was accountable for all the subsequent successes of Western
Christendom in the encounter between the two societies. By peaceful penetration, Western Christendom converted not only the immade a lodgement
pulsive Normans, who had forced an entry and
as formidable strangers within her gates, but also the warier Northmen who had remained ensconced on their own ground in the

North European hinterland beyond the pale at which the frontier

of the Carolingian Empire had been fixed by Charlemagne's Saxon
campaigns.

The

tactics of peaceful penetration

proved particularly effective

in dealing with the Scandinavians because the Scandinavians were
peculiarly receptive. The Scandinavians had already shown themselves susceptible to the influence of the embryonic Far Western
Christian Civilization of Ireland 1 at a time when their relations with

Roman Christendom and

with the Carolingian Empire were still

This Irish influence enriched and did not
exclusively hostile.
sterilize the native vein of the Scandinavian genius, because the
embryonic Irish and Scandinavian civilizations had an identic
source in the common reservoir of the traditional North European
Barbarism, while the new Christian element, of which the nascent
Scandinavian Civilization received its first infusion through this
Irish channel, had already been blended harmoniously with a
North European tincture in the course of its percolation through
Irish soil. 2

Thus, when the Vikings overwhelmed Ireland, they

plundered the spiritual as well as the material riches of their Irish

victims with impunity. 3 On the other hand, when they descended
upon Roman Christendom and eventually succumbed to the spell
of a civilization which had succeeded in holding them at bay, they
ate the bread and drank the cup of the Christian mysteries without
that saving self-examination which Paul had recommended to the
Corinthians and which the Delphic Apollo, long before Paul's day,
had enjoined upon all Hellenes who presumed to approach a shrine
1 For Irish influence on
the Scandinavian Civilization see Olrik, op. cit., pp. 107-20;
and Macalister, R. A. S. TheArchaeology of Ireland (London 1928, Methuen), pp. 340-3.
2 For this harmonious
adaptation of Christianity in Ireland to the temper of the preexisting local culture, see pp. 322 and 324-8, above.
3 The effect of the Irish influence
upon Scandinavian culture is summed up by Olrik
:

(in op. cit., p. 120) as follows:

'Considered as a whole, this Irish element in Scandinavian culture

is

a phenomenon in

which does not coincide with the principal current of the Christian movement as it
passes over Europe. It appears more as an enrichment and expansion of the native North
European stage of Civilization than as a part of the new trend accompanying the introduction of Christianity. In so far as it swept away a portion of the ancient
heritage, this
tendency might have made a breach for the entrance of the new mam current; and
furthermore certain Christian impulses did emanate from Ireland. But in at least equal
measure this Irish influence contributed to the production of a special civilization which
somewhat impeded the rapid absorption of the North into Christian Europe.'
itself,

THE GOLDEN MEAN

349

once consecrated to older Minoan divinities whom the intrusive

Olympian had supplanted. In thus swallowing Roman Christianity
whole, the Scandinavians were eating and drinking damnation to
themselves. 1 The strong wine of the South tainted and sterilized
the elixir of Scandinavian culture and burst the bottles of the
North European Barbarism within which this elixir was being
gradually distilled.

The encounter between

the Scandinavians and Orthodox Christendom followed a parallel course ; for, although Orthodox Christendom had borne no share in the responsibility for evoking the
Scandinavian outbreak, it suffered incidentally from the consequences of the militant Western Christian offensive against the
North European Barbarism in the generation of Charlemagne. The
Scandinavian movement of expansion threatened to overwhelm
both the Roman and the Orthodox Christian World simultaneously.
While the Vikings who had taken to the North Sea sailed up the
Thames to sack London in A.D. 842 and up the Seine to sack Paris
in 845, other Vikings, who had taken to the Baltic and had threaded

by river and portage, across the whole breadth of Russia

emerged on the Black Sea, sailed down the Bosphorus
in A.D. 860 to sack Constantinople and only just failed to take the
Imperial City by surprise. Thereafter, Constantinople, like Paris
and London, endured and survived the ordeal of successive Scandinavian assaults 2 and in the great war of A.D. 967-72 the East Roman
Government first incited the Scandinavian prince of Russia, Svyatoslav, to invade the rival Orthodox Christian Empire of Bulgaria overland, and finally drove the formidable barbarian intruder out again,
without being forced to concede to him, on Orthodox Christian
soil, the equivalent of a Danelaw or a Normandy. The sequel to
the treaty which Svyatoslav found himself compelled to conclude
with the East Roman Emperor John Zimisces at Drstra in A.D. 972
was the same as the sequel to Guthrum's treaty with Alfred in
A.D. 878 and to Rollo's with Charles in A.D. 911, except that the
discomfiture of the Scandinavian aggressor was more signal on the
Orthodox Christian front and his subsequent conversion more

their way,
until they

rapid.

Thus, when the Vikings made their pacts with the Christian
a Wessex and a France and an East Roman Empire
after
Powers
having been flung back from the walls of Constantinople and Paris
and London, the nascent Scandinavian Civilization was doomed;
for nothing but the ferocity of the Northmen could save them from
the fate to which their receptivity exposed them. In the collision
1

For the ordeal of Paris and London, see

Corinthians

xii.

29.
II.

(v),

Annex, on pp. 400-1, below.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

350

between the Scandinavian Volkerwanderung and Christendom,

there were only two possible alternative outcomes either Christendom must be annihilated or the nascent Scandinavian Civilization
must be rendered abortive by the conversion of its makers. When
the former alternative was renounced, the second inevitably came
to pass. The frail fabric of the native Scandinavian culture was
now disintegrated by a foreign radiation which penetrated it, layer
by layer, first on the economic plane and then on the political and
finally on the cultural. On the political plane, Charlemagne the
:

heir of Augustus ultimately exercised a

more profound

effect

upon

Scandinavian minds than Charlemagne the slayer of the Saxons.

On the cultural plane, the process of peaceful penetration was
completed when the Northmen accepted the very religion of the
Southerners.

But the
was the wealth of the South that lured the Viking.
Northman was an apt pupil; he not only stole; he also imitated. He
learnt to build fortresses and form a testudo, to imitate the high-prowed
'It

warships, the galleys of the South, in his own dragon ships ; he learned to
new goal for the ruler's power arose . .
plan cities and order a state.
the figure of Charlemagne: "Carolus Magnus". Even during his lifetime, in the families of Northern kings in the West, men began to call
their sons Karlus or Magnus ; whenever a Magnus subsequently succeeds
to one of the Northern royal seats, this is a victory of the Carolus Magnus

A kingship with external power, internal peace and order, and

moral elevation, stands as the highest goal of princely ambition.
ideal.

'As the viking king moves in the direction of the Carolus Magnus
At the
ideal, the viking ships are transformed into merchant ships.
of
the Viking Age, they set forth on bloody expeditions ; at the
beginning
end of the Viking Age, Scandinavian merchant towns have arisen
along
all the coasts of Northern
Europe from Novgorod to Bristol, Limerick,

and Dublin. The Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, and the Baltic Sea,
formerly bare of ships, have now been absorbed into the realm of world
trade.
. .
Consciously or unconsciously, the Scandinavians acquire the
handicrafts and art of foreign peoples. They adopt a metal
currency
'The acceptance of Christianity was for
rather an
.

assimilation of European

life

many persons
than an expression of religious enthusiasm.' 1

The

receptivity of the Northmen was indeed as sensitive on the

cultural plane as on the economic or
political; and here it was not

merely imitative but also creative.

'The old idea of the Vikings as sweeping

like a storm across the lands

they touched, destroying the wealth they found and leaving themselves as poor as ever, has in our time had to
give way to a breathless
wonder at their craving for enrichment. The
gold they found has disappeared. But we have learnt now that there was gathered together in the
1

Olrik, op.

cit.,

pp. 104-7.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

351

North a treasury of knowledge and thought, poetry and dreams, that

must have been brought home from abroad, despite the fact that such
spiritual values are far more difficult to find and steal and carry safely
home than precious stones or precious metals. The Northmen seem to
have been insatiable in the matter of such spiritual treasures.
[And]
they had not only a passionate craving to convert the elements of foreign
culture to their own enrichment, but they had also a mysterious power of
stirring up culture and forcing it to yield what lay beneath its surface.
Even this thirst for knowledge, however, is not the most surprising thing
about them. That they did learn and copy to a great extent is plain to
see but
there exists no magic formula whereby the culture of Viking
times, as a whole, can be resolved into its original component parts. So
thoroughly have they refashioned what they took, until its thought and
.

spirit are their

own,' 1

The

audacious attempt to re-cast the Christian culture in a

Scandinavian mould was manifestly a forlorn hope. Yet a society
which could summon up the spirit and exercise the imagination to
essay this tour deforce would not readily confess itself outmatched.
And, although this spiritual encounter could have no other outcome than the assimilation of the weaker spiritual force by the
stronger, the nascent Scandinavian Civilization did not reconcile
itself to this spiritual discomfiture without a struggle. The spell of
quiescence which had given free play to the Scandinavian faculty
of receptivity at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries was
broken, before the latter century closed, by a fresh outburst of the
furor barbaricus; this new fit of Berserker rage was provoked by a
recognition of the strange and monstrous fact that the meek were
fast inheriting the Scandinavian Earth; and the spirit of militant
reaction was embodied, by the Northern poetic imagination of the
2
day, in the heroic figure of Starkad the Old: a mighty man of
valour who, with a fervour worthy of a Syriac prophet, inspires the
king his lord to cleanse his household from foreign abominations.
In creating the image of this pagan zealot, the Scandinavian Society
of the Viking Age was painting a portrait of itself. As he first
appears upon the scene, Starkad victoriously repels the formidable
oncoming tide of Christian influence; but as the poetic cycle of
which Starkad is the hero develops, a tragic motif creeps in. In
the latest version of the plot, the zealot himself is corrupted by the
foreign abominations which he has denounced. For lust of foreign
gold, Starkad betrays his master; and when we translate this poetry
into prose, the upshot is that the tenth-century reaction was foredoomed to failure, and that the victory of the Christian over the
*

GrSnbech, V,

The Culture of the Teutons (London 193 1, Milford,

3 parts in a vols.),

Parti, pp. xx-12.

a

For an analysis and interpretation of the Starkad Cycle, see Olrik, op.

cit.,

pp. 120-7.

35*

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Scandinavian

Civilization

was

really

assured

before

the

tenth

century was over.

In the Scandinavian kingdoms of Russia, Denmark, and Norway,
the formal outward act of conversion was imposed upon the people
wholesale by the arbitrary will of three contemporary princes:
Vladimir the Great (regndbat A.D. 980-1015), Harald Gormsson
A.D.
(regndbat circa A.D. 940-86), and Olaf Tryggvason (regnabat
to a royal
995-1000). In Norway, strenuous resistance was offered
command which was ostensibly actuated by nothing more reasonable than the determination of a masterful ruler to gratify a personal
whim; and in Denmark and in Russia, where the royal commands
were passively accepted by the princes' subjects, the princes themselves appeared to be acting on immediate considerations of political
expediency. Harald imposed Christianity on Denmark in A.D. 974
as part of the purchase-price of peace from the Saxon emperor
Otto II, who had invaded Denmark in force in reprisal for Danish
raids on Saxony. 1 Vladimir imposed Christianity on Russia in
A.D. 989 in order to win the hand of a Christian princess, the sister
of the East Roman Emperor Basil II, and to obtain as her dowry
a diplomatic ratification of his seizure of the East Roman fortress
of Cherson in the Crimea. 2
'At his despotic command, Peroun, the god of thunder, whom he had
so long adored, was dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve
sturdy barbarians battered with clubs the misshapen image, which was
indignantly cast into the waters of the Borysthenes. The edict of Wolodomir had proclaimed that all who should refuse the rites of baptism
would be treated as the enemies of God and their prince ; and the rivers
were instantly filled with many thousands of obedient Russians, who
acquiesced in the truth and excellence of a doctrine which had been
embraced by the great duke and his boyars.' 3

Vladimir's fiat may conceivably account for the mass-conversion of

the docile Slavs on whom the Scandinavian pioneers in Russia had
imposed their dominion. Yet the personal opportunism or caprice
of a ruler seldom or never avails to bring about a wholesale and
permanent revolution in the religion of his subjects unless the
religious change which the ruler enjoins is in accord with the prevalent social tendencies of the place and the time. 4 This truth is
eminently true in a turbulent and individualistic society such as the
1

Kendrick, T.
Kendrick, op.

D A

History of the Vikings (London 1930, Methuen), p. 103.

pp. 164-5.
s
Gibbon, Edward: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. Iv.
+ The history of civilizations up to date furnishes a number of instances of
signal
failures in cases where rulers have attempted to use their political power for the purpose
of enforcing religious changes against the spirit of the place and time. Examples of such
failures (e.g., in the cases of Ikhnaton, Ptolemy Soter, Acoka, Julian, Leo Syrus, and
Akbar) are examined in Part VIII, below.
2

cit.,

THE GOLDEN MEAN

353

Scandinavian Society was in the Viking Age. The phenomenon

that requires to be explained is not the conversion of Vladimir's
pagan Slav subjects but rather the conversion of 'his boyars* that is
to say, his pagan Swedish war-band and the readiness of the head:

abandon their primitive paganism for alien religions towards the end of the tenth century of the Christian Era,
after kicking, Starkad-wise, against the pricks, was evidently the
outcome of a deep and gradual psychological mass-movement with
a long rhythm a movement which statecraft might bring to a head,
but which it could not have initiated and could not arrest. The
ripeness of the Russian Vikings for conversion in Vladimir's day
was not only apparent to Vladfmir himself but was also the mainstrong Vikings to

spring of his religious policy, if there is any truth in the story that,
before he finally opted for Orthodox Christianity, he investigated
and compared the respective merits of Orthodoxy, Romanism,
1
And the Russian prince's ultimate choice of
Judaism, and Islam.
Orthodox Christianity can probably be accounted for by the fact
that, when once the Russian Vikings had failed to take Orthodox
Christendom by storm, and when this failure had been followed by
a substitution of peaceful for warlike relations between the discomfited barbarians and the civilization which had successfully
repelled their assaults, then the attractiveness and prestige of Orthodox Christendom prevailed, in Russian imaginations, over the
fainter impressions made upon them by the Roman Christian West
or by the Islamic 'Abbasid Caliphate or by Jewish Khazaria. 2

*The ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the idolatry of the

woods with the elegant superstition of Constantinople. They had gazed
with admiration on the dome of St. Sophia: the lively pictures of saints
and martyrs, the riches of the altar, the number and vestments of the
priests, the pomp and order of the ceremonies they were edified by the
alternate succession of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was it
difficult to persuade them that a choir of angels descended each day from
;

heaven to join in the devotion of the Christians.' 3

In general,
North was accomplished by voluntary means. Of
that compulsion was never used against any
not
assume
course,
individual the conditions of the times would forbid any such assumption. But no Scandinavian tribe was forced as a body to assume the new
law. What happened was that leading men of the tribe appeared in
considerable numbers as its advocates, drawing the stragglers in their
wake. Behind the many decisions of the thing meetings in which the
acceptance of Christianity was voted, we cannot always assume the
'the conversion of the

we must
;

a
3

ii

Kendnck, op, cit., p. 164,

For the Judaism of the Khazars see
Gibbon, op. cit., loc. cit.

A a

II.

(vi),

Annex,

p. 410, below,

354

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

presence of a majority, but surely [always] that of a very important

minority. And, once the choice had been made, it was never rescinded ;
we do not encounter any pagan reaction of real moment.' 1

The most

illuminating instance of all was the conversion of Iceland, and this for several reasons. In the first place, the Scandinavian
community in Iceland was particularly remote from Christendom
geographically. In the second place, its political constitution and
so that in
political tradition were both peculiarly individualistic,
Iceland it was even less easy than in other Scandinavian countries
to impose conversion upon the body-politic by the arbitrary fiat of
an individual or even of a strong minority. In the third place, the
Icelanders had been so powerfully stimulated by the challenge of

migration overseas to a country still harder than their Norwegian

homeland that they had raised the Scandinavian culture which they
brought with them to higher degrees of aesthetic and intellectual
intensity than were ever attained in any other part of the Scandinavian World, 2 so that, in abandoning paganism for Christianity,
they were sacrificing a more precious and more highly appreciated
social heritage than any of the other Scandinavian converts (Russians or Swedes or Danes or other Norwegians) were called upon
to give up. Yet, in spite of these special obstacles which the
Christian propaganda had to overcome in Iceland, the Icelanders'
own records of their conversion show plainly that the process was
if the word
voluntary here as well as in other Scandinavian lands
'voluntary' may fairly be used to describe a realistic recognition and
unenthusiastic acceptance of a social and psychological necessity.
The history of the momentous decision which was taken at the
Althing in the June of A.D. 1000 is recounted as follows in the
Njals Saga*
'Both sides went to the Hill of Laws, and each, the Christian men as
well as the heathen, took witness, and declared themselves out of the
other's laws, and then there was such an
uproar on the Hill of Laws that
no man could hear the other's voice.
'After that men went away, and all thought
things looked like the
The
Christian
men
as their Speaker Hall
chose
greatest entanglement.
of the Side, but Hall went to Thorgeir, the priest of
Lightwater, who was
the old Speaker of the law, and gave

what the law should

he was an heathen.
'Thorgeir lay
head, so that no
Olrik, op. cit

Kendrick, op,

cit.,

all

be, but

him

three marks of silver to utter

that was most hazardous counsel, since

on the ground, and spread a cloak over his

spoke with him; but the day after men went to the

that day

man

still

p. 140.

pp. 346-53.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

355

Laws, and then Thorgeir bade them be silent and listen, and
thus
spoke
*
"It seems to me as though our matters were come to a deadlock if
we are not all to have one and the same law for if there be a sundering
of the laws, then there will be a sundering of the peace, and we shall
never be able to live in the land. Now, I will ask both Christian man and
heathen whether they will hold to those laws which I utter?"
Hill of

'They all said they would.

'He said he wished to take an oath of them, and pledges that they
would hold to them, and they all said "yea" to that, and so he took
pledges from them.
"This is the beginning of our laws", he said, "that all men shall be
Christian here in the land, and believe in one God, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, but leave off all idol- worship, not expose children
to perish and not eat horseflesh. It shall be outlawry if such things are
proved openly against any man; but if these things are done by stealth,
then it shall be blameless,"
'But all this heathendom was all done away with within' a few years'
space, so that those things were not allowed to be done either by stealth
'

or openly.
'Thorgeir then uttered the law as to keeping the Lord's day and fast
days, Yuletide and Easter, and all the greatest highdays and holidays.
'The heathen men thought they had been greatly cheated ; but still the
True Faith was brought into the law, and so all men became Christian
here in the land.'

was here in Iceland, where the act of conversion was influenced

by external pressure to a lesser extent than anywhere else in the
Scandinavian World, that the cultural consequences of conversion
were most manifestly devastating. This spiritual devastation is
conspicuous in this case for the reason, mentioned above, that the
Icelanders, before their conversion, had raised the abortive Scandinavian Civilization to its highest level of achievement, and for the
It

further reason that the Scandinavian culture, as maintained in

Iceland at this high pitch, differed markedly in many respects, and
in most of these respects to its own advantage, from the contemporary culture of Roman Christendom.
While the Roman, like the Orthodox Christian, Civilization was

through the Christian Church to an antecedent civilization, and was only less potently dominated by the Hellenic past than
was Orthodox Christendom itself, the relation of the abortive
Scandinavian Civilization to the defunct and contemporary civilizations of the South resembled rather the less intimate relation that had
once subsisted between the Hellenic Civilization and the Minoan.
The barbarian Vikings, like the barbarian Achaeans, were at first
stimulated by their contact with the Southern cultures to create an
original culture of their own rather than to bow down and worship
affiliated

356

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

the established civilizations which they encountered and this simiAchaean reaction to alien
larity between the Scandinavian and the
societies goes far towards accounting for the similarity in ethos
between the abortive Scandinavian and the successful Hellenic
Civilization: a family likeness which is recognized on all hands and
1
is indeed unmistakable.
The Scandinavian thos of the Viking and the post-Viking Age,
as it is reflected in the Eddie and Skaldic poetry and in the Sagas,
resembles the Hellenic ethos of the Heroic and the Early Classical
Age, as it is reflected in the Homeric Epic and in the prose of Herodotus. Both these young civilizations are distinguished by a freedom from the incubus of tradition, which gives them a precocious
freshness and originality, and by a freedom from the incubus of
;

superstition,

which gives them a precocious

clarity

and rationalism.

fully aware both of the extent of their human

of these powers' limitations ; and this ever-present dual

Their members are

powers and

consciousness results in a combination of self-confidence with

pessimism and of exaltation with melancholy, which is often
puzzling, and always intriguing, to observers who have grown up
in other spiritual environments.
In the Viking Movement, as in the Achaean Volkerwanderung,
the
'presupposition was a people not only acquainted with maritime affairs,
but possessing courage to venture forth, ability to make far-reaching
plans, and a gift for keen observation, always ready to find the adversary's
weak points. These powers seemed to grow with the increase of their

and the broadening of their horizon. Taken together, they produced a feeling of superiority and invincibility. The compass of the
World was multiplied many times. The shut-in valley-dweller had felt
the world of trolls and monsters, whom Man might not
tempt, to be
close at hand. The boundaries of this world now widened
immensely,
and the viking pursued his horizon, directing his course over the sea
though the keel of his boat might break the back of a mermaid, or ascending to the Cave of the Giants in the farthest north to see whether this
adventure was really so dangerous. It is true, the ancient terror remained in his soul, imparting the proper tension for the audacious
venture; but at the same time his inborn self-assurance and matter-offactness grew into a conscious emphasis on the
tangible and reasonable,
into that "faith in their own power and
strength" which the vikings
2
in spite of all gods and trolls and
professed
mighty realms/
tasks

This ethos which was tempered in adventurous action found

expression in literary art.
'The Sagas are partly indebted to a
Olrik, op.

below for

cit.,

pp. 97-8.

&e

spirit

of negative criticism and

resemblance in the

field

of religion.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

357

a tendency not purely literary

corresponding, at any rate, to
a similar tendency in practical life. The energy, the passion, the lamentation of the Northern poetry, the love of all the wonders of Mythology,
went along with practical and intellectual clearness of vision in matters
that required cool judgement. The ironical correction of sentiment, the
tone of the advocattis diaboli, is habitual with many of the Icelandic
writers, and many of their heroes. "To see things as they really are",
so that no incantation could transform them, was one of the gifts of an
Icelandic hero, and appears to have been shared by his countrymen
when they set themselves to compose the Sagas. The tone of the Sagas
is generally kept as near as
may be to that of the recital of true history.
is
allowed
Nothing
any preponderance over the story and the speeches in
it.
It is the kind of story furthest removed from the common pathetic
fallacies of the Middle Ages. The rationalist mind has cleared away all
the sentimental and most of the superstitious encumbrances and hindrances of strong narrative.' 1
restraint:

This original Scandinavian ethos, which attained its highest

tension and finest harmony in Iceland, was relaxed and confused

and eventually annihilated in consequence of the conversion of the

Icelanders to Christianity.
It is true that the abortive Scandinavian Civilization did not
perish without a struggle on this remote island which had been the
theatre of its greatest achievements. Indeed, the Icelandic scholars
who committed the Sagas to writing and collected the Eddie poems
and made the classic digests of Scandinavian Mythology and
Genealogy and Law, were all possessed of a Christian as well as a

Northern cultural background and education; and the century

during which they flourished (circa A.D. 1150-1250) was some
hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty years posterior to the
date of the conversion. 2 Yet this backward-looking scholarship was
the last achievement of the Icelandic genius and it is significant
that, although the Sagas acquired their final literary form in 'the
age of peace* (which intervened between the act of conversion and
;

the age of faction and scholarship), nevertheless 'the age of the

Sagas', in the sense of the age from which the historical plots and
historical characters of the Sagas were exclusively drawn, did not
extend beyond about A.D. 1030 that is to say, beyond the deaths
of the generation which was already in its prime by the time when
the conversion to Christianity took place. Lives that had come to
their maturity in the pre-Christian social environment and atmosphere were apparently the only stuff out of which Icelandic sagas
:

W. P.: Epic and Romance (London 1922, MacmiUan), p. 212.

On the political plane, this last century of Icelandic intellectual activity was

Ker,

also the
century of the free Icelandic Commonwealth, Snorri Sturlason, the prince of
Icelandic scholars, who lived from A.D. 1178 to A.D. 1241, was also a politician who met
a violent death in the last political convulsions of the Commonwealth, which ended in the
submission of the Icelanders to the Norwegian Crown in A.D. 1262.
last

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

358

could be made. Icelanders who had sucked in the Christian tradition with their mothers' milk might be the collectors or even the
composers, but they could never be the heroes, of these essentially
pagan woriks of art. For the heroic Northern self-confidence could
not dwell harmoniously in the same heart with the Christian conviction of sin, nor the stoical Northern rationalism in the same
mind with Christian sentiment and Christian superstition.
As the alien civilization to which the Icelanders had capitulated
in A.D. 1000 gradually establishes its dominion over their hearts and
minds,
mysterious fantasy, pregnant with disaster, comes into being and
carries off the victory over the ancient worldly wisdom and the poet's
sense of proportion. In the bitter years of the Sturlung conflicts, about
the middle of the thirteenth century, the fear in people's souls expresses
itself constantly in visions and dreams. Elements that had once been
subject to poetic domination now gradually gain the upper hand. The
downfall of the Icelandic Free State brings about also a cessation of the
national Saga literature. Preference is shown for the romantic saga, to
which the cultivated aesthetic sense is now turned ; its fantastic elements
'a

become stronger and stronger and digress farther and farther from
The nation that once had so sharp an eye for the world of
reality.
and
reality falls into slumber
politically, aesthetically, economically
sleeps its sleep of centuries, full of disturbing dreams, while the elves
shriek their shrill laughter from all the cliffs and the
giants from all the
while
the
Earth
and
the
fire-mountains
rocky caves,
quakes,
shine, and
souls fly about the crater of Hekla like black birds.' 1

the fourteenth century of the Christian Era, the Icelandic

Kulturkampf is over and the paralysis of the Icelandic genius is
complete. The clear light of the pale Northern sunshine has now
been refracted through the exotic medium of a
stained-glass winand
the
Icelandic
mental landscape, thus weirdly illuminated,
dow;
has become stupefyingly outlandish.

By

'Hauk Erlendsson, an Icelander of

tury,

distinction in the fourteenth cencollection of treatises in one volume for his own amusebehoof. It contains the Volospd, the most famous of all the

made a

ment and
Northern mythical poems, the Sibyl's
song of the doom of the gods it
contains
the
history of the colonization of Icealso^the Landndmabok,
;

land; Kristni Saga, the history of the conversion to

Christianity; the
history of Eric the Red, and FostbrzeSra Saga, the story of the two sworn
brethren, Thorgeir and Thormod the poet. Besides these records of the
history and the family traditions of Iceland and Greenland there are
some mythical stories of later date,
dealing with old mythical themes,
such as the life of Ragnar Lodbrok. In one of
them, the Heidreks Saga,
are embedded some of the most memorable
verses, after Volospd, in the
1

Olrik, op.

cit.,

p. 193.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

359

old style of Northern poetry

the poem of the Waking ofAngantyr. The
other contents of the book are as follows: geographical, physical, and
theological pieces; extracts from St. Augustine; the History of the Cross;
the Description of Jerusalem; the Debate of Body and Soul; Algorismus
(by Hauk himself, who was an arithmetician) a version of the Brut and
of Merlin's Prophecy Lucidarium, the most popular medieval handbook
of popular science. This is the collection, to which all the ends of the
Earth have contributed, and it is in strange and far-fetched company
like this that the Northern documents are found. In Greece, whatever
early transactions there may have been with the wisdom of Egypt or
1
Phoenicia, there is no such medley as this/
;

The

century in which Hauk Erlendsson's mental vision was confounded, and his mental abilities paralysed, by this criss-cross of
broken intellectual lights was the tenth century since the Scandinavian rear-guard of the Teutonic line (in the embattled army of
the North European Barbarism) had struck out on an independent
course of its own by parting company with the Teutonic van-guard
at a moment when Goths and Vandals and Angles and Lombards
had allowed themselves to be drawn, to their own eventual undoing,
into the social vacuum produced by the break-up of the Roman
Empire. During this millennium, the whole drama of an abortive
Scandinavian Civilization had been played out from the first act
to the last. After cultivating their native barbarism in their native
fastness for some four centuries after their kinsmen and former

neighbours had struck their tents and moved off westward and
southward, the Scandinavians had been stimulated at last, by
Charlemagne's challenge, to break out in their turn and then, in
their Viking Age, they had made a supreme effort to overwhelm the
civilizations of the South which they encountered on their warpath, and to establish in their stead a new Scandinavian Civilization
erected on barbarian foundations and unencumbered by reminiscences of a traditional style or by traces of a traditional groundthe century
plan. By the fourteenth century of the Christian Era
this ambitious Scandinavian
in which Hauk Erlendsson lived
;

enterprise had lamentably miscarried. That century saw the extirpation of the North European Barbarism finally consummated by

the establishment of continuous contact between the Western

Christian and the Orthodox Christian Civilization along a line
stretching across the whole breadth of the European Continent
from the coast of the Adriatic Sea to the coast of the Arctic Ocean ; 2
and this new line of demarcation cut sheer across the domain which
the abortive Scandinavian Civilization had once staked out for itself.
By the fourteenth century, the ci-devant Scandinavian dominion in
1

Ker, W. P.- Epic and Romance (London 1922, Macmillan), pp. 47-8.
See II. D (v), pp. 168-9, above.

360

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Russia had become incorporated into Orthodox Christendom, while

Western Christendom had annexed Scandinavia itself with its overseas outposts in the Orkneys and Shetlands and Hebrides and
Faroes and Ireland and Iceland and Greenland. The partition of
the Scandinavian World between two alien civilizations was thus
complete.

We

North

now

in a position to arrange the encounters between the

European Barbarism and the Southern Civilizations in a

are

and to embrace them all in a single comparative survey.

In the Achaean achievement, the North European Barbarism
successfully performed the feat of begetting a new civilization on
the site of a pre-existent civilization which had incorporated a layer
series,

of the barbarians into its 'external proletariat'. In the Scandinavian

and the Irish endeavours, the same barbarism just fell short of
repeating the same performance because the challenge from Roman
Christendom was just too severe. The excessive severity of the
challenge which defeated the Scandinavian and Irish endeavours
and the earlier endeavours of the Teutonic and Celtic van-guards

a fortiori

proved inimical to success, no less than the deficiency

of stimulus which handicapped the secluded Slavs. Thus our
sequence of encounters between the North European Barbarism
and the several Southern civilizations does display the operation of
'the law of diminishing returns' in the movement of Challenge-andResponse in an instance in which the challenge is presented in the
human sphere and not in the physical sphere. Moreover, our
examination of the abortive Scandinavian and Far Western Christian
civilizations has enabled us to define within quite narrow limits the
locus of the point at which 'the law of diminishing returns' comes
into play in this sequence of comparable encounters. The point
has been located in the narrow interval between the severity of the

challenge presented by the Minoan Civilization to the Achaeans

a challenge which is proved, by the resulting genesis of Hellenism,
to have been of the optimum degree
and the slightly enhanced
severity of the challenge presented by Roman Christendom to the
Irish and the Scandinavians a challenge which is
proved to have
been excessive by the consequent abortion in which the embryonic
Far Western Christian and Scandinavian civilizations both met
:

their fate.

The Impact of Islam upon the Christendoms

Another sequence of challenges in the human sphere in which
we can locate with some precision the point at which 'the law of
diminishing returns' comes into play is offered by a series of encounters between the Islamic wave of Syriac
religion and the pre-

THE GOLDEN MEAN

361

ceding Christian wave, which had been emitted some six hundred
years earlier from approximately the same geographical point of
departure. Each of these two successive waves travelled outwards in
all directions in a circle with an ever
expanding circumference but
with a constant and identic centre x and the younger Islamic wave,
travelling at a six hundred years' time-interval in the older Christian
wave's wake, caught up and collided with different portions of the
Christian wave in different sectors of the circumference of their
common circular field at different moments and with different
degrees of violence and with different results.
If we take a comparative view of the several collisions between
these two waves in the several sectors of their circular line of contact,
we shall at once observe one instance in which a portion of the older
Christian wave responded to the challenge of the younger Islamic
wave's impact with conspicuous success. When the Islamic wave
impinged upon the Roman portion of the Christian wave in the
western sector of their common circumference, it was Western
Christendom and not Islam that ultimately profited by the en;

counter. 2

The

Primitive Muslim Arab conquerors, who burst the bounds

of Arabia in A.D. 632, took just a century to push their conquests,
round the southern and western shores of the Mediterranean, from
the former Arabian frontier of the Roman Empire to the southern
bank of the Loire. As early as A.D. 647 they made the first movement to recapture for the Syriac Civilization (whose unconscious
and unintentional champions they were) the colonial area in NorthWest Africa and in the Iberian Peninsula which had been first won
from barbarism by Phoenician enterprise and then annexed by
Hellenism as the spoils of Rome's victory over Carthage. By A.D.
713, the year which saw the completion of the Arab conquest of the
Visigothic 'successor-state' of the Roman Empire in the Peninsula
and in Septimania, the Arabs had not only recovered the whole of
the former colonial domain of the Syriac Society in the Western

Mediterranean but were penetrating into territory which had been

originally won from barbarism not by Syriac Tyre and Carthage
but by Hellenic Marseilles and Rome and when Abd-ar-Rahman
marched from the Pyrenees to the Loire in A.D. 732, he was break3
ing ground which Hannibal himself had never trodden.
'

* For this refraction of

Syriac religion, through the impact of Hellenism, into a series
of waves emanating successively from an identic geographical centre, see II
(vi),
(vi), Annex, pp. 402-3, below,
pp. 234-6, and II.
(vii), pp. 285-8, above, and II.
as well as Part IX.
* For the reaction of Western Christendom to the
pressure of the Syriac Civilization,
represented by the Primitive Arab Muslim conquerors and the subsequent Arab Cali(v), pp. 202-6, above.
phates and their 'successor-states', see II.
3 See II.
(v), p. 203, above.

362

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE- AND -RESPONSE

only Syriac conqueror that had preceded the Muslim soldier

in his invasion of Gaul was the Christian Church; and in this
sector of the expanding circumference of the wave-field of Syriac
Christian wave was here overtaken
religion, by the time when the
by the Islamic, the Christian wave, as we have observed above,
had already differentiated itself locally into a specifically Roman
Christendom which was struggling to become the chrysalis of a new

The

Western Civilization 'affiliated* to the Hellenic Civilization. The

Arab invasion of Gaul in A.D. 732 struck this nascent Roman
Christendom at a critical moment, when it had just emerged victorious from its struggle with the Far Western Christendom of 'the
Celtic Fringe' 1 and was on the verge of a still more formidable
struggle with the Teutonic rear-guard of the North European
Barbarism in Scandinavia. 2 The challenge presented to Roman
Christendom by the impact of Islam at this juncture was more
severe than any challenge from the North European barbarians that
it

had to face

either before or after. 3 Yet, severe

though this Islamic

Christendom was, the sequel showed that it

challenge to Roman
was not excessive for the actual effect of this collision of the Islamic
wave with the western portion of the Christian wave was to stimulate Western Christendom over a long period and to a high degree.
The strength of this stimulus is displayed in a whole series of
c
responses. In this year A.D. 732 itself, Abd-ar-Rahman's attack
upon the Continental European homeland of Western Christendom
was repelled once and for all by Charles Mattel. By the turn of the
eighth and ninth centuries of the Christian Era, the Continental
;

European border between Western Christendom and Dar-al-Islam

had been pushed back from the northern to the southern foot of the
4 At the turn of the tenth and eleventh
centuries, the
Pyrenees.
Western Christians assumed the offensive against Dar-al-Islam
along the whole Mediterranean front, from the Iberian Peninsula
to Syria, in the great movement of political and economic expansion
which is known as 'the Crusades' 5 a movement which eventually
engulfed Orthodox Christendom as well as Dar-al-Islam. At its
furthest extent, this movement carried Western Christian arms
down the whole length of the Peninsula and across the Straits of
:

a See
See pp. 320-40, above.
pp. 344-60, above.
See II D (v), p. 202, above.
4
Pepin conquered Septimania from the Arabs in A.D. 755. Charlemagne crossed the
Pyrenees in A.D. 778 and succeeded, before his death,
enlarging his Empire by the
addition of a Spanish march which included both Barcelona and Pampelona. Thereby a
direct contact was established, south of the Pyrenees, between the
Carolingian Empire
and the remnant of the Visigothic Power which had survived in isolation, for the best
part of a century, in the mountain-fastness of Asturia. For the probable fate of the
Astunans if the Franks had not delivered their counter-attack against the Arabs, see
Annex VIII, p. 447, footnote 4, below
s In the Western
Mediterranean, this movement began a century before the date of
'the First Crusade* in the technical sense of the term.
3

THE GOLDEN MEAN

363

Gibraltar to Ceuta,
and from Italy over the stepping-stone of
2
Sicily to the coasts of Tunisia and Tripoli, and from Europe outre

mer to

and from Syria across the Euphrates to Edessa and

across the Jordan to Kerak and even to the head of the Gulf of
'Aqabah not to speak of 'the Latin Empire* of Constantinople and
the cluster of petty principalities which a host of French and
Venetian and Genoese and Catalan adventurers carved out for
themselves in the Aegean as a sequel to 'the Fourth Crusade*. On
its economic side, the same movement carried Western trade much
farther: from the Levant across Egypt to India and from the Black
Sea across the Eurasian Steppe to the Far East. 3 It is true that most
of these deliberate economic and political conquests were ephemeral
but even this ephemeral contact with Dar-al-Islam and with Orthodox Christendom on the economic and political planes was sufficiently intimate to produce cultural effects upon Western life which
were not only fruitful but enduring. 4
Syria,

Moreover, a portion of the political as well as the cultural conquests was permanent. While the medieval Western principalities
and colonies in the Levant were all eventually wrested away out of
Western hands and gathered up into the Ottoman Empire, Calabria arid Sicily and the Iberian Peninsula were permanently incorporated into Western Christendom; and the incorporation of
the Iberian Peninsula had momentous consequences, which we have
reviewed already, in the histories of the West and of the World.
The Atlantic sea-front of the Peninsula from Lisbon to Cadiz,
which the Western Christians conquered from Dar-al-Islam between the middle of the twelfth and the middle of the thirteenth
century of the Christian Era, became 'the jumping-off ground' from
which the Portuguese and Castilian pioneers of Western overseas
expansion launched the Western Civilization upon the open Atlantic
and thereby extended its potential domain, at one stroke, from the
narrow bounds of Western Europe to all the navigable seas and
habitable lands on the face of the globe. It was the spirit aroused in
these Western Christian frontiersmen by their triumphant response
to Muslim pressure that nerved them to hazard their lives on the
apparently illimitable ocean; and it was the impetus acquired in
their victorious counter-attack that carried them not only out into
the great deep but right across it into new worlds beyond. 5
Thus the challenge presented to Western Christendom by the
Conquered by the Portuguese in A.D 1471.
on these North African coasts, from Bona to Tripoli inclusive,
were held by the Norman Kings of Sicily for a few years in the middle of the twelfth
1

A number of places

3 See I. B
(iv), vol. i, p. 38, above.
cultural effects of the contact of Western Christendom with Orthodox Christendom and with Dar-al-Islam in 'the Crusades' are examined in Part IX, below.
s See II.
(v), p. 204, above.

century.
4

The

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

364

of the enimpact of Islam is manifestly proved, by the outcome

counter, to have been highly stimulating, which is as much as to say
that in this local encounter the challenge was presented in the
optimum degree of severity. The west, however, was only one of

and Islamic circles in

which a collision between the two waves occurred. While Islam
was colliding with Roman Christendom on the west, it was also
with Monocolliding with Orthodox Christendom on the north and
Christendom
physite Christendom on the south and with Nestorian
on the east. These several portions of Christendom, which were
already alienated from one another spiritually before the Islamic
wave welled up in the midst of them, were thenceforth also isolated
from one another geographically as the Islamic wave, expanding in
their wakes, drove them all outwards and asunder. In consequence,
several sectors of the concentric Christian

each of these fragmentary Christendoms responded to the Islamic

challenge separately and independently on its own account, and
these several responses to different presentations of an identic challenge can be compared with one another.
If Western Christendom responded to the challenge of Islam
with success, that is the only instance of a successful response which
this series of encounters will discover to us. In each of the three
other encounters between Islam and a local Christendom, the
Christian response was a failure; and
failures we shall find that they were not

when we

investigate these

all due to one and the same

and
Islam
cause. The encounter between
Monophysitism offers an
example of a response which failed because the local presentation
of the challenge was not sufficiently severe. In the encounters
between Islam and Orthodoxy and between Islam and Nestorianism, the responses were failures because the severity of the challenge

was

excessive.

The Monophysite

failure is Abyssinia

community which has survived

in

its

a Monophysite Christian
African fastness, on the

southern periphery of the ci-devant Syriac World, 1 to become one

of the social curiosities of a latter-day Great Society. This Abys-

Monophysite Christendom is a curiosity nowadays on two

accounts in the first place on account of its sheer survival here, in
almost complete isolation from other Christian communities, during
sinian

the thirteen centuries that have elapsed since the Primitive Muslim
Arabs conquered Egypt in A.D. 639-41 ; 2 in the second place on
account of its extraordinarily low cultural level. 'The common
1

For this Abyssinian fastness, see II.

(vi), p. 258, above, and II.
(vi), Annex,
pp. 403-7, below.
a The antecedent conversion of
Abyssinia to a still undifferentiated Christianity had
taken place in the fourth century of the Christian Era; the conversion to the Monophysite
differentiation of Christianity dates from the latter part of the fifth and early part of the
sixth century.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

365

Christianity* of Abyssinia and the West, in a world which the radiation of our Western Christian Civilization has now unified upon a

Western

a theme for

which only a Voltaire or a

Gibbon could do justice. Though Christian Abyssinia has been
admitted, with some heart-searching and hesitation, to membership
in the League of Nations, 1 she is a byword for disorder and barbarity: the disorder of feudal and tribal anarchy and the barbarity
of the slave-trade. In fact, the spectacle presented by the one
indigenous African state that has succeeded in retaining its complete independence is perhaps the best justification that can be
found for the partition of the rest of Africa among the European
basis, is

satire to

Powers. 2
Consideration shows that the peculiarities of modern Abyssinia
the survival of her political independence in the midst of an
Africa under European dominion, the survival of her Monophysite
Christianity in the borderland between Islam and paganism, the
survival of her Semitic language between the Hamitic and Nilotic
language-areas, and the stagnation of her culture at a level which is
really not much higher than the level of the adjacent Tropical
African Barbarism
are all peculiarities which derive from the same
cause that is, from the virtual impregnability of the highland-fastness in which this Monophysite fossil is ensconced.
This is the explanation of Abyssinian survival-power. Each
casual piece of jetsam that has been left stranded on this rock by the
passage of successive waves of civilization has remained high and
3
Semitic
dry beyond the reach of the waves that have followed.
language has mounted the plateau without succeeding in extinguishing the Hamitic languages which preceded it; a Monophysite
Christianity has mounted without succeeding in extinguishing the
antecedent Judaism. 4 The wave of Islam, and the mightier wave
of our modern Western Civilization, have washed round the foot
of the escarpment without submerging the summit.
:

The

on which these later waves have swept up on to

the highlands have been few and brief; and they are the exceptions
which prove the prevailing rule of Abyssinian immunity. Abyssinia was in danger of Muslim conquest during the first half of the
occasions

sixteenth century of the Christian Era when the Muslim inhabitants

of the adjoining lowlands along the coasts of the Red Sea and the
For the circumstances of her admission, see Toynbee, A. J.: A Survey of Inter19203 (London 1925, Milford), pp. 393-6.
The only other completely sovereign and independent state in Africa besides
Abyssinia in the year 1933 was Liberia: a republic in which a helpless aboriginal Negro
majority was being mishandled by a repatriated American Negro minority with an almost
3 See II. D
Abyssinian brutality.
(vi), Annex, pp. 403-7, below.
+ For the Jewish fossil (the
Falasha) which is ensconced, in the heart of the Monophysite fossil, among the recesses of Semyen, see II. D (vi), p. 257, above, and Annex,
1

national Affairs in

pp. 406-7, below.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

366

Gulf of Aden forestalled the Abyssinians in the acquisition of firearms but the newfangled weapons which the Somalis had acquired
from the Osmanlis were acquired by the Abyssinians from the
;

Portuguese a quarter of a century

in time to save

Abysfrom destruction.
Thereafter, when the Portuguese had
served their turn and had begun to make themselves a nuisance by
attempting to convert Abyssinian Christendom from Monophysitism to Roman Catholicism, the Western version of Christianity was
were
suppressed and all Westerners
priests and laymen alike
later, just

sinia

expelled in the 'thirties' of the seventeenth century, at the moment

when the same policy was being carried out against the same intrusive forces in Japan. 2

Like contemporary Japan, Abyssinia then retired into a deliberate

isolation, which lasted until it was eventually broken by the British
military expedition to Magdala in 1868. This was a portent of
recurring danger from abroad which corresponded in Abyssinian
history to the appearance of Commodore Perry's squadron in Yedo

For the subsequent 'opening-up of Africa* by European Powers whose weapons had just achieved another sudden

Bay

in 1853.

advance in deadliness
this time in consequence of the Industrial
Revolution
exposed Abyssinia once more, towards the close of the
nineteenth century, to the menace of foreign conquest which she
had had to face in the sixteenth century. This time the formidably
armed invaders were not the local Muslims from the Somali coast
but a European nation from overseas, the Italians but once
again
Abyssinia was saved from destruction by receiving in the nick of
;

time, from friendly hands, a consignment of the deadly weapons

that were being used against her. In 'the
eighteen-nineties', the
Menelik
was
with
Negus
supplied
breech-loading rifles by the
French, as in 'the sixteen-forties' his predecessor Claudius had been

supplied by the Portuguese with matchlocks; and in consequence

the Italians suffered as signal and decisive a defeat at

hands

at

Adowa in

Abyssinian
1896 as the Muslims had suffered at Woina Dega

1543-

Thus the only two

had

to face

serious foreign attacks which

Abyssinia has
the
fifteen
or
sixteen
centuries
that have
during

elapsed since her conversion were both repelled too quickly and too
decisively to serve as stimulating ordeals. The conversion itself has
been both the first and the last
stirring event in Abyssinian history ;
e

Fat

r^n?S ^T!?',.
g S *ai

ilSrS

V?

^
atl

Fr "

a ative of the Portusuese Embassy

E^
nu Society Publication, xst series
c,

1881, Hakluyt Society); Castanhoso, M. de, and Bermudez, T.:

tiontoAbysstnta in i54t:Eng]ish translation
HaUuyt Society
No. 10 (London 1902, Hakluyt Society).
e exP ulsion of t*1
and Spaniards and the
r
tiTr
? Portuguese
Catholicism
were accomplished
in Japan between A.D.
and

1614

to

Abyssinia, A.D.

No. 64 (London

The Portuguese EixfiediPubHcatio^ 2nd sTrles,

'

suppression of
A,D. 1638.

Roman

THE GOLDEN MEAN

367

both before and after, uneventfulness has been the rule and there
is a remarkable contrast between the
profound and enduring effect
that was made on Japanese minds by the naval demonstration of
;

Commodore Perry and the apparent indifference

of the Abyssinians
of Lord Napier of Magdala. If the
have
reacted so much less vigorously than the Japanese
Abyssinians
to our modern Western pressure, that is because the stimulus of the
human environment is robbed of half its effect on Abyssinian minds
by a knowledge, born of long experience, that the physical environment can be relied upon to relieve the inhabitants of the Abyssinian
highlands from most of the onus of self-preservation.
This persistent lack of stimulus fully accounts for the lowness of
the cultural level at which Abyssinian Christendom stands to-day.
This sheltered Christian society could afford to let the salt of

to the military operations

to relapse almost to the pre-Christian

Christianity lose its savour
level and to remain at that low level in perpetuity
because its
survival was almost automatically secured by the impregnability of

the physical fastness in which it had barricaded itself. In fact, the

backwardness of Monophysite Christendom on the Abyssinian
Plateau is due to precisely the same cause as the failure of Primitive
Man to create any indigenous civilization in the adjacent forests and
savannahs of Tropical Africa. 1
Thus the response of Abyssinian Monophysitism to the challenge
of Islam was a failure because this challenge, like all the challenges
with which the Abyssinians have ever been confronted, was mitigated, to a point far below the optimum degree of severity, by the
impregnability of the local physical environment. On the other

hand, the responses of Anatolian Orthodoxy and Transoxanian

Nestorianism to the Islamic challenge were failures for just the
opposite reason.
While the wave of Islamic expansion impinged upon Western
Christendom in Gaul with stimulating vigour and washed ineffectively round the impregnable fastness of Monophysitism in Abyssinia, it broke upon Orthodox Christendom in Anatolia with almost
overwhelming force. Whereas Transpyrenaean Europe was almost

Muslim Arab Power with its capital at Damascus

and its reservoir of soldiers in Arabia, 2 Transtauric Asia Minor
was within easy striking distance; and for some three centuries,
from the launching of the original Arab offensive in A.D. 632 until
c
the break-up of the Abbasid Caliphate in the tenth century of the
Christian Era, the Arab military efforts which were concentrated
out of range of the

For the non-emergence, up to

see II.
2

(ii)

(a) i, vol.

i,

date, of

pp. 233-8, and

See Annex IV, below.

civilization in Tropical Africa,

(n) (6) 2, vol. i, pp. 312-15, above.

any indigenous
II.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

368

upon

this Anatolian front

were considerably greater than the con-

which resulted in more spectacular conquests on

other fronts. In the first phase, the Arabs sought to put 'Rum' out
of action and to overwhelm Orthodox Christendom altogether by
and they
striking, right across Anatolia, at the Imperial City itself;
when
came within an ace of attaining this ambitious objective
they
in
A.D.
and
A.D.
717-18.
again
673-7
besieged Constantinople in
Even after the failure of the second siege, when the frontier between
Rum and Dar-al-Islam settled down along a more or less stable line
coinciding with the physical barrier of the Taurus Range, the surviving Anatolian domain of Orthodox Christendom was regularly
raided by the Muslims twice a year, in spring and in autumn, from

temporary

efforts

1
their place d'armes in the Cilician plain at Tarsus.
Thus Orthodox Christendom had to resist a pressure

from Islam
which was distinctly more severe than the pressure from the same
force to which Western Christendom was exposed, and infinitely
more severe than any Islamic pressure upon Monophysite Abyssinia. The Orthodox Christians responded to this pressure by a
political expedient; and this response was successful inasmuch as it
availed to keep the Arabs at bay. On the other hand, it was unsuccessful inasmuch as the expedient adopted for this specific purpose
had far-reaching effects, which were almost wholly pernicious, upon
the inward life and growth of the Orthodox Christian Society:
effects which caused the Orthodox Christian Civilization, after a
brief spell of illusory power and prosperity, to break down and go
into disintegration in the latter part of the tenth century of the
Christian Era, just at the time when the sister civilization of Western

Christendom was surmounting

upon
it

its early difficulties and

entering
that course of almost uninterrupted progress which has carried

to the pinnacle

The

on which

it

stands to-day.

expedient which Arab Muslim pressure impelled

Orthodox Christendom to adopt was the evocation of a 'ghost' of
the Roman Empire: a feat which was achieved effectively, and
therefore disastrously, in the Orthodox Christian World by Leo
the Syrian about two generations before it was attempted unsucpolitical

and therefore innocuously, in Western Christendom by

Charlemagne. The disastrous effects of this Orthodox Christian
2
tour de force have been mentioned in
passing already and are
examined in greater detail below. 3 In this place it is sufficient to take
note of two of these effects, one general and the other
particular.
cessfully,

* For these
periodic raids, see Le Strange, G.: The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate
(Cambridge 1905, University Press), pp. 132-9; Brooks, E. W.: 'The Struggle with
the Saracens (717-867)*, in The Cambridge Medieval
History, vol. iv (Cambridge 1923,

University Press), ch. v.

2 See Part I. C
(i) (6), vol.

i,

pp. 65 and 67, above.

Parts

IV and X.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

369

The

general effect was a premature and excessive aggrandizement

of the State in Orthodox Christian social life at the expense of all
other institutions. The particular effect was the special consequence
of the aggrandizement of the Orthodox Christian State at the expense of the Orthodox Christian Church. In Orthodox Christendom in the eighth century the Church suffered a fate which it
escaped in Western Christendom until the sixteenth century, and
which it only suffered then, immediately and completely, in those
Western Christian countries that turned Protestant. In the eighth
century, the Orthodox Christian Church was relegated to the
position of a department of state ; and thus, instead of serving as an
institutional embodiment of the unity of Society, as the Roman
Church served during the Western 'middle ages', the Orthodox
Church served from the outset, like the 'established' churches of
Protestant states in the modern age of Western history, to accentuate and aggravate the division and the strife which were produced
in the bosom of Society by its articulation into sovereign independent states. The ultimate consequence was an internecine hundred
years' war between an East Roman Empire and Patriarchate on the
one side and a Bulgarian Empire and Patriarchate on the other
which ended in a 'knock-out blow' ; and this self-inflicted wound
was the death of the Orthodox Christian Society. 1
It will be seen that the premature breakdown of the Orthodox
Christian Civilization was the penalty of malformation due to overstrain, and that this overstrain was imposed upon the Orthodox
Christian social fabric by the necessity of resisting the Islamic
impact. In other words, the severity of the challenge which this
Islamic impact presented to Orthodox Christendom was excessive.

The Abortive Far Eastern Christian Civilization

If

we now turn our

attention, in conclusion, to the eastern sector

of the circular line of contact between the Christendoms and Islam,

effects of the Islamic impact upon Nestorian
Christendom, we shall find that the severity of the challenge here
was greater still. An ordeal which condemned the Orthodox Christian Civilization to die a premature death actually prevented a Tar
Eastern Christian Civilization' from being born.
This embryonic Far Eastern Christian Civilization in a Nestorian
chrysalis, which the Islamic impact rendered abortive, was germinating in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin ; and the blow that robbed it of
its chance of coming to life was the permanent annexation of the

and examine the

* For the Ottoman

sequel to this 'time of troubles* in Orthodox Christendom, see
Part III. A, vol. iii, pp. 26-7, below.

II

Bb

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

370

Oxus- Jaxartes Basin to the Arab Empire in A.D. 737-41 l The Arab
Empire was a resumption or reintegration of the Syriac universal
state which had originally been embodied in the Achaemenian
Empire before the premature overthrow of the Achaemenidae by
Alexander and the Arab conquest of Transoxania re-extended the
.

limits of the Syriac universal state, over against the Eurasian Steppe,
to the line at which these limits had stood during the Achaemenian
2
This restoration, however, was by no means a foregone
regime.
conclusion; for, by the time when it was at last achieved by the
Arab commanders Asad and Nasr, the Oxus- Jaxartes Basin had
been politically divorced from the rest of the Syriac World for the
best part of nine centuries 3 and this political divorce had been
followed by a cultural estrangement.
The frontier drawn across the ancient Syriac domain from the
highlands of Afghanistan down the basin of the Murghab and out
on to the Transcaspian Steppe, which the Arab conquest of the
Oxus-Jaxartes Basin obliterated in A.D. 737-41, was as old, and as
deeply scored, as the more famous frontier
running from the
;

Armenian highlands down the Euphrates Basin and out on to the

North Arabian Steppe which the Arabs had obliterated in A.D.
632-41, when they had conquered the Sasanian Empire with one
hand and the Syriac provinces of the Roman Empire with the other.
Moreover, the conquest of Transoxania, which was relatively remote from the Arabs' base of operations, instead of lying at the
threshold of Arabia like Syria and Iraq, was only undertaken after
a long delay and was only carried through to a successful conclusion
after strenuous exertions. The Arabs had
completed the conquest
of the Sasanian dominions, up to the line of the Murghab, by A.D.
651
they did not seriously attempt the conquest of the OxusJaxartes Basin till more than fifty years later, in A.D. 705 and their
successive attempts, which began in that year, all failed to achieve
more than a transitory success until in A.D. 736 the Arab commander Asad, like the Macedonian Alexander before him, 4 sup;

plemented an

ineffective policy of force by a masterly

policy of
Even so, the definitive Arab conquest of Transoxania,
followed in A.D. 737-41, was not confirmed until the Chinese,

conciliation. 5

which

who had been

supporting the Transoxanians in their resistance,

were defeated by the Arabs on the banks of the River Talas in

A '*>- 75 1 J ust a century after the Arabs had reached the banks of the
*

Murghab.
*

See

ee

* See
s

D (v), p. 141, with footnotes

D W' p> 42 above.
Ji*
II. D (v), p. 140, above.
II.

2 and 3

and
3

II.

(vi), p.

For Asad's policy see Gibb, H. A. R.: The Arab Conquests

The Royal Asiatic Society), pp. 80-1.

1923,

237, above.
2, above.

See p. 141, footnote

in Central Asia

(London

THE GOLDEN MEAN

The embryonic
Jaxartes Basin at

371

which was germinating in the Oxusthe time of the Arab conquest, and which resisted
civilization

the annihilating impact so obstinately, though ultimately in vain,

was the product of Central Asian history during those eight or nine

The

intrusion of Hellenism into the Syriac World at the heels of

Alexander the Great affected the Oxus- Jaxartes Basin as profoundly
as any other part of the Syriac domain, notwithstanding the fact
that Transoxania lay at the opposite extremity of the Syriac World
to the point at which Hellenism had made its entry. In spite of this

geographical remoteness, the Bactrian and Sogdian oases received

a greater infusion of Greek colonists
and therewith a stronger
tincture of Hellenic culture
than many regions which lay nearer
to the Aegean the reason, no doubt, being the intrinsic importance
of Transoxania as the march over against the Nomads of the
Eurasian Steppe. 1 The process of Hellenization was even intensified, for a time, when the Greek settlers in Central Asia severed
their political connexion with the Seleucid Macedonian 'successorstate* of the Achaemenian Empire in the middle of the third century
B.C. and set up a Bactrian Greek Empire of their own; but there
were other sequels to this Central Asian Greek secession which
were of greater historical moment.
In the first place, the hostility between the Bactrian Greek Power
and the Seleucid Power set up a barrier between the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin and the rest of the Syriac World
a barrier that was quickly
broadened when, in the adjoining province of Khurasan, a community of Nomad origin followed the Bactrian Greeks' example
and founded a principality which began as a buffer state between
the Bactrian Greek and the Seleucid Greek Power and ended as
the so-called Parthian Empire. 2 In the second place, the Bactrian
Greeks turned their arms against India and thereby opened the
way for the intrusion of Hellenism upon the Indie World : an intrusion which is to be dated from the passage of the Hindu Kush
by the Bactrian Greek prince Demetrius about 190 B.C., and not
from Alexander's brilliant but ephemeral Indian campaign of 326:

For

The

this function of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin, see II.

(v), pp. 138-50, above.
founders of 'the Parthian Empire* were Parni; and the Farm were one of the

three semi-Nomadic hordes of the Dahae, who had been deposited in Transcaspia by
the same eruption out of the Steppes that had carried their neighbours and kinsmen, the
Massagetae, to the Jaxartes, and the Cimmerians and Scythians as far west as the shores
of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The particular war-band of Parni who founded
*the Parthian Empire* appear to have drifted out of Transcaspia on to the northern rim
of the Iranian Plateau circa 250 B.C. , and since their new home lay in the old Achaemenian
province of Parthia, the Parthian name came to be applied both to the new arrivals
themselves and to the empire which they eventually built up round this territorial
nucleus.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

372

B.C. 1

325

In the third place, the Greek Power in Bactria, alienated

was from the Seleucidae and cut off from the main body of the
Hellenic World by the rise of the Parthians in Khurasan, proved

as

it

unequal to the task of holding the Eurasian border of the Hellenized

Syriac World against Nomad pressure.
In the last quarter of the second century B.C., the Nomads broke
through the Bactrian frontier defences in two successive waves
Sakas 2 and "Indo-Parthians* in the van, Yuechi or Kushans in the
rear
submerged the oases of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin and flooded
on round, or over, the Hindu Kush into India in the footsteps of
the antecedent Bactrian Greek conquerors. This barbarian Volkerwanderung put an end to Greek rule in Central Asia and in India.
It did not, however, extinguish Hellenic culture in the regions on
either side of the

Hindu Kush which the Bactrian Greek princes

had united under their sceptre. These Eurasian barbarians were

Philhellenes 3 and under their aegis Hellenism survived to be an
effective cultural force in the Kushan Empire, which was brought
into existence in the first century of the Christian Era by the reunion of all the ci-devant Bactrian Greek dominions under the rule
of an ex-Nomad dynasty. The effect of the Nomad influx was un;

favourable not to Hellenism but rather to the Syriac Civilization in

Central Asia. The cumulative effect of all the events that have just
been recited was temporarily to disconnect the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin
from the Syriac World and to connect it up with the Indie World
instead. The north-eastern escarpment of the Iranian Plateau became a cultural and political barrier, whereas the statesmanship of

Greek and Kushan empire-builders temporarily 'abolished

the Hindu Kush' as Louis XIV boasted himself to have 'abolished
local

the Pyrenees*.
from the second century
During the four hundred years or so
B.C. to the third century of the Christian Era
during which Central
Asia and North-Western India were clamped together first under

Greek and then under Kushan rale, this temporary political union
had a momentous and enduring cultural result which was parallel,
mutatis mutandis, to the cultural result that followed from the
clamping together of Syria and the Hellenic World for an approximately
equal length of time under the Roman Empire. In either case, the
1

On

These Sakas appear

this point, see I.

(i) (6),

vol.

i,

p. 86,

above.

to have been identical with the (Massa-)getae who had ranged

the Steppes immediately adjoining the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin in the Achaememan
Age,
They are probably represented by the modern Jats of the Panjab (compare Annex V,
below), and their companions or pursuers the Tochari by the Doghras.
3 Hellenism had
previously proved attractive to the Scyths: a Nomadic people who
had been carried out of the interior of Eurasia on to the steppes adjoining the norm coast
of the Black Sea in the preceding period of disturbance in Eurasia (circa
825-525 B.C.),
and who had thus come into contact with the Greek movement of maritime expansion.
(See the story of Scyles in Herodotus, Book IV, chs. 78-80.)

THE GOLDEN MEAN

373

union of heterogeneous cultural elements generated a great

syncretistic religion: in the one case the Syro-Hellenic religion of
political

Catholic Christianity, in the other case the Indo-Hellenic religion

of Mahayanian Buddhism. The Mahayana grew up within the

framework of the Kushan Empire as the Catholic Church grew up

within the framework of the Roman Empire; but in Central Asia
the situation was complicated by further factors.
One new factor was that, under the Kushan regime, the OxusJaxartes Basin ceased to be a march between a civilization and a barbarism and became, instead, a corridor along which three different
civilizations entered into communication with one another. In the
quarter of the second century B.C., immediately after the exodus of the Sakas and the Yuechi from the Central Asian Steppe, the
Sinic Society, which at that time was living, under the Han Dynasty,

last

universal state, expanded its spheres of exploration and

influence westward, beyond the western extremity of the Great
Wall, along the line of oases in the Tarim Basin, and thereby established contact with the Hellenic and the Indie Civilization which

through

its

were then beginning, under the auspices of the Bactrian Greek

Empire, to blend with one another in the Basin of the Jaxartes and
the Oxus. The resultant commerce of cultures along this Central
Asian corridor became more active at the turn of the first and
second centuries of the Christian Era, when the dust of the Nomad
Volkerwanderung was subsiding. The Han Empire and the Kushan
Empire marched with one another in Central Asia for at least a century (circa A.D. 75-175) in the wars between them, the oases of the
Tarim Basin were bandied to and fro between the one Power and
the other; and thus the seeds of the Mahayana which were sown
in the Tarim Basin during the periods when it was under Kushan
rule were able to propagate themselves in the Far East during the
periods when the Tarim Basin was united politically with China.
In consequence, the Mahayana did not remain confined to the
Kushan Empire in which it had originated. After issuing out of
India across the North-West Frontier, it passed on in a curving
orbit
skirting Tibet on three sides
through the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin and the Tarim Basin into the Far East; 1 and, like Catholic
Christianity, it was destined to receive more honour in a new world
than in its own birthplace. At the present day, the Mahayana is a
mighty power in China and Korea and Japan while it is extinct in
both India and Central Asia.
;

The

extinction of Mahayanian Buddhism in India through the

rise of a 'totalitarian' Indie religion in the shape of Hinduism does
1

On

the route by which the

i, below.

p 405, footnote

Mahayana reached the Far

East, see II.

(vi),

Annex,

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

374

not here concern us. 1 Its extinction in Central Asia

where, as in
was due to a resurgence of the
India, this was a gradual process
Syriac Civilization which made itself felt in all parts of the buried,
but not dead, Syriac body social. From the third century of the
Christian Era onwards, this Syriac risorgimento manifested itself,
2
as we have noticed in another connexion, in the waves of religion
which were periodically emitted by the Syriac internal proletariat.
While Judaism had only defied Hellenism as a forlorn hope and
Catholic Christianity had not defied Hellenism at all but had found
its field of action in the Hellenic World as a Syro-Hellenic syncretism, most of the subsequent Syriac religious movements were
In the third
deliberate and successful anti-Hellenic reactions. 3
constiMilitant
Church
century of the Christian Era, a Zoroastrian
tuted itself the established church of a Sasanian state whose mission
was to fight Hellenism with temporal weapons by wresting back all
ex-Achaemenian territories from the Roman Empire. In the fifth
century, the Nestorian and Monophysite movements sought to
wrest back Christianity itself from the Hellenizers by recovering
the Syriac gold in the Christian syncretism from its Hellenic alloy ;

and both these anti-Hellenic Christian movements managed to survive: Nestorianism outside and Monophysitism actually inside the

Roman frontiers.
The frontier between

Roman and

Sasanian Empires was the

line along which these battles were fought; but the forces there
brought into action soon began to make themselves felt, as well, on
the opposite frontier of the Sasanian Empire, where it marched
with other ex-Achaemenian territories in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin.
The Kushan Empire broke up about the time when the Sasanian
Empire came into existence; but the Sasanidae were no more successful on the north-east than they were on the west in their
long
efforts to restore the lost unity of the
Syriac World by force of arms ,
The political heirs of the Kushans were not the Sasanidae but two
fresh hordes of Nomad invaders who were carried out of the
Steppes
in this direction in the ensuing period of disturbance in Eurasia
(circa A.D. 375-675). The Huns overran the ci-devant Kushan
dominions in both Central Asia and India in the fourth and fifth
centuries of the Christian Era; and the White Huns or
Ephthalites,
who had fastened upon the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin, were supplanted

On

the

C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 85 and 87, above, and II. (vi), Annex,
below, as well as Parts VII and IX.
2 On
pp. 234-6 and 285-8, above.
3 Manichaeism
may be regarded as a partial exception. At any rate, it took pains, like
Catholic Christianity before it, to propagate itself in the Hellenic World. Both Manichaeism and Mazdakism were directed, in the first instance, not
against Hellenism so
much as against the Zoroastrian established church of the Sasanian
Empire.
(See
*
further Part VII, below.)
1

this matter, see I.

p 405, footnote

i,

THE GOLDEN MEAN

there

by the Turks

in A.D. 563-8.

375

Thus

the political divorce of the

Oxus-Jaxartes Basin from the rest of the Syriac World was still
maintained. On the other hand, the Syriac Civilization began to
recapture its lost Central Asian provinces not by force of arms but
by the peaceful penetration of religious propaganda.
In this nordi-eastward expansion of Syriac religion, Zoroastrianism might have been expected to play the leading part in virtue of
the geographical proximity of its base of operations on the Iranian
Plateau but it actually failed to play this part because it was handicapped by its status as the established religion of the Sasanian
Empire, with which the rulers of Central Asia were at enmity. The
Syriac religions which did successfully penetrate the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin under the Ephthalite and the Turkish r6gime were those
which had been subjected to persecution in the empires in which
they had first raised their heads for their adherents were driven
by force majeure to seek asylum abroad and were readily received
by the Powers which were at enmity with the persecuting Governments, since the persecuted refugees could fall under no suspicion
of intending to act as the secret agents of Governments before
;

whose face they had fled Thus Manichaeism, which was proscribed
and persecuted in the Sasanian Empire in the third century of
the Christian Era, and Mazdakism, which had the same experience
in the Sasanian Empire in the fifth century, and Nestorianism,
which was proscribed and persecuted in the fifth century in the
Roman Empire and was therefore granted free passage into and
across the Sasanian dominions, all in turn passed on into the
Central Asian corridor and made their way through it into the Far
.

This new north-eastward radiation of Syriac culture in the

form of religious waves was so vigorous that the Nestorian Christian
wave, which was the latest in the series, had already reached the
East. 1

capital of the

T'ang Empire, Si Ngan, in A.D. 636,2 only just over

two hundred years after the outcome of the Council of Ephesus had

made

impossible for the Nestorians within the frontiers of the

Roman Empire in A.D. 431. Contemporaneously, the Mahayana
appears to have decreased in Central Asia as the Syriac religions
increased. In the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin, it was evidently in decline
by the time when the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang
(Yuan Chwang) traversed the Central Asian corridor from east to
west circa A.D. 629, en route from China to India. 3
This was the situation in Central Asia at the moment when the
Primitive Muslim Arab conquerors of the Sasanian Empire comlife

1 See
Barthold, W. Zur Geschichte des Christentums in Mittel-A$i$n bis ssur mongowhen Erobenmg (Ttibingen and Leipzig, 1901, Mohr), pp. 10-16.
a See II. D
(vi), p. 237, above. The date is established by the famous Christian in3
Barthold, op. cit., p. n.
cnption of Si Ngan.
:

376

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

pleted their conquest by reaching the Sasanids' north-east frontier

1
Their advent raised a
along the River Murghab in A.D. 65 1.
momentous issue. Would the new Islamic wave of Syriac religion
roll on in the wake of the preceding Nestorian and Mazdakite and
Manichaean waves until it broke, in its turn, upon the western
borders of the Far Eastern World? 2 Or would the Nestorian
Christendom which had forestalled Islam in Central Asia succeed
in resisting and repelling the Islamic impact? In other terms, was
the embryo of a new 'Far Eastern Christian Civilization' in the
Oxus-Jaxartes Basin to succeed or to fail in coming to birth ?
In the middle of the seventh century of the Christian Era, all the
local conditions in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin appear to have been in

favour of the genesis of a new civilization there. There had been

a long and thorough local intermingling of cultures Syriac and
Hellenic and Indie. There had been an equally long and thorough
local intermingling of races an indigenous Iranian peasantry overlaid by a deposit of Iranian-speaking Nomads in the second century
B.C. and by a further layer of Turkish-speaking Nomads (Ephthalites and Turks) in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian
Era. And this fruitful diversity of the human element was preserved and accentuated by the character of the physical environment.
The concentration of the sedentary inhabitants into a number of
separate fortified oases (working together, it may be, with a lingering memory of the Hellenic social tradition which had been imported by Alexander and his successors) had resulted in the social
articulation of the country into a number of politically independent
but economically and culturally inter-connected city-states; and
the princes and merchants of these city-states were on good terms
with their Ephthalite and Turkish Nomad overlords, who were
enlightened enough to understand that their own true advantage
lay in fostering the prosperity of their sedentary vassals and not in
killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
'The golden egg* of seventh-century Central Asia was the transittrade along the corridor between the still surviving Roman Empire
and the 'ghost' of the Sink universal state which had just been
revived in the Far East under the dynasties of the Suei and the
3
T'ang. Under the aegis of the Ephthalite and Turkish khans, this
:

trans-steppe commerce (which resembled maritime rather than

overland trade) was being conducted, with profit to all parties concerned, by the merchants of the Transoxanian cities; and this
1

See the masterly description in Gibb, op. cit., pp. i u.

This, of course, has been the actual outcome. The Syriac religion which has a
footing in North-Western China at the present day is neither Mamchaeism nor
Nestorianism but Islam.
3 For the role of the
T'ang Empire as a 'ghost* of the Han Empire, see Part X, below.
a

THE GOLDEN MEAN

377

commerce was opening up,

for the embryonic new civilization of

the communities that were conducting it, the vast hinterland of the

Eurasian Steppe. Transoxania possesses greater natural advantages

as a 'jumping-off ground' for the conquest of the Steppe by a
sedentary society than any of the other settled regions by which the
coasts of the great Eurasian Steppe are bounded; and we have
observed already 1 that even in the actual event, when Nestorianism
had been robbed of its Central Asian base of operations through the
Muslim conquest of Transoxania in A.D. 737-41, it very nearly
succeeded in permanently converting the whole of the Eurasian

Nomadic

Society.

Thus, in the middle of the seventh century of the Christian Era,

the new embryonic civilization in Central Asia had fair prospects
in every quarter except the south-west, where the wave of Islam
was welling up and menacingly raising its crest. If that menacing
tide had been successfully stemmed, we must suppose that the
embryo would have come to birth, and we can even conjecture to
some extent the physiognomy which this civilization would have
assumed if it had yiot been abortive.

The

'Far Eastern Christian Civilization' of Central Asia would

probably have displayed a certain resemblance to the 'Far Western
Christian Civilization' of Ireland. 2 The introduction of the germ
of Christianity into Central Asia by Nestorian missionaries, just
before Central Asia was isolated from the other Christendoms by
the welling up of the Islamic wave in the midst of them, was
analogous to the introduction of the germ of Christianity into Ireland by Saint Patrick just before Ireland was isolated from the other
Christendoms by the settlement of the pagan English barbarians in
Britain. In these circumstances, we have observed how, in Ireland,
Christianity blended harmoniously with the indigenous culture of
the island to create a new civilization with a high vitality and a
distinctive character. If Nestorian Christianity in Central Asia had
been able to repel the Islamic assault, or had been screened from its
incidence as Ireland was screened from the incidence of the English
assault by a Welsh buffer, we may conjecture that in those circumstances Nestorian Christianity would have followed the same course
in the Far East that Patrician Christianity actually followed in the

We can imagine

Central Asian Nestorianism coming to

some permanent local understanding with the Mahayana and
perhaps even with the remnants of Zoroastrianism as well for the
Zoroastrians, who maintained their independence in a fastness between the Elbruz Mountains and the Caspian for two or three
hundred years after the Arab conquest of the rest of the Sasanian

Far West.

In

II.

(vi),

on pp. 237-8, above.

See pp. 322-8, above.

378

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Empire, had been chastened by adversity. In their new predicament they would assuredly have abandoned their traditional exclusiveness and intolerance (which had lost their raison d'etre after
the overthrow of the empire in which Zoroastrianism had been the
and we can imagine them making common
established church)
cause with any forces in Central Asia which could offer them a
point d'appui for that resistance to Islam which had become their
;

We

have, then, to conceive of the unrealized

absorbing occupation.
Tar Eastern Christian Civilization* as based upon an entente between Nestorianism on the one hand and Buddhism and Zoroastrianism on the other an entente which might have taken the
alternative forms of coalescence (like the coalescence between
Christianity and the Celtic Paganism in Ireland) or of eclecticism
of the Emperor Julian or the
(like the abortive Neoplatonic Church
:

successful eclectic religion of Hinduism) 1 or of 'tri-religionism' (like

the simultaneous practice of the Mahayana with Confucianism and

Taoism by Buddhists in latter-day China, and with Confucianism

and Shintoism by Buddhists in latter-day Japan). 2 On any of these

we can imagine

the rise of a great creative Tar

it
spreading from the
oases of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin over the Eurasian Steppe, and
from Eurasia into the other regions round about.
Why did this potential Tar Eastern Christian Civilization' fail to
materialize ? Or, in concrete terms, why did the Nestorian Christendom of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin fail to resist the impact of the Arab
Muslim conquerors during the critical century A.D. 651-751 ? The
problem can be stated in this way: In (let us say) A.D. 721, the
strategic position of the Arabs vis-d-vis the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin
was not unlike their position at the same moment vis-d-vis Gaul.
On both their Central Asian and their European front, at that
moment, the Arabs were standing just on the farther side of a welldefined physical boundary at the threshold of a new world which
they might or might not proceed to conquer. As early as A.D. 713,
alternative bases,

Eastern Christian Civilization'

Musa had

and picture

while Qutaybah's more

ambitious Central Asian campaigns of A.D. 705-15 had evoked a
more vigorous riposte, with the result that, by the year 721, the
quietly occupied Septimania,

For the nature of Neoplatonism and Hinduism, see further Part VII, below.
In the thirteenth century of the Christian Era, in Uiguria, Nestorianism and
Buddhism were actually living cheek by jowl on a modus vivendt of mutual toleration.
This relation between these two religions at that time and place has been put on record
1

by the Western travellers who passed that way en route for the Court of the Mongol
Great Khan. These Western travellers were naturally impressed
by finding two wouldbe universal

churches at peace with one another, in contrast to the perpetual state of

Holy War' which was the contemporary relation between Western Christendom and
Islam. (See Barthold, W.: Turkestan down to the
Mongol Invasion (2nd ed. AnglicL
translated and edited by Gibb, H. A. R.: Oxford 1938,
University Press), pp. 389-90.)
3

See^p. 361, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

379

Arabs' holdings in Tukharistan and Transoxania, beyond the northeastern foot of the Iranian Plateau, were no larger than their contemporary holdings in Gaul, beyond the northern foot of the
I
Pyrenees.
By the year 732, after another dozen years of campaignon
either
front, the respective positions were still apparently the
ing
same. By the beginning of the year 732, in consequence of the disastrous Battle of the Pass in 73 1, the Arabs had lost all but three posts
beyond the Oxus, and all but one or two in Tukharistan; while
at the same date, owing to the (less
serious) reverse at Tours, they
had retreated again to the Septimanian extremity of Gaul. Ultimate
success was not in either case out of the question, but experience
seemed to show that in both areas it could only be purchased at the
price of great and sustained military efforts. In both areas, however, the sequel failed to bear out the natural expectations. The
Battle of Tours was accepted as final, and from that time onwards
the Arabs often lost, but practically never gained, ground on their
north-western frontier. On the other hand, the seemingly not less
serious situation on the north-east was so dramatically reversed
during the next nine years that by A.D. 741 the whole of the OxusJaxartes Basin had been incorporated definitively into the Arab
Empire at a relatively small cost in the shape of fresh military
operations.
are

How

we

to account for the remarkable difference between

Arab military fortunes in these two war-zones ?
did the Arabs
to
fail
conquer Gaul and succeed in conquering Transoxania ? One

Why

obvious explanation is to be found in the very much greater distance

of the European war-zone from the Arab base of operations. We
have already had occasion 2 to remark upon the inordinate length
of 'Abd-ar-Rahman's line of communications in A.D. 732 by the
time when he had reached the Loire. The distance overland 3 (and
the Arabs did not command the Mediterranean) from the Umayyads' capital at Damascus to Narbonne, their advanced base on the
threshold of Gaul, is approximately twice as great as the distance
from Damascus to Merv, their advanced base on the threshold of
the Oxus- Jaxartes Basin. This difference in distance explains much ;
yet the whole explanation of the difference between the outcomes
of the two encounters can hardly lie here ; for, while sheer distance
told in favour of Western Christendom in its resistance to the
Islamic impact, there were other factors
including certain geoQutaybah had penetrated far beyond the bounds of Khurasan into Khwarizm and
Farghana. It has been shown, however, by Mr. H. A. R. Gibb (in op. cit., pp. 29-87)
that Qutaybah's campaigns in the Oxus- Jaxartes Basin, though brilliant and extensive,
were superficial, and that the results were almost entirely lost, within six years of his
death (op cit., p. 55), by a Central Asian counterstroke.
2 On
(vii), Annex IV,
pp 203 and 361, above. On this point see further II.
3 Via North Africa and the Straits of Gibraltar.
pp. 428-9, below.
1

3 8o

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

graphical factors
advantage.

in

which Far Eastern Christendom had the

For example, the Pyrenees were not nearly so formidable a

half of the eighth century
political and cultural barrier in the first
of the Christian Era as the north-eastern escarpment of the Iranian
Plateau. By that date the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin had been divorced
from Iran for close
politically, and to a large extent also culturally,
upon nine hundred years and there was a profound cleavage in
tradition and ethos between the two regions. On the other hand,
eighth-century Aquitaine had a stronger sense of affinity with the
a country with which Aquitaine had been united
Iberian Peninsula
a time
politically not only under the Roman Empire but also for
than she had with
thereafter under the Visigothic 'successor-state'
Northern Gaul an ex-Roman territory that had been barbarized
;

1
by the immigration of the Franks.
Although, by the year 732,
Aquitaine had been subject to Prankish political domination for
more than two centuries ever since Prankish Clovis had won his

victory over Gothic Alaric at Vouille in A.D. 5072

the Aquitanians
c

had never become reconciled to Prankish rule; and if Abd-arRahman had won a victory over Charles Martel in A.D. 732, or had
even subsequently retrieved his defeat, the Aquitanians would
assuredly have been well content to exchange a Prankish for an
Arab master. In this important matter of local political sentiment,
the conditions were certainly less unfavourable to the Arabs in Gaul
than they were in Transoxania.

As compared with Gaul,

Transoxania possessed other

assets as well. From the military point of view the Empire of the
T'ang may have proved a broken reed, but the diplomatic support
against the Arabs which the independent states of Transoxania and
Tukharistan were constantly receiving from the Court of Si Ngan
was at any rate an effective moral weapon, especially since, to the
Arabs, its value long remained imponderable and therefore subagain,

ject to over-estimation. The Aquitanians, Neustrians, and Austrasians, in the crisis of A.D. 713-32, do not appear to have received
either naval assistance in the Mediterranean or

diplomatic support

Damascus from the Court of Constantinople, so that both the

fighting and the bluffing had all to be their own. In matters of
topography and climate, moreover, Transoxania was a more difficult country than Gaul for the invader. The cultivated areas were
not continuous, but were separated by stretches of
steppe and
at

desert; the rivers, being mightier streams than the Garonne, the
Loire, or the Seine, offered correspondingly greater obstacles ; and
*

See

For the

II.

(vu),

Annex IV,

p. 428, below.

Battle of Vouilte, see II.

(v), p.

166, above.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

381

between the crossing of the Oxus at Tirmidh and the Transoxanian

metropolis of Samarqand there were formidable mountains to be
traversed which had not their like at any point on the road from
Narbonne to Tours. As for political unity, it was still hardly more
than nominal in the Prankish dominions at this period and was of
account for the practical purpose of military co-operation, so
that, even from this point of view, the Transoxanians and Tukharistanis were scarcely at a disadvantage as compared with the peoples
of Gaul, while such disadvantage as there may have been was no
doubt more than compensated by the greater vitality of local
political life in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin and the distinctly higher

little

level of general civilization.

These further considerations have to be set off against the simple

explanation of the difference between the Arabs' military success in
Central Asia and their military failure in Europe in terms of the
relative distance of the two theatres of war from Arabia. In fact,
they diminish the force of this explanation to such a degree that we
can hardly regard the problem as solved unless some supplementary
explanation is forthcoming. Perhaps the higher level of general
civilization that prevailed in Transoxania at the time supplies
the clue.

In what,

after

all,

did the superiority, in this respect, of Trans-

oxania over contemporary Gaul consist ? Undoubtedly in an immeasurably greater development of international trade, as might be
expected in a region which had long been, and still was, a corridor
of communication between surrounding societies, whereas the Gaul
of that day was a semi-civilized region penned up in a blind alley
at the ends of the Earth. That difference has an important bearing
on our problem, for it means that the eighth-century population of

Gaul possessed no vital commercial interests which would be

damaged or promoted by possible alternative relations between
them and the Arab Empire. At that date they were an agricultural
such commerce as existed between
society, and little more besides
Gaul and the rest of the World being then largely carried on by
Italians, Syrians, and other outsiders. Transoxania, on the other
1
Her
hand, was a commercial community first and foremost.
numerous and well-peopled cities could not subsist upon the local
oasis-cultivation, the extent of which was limited by a restricted
water-supply, however scientific the methods of irrigation. For
such a society, international trade was not a mere optional source
of surplus profit but a necessity of existence ; and each new development of the struggle with the Arabs struck a fresh blow at this
staple of Transoxania's economic life.
1
On this, see Gibb, op. cit., especially pp. 2, 5, and 88.

382

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

phase of the struggle, which may be dated from

Qutaybah's opening campaign in A.D. 705 down to A.D. 719 (by
which year the greater part of his work had been undone through
the unaided efforts of the Transoxanians and Tukharistanis themnot intolerable. The
selves), the damage to trade was evidently
commercial classes in the Oxus-Jaxartes principalities were not yet
faced by an unprecedented situation, for the Arab Empire in this
quarter had simply stepped into the shoes of the Sasanian Empire,
with which the Transoxanian Powers had frequently been at war.

During the

first

During these earlier hostilities, the Government at Ctesiphon appears, on more than one occasion, to have placed embargoes upon
Transoxanian trade along routes that traversed the Sasanian dominions; but they had never succeeded in dealing that trade a
mortal blow, and the Sughdi merchants had shown enterprise and
ingenuity in opening up alternative lines of communication with
their Mediterranean customers. 1 Even, moreover, if their trade
with the Roman Empire were temporarily cut off, they still remained
the monopolists of the overland route between the Far East and
India, and the volume of this branch of commerce was no doubt
sufficient to secure them against anything like an economic catastrophe. This was the situation down to A.D. 719 but it was altered
and, as it turned out, very much for the worse from the point of
view of Transoxanian trade when, in A.D. 720-1, the Turgesh
Nomads from the heart of the Eurasian Steppe began to take a
hand in the struggle between the Transoxanian city-states and the
;

Arab Empire.
The Turgesh intervened as mandatories of the Government of Si
Ngan and as auxiliaries of the Transoxanians in their war of liberation; and, as far as fighting the Arabs was concerned, they performed their task efficiently. For seventeen years they kept the
Arab forces on the defensive, inflicted upon them several military
disasters, and gradually forced them out of their fortresses beyond
the River.

The nominal beneficiaries

discovered, however, that the

remedy was worse than the disease. Officially, the Turgesh were
the subjects and agents of China; but the Chinese authorities
exercised no supervision, and the Turgesh
evidently behaved as
irresponsible Nomads do behave when they find themselves in
military control of sedentary populations. The eastern trade-routes

were cut; and, when the Turgesh actually crossed the

Upper Oxus
and began to push the Arabs out of Tukharistan, that must have
*

e.g.

the embassy which arrived in A.D. 568 at the Court of

Constantinople from the

Khaqan of the Nomad empire of the Turks included a Transoxanian prince, whose
object was to open up a trade-route north of the Caspian and therefore beyond the
reach of interference by the Persians. It seems probable that this
embassy was sent on
the initiative of the Transoxanian merchants,
though it was headed by a representative
of
their suzerain, the

Turkish Khaqan.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

made

383

worse from the economic point of view, for the

insecurity was thereby extended to the routes between Transoxania and Hindustan. Meanwhile, the Chinese suzerains of the
matters

still

Tiirgesh had already become so incensed against their unmanageable vassals that they took the opportunity of a victory which was
gained at last (in A.D. 737) by the Arab governor Asad over the
Tiirgesh Khaqan in Juzjan and Khurasan to destroy the Tiirgesh
Confederacy and to disperse the horde. It is safe to conjecture that
the Transoxanian commercial classes, on whom the direct losses
had fallen, felt even more bitterly against the Tiirgesh than did the
Government of the T'ang, and this explains the immediate and
general success which attended the conciliatory policy that had
already been initiated by Asad and was being followed out by his
successor Nasr.
In 736 Asad appears to have come to an understanding with the
Iranian notables of Tukharistan. The national capital of Balkh,
ruined in the previous wars, was rebuilt, under Asad's auspices, by
the Tukharistanis themselves, in order to replace Merv as the seat
of the Arab provincial administration. This step was taken by Asad
the year before his victory over the Tiirgesh, and the succeeding
year (A.D. 738) was signalized by Nasr's declaration of amnesty and
guarantee of rights to the peoples of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin. The
tolerance of non-Arab nationalities and non-Islamic religions, upon
strict but not unbearable conditions of inferiority, was a permanent
a feature without which
feature in the policy of the Arab Empire
that Empire could never have achieved its astonishing triumphs.
Nasr's charter, however, appears to have been exceptionally favourable and, by granting it, he offered the Transoxanians an honourable escape from the terrible choice between political servitude and
commercial ruin. On condition of accepting Arab sovereignty on
not intolerable terms, they were given the prospect, not merely of
commercial recovery, but of perhaps unprecedented prosperity.
If once the political objections to incorporation into the Arab
Empire were surmounted, there could be no doubt of its advantages from the economic point of view; for, in place of a permanent
military front upon their south-western border, it opened up to
Transoxanian merchants a hinterland stretching from Khurasan to
the Mediterranean and from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
Moreover, Arab statesmanship set itself promptly to reopen the
trade-routes leading along the Central Asian corridor to the Far
East. 'Shortly after his recapture of Samarqand' (probably in A.D.
in
739)9 Nasr 'sent an embassy to China. Thais was followed up
744 by a much more elaborate embassy, obviously intended to
regulate commercial relations in the most complete manner possible,
;

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

384
in which the Arabs were accompanied by ambassadors not only
from the Sogdian cities and Tukharistan, but even from Zabulistan*
and the Tiirgesh. Two
(south-east of the Hindu Kush), 'Shash,
I
The
other Arab embassies are also recorded in 745 and 747.'
that
inclusion of representatives from Zabulistan suggests
steps had
trade-route to India.
already been taken to reopen the overland
These facts 2 satisfactorily explain the ease and the permanence
with which the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin was incorporated into the Arab
Empire between A.D. 737 and A.D. 741. Do they not also suggest a
reason for the failure of the Arabs, during the same period, in Gaul ?
The non-commercial Aquitanians and Neustrians were not confronted with the same dilemma as the Transoxanians in dealing
with the Arabs. They had little or no foreign commerce to lose by
war with the great neighbouring Power in defending their political
independence, they were at the same time defending their fields,
which were the source of their prosperity as a primitive agricultural
population and by summoning their over-lords, the Austrasians,
to the rescue, they were not exposing themselves to any such
economic calamities as those which the Transoxanians incurred
when they called in the Tiirgesh.
If this line of argument is correct, the superior civilization of
in other words, her higher comeighth-century Transoxania
as compared with eighth-century Gaul was
mercial development
the principal reason why she succumbed to Arab imperialism and
lost this opportunity of founding a distinctive civilization of her
own, whereas Gaul preserved her liberty of self-determination and
so eventually gave birth to that Western Civilization in which we
;

ourselves

still live

and move and have our being.

Whatever the true explanation of the

this occasion

may

be,

it

actual course of history on

is evident that, in the capitulation of A.D.

737-41, the unborn Far Eastern Christendom renounced

its

birth-

right.

We

can now arrange our

the several Christendoms in
wave upon the Monophysite
that it hardly administered

series of collisions between Islam and

a sequence. The impact of the Islamic
Christendom of Abyssinia was so feeble
any perceptible stimulus. The more

vigorous impact upon Western Christendom was highly stimulating,

is demonstrated
by the vigour of the response. The considerably

as

more

forcible impact upon Orthodox Christendom was so severe

that the social structure of Orthodox Christendom was
permanently

warped and
of holding

by the tour deforce

The impact upon Nestorian Christendom

its social fabric

fatally
its ground.
1

Gibb, op.

cit.,

a Established

overstrained

p. 92.

and interpreted bv Professo

in

on

rit.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

caught this Christendom while
blow that rendered it abortive.

was

385

in embryo and dealt it a

It is evident that the severity of the
Islamic challenge to Western Christendom was of the optimum
degree ; that the challenges to Abyssinian Monophysite Christendom and to Central Asian Nestorian Christendom were both
equally remote in degree from the ideal mean, though this in opposite directions ; and that the challenge to Orthodox Christendom,
while less remote from the mean that either of these other two
it

still

challenges, was still decidedly beyond the limits of the

and this in the direction of excessive severity.

Miscarriages

and Births of

optimum,

Civilisations in Syria

One

further example of Challenge-and-Response in which the

challenge has been presented in the human sphere may suffice to
conclude this survey of serial encounters in which an identic challenge is delivered on different occasions with different degrees of
severity and with resultant responses that differ by comparison with
one another in the respective degrees of their failure or success.
This final instance of our present object of study is the human
challenge presented to the inhabitants of Syria, on successive occasions when they have been moved to create an independent local
Syriac Civilization, by the geographical proximity of the Egyptiac
Civilization on one flank, and the Sumeric (followed by the BabyIonic) Civilization on the other flank, as 'going concerns'. This
human challenge became potential from the time when, under
pressure of the desiccation of the Afrasian Savannah into the
Afrasian Steppe, the fathers of the Egyptiac and Sumeric civilizations braved and mastered the physical challenge of the Nilotic and
Euphratean jungle-swamps, whereas in Syria the section of Afrasia
the
that lies in between the Land of Egypt and the Land of Shinar
corresponding challenge which was there presented by the Jordan
1
Valley was left unanswered by Afrasian Man. Thenceforward, any
movement to create an independent civilization in Syria was exposed to a challenge from the presence of the civilizations that were
now already established in close proximity on either side ; and this
challenge continued to be presented in some degree until the extinction without issue of the Babylonic Civilization in the Lower
Tigris-Euphrates Valley in the last century B.C. was followed, in
the fifth century of the Christian Era, by the extinction without
issue of the Egyptiac Civilization in the Lower Nile Valley.
Within this long period of some four thousand years during
which the challenge now under consideration was operative, there
I

See

II.

(ii)

Eduard Meyer on
II

(a)

2,

vol.

i,

pp.

256-7,

p. 257.

CC

above,

especially

the

quotation from

3 86

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

one conspicuous occasion on which it was taken up successfully.

The Syriac Civilization which came to birth towards the end of the
second millennium B.C. is perhaps the most brilliant and most
next to the contemporary
original representative of the species,

is

Hellenic Civilization, that has appeared up to date within the period

of some six thousand years during which this species of societies has
so far been in existence. This Syriac Civilization, as we have remarked at other points in this Study, has three great feats to its
credit. 1 It invented an alphabetic system of writing; it discovered
the Atlantic Ocean ; and it arrived at a particular conception of God

and moral and unique and omnipotent being. And it

performed these great works of creation independently of the two
domain
imposing civilizations which overlooked its tiny original
from either side.
The Syriac Civilization, arising in an interstice between the
Egyptiac Society and the Babylonic, was neither beholden to, nor
2
impeded by, either of them; and, so far as it was related to any
antecedent civilization at all, its affinity was not with a society whose
roots were in the soil of Egypt or Shinar but with the relatively
distant Minoan Civilization of the Aegean. In virtue of this affinity,
the Syriac Civilization was not only the contemporary of the Hellenic Civilization but its sister; and it revealed its common descent
from the Minoan Civilization in a common taste for long-distance
deep-sea navigation a taste which made the Phoenicians and the
Greeks, between them, the masters of the entire basin of the Medias a personal

terranean by the middle of the last millennium B.C. Even, however,

in its relation to the sister Hellenic Civilization and to the antecedent Minoan Civilization, the Syriac Civilization maintained its
See I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 82 and 102; and II.^D (ii), p 50, above.
that the Phoenicians were
used to be assumed on rather slender evidence
beholden to the Egyptiac Society for the Alphabet. The subsequent discovery of the
several Minoan scripts has evoked the counter-conjecture that the Alphabet may be of
Minoan origin. (See I. C (i) (i), vol. i, p. 102, footnote 3, above.) Pending a settlement
of this controversy, we may say at once that, even if the earlier view of the Egyptiac
origin of the letters of the Alphabet were eventually to be confirmed, this would not
deprive the Phoenicians of the credit of having invented the Alphabet, for the essence
of the invention lies not in the equation of particular signs with particular sounds, but in
the analysis of the sounds of human speech into a minimum number of simple elements.
Both the Egyptiac and the Sumeric script, in so far as they were phonetic at all and not
ideographic, were content to represent whole syllables, without pushing the analysis
further. The further analysis of syllables into their consonantal elements was the new
Syriac invention which gave birth to the Alphabet; and the invention is just as great an
invention if the inventors happen to have used Egyptiac or Babylonic syllable-signs to
represent the consonants as if they had coined brand-new signs to represent the new
elements of sound which they had succeeded in isolating by analysis. As a matter of fact,
the post-war researches of Western archaeologists in Syria have brought to light, in the
north, an alphabetic script employing signs which are quite different from those of the
historic Alphabet and which seem to be borrowed from the signs of the Babylonic
Syllabary. This discovery indicates that the Syriac inventors of the Alphabet were
experimenting simultaneously with different traditional materials. (The question of the
origin of the Alphabet has been touched upon already above in I. C (i) (6), vol. i, p. 102,
1

2 It

footnote 2, and in II.

(n),

pp. 50-1.)

THE GOLDEN MEAN

For the greatest

independence.

Society was neither

of the Alphabet but

387

creative achievement of the Syriac

discovery of the Atlantic nor its discovery

its discovery of God; and the particular conat which the Syriac Society arrived
a conception

God
common

ception of

which is
and Islam

its

Judaism and Zoroastrianism and Christianity

we have seen) not only from Babylonic
and
religious thought
Egyptiac religious thought (apart from the
flash of illumination in the single soul of Ikhnaton) but also from
Hellenic religion and from Minoan (as far as the ethos of Minoan
is

to

alien (as

known

to us).
Thus the historical Syriac Civilization proclaims, in its magnificent creative originality, the triumphant success of its response to

religion is

the challenge which the proximity of the Egyptiac and Babylonic

civilizations presented to it. Yet, without disparaging the Syriac
achievement, we may notice that this successful Syriac Civilization
came to birth at a juncture when the social pressure exerted upon
Syria from Egypt on the one side and from Shinar on the other was

The post-Minoan interregnum,

average strength.
the
which
Philistine
wave
of
Minoan refugees broke upon
during
Syria from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Hebrew wave of
Afrasian Nomads from the North Arabian Steppe, may be dated, in
round figures, between 1425 and 1125 B.C. and during these three
centuries, in which the Syriac Civilization actually emerged, both
the Egyptiac and the Babylonic Society were in a low state of
The Egyptiac World was then wholly on the defensive.
vitality.
Its energies were being absorbed in the effort of self-preservation
amid the formidable social convulsions which the dissolution of the
Minoan Civilization was producing in the Levant; and so long as
'the New Empire' succeeded in saving the homelands of the Egyptiac
Civilization in the Nile Valley from being overwhelmed, it was
content to leave Syria to take care of itself. On the other flank of
Syria, in the same age, the Babylonic Civilization, which had
recently taken the place of the Sumeric Civilization, was equally
passive ; for Babylonia was still torpid under the feeble rule of the
last epigoni of her Kassite barbarian conquerors, while Assyria
had not yet started upon her career of militarism, 2 As for the sister
civilization which the Hittites had created in Anatolia, this had
been shattered, in the course of the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung,
by the impact of the great migration at the beginning of the
twelfth century B.C.
an impact which the Egyptiac Civilization
at less

than

its

This point is noticed by Eduard Meyer in his 'Zur Theorie und Methodik der Ge(Kleme Schnften (Halle 1910, Niemeyer), p. 56).
The Third (Kassite) Dynasty of Babylon 'petered out* circa 1173 B.C.; Tiglath-

schichte*
*

Pileser I of Assyria,
circa 1115-1089 B.C.

who made

the

first

tentative essay in Assyrian militarism, regnabat

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

3 88

just managed to resist

1
reserves of vitality.

by the expenditure of

its

last

remaining

Thus, in observing that the historical Syriac Civilization responded to the challenge of Egyptiac and Babylonic proximity with
that it made this succonspicuous success, we have also to observe
cessful response at a time when the challenge was presented in less
than its normal degree of severity; and in order to appraise this
success we must compare it with a previous failure. For the creation of a Syriac Civilization was not achieved at the first attempt.
The successful attempt which resulted in the historical Syriac
Civilization had been preceded on the same Syrian soil, some four
or five centuries earlier, by a similar attempt which was abortive.

We

have come across

Abortive Syriac Civilization

have seen that when 'the Empire

this earlier
2

We

already in other connexions.

of Sumer and Akkad', which was the Sumeric universal state,
broke up, and the Sumeric Civilization itself went into dissolution,
after the death of Hammurabi at the end of the twentieth century
B.C., the former domain of the Empire was overrun by Aryan

and that one horde

the people who afterwards became known in the
of these invaders
migrated right across the breadth
Egyptiac World as the Hyksos
of the Sumeric World from north-east to south-west and came to a

Nomadic invaders from the Eurasian Steppe

halt at the furthest extremity of that world, in Syria.

At that time Syria was a kind of debatable border or no-man's-

land or limbo between the Sumeric World and the Egyptiac World.
The rift-valley of the Jordan having failed to evoke from Man the
response which had given birth to civilizations in the valleys of
remained desolate and uninhabited; and
Euphrates and Nile
the Hill Country of Ephraim was still uninhabited likewise. 3 On
either side of these physical barriers, the Sumeric and Egyptiac
civilizations had respectively acquired footholds on Syrian soil
and had staked out spheres of interest. The Egyptiac Civilization
had radiated up the coast of Syria as far as Byblos soon after, or
possibly some time before, the foundation of the Egyptiac United

Kingdom circa 32006.0. and Byblos, which was

;

its

farthest bourne,

also its firmest point d'appui in this quarter. From the other
side, the interior of Northern Syria was raided as far as the Jabal
Ansariyah and the Lebanon, and even occasionally as far as the

was

Mediterranean

coast, by the Sumerian militarist Lugalzaggisi of

and
Umma (regnabat circa 2677-2653 B.C.) and his
(Erech)
See I. C (i) (b\ vol.
pp. 93 and 101, above.
See I. C (i) (6), vol.
pp. 105-7; and I. C (ii), vol.
p. 139, footnote i, and

Uruk
1

i,

i,

p. 144, above.

i,

3 See the
present Study, II. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, p. 257, and II.
(u), in the present
volume, p. 53, above, as well as Meyer, E.: Geschichte des Altertums, vol. u (i), 2nd ed.

(Stuttgart

and Berlin 1928,

Cotta), p. 96.

THE GOLDEN MEAN

389

Akkadian supplanters and emulators Sargon (regnabat circa 2652z

and the seeds of
2597) and Naramsin (regnabat circa 2572-2517)
Sumeric culture which were scattered in the west by these passing
;

whirlwinds of military conquest took permanent root among the

Amorites a Semitic-speaking Nomadic people who appear to have
drifted off the North Arabian Steppe and silted up against the
eastern flank of Lebanon about the middle of the third millenium
:

B.C.,

and fellow-Nomads, the Aramaeans,

from the same starting-point to the same resting-place some

as their fellow-Semites

drifted

twelve centuries

later. 3

The Amorite settlers in the interior of Syria became incorporated

Sumeric body social, worked their way towards the heart

into the

of the Sumeric World, and eventually founded the First Dynasty

of Babylon, which was also the last dynasty to rule and maintain the
Empire of Sumer and Akkad. Thus, by the time when the Empire
finally broke up after the death of Hammurabi, the greatest of the
latter-day Amorite emperors, the interior of Syria had long formed
an integral part of the Sumeric World and when, in the ensuing
Volkerwanderung, Syria was overrun by a horde of barbarians who
had broken into the Sumeric World from the Eurasian Steppe, it
might have been expected that the local outcome would have been
similar to the outcome in Babylonia and in Cappadocia. In both
these other ci-devant provinces of the defunct Sumeric universal
state, the interregnum occupied by the post-Sumeric Volkerwanderung was followed by the emergence of new civilizations, closely
related to the Sumeric, which were built up by the joint efforts of
the ex-provincials and the immigrant barbarians. 4 In Babylonia,
the new Babylonic Civilization emerged after the irruption and
settlement of the Kassites ; in Cappadocia, the new Hittite Civilization emerged after the irruption and settlement of the 'Kanisians'
and the 'Luvians'. 5 Why was it that, in contemporary Syria, a new
Syriac Civilization did not emerge simultaneously after the irruption and settlement of the Hyksos ? In other words, why was it that
the potential Syriac Civilization of this age miscarried and never
;

came

to birth

The explanation of this miscarriage seems to be that the Aryan

Nomadic invaders of the Empire of Sumer and Akkad who settled
in
1

its

Syrian province overshot the boundaries of the Sumeric

For these

and

militarists

their role in

Sumeric history, see

I.

(i) (6),

vol.

i,

p. 109,

above.
a
3

For the Amorites see Meyer, E.: op. cit., vol. ii (i), 2nd ed
For the Aramaeans, see II. D (v), pp. 134-5, above.
See

I.

(i) (6),

vol.

i,

pp. 18 and 100.

pp. 110-12, above.

For these barbarians, who spoke Indo-European languages of 'the Centum-group*

and who had presumably descended upon the Sumenc World from South-Eastern
s

Europe, see

I.

(i) (6),

vol.

i,

p. 113, footnote 3, above.

390

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

World, impinged upon the Egyptiac World, and became implicated,

to their

own undoing,

ment of the Hyksos

in the course of Egyptiac history. The settlein Syria, which may be dated between the

1905 B.C. and the foundation of the

Kassite 'successor-state' of Hammurabi's Empire in Babylonia
circa 1749 B.C., 1 would normally have been followed by a long
period of local stagnation and quiescence; but in Syria, unlike
Babylonia and Cappadocia, this normal sequel to a Volkerwanderung did not follow, and therefore, on this occasion, the promise
of a new Syriac Civilization did not come to fruition for, without
a spell of quiescence and recuperation after the tumult in which it
has been conceived, an embryonic civilization can never be brought

death of

Hammurabi

circa

to birth.

reason why the Hyksos were unable to settle down after

their arrival in Syria was because the province of the defunct
Empire of Sumer and Akkad into which Fate had carried them
happened to be in immediate proximity to the Egyptiac World.
The site at the southern extremity of the Syrian coast, which the
Hyksos selected for the capital of their 'successor-state', actually
lay within the Egyptiac and not within the Sumeric sphere ; and
soon after the beginning of the seventeenth century B.C., perhaps
not more than a century after the Hyksos had made their headquarters here, an event occurred in the Egyptiac World which
could not leave the Hyksos indifferent. The Egyptiac universal

The

31

Kingdom', which lasted from circa

down 3 an interregnum ensued in the
Egyptiac World which was comparable to the Sumeric interregnum
that had set in after the death of Hammurabi some two centuries
earlier; and, once again, the Hyksos were drawn into the vacuum.
Instead of settling down to collaborate with the Canaanites in the
(the so-called 'Middle
2075 to circa 1675 B.C.) broke
state

gradual building up of a local Syriac Civilization, they struck the

tents which they had so lately pitched and marched on into Egypt,
as they had once marched across Shinar into Syria, in their old role
of barbarian invaders.
The consequences of this diversion of the Hyksos' energies from
Syria to Egypt were disastrous to all parties ; but they were disastrous first and foremost to the Hyksos themselves ; for the tincture
of Sumeric culture which the Hyksos had acquired en route made
them unassimilable by, and therefore abominable to, their Egyptiac
subjects.^ Thus the first effect of the Hyksos' conquest of the
Egyptiac World was to evoke a militant Egyptiac reaction and this
;

See I C (i) (b) vol. i, p. in, footnote i, above.

For the archaeological excavations on this site,
1931, see a letter from Sir Flinders
3 See I. C
Petrie in The Times, sist May, 1931.
(n), vol. i, p. 137, above.
* See I C
(ii), vol. i, pp
139, footnote i, and 144, above.
1

THE GOLDEN MEAN

reaction

was

391

The Hyksos were

driven out of Egypt

again, within a century of their original entry, by a restored Egyptiac
universal state : and the New Empire' was not content to bring its
successful counter-offensive to a halt at the Syrian border.
It
followed up the discomfited Hyksos in their retreat and annexed
the Syrian territories which the Hyksos had previously taken over
from the Empire of Sumer and Akkad, right up to the Euphrates.
victorious.
c

The Aryan personal names of certain Syrian princes which are preserved in 'the New Empire's' official records testify that the Hyksos
survived in Syria for some centuries longer as a people; 2 but they
only survived under Egyptiac dominion ; their political power was
at an end; and, more than that, their chance of creating a Syriac
Civilization had vanished. 3 In yielding to the temptation of invading a prostrate Egypt, the Hyksos had thrown away their Syrian
birthright. The distracting proximity of Egypt to Syria thus explains why, in the first half of the second millennium B.C., the
promise of a Syriac Civilization, related to the Sumeric Civilization,
came to nothing, while a Hittite and a Babylonic Civilization were
successfully brought to birth. In Syria, this miscarriage was followed by a period of frustration which lasted until *the New Empire'
of Egypt had run its course and until the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung supervened to offer a new opportunity for creation: an

opportunity which was seized this time, as

we have

seen, with

brilliant success.

Thus

the challenge to which the historical Syriac Civilization

responded triumphantly had proved excessive when it had been

presented on an earlier occasion with greater severity; but there
was another occasion on which a civilization that had been conceived and duly born on Syrian soil was manifestly starved of
stimulus because this very challenge of Egyptiac and Babylonic
proximity had ceased to operate.
By the time when the Arabic Civilization emerged in Syria after
the post-Syriac interregnum (circa A.D. 975-1275), both the Egyptiac
and the Babylonic Civilization had long been extinct. Their extinction had been accomplished by the society to which the nasc
Arabic Civilization was 'apparented' that is to say, by the histor
Syriac Civilization itself. For the Syriac Civilization
actingj
though it were conscious of the Egyptiac and Babylonic
had set itself, from the moment of its own birth, to devour itsj
venerable neighbours and to absorb their tissues into its own]
social. The process began with the peaceful penetration of
:

See I. C (li), vol. i, pp. 138 and 144; and II. D (v), p. 112, above.
See I. C (i) (&), vol. i, p. 105, footnotes 4, 5, and 6 above.
3 For the lack of
originality in the local culture of Syria in that age, see
Geschzchte des Altertums, vol. i, part (u), 3rd ed. (Stuttgart and Berlin 1913, Coti
*

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

392

and Assyria by Phoenician and Aramaean traders it was completed

by the successive conversions of the Egyptiac and Babylonic worlds
to a series of Syriac missionary religions Primitive Christianity and
Nestorianism and Monophysitism and Islam. By the time when the
after a life that had been unnaturSyriac Civilization died at last
;

but also unnaturally prolonged by a Hellenic inthe work of assimilation had been performed so thoroughly
trusion
that Egypt on the one side and 'Iraq on the other were now just as
ally interrupted

Syriac as Syria herself.

Thus, when the Arabic Civilization was in embryo, it was not

confronted with the challenge which had proved so stimulating to
the historical Syriac Civilization and so upsetting to its abortive
predecessor. While the Syriacized land of 'Iraq lay derelict on the
morrow of the Mongol devastation, the Syriacized land of Egypt
offered the embryonic Arabic Civilization a safe citadel in which its
birth could be accomplished. The ancient challenge of Egyptiac

and Babylonic proximity to Syria had

Yet,

if

we

entirely ceased to operate.

are justified in concluding that, in the first half of the

the severity of that challenge was excessive,

we are also bound to conclude that the entire cessation of the challenge by the time when the Arabic Civilization was in gestation, at
the turn of the first and second millennia of the Christian Era, was
an untoward circumstance. For the Arabic Civilization which had
this easy birth did not have a distinguished career. 1 Its possession
of a citadel in Egypt gave it no substantial security for its indepen-

second millennium

B.C.,

dence was prematurely brought to an end by the masterful interthe Iranic

vention of a sister society
which had been nurtured
in a harder environment. Yet, before this misfortune overtook it in
the early decades of the sixteenth century of the Christian Era, the
Arabic Society had been granted two centuries' grace in which to
prove its mettle and the time was long enough to show that no great
creative forces were gathering in its bosom. If the Arabic Civilization had not had such an easy start but had been confronted at the
;

beginning by the challenge which Egyptiac and Babylonic proximity had presented to its Syriac predecessor, it would assuredly
have acquitted itself with greater distinction than it actually
achieved.
It will be seen that this Syrian series of encounters has
presented
us with a sequence once again. The
successful
brilliantly
response
of the historical Syriac Civilization to the
of
challenge
Egyptiac and
to
be
a
middle term between two exBabylonic proximity proves
tremes. On the one hand, the greater
severity with which the same
*
I,

For the career of the Arabic

above f

Civilization, see I.

(i) (6),

vol.

i,

pp. 70-2, with

Annex

THE GOLDEN MEAN

393

challenge was presented in the first half of the second millennium

B.C. rendered a first
attempt at creating a Syriac Civilization abortive. On the other hand, the
complete absence of this challenge in
the history of the subsequent Arabic Civilization
a younger local
civilization

which was

'affiliated' to

the Syriac

had an untoward

upon this latter-day civilization's career. In this sequence,

the historical Syriac Civilization, to which the identic
was
effect

challenge

presented in a

mean degree of severity, stands out as the conspicuous

instance of success against a double background of failure

from an excess of stimulus and failure from a lack of it.

failure

we are now in a position to answer the question which

drew
us into our present inquiry. After finding, by our
originally
empirical methods of study, that, in diverse instances and variations
Perhaps

of the

movement

of Challenge-and-Response, 'the greater the challenge the greater the response' appeared to be a working 'law', we
then set out to discover whether this 'law' which we had traced
inductively were valid absolutely, or whether it were subject, like
so many other particular laws, to the general 'law of diminishing

The

inquiry which we have just concluded indicates that

'the law of diminishing returns' does hold good in this connexion.
In the language of Mythology, the encounter between two superhuman personalities, which is the dynamic force in human affairs
and the key to the plots of the great tragic works of art, does not
result semper et ubique et omnibus in the denouement which is given
to the play in the Book of Job and in Goethe's Faust.
wager
between God and the Devil in which the Devil cannot be the winner
nor God the loser is not, after all, the course which the action of
this universal drama invariably follows.
It turns out that this is
& rendering which depends
only one possible rendering of the plot
the
terms
in
which
the
bet
is
offered and taken; and there is
upon
another alternative rendering in which the denouement is that of
Euripides' Hippolytus. There are challenges of a salutary severity
that stimulates the human subject of the ordeal to a creative response but there are also challenges of an overwhelming severity
to which the human victim succumbs. In scientific terminology,
'the most stimulating challenge is to be found in a mean between
a deficiency of severity and an excess of it.' 1
The meaning of this proposition has gradually unfolded itself in
the long empirical process of proof. There is, however, at least one
word in the formula that remains ambiguous, and this is the word
'stimulating' ; for a stimulus evokes a reaction, and a reaction implies a movement in some definite direction after the stimulus has
been received. What, then, is the movement towards which a
returns'.

For

this

formula see p. 260, above.

394

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE- AND-RESPONSE

stimulated by the challenge that brings it to

birth ? Presumably the nascent civilization is stimulated to fulfil its
nature. And what is it in the nature of a new-born babe to do ?
When the babe has come to birth, it is in its nature to grow in

nascent civilization

wisdom and

stature.

is

Growth is what

birth implies

and

if

our study

of the geneses of civilizations has now at last reached its term, the
study of the growths of civilizations still lies before us.

ANNEX TO II. D (hi)

IS 'OLD GROUND' LESS FERTILE THAN
'NEW GROUND' INTRINSICALLY OR BY ACCIDENT?
IN one passage of a foregoing chapter 1 we have examined the
histories of seven civilizations of the 'related' class, each of which
has comprised some 'old ground' and some new ground' in its
c

The upshot of this survey is that 'old ground' is apt to

a less fertile field than 'new ground' for human culture ; and we
have interpreted this result of empirical observation as a confirmation of the doctrine
implicit in the myths of the Exodus and the
that
the
ordeal
of breaking 'new ground' has an intrinExpulsion
sic stimulating effect. This interpretation of our
empirical evidence
rests on the assumption that the reason
why 'old ground' is resterile
is
because
it
a
less
formidable challenge to
latively
presents
its occupants than the
challenge presented by 'new ground', and
therefore exerts a proportionately less powerful stimulus. 2 Some
readers, however, may contest this explanation of the facts and may
discount accordingly the value which we have placed upon this
empirical evidence in our argument. Even assuming that the facts,
as we have set them out in our survey, are correctly stated, our
critics may submit that these facts are to be
explained in another
The
way.
explanation, they may represent, lies not in any subtle
influence of the physical environment upon the behaviour of its
human occupants, but in certain obvious external misfortunes
which happen to have afflicted the inhabitants of certain regions in
certain ages. In terms of our metaphor, the poorness of the crop
in these particular fields is accounted for (according to our critics'
contention) by the ravages of blight and mildew, and is therefore
no evidence of any intrinsic lack of fertility in the soil. This
domain.

make

On

pp. 74-84, above.

This assumption is borne out by two instances that have already come to our attention
one in Ceylon and the other in Central America
which stand out as exceptions
to our law; for they both turn out to be exceptions that prove the underlying rule. In
both Ceylon and Central America, the modern Western planters or colonists have
occupied 'new ground' which had been left virgin by the pioneers of the foregoing
indigenous civilizations ; yet in both cases the new-comers on the 'new ground' have
achieved nothing that can compare with the respective achievements of the Sinhalese and
the Mayas. (For the Ceylonese case see II. D (i), pp. 6-7, above; for the Central
American case see II. C (11) (a) z, vol. i, p. 267; and II. D (u), pp. 35-6, above.) When
we look closer, however, we observe that, in both cases, the mere 'newness* of the 'new
and therefore presumably not such a stimulating
ground* was not such a formidable
factor as the inherent and perpetual challenge of Physical Nature which the 'old ground*
presented. In Central America, it was less difficult for the Spanish colonists to open up
the relatively diy highlands than foi the Mayas to keep the jungle at bay in the rainsodden lowlands. And in Ceylon it has been less difficult for the Scottish and English
planters to clear the rain-smitten highlands than for the Sinhalese to keep the parched
plains supplied with water by irrigation.

ANNEX TO

396

II.

(iii)

criticism deserves consideration. Let us see what our critics have

to say, and what we have to say to them in reply.
Our critics are likely to open their attack by pointing out that,
in several of the instances which we have brought forward, the 'old
^

ground' which has proved

sterile is

ground which happens to have

been overlaid by a peculiarly barbarous deposit of barbarians in the

Volkerwanderung antecedent to the birth of the particular 'related*
civilization in question. For example, at the birth of the Babylonic
Civilization, Babylonia was overrun by the barbarous Kassites,
while Assyria was surrounded but never quite engulfed by the
Mitannians. At the birth of the Arabic Civilization, Syria was
harried by the incurably barbarous Crusaders and Mongols, while
the Kurdish and Turkish and Caucasian barbarians who fell upon
Egypt were human wolves who proved capable of transforming
themselves into human watch-dogs the Mamluks. At the birth of
the Iranic Civilization, Transoxania and Iran were blighted by the
:

Mongols, while the 'new ground' occupied by the Iranic Civilization in Anatolia and Hindustan was as relatively fortunate as Egypt
in respect of the barbarians which fell to its lot. In Anatolia and in
Hindustan, the Iranic Civilization was not only first propagated by
Turkish barbarians who had been converted to Islam but was
as Egypt was protected by the
afterwards protected by them
Mamluks against the ravages of the more barbarous Mongols who
followed at the Turkish barbarians' heels. Again, at the birth of the
barHellenic Civilization, Crete was saddled with the 'Dorians'
barians whose yoke weighed so heavily upon the local descendants
of the Minoans that the very name 'Minos', which had once
denoted the ruler of the seas, became the hall-mark of serfdom in
the derivative 'Mnoi'tes'. 1 Naturally, it may be represented, the
nascent Hellenic Civilization did not ever come to flower in this
wilderness of uncivilized masters and barbarized slaves. Naturally,
likewise, it did first come to flower among the descendants of those

Minoan

who had

saved themselves from enslavement by

finding asylum along the Anatolian coast.
This array of facts is impressive, but it is not impregnable. To
take, for instance, the contrast between the roles of Doric Crete and
refugees

Minoan

Ionia in Hellenic history: we may retort to our

critics by pointing out to them that the
Cyclades, which were as
free as Ionia herself from the 'Dorian' incubus,
played as poor a
in
Hellenic
part
history as Doric Crete, whereas one of the first
ci-devant

points at which Hellenism flowered in Continental European Greece

was Doric Corinth. Moreover, Doric Laconia and Doric Rhodes,
which flanked Doric Crete on either side, each came to
play an
1 See
I. C (i) (6), Annex II, vol.
i, above.

ANNEX TO

II.

397

(iii)

eminent part as the movement of Hellenic history developed. The

case of Laconia is particularly striking, inasmuch as the likeness
between Dorian institutions in Laconia and in Crete was notorious. 1
The same yoke weighed with the same weight upon the Laconian
Helots as upon the Cretan Mnoitae. Yet the descendants of the
Dorian conquerors of Sparta rose to a greatness which was never
emulated by their kinsmen in Crete. On the hypothesis that Dorian
brutality accounts for the benightedness of Hellenic Crete, these
further facts are inexplicable.
the other hand, they are all

On

on our hypothesis that the occupation of 'old ground*

to provide a stimulus which the breaking of 'new ground* does

intelligible
fails

This hypothesis explains the common obscurity, in Hellenic history, of Crete and the Cyclades
the two foci of the antecedent Minoan Civilization
notwithstanding the presence in Hellenic Crete and the absence in the Hellenic Cyclades of the Dorian
incubus. It also explains the common eminence, in Hellenic history, of Ionic Ionia and Attica and Doric Corinth, Laconia and
Rhodes for both Ionia and Corinth appear to have lain beyond the
range of the thalassocracy of Minos, while Attica, Laconia, and
provide.

Rhodes came only just within

its pale.

Moreover, we may suggest that, in any Volkerwanderung, each

invaded district is apt to get the barbarians whom it deserves, and,
having got them, to bear their yoke until it earns its liberation. For

mere external accident that, in the post-Sumeric

Volkerwanderung, Assyria kept her head above the Mitannian
flood when the waters of a Kassite domination went over Babylonia's, soul ? Is it not more credible that Assyria managed to keep
instance,

was

it

her local barbarians at bay because she offered a stouter resistance

than her Babylonian neighbour; and that she offered a stouter resistance because the Assyrians had responded to some stimulus in
their local environment which was not offered to the Babylonians
by theirs ? Again, the failure of the Mnoitae in Crete and, for that
to liberate themselves from the
matter, of the Helots in Laconia
yoke of their Dorian masters was by no means a matter of course.
It was only one of two possible alternative outcomes of the Dorian
conquest of Crete, as is shown by the historical parallel of the Lombard conquest of Italy.
The Lombards, at the time when they overran Italy in the last
convulsion of the post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung, were more barbarous than any other barbarian conquerors of Roman provinces
in the West except the English conquerors of Britain; and their
treatment of the conquered population was proportionately harsh.
Though the Lombards did not go to the length of exterminating
i

On

this point, see further Part III.

A,

vol.

iii,

p. 55 below.

ANNEX TO

3 g8

II.

(iii)

the native Italians, they did impose upon them a much heavier yoke
than had been imposed by the Lombards' predecessors in Italy,
the Ostrogoths, or by the Franks in Gaul, or even by the Vandals in
Africa. Thus, at the dawn of our Western history, the situation in

was closely comparable to the situation that existed at the

dawn of Hellenic history in Crete. An extreme reversal of fortune
had placed a once imperial people under the heel of a particularly
brutal barbarian master. Yet, though the situation was comparable,
the outcome was completely different for, while the Cretan Mnoitae
never recovered from the shock of their abasement and continued
to bear the Dorian yoke to the end of Hellenic history, the Italian
Aldi boldly and victoriously took their savage Lombard conquerors
1
They converted the Lombards from their Arian heresy to
captive.
the Catholic Faith; they taught them to discard their Teutonic
vernacular for the Italian language; and by such means they sucItaly

ceeded, within four or five centuries of the Lombard conquest, in

transforming an unsocial aggregation of serfs and masters into a

abounding in energy and morally fit to take the leaddie

next act of the drama of Western history. This
in
ing part
evidence proves that a calamity like the Lombard conquest of Italy
or the Dorian conquest of Crete is by no means bound to blight for
ever the prospects of the region upon which it descends. While the
history of Dorian Crete shows that this may be the effect, the hissingle people,

tory of

Lombard

Italy

shows not

less clearly that

the effect

may

equally well be just the opposite.

Finally we can refute our critics by joining issue with them on
the field of Orthodox Christian history; for here it is impossible to

adduce any evidence for a special extraneous calamity, exclusively

afflicting the 'old ground' in the Orthodox Christian domain, which
might be held to account for this 'old ground's' relative sterility.
It is true that, in the domain of Orthodox Christendom, the 'old
that is, the Aegean area
was visited by the twin calamity
ground'
of Slav invasions overland and Arab raids by sea; but the same
visitations fell much more severely
upon the two pieces of 'new
in
which
Orthodox
Christendom successively found its
ground'
centre of gravity. The brunt of the Arab offensive was borne
by
Eastern and Central Anatolia, from the Taurus to Amorium; the
brunt of the Slav invasions was borne by the interior of the Balkan
Peninsula from the Danube to Salonica. The bands of Slavonic
invaders that penetrated beyond Salonica into Peninsular Greece
were forlorn hopes the Arab sea-raids were 'side shows'
compared
to the Arab land operations. Thus it will be seen
that, in Orthodox
Christendom, the 'old ground' was afflicted not more but less
;

Horace: Epistolae,

II,

Ep.

i,

1.

156.

ANNEX TO

II.

(iii)

399
yet in

grievously than the 'new ground* by these barbarian blights

Orthodox Christian history -just as in Babylonic and Hindu and
Arabic and Iranic and Hellenic and Sinic history
the *old ground*
has proved less fertile than the new.
Perhaps our thesis that 'old ground' is less fertile than 'new
ground* intrinsically and not by accident has now been sufficiently
vindicated against the criticism to which it might seem, at first
;

sight, to

be exposed.

ANNEX TO II. D (v)

HISTORIC SIEGES AND THEIR AFTER-EFFECTS
CITIES, like ships, are readily personified by the human imagination; and their greatness depends, not merely upon immediate
practical values which can be expressed statistically, but also always
to some extent, and often to a far greater extent, upon an imponderable prestige which is created and sustained by an emotional
consciousness of their historic trials and triumphs. In many cases
it is possible to trace the origin of this prestige to certain particular

outstanding ordeals ; and the prestige of Vienna is a case in point.

It is manifestly founded upon the successful resistance of Vienna
to the Ottoman assaults of A.D. 1529 and A.D. 1682-3.
city's resistance, however, need not be successful in order to
win the reverence and affection of later generations. For example,
the prestige of Moscow is founded upon the passive endurance of
the city on two occasions when she has fallen, without serious
military resistance, under the heel of a Western invader a Polish
invader in 1610-12 and a French in 1812. On the other hand, the
prestige of Constantinople in Orthodox Christendom, like that of
Vienna in the Western World, is founded on a series of successful
resistances : to the Persians and Avars in A.D. 626 (a supreme crisis
which is commemorated, down to this day, in the Liturgy of the
Orthodox Church, in the 'AxdBicrTos "Ypvos) ; to the Arabs in A.D.
673-7; and to the Arabs again in A.D. 717-18. The prestige of
Constantinople, like that of Vienna and unlike that of Moscow, is
bound up with the concept of inviolability and it has suffered from
the Latin conquest of A.D. 1204 and the Ottoman conquest of 1453,
as the prestige of Vienna has suffered from the French occupations
of 1805 and 1809. In contrast to Constantinople and Vienna, Rome

and Paris and London,

all three, owe their

present eminence, as the
of
and
respective capitals
Italy, France,
England, to prestige gained
by them in ordeals in which they have made an heroic resistance

but have not remained

inviolate.

How was it that Rome achieved the

capital of the

new Kingdom

which enjoyed the

tour deforce of becoming the

of Italy in preference to Turin, a city

practical advantage of being the capital of the

particular Italian State that was the instrument of national unification, and likewise in preference to Milan, a city which enjoyed

the practical advantage of being the industrial centre of the

Italian Peninsula ? These practical considerations
telling in favour

of Milan or Turin

would hardly have been overridden, in favour of

ANNEX TO

II.

(v)

401

Rome, on the strength of historical sentiment pure and simple, if

Rome had not identified herself, in the hearts and minds of the
Italian people, with the Risorgimento of Italy by standing siege
from the French in 1849. So far from Rome suffering any loss of
prestige through the fact that her resistance to her besiegers on this
occasion was unsuccessful, she gained her prestige in 1849 in virtue
of the very fact that her resistance was a forlorn hope. She rejected
the

summons

to capitulate with the clear foreknowledge that her

fall was inevitable ; for
by that time the Italian national uprising of
1848 had already suffered defeat in almost every other quarter; the
reaction was in the ascendant all over the European Continent ; and

the reactionary forces which were being concentrated upon Rome

were overwhelming. Rome's heroic gesture in making this last and
hopeless stand against overwhelming odds in 1849 was just what
appealed to the Italian national imagination.
As for the prestige of Paris and London, which was won a thousand years earlier than the prestige of modern Rome in the utterly
different ordeal of the Scandinavian Volkerwanderung, inviolability was not of its essence either. In fact, at the first encounter
with the Vikings, both London and Paris were ignominiously taken
by assault and pillaged London in A.D. 842 ; Paris in 845. London
was actually ceded to the invaders by Alfred under the Treaty of
Wedmore in A.D. 878 and remained for seven years in their hands.
The two cities emerged from their ordeal with a new and enduring
prestige not because they never fell but because they fell only to
rise again and oppose a firmer resistance to the invader. As the
ordeal continued, this resistance became indefatigable. The Vikings
never succeeded in forcing their way above Paris up the Seine or
above London up the Thames; and either city crowned its long
endurance with a final feat of arms which made a permanent impress upon the national imagination Paris with her successful resistance to the great siege of A.D. 885-6 London with her successful
barrage of the Thames in A.D. 895.
:

ii

ANNEX TO

II.

(vi)

JEWS IN FASTNESSES
IN the relevant chapter, 1 we have drawn attention to the fact
that the fossils of extinct civilizations are found in two distinct
and we have obin 'dispersion* and in 'fastnesses'
situations
served that these situations are not only different but are in sharp
contrast with one another. The most familiar example of a fossil in
dispersion is the Jewish 'Diaspora'. On the other hand, it is perhaps not so well known that there are other Jewish communities
that have survived in fastnesses down to the present day. The
contrast between the ethos of these Jews in fastnesses and the thos
of the Jewish 'Diaspora' is extreme; and some description, in
greater detail, of extant 'Jews in fastnesses' may therefore be of
interest.

In this connexion

it

may be

recalled that

Judaism

is

a fossil of the

extinct Syriac Civilization, and that the successive religions which

the Syriac Civilization begot in the course of its history all arose,
in turn, in the heart of the Syriac World, and all radiated out from
the centre, in every direction, towards the circumference. The
result has been not unlike what happens when a child throws one
stone after another into the middle of a pond. When several stones
have been thrown in succession, the surface of the pond displays a
pattern of several concentric circular waves which are all travelling
outwards from the centre towards the circumference simultaneously.

The outermost

of these expanding circles is the product of the first

stone thrown in the wave raised by the second stone forms the
second circle which is expanding in the first circle's wake ; and so
on each wave that has travelled a shorter distance from the centre
being the product of a stone which has been thrown into the pond
at a later moment of time. On this pattern, the religions successively begotten by the Syriac Civilization have expanded in concentric circles from the heart of the Syriac World: Jewry and
Christianity and Islam from Syria and the Hijaz ; Zoroastrianism
and Shi'ism from Iran. The Jewish-Zoroastrian wave, being the
earliest, is the outermost; the Christian wave has followed in its
wake; the Islamic wave is the innermost and the latest. 2
Of course, at the present day, some thirteen centuries after the
date when even the youngest of these waves was
originally launched,
;

See II. D (vi), pp. 256-9, above.

This refraction of Syriac religion into a series of successive waves is a consequence
of the impact of Hellenism upon the Syriac World. (See II.
(vi), pp. 234-5, and II.
D (vii), pp. 285-8, above, and Part IX, below.) The boy who threw
the first atone of
Hellenism into the Syriac pond was Alexander of Macedon.
1

ANNEX TO

II.

403

(vi)

the pattern of concentric circles has lost its regularity. The JewishZoroastrian wave has mostly dissolved into spray which has scattered itself all over the World in the form of a diaspora. As for
the Christian wave, certain sectors of its circle
e.g. the Orthodox
sector and the Western (now broken up into a Catholic fraction
and a Protestant) have swollen to unexpected dimensions, while
other sectors
have
e.g. the Nestorian and the Monophysite
shared the fate of the Jewish-Zoroastrian wave ahead of them.
Only the Islamic wave still clearly retains its original formation.
It needs the discerning eye of a historical geographer to reconstruct
the original pattern of the whole series of waves from the present
state of the map ; and the materials for reconstruction would have
been altogether insufficient but for the existence of certain rocks
and reefs on which the waves, in breaking, have thrown up fragments of jetsam which have provided a permanent record of their
passage. These rocks are the fastnesses in which fossils have been
preserved in a state of fixity thanks to their isolation from the

moving and changing world

outside.

On the periphery of the

Syriac World, there are two notable fastnesses of the kind on the south, Abyssinia with its outwork the
Yaman; on the north, the Caucasus with its annex the Crimea. 1
If we examine the present human fauna of either of these fastnesses,
we shall find in either place a Jewish fossil still preserved in the
:

inmost recesses and a more recently deposited Christian fossil surrounding the Jewish fossil and embedding it. In either place, again,
we shall see the Islamic wave the youngest and innermost wave
of the three
washing round the foot of the rock, occasionally beating tempestuously against its flanks, and ever seeking to submerge
it

from base to pinnacle.

In Abyssinia, the local Jewish fossil
the Jewish community
the
central
as the Falasha
district of Semyen the
occupies

known

highest highlands of the Abyssinian Plateau. The Jewish highlanders of Semyen are entirely surrounded by Abyssinian Monophysite Christians, who occupy all the rest of the plateau from the
bounds of Semyen to the edge of the escarpment. The lowlands
adjoining the plateau on the north and on the east are inhabited by
Muslims the foot of the Abyssinian escarpment constituting the
limit of the Islamic domain in this direction. 2
Similarly, in the Caucasus, the habitat of the local Jewish fossil

the so-called 'Mountain Jews'

is

Daghestan

(i.e.

'the Highlands'

the Maghrib, which held out till A.D.

For a former Jewish fastness on the west,
1492, see Gautier, E. F.: Les Si&cles Qbscurs du Maghreb (Pans 1927, Payot), p. 200.
Cp. op. cit., pp. 415-16.
2 See the
Handbook of Abysnma t vol. i : General (London 1917,
map on p. in of
*

H.M.

Stationery Office).

ANNEX TO

404

II.

(vi)

which may be regarded as the innermost

recess of all Caucasia. The local Christian fossils
Georgian Orthodox Christians in the basins of the Rion and the Kur, and Armenian
Monophysites on the plateau south of Georgia occupy more exposed positions. As for the Muslims, they have penetrated into the

par

excellence),

district

Caucasus more deeply than they have succeeded in penetrating

into Abyssinia up to the present, so that the Mountain Jews of the
Caucasus find themselves embedded to-day in a non-Jewish popu-

which

not Christian but Muslim.

As regards the outwork of Abyssinia in the Yaman and the annex
of the Caucasus in the Crimea, it is noteworthy that in both places
Jewish fossils have survived, while the more recently deposited
Christian fossils, which were once to be found there, are now no
longer extant. The Nestorian Christendom of the Yaman did not
survive the first impact of Islam; and the indigenous Orthodox
Christendom of the Crimea 1 is extinct to-day, though it was extant
no longer ago than the sixteenth century of the Christian Era. 2 On

lation

is

1 As distinct from the

Russian Orthodox Christendom which has been introduced
into the Crimea, by Russian colonization, since the annexation of the Crimea to the
Russian Enroire in A.D. 1783.
2 The
indigenous Orthodox Christendom of the Crimea was originally represented by

two communities

the Greeks of Cherson, on the site now occupied by the modern

Russian foundation of Sebastopol near the southern corner of the peninsula; and the
Crimean and Tetraxite Goths, who occupied respectively the eastern end of the Crimean
mountains and the western end of the Caucasus Range, on opposite sides of the Straits
of Kertch. These Goths were jetsam from the Volkerwanderung which had carried the
main body of their kinsmen not only from the shores of the Baltic to the shores of
the Black Sea, but on and beyond from the shores of the Black Sea to the shores of the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The Crimean and Tetraxite Goths had been left behind
at the first halting-place on the long trek which the Visigoths and the
Ostrogoths continued to the bitter end. When the main body went west and was
straightway consumed
in the holocaust of the Roman Empire like a moth that flies into a
candle-flame, the
lost Gothic rear-guard in the Crimea lived on in
obscurity in this fastness for another
millennium. The last descendants of these Crimean Goths were found
surviving by the
Flemish scholar and traveller Busbecq in the middle of the sixteenth
century, when he
was the Ambassador of the Hapsburg Monarchy at the Sublime Porte. In the fourth and
last of his famous Turkish Letters, he describes an interview with two
envoys from these
Crimean Goths who had come on official business to the Ottoman
Imperial Government
at Constantinople, and he gives a short
vocabulary of their language, which he recognizes
to be Teutonic. As for Cherson, it was not only a
representative of Orthodox Christendom but a fossil of the Hellenic Society in its pristine state. Cherson was the last survivor
of the hundreds of sovereign independent city-states into which the Hellenic
World had
been articulated before it was unified politically in the Roman
Empire. Cherson, alone,
had become an ally of Rome without ever losing its
autonomy, and it also survived the
post-Hellenic Vdlkerwanderung in which the Roman Empire broke up. In fact Cherson
lived on as a sovereign city-state on the old Hellenic
pattern until the East Roman Empire
:

~a

resuscitation of the Roman Empire in the Orthodox Christian

Worldannexed
Cherson outright in the ninth century of the Christian Era. Thus
the mountainous
southern portion of the Crimea has provided fastnesses not
only for Orthodox Christen-

by Cherson. At the same *me, the flat and lowlying northern portion of the Crimea has
repeatedly provided an asylum for Nomadic peoples who have been driven off the Great
Eurasian Steppe
by more powerful hordes of their own kind, but have managed to hold
their own on the immature Crimean
Steppe to the south of the Isthmus of Perekop. The
Thracian-speaking Taunans, the Iranian-speaking Scyths, and the
Turkish-speaking
Khazars and Tatars are examples of ci-deoant masters of the Eurasian
Steppe who
to
in
survive
the Crimea for some centuries after
managed
they had been trampled out of

ANNEX TO

II.

405

(vi)

Yamanl Jews have managed under great and

apparently increasing pressure from the local Muslims who have

the other hand, the

occupied the place of the former local Christians and pagans since
the seventh century
to maintain themselves in existence down to
the present day, when the remnant is gradually being evacuated
from the Yaman to Palestine by Zionist enterprise. As for the
and this likewise
Jewish fossil in the Crimea, it is represented
down to the present day by two separate Jewish communities the
Krimchaks, who are Talmudists, and the anti-Talmudist Qara'im.
Thus the original pattern of concentric Jewish and Christian and
Islamic waves is preserved by the Jewish and Christian jetsam that
has remained stranded in the fastnesses of Abyssinia and the Yaman
and the Caucasus and the Crimea, while the tide of Islam has filled
the vast intervening area and has flooded round the bases and up
:

into the gateways of the fastnesses themselves. 1

existence everywhere else. The Khazars who survived in the Crimea after the destruction of the Khazar Empire on the Eurasian Steppe in the eleventh century of the Christian
Era are believed to be the ancestors of the Krimchak Jews.
1 This
pattern of concentric waves, representing the expansion, from a common centre,
of successive religious movements, is not a unique and peculiar product of the Syriac
Civilization.
have observed already (on pp. 234-5
285-8, above) that the refraction
of Syriac religion into separate and successive and sometimes conflicting waves is an
outcome of the collision between the Syriac Civilization and the Hellenic Civilization.
have also observed (vol. i, on pp. 85-6 and 91-2, in I.
(i) (6), above) that the Syriac
Civilization was not the only civilization which the impact of the Hellenic Society deflected from its natural course. This experience of the Syriac Civilization was shared by
the Indie Civilization; and if we now glance at the historical geography of the religious
movements that have emanated from the ancient Indie World, we shall find analogous
traces of an identical pattern of successive concentric waves.
In this Indie pattern, the oldest and outermost wave
corresponding to the Jewish-

We

We

^d

of the periphery of the ancient Indie World in Ceylon and Burma and Siam, and which
was^once to be found likewise on the northern sector of the same periphery, in the Tarim
Basin. This first wave is likewise represented by Jainism, which still survives in dispersion
nearer the heart of the ancient Indie World, in continental India. This Jainism and
Hmayanian Buddhism are fossils of Indie religion as it was before the Hellenic impact,
just as Zoroastrianism and Judaism are fossils of Syriac religion as it was before the
Hellenic impact. The next wave in the Indie pattern
corresponding to the Christian
wave in the Syriac pattern is represented by the Later or Mahayaman Buddhism, which,
like Christianity, is a syncretism between the indigenous culture and the intrusive Hellenism; and this Mahayanian wave, like the Christian wave, again, has developed a
marked irregularity of form. What was originally its north-western sector has completely
disappeared in Afghanistan and in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin, which were the first stages
on its course of expansion; and it has also disappeared in the Tarim Basin, where it
followed and effaced the Primitive Buddhism of the Hinayana. On the other hand, this
north-western sector of the Mahayanian Buddhist wave has swollen to unexpected proin its final
Far East, which it has reached at the end of a
resting-place in the
portions
journey that has carried it, in a sharply curving track, round the southern and western
and northern foot of the Tibetan Plateau. As for the north-eastern sector of the Mahayanian wave, which is constituted by the Tantric or Lamaistic variety of Mahayanian
Buddhism, this has spread from Bengal to Tibet and thence to Mongolia Tibet and
Mongolia being the places where it survives to-day. It will be seen that the Lamaistic
Mahayanian Buddhism corresponds to the Monophysite-Nestorian sector of the Christian
wave, and the Far Eastern Mahayanian Buddhism to the Western sector. Finally, while
the Mahayanian Buddhism, in its two extant varieties, constitutes the middle wave in the
Indie pattern, the latest and innermost wave is represented here by Hinduism, which
like Islam in the Syriac pattern
now occupies the central position and still clearly
retains its original formation. It will be seen that Hinduism also resembles Islam in

ANNEX TO

4 o6

II.

(vi)

we now

concentrate our attention upon the Jews in fastnesses,

who have been deposited there by the expansion of the oldest and
outermost of the three concentric waves, we shall find that in
physique and language and culture these Jews have far more in
If

with the pagans and Christians and Muslims with whom

they share their asylum than they have in common with Jews elsewhere. It is to be inferred that Judaism, like its successors Christianity and Islam, has propagated itself by the process of conversion

common

At any

the Jews
in fastnesses, the predominant element in the life and in the blood
of the community seems to be the contribution of the indigenous
as well as

by the process of

migration.

rate

among

proselytes.

In Abyssinia, for instance, 'the Falasha are Hamites by race and

1
Jews only by religion'. They 'are in general darker and more corpulent than the Amharas, among whom they live. Their hair is
shorter and often curly; their eyes are smaller and their faces not
so long.' 2 They 'have no language of their own, but speak various
Agau dialects'. 3 'They are ignorant of Hebrew, but possess in Ge'ez
the canonical and apocryphal books of the Old Testament' and
various other religious works. 4 'They know nothing of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, composed during and after the
Captivity respectively, and do not observe the feast of Purim, i.e.
the dedication of the post-Exilic Temple.' 5 'Their Judaism does
not exclude a very strong tincture of paganism.
Especially
curious is their worship of Sanbat, the Goddess of Sabbath.' 6
From its origins down to the end of the eighteenth century of the
Christian Era, this Falasha Jewish community seems to have lived
a life of warlike independence in its highland fastness of
Semyen.
.

This community 'consolidated itself into an independent Kingdom

in Semyen at the time of the conversion of
Abyssinia [to Monophysite Christianity]. In [A.D.] 937 Judith, queen of Semyen in her
own right, murdered the whole [Christian] royal family of Axum,
with the exception of one child who was conveyed to Shoa, and
usurped the throne. In 977 she was succeeded by her daughter,
who was deposed a few months later by a prince of the house of
standing for the ultimate victorious reaction by which the indigenous cultuie eventually
drove the intrusive Hellenism out. If we may venture to
pursue our parallel still farther,
we may also perceive Indie analogues of the Syriac fastnesses
The Plateau of Tibet,
which gives asylum to the Lamaistoc Mahayaman Buddhism, plays the part of the Caucasus; the highlands of Ceylon, which give asylum to the Hmayaman Buddhism, play
the part of Abyssinia. (The historical
geography of the Indie and the
religions is
examined at greater length in Part IX, below, apropos of the contacts Syriac
between civiliza-

tions in Space
1

2
3

Admiralty Handbook of Abyssinia (cited on p. 403, above), p 107.

Therewith Encyclopaedia (New York and London 1901-6, Funk and Wagnall),

5?*^

British Admiralty
cit - P- *2-

OP-

Handbook of Abyssinia,
s

Op.

cit.,

s.v.

p. 109.

pag.

cit.

Op.

cit

pp. 120-1.

ANNEX TO

II.

407

(vi)

Zagwe. The dynasty founded by this prince was at first perhaps

Jewish but later Christian.' 1 Thereafter, in Semyen, the Falasha
maintained their independence in periodic warfare with the surrounding Christians but 'their line of kings became extinct about
;

when

the Falasha became subject to Tigre'. 2

During the last century and a half, under the new conditions of
subjection of Christian rule, the Falasha seem to have entered on a
process of transformation from a fossil in a fastness into a fossil in
1800,

They

dispersion.

own',

and

still 'live

mostly in Semyen in villages of their

is' still

'agriculture

'their chief occupation'. 4

At the same

time, members of the Falasha community are now dispersed abroad

in other parts of Abyssinia, and in this situation they are already
displaying the characteristic traits of a penalized religious minority.
'If resident in a Christian or Muhammadan town', they
'occupy a
separate quarter. They do not mix with the Abyssinians indeed,
they are forbidden to enter the house of a Christian and never
;

many

the

women

marriages are rare

of other religions. Polygamy is unknown; early

and the moral standard is superior to that of
'They are fanatical in observing the Sabbath, the
;

the Abyssinians.' 5
circumcision of both sexes, certain fasts, and several festivals, annual
and monthly. They are scrupulous in following the laws of purification by means of baths and ablutions/ 6 Moreover, 'they excel in
all trades. In their eyes work is not, as it is, for example, in the
eyes
of the Shoans, the attribute of serfs and slaves. They are cultiva-

masons, architects, ebony-workers, weavers, potters,

have seen them, in the course of this history [of
Abyssinia], forming regular centres of almost constant rebellion.
For more than a century past, however, they have no longer made
themselves notorious. Their skill in manual work leads to their
treated, in fact,
being exploited by the chiefs and even maltreated
as an inferior race.' 7 Evidently the Falasha who are now dispersed
abroad in Abyssinia beyond the confines of their native fastness in
Semyen are rapidly approximating towards the well-known type of
tors, smiths,

and so

on.

We

the Jewish 'Diaspork'. Asyet, however, the approximation is imperfect for although they 'ply the trades' and 'make the articles neces8
sary for the home or the field', they still 'reject commerce'.
The modern history of the neighbouring Jewish community in
the Yaman has run a parallel course. 'At the beginning of the igth
.
century, the condition of the Jews of Yaman was miserable.
from engaging in money transactions and
They were prohibited
;

*
Op. cit.,
Op. cit., p. 218.
The Jewish Encyclopaedia, sv. 'Falasha'.

3
Op. cit., pag. cit.
British Admiralty Handbook, p. 122.
6
Colbeaux, J.-B.: Histoire Polittque et ReUgieuse d* Abyssinia (Paris 1929, Geuthner),

vol.
7

ii,

p. 122.
&

pp. 399-401.

Op.

cit., loc. cit.

The Jewish Encyclopaedia^

s.v.

Talasha'.

ANNEX TO

4o8

II.

(vi)

were all mechanics, being employed chiefly as carpenters, masons,

The chief industry of the Jews of Yaman is the
and smiths.
making of pottery, which is found in all their settlements and which
1
has rendered them famous throughout the East/
If we turn now to the Caucasus, we shall find the same phenomena as in Abyssinia. In physical race, the 'Mountain Jews' of
Daghestan, like the Falasha of Semyen, are of one blood with the
non- Jewish peoples round about them. Socially, they are an agri.

community which is just beginning to migrate into the

towns and to take up some of the occupations which are charactercultural

elsewhere, of the Jewish *Diaspor

though in the Caucasus
far as in Abyssinia up
so
this tendency does not seem to have gone
to the present.
The racial character of the Caucasian Jews is clearly described by
istic,

a Jewish authority in the following passage

'The Jews of the Caucasus are very interesting. Historically

been proven that they have been there for more than two thousand
that they are the descendants of those ubiquitous
and
Tribes,
many missionaries are inclined to believe them.

They claim

it

has

years.

Ten Lost
The most

from an anthropological and ethnological standpoint, arc

the Mountain Jews of Daghestan. They have diverged completely from
the ethnic type of the Jews in every other country. According to the
measurements obtained recently by Kurdoff, they are tall, averaging
1 66-0 cm. in
height, and 57 per cent, of them were above the average
height. Very few blonds are met with among them, 87 per cent, have
both dark hair and eyes. Their head-form is hyperbrachycephalic, the
average cephalic index being 86-35, ^^ not one dolichocephalic individual was found among 160 measured by Kurdoff. Their face is broad,
curious, both

the forehead straight, the aperture of the eye horizontal; the cheek-bone
being somewhat protruding, the nose straight and of medium size; only
thirty per cent, have "Semitic" noses. The mouth is broad, the lips
thick, and the ears large. That author concludes that the Daghestan
mountain Jews are physically far removed from all other Jews, and have
nothing in common with them. They are a product of mixture of the
mountain tribes of Daghestan on the one hand, and some other races,
3
Their language, dress,
especially the Kirghiz Mongolians, on the other.
and manners are the same as those of the other mountaineers among
whom they live. All who have observed these Jews agree that they are of
a totally different type from the one
generally known as "Jewish", ft i s
impossible to distinguish them from the Tats, Lesghians, and Circassians ,

among whom they

casus,
1

Op.

one who has studied the races of the Cauand most other ethnologists agree with this view/

cit., s.v.

live, says

'Yemen*.

Fishberg, M.: The Jews:

Study of Race and Environment (New York and Melbourne 1911, The Walter Scott Publishing Company), pp. 130-1.
3 K.
Kurdoff, 'Gorskie Yevrei Dagestana* (Russian Anthropological Journal, 1905,
Nos. 3-4, pp. 57-87).
*
Hahn, C. : us dem Kaukasus (Leipzig 1 893, Duncker and Humblot), pp . 1 6 1 and 23 a.

ANNEX TO

II.

409

(vi)

As

for the social life of the Caucasian Jews

their occupations
and institutions and ethos
it will be sufficient to
quote a passage
from one of the leading modern Western authorities on the

Caucasian peoples

:*

'One principal reason for the incompleteness of earlier works about

Mountain Jews of the Caucasus is to be found in the fanaticism
and exclusiveness which these Jews display towards other Jews. They
have a mass of religious usages and articles of faith which to European
Jews are entirely unknown; above all, they are zealous adherents of the
Talmud. Their hatred of other Jews was still further accentuated by the
fact that, after the conquest of the Caucasus, the Jewish soldiers from
Russia, who were hospitably received by the Mountain Jews as coa nickname which
religionists, chose to nickname their hosts "oxen"
to
this
down
on
account
the
of
persists
day
roughness and grossness of
their manners. The extent of the enmity between the two is best shown
by a saying current among the Mountain Jews: "Don't kill an Ashkenazi by cutting his throat stab him in the neck to prolong the agony."
There have been a number of bloody encounters between these two
the

Jewish races.

*The Mountain Jews are mostly dispersed up and down Daghestan

and the Terek District; and, in consonance with their principal occupations, their settlements are located on the alps or in the gorges or on the
slopes of the mountains. Their auls are in some cases dispersed among
the auls of other tribes, in some cases segregated from them, while there
are places where they live cheek by jowl with the natives. In general,
with few exceptions, they live in a good understanding with the natives.
It is not uncommon for a Jew to contract a close friendship with a Musulman and to become, after the exchange of the kiss of friendship, his lifelong kardash [brother]. In this rite the parties exchange weapons and
contract a solemn mutual obligation to stand by one another, in time of
stress, till they have shed their last drop of blood in their comrade's
defence
'A considerable section of the Mountain Jews live in the towns and
devote' themselves to trade and business. Those who live in the auls are

predominantly agriculturists. They cultivate wheat, barley,

rice, tobacco,

and vines, as well as vegetables. A small section are artisans and

make morocco leather.
'The attitude of the Mountain Jews towards European education is
very hostile and so it is no wonder that in the auls one often finds hardly
two or three people who can read and write. The reason for this is
fanaticism. There is a fear that those who acquire some learning may
fruit,

become

the children are being sent to

has already come down to something like 85 per cent. On the other hand, the number of those who
attend the higher schools in order to acquire a rabbi's diploma amounts
to only i per cent. The Mountain Jew mostly lives by the work of his
apostates.

It is only lately that

school, and the number of

Hahn, C.: op.

cit.,

illiterates

ch. vi: 'Die

Juden in den Kaukasischen Bergen'.

ANNEX TO

4 io

II.

(vi)

own

hands, and he needs his children's help, so that the children have
no time for school.
'When we come to the physiognomy of the Mountain Jews, we have to
observe that the Semitic type has been substantially modified by mixture
The Mountain Jew rewith the native peoples of the Caucasus.
sembles the Lesghian, Chechen, and Circassian, and even the Armenian,
much more than he resembles the European Jew.
'The character and occupation of the Mountain Jew is profoundly
influenced by his physical environment. Here we see him, armed cap-apie, riding past us on a handsome charger ; there we see him, in old ragged
clothes, clambering up the mountain-track in order to hew stumps or
dig up the roots of trees and bushes to be carried home on bended back ;
here again we see him digging the ground, ploughing, making wine,
gathering in his fruit crop or perhaps standing in a tub by the spring and
.'
stamping out raw hides.
.

The two Jewish communities

in the

Crimea

differ

from one

another in their theology and also, apparently, in their racial origin.

The 'Krimchaks', who are Talmudists, are believed to be descended
from the Khazars a Turkish-speaking Nomadic people who erupted
from the depths of the Eurasian Steppe in the latter part of the
sixth century of the Christian Era; found themselves new pastures
between the Lower Volga and the Lower Don made themselves
the dominant power between the Caucasus and the Urals and the
Russian forest and the Black Sea ; and eventually became converts
to Judaism
probably in the eighth century of the Christian Era,
more than two hundred years before the White Bulgars on the
Middle Volga were converted to Islam or the Russians on the Upper
:

Dniepr to Orthodox Christianity. The Krimchaks are believed to

be descendants of a remnant of the Khazars who found asylum in
the Crimea 1 after they had been driven off the main
steppe in the
eleventh century, partly by the Russians and partly by a fresh
eruption of kindred Turkish-speaking Nomadic tribes (Ghuzz and
Cuman or Qipchaq) from the heart of Eurasia. 2

'Krimchaks the so-called "Turkish Jews", inhabitants of the Crimea,

whose centre of population is Qara-Su-Bazar, one of the most
densely
populated districts of Taurida. They differ from the other Jews of
Russia in that the Semitic and Tatar elements are in them
intimately
blended. In their mode of life, they greatly resemble their Tatar
neighbours, but in religion they adhere strictly to the Jewish faith, even to
Talmudic Judaism. Their dress is identical with that of the Tatars
The men are almost all of tall stature and slenderly built, and are marked
by the reddish-golden colour of their hair, a tint which is uncommon
among Semitic tribes. The women have retained more tenaciously the
:

*
'Many intermingled in the Crimea with the local Jews; the
their descendants' (The Jewish Encyclopaedia, s.v.
'Chazars').
3 See the second footnote
on p. 404, above.

Krimchaki are probably

ANNEX TO
characteristically Jewish type.
built in the usual Tatar style. .

language, but use the

II,

D(vi)

411

The houses of the Krimchaks are

The Krimchaks employ a pure Tatar
.

Hebrew Alphabet

in writing.* 1

The

other Jewish community in the Crimea are the anti-Talmudist Karaites (Qara'im i.e. readers of the Law and the Prophets as
:

opposed to the commentaries upon them). The Karaite Sect appears to have arisen somewhere near the centre of the Syriac World
in the eighth century of the Christian
perhaps in Northern Persia
Era, after the reintegration and resumption of the Syriac universal
state in the Arab Caliphate. 2 In its Syriac homelands, the Karaite
Movement attained its zenith in the tenth and eleventh centuries
of the Christian Era. Thereafter, in the Syriac World, and in the
new Arabic and Iranic worlds which arose on its ruins, Talmudic
orthodoxy began to regain

its

among the local Jewry,

new worlds to conquer. In

ascendancy

and the Karaites went out in search of

the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they were able to offset their
losses among the Jews of Dar-al-Islam by gaining ground among
the Jews in the main body of the Orthodox Christian World and
the Jews in the Crimea and on the adjoining stretches of the main
body of the Eurasian Steppe. Of the Karaites who established
themselves on the north side of the Black Sea, some were transplanted to Troki in Lithuania by the Lithuanian conqueror Witold
the Great (regndbat A.D. I392-I43O). 3 Others remained in their
Crimean fastness, which is described in the following passage from
the work of one of the earliest travellers with a Western scientific
outlook that visited the Crimea on the morrow of the modern
Russian conquest of the peninsula: 4
'At three versts' distance, as the crow flies, from the upper part of
5
Baghcheserai, at the entry of the gorge where the Juruk-su rises, one
reaches the fastness of the Jews Jufut-QaTeh. It is situated at the junction of the gorge with another valley, on a high limestone mountain which
One climbs up to the fortress by
juts out between the two ravines.
a path used for carrying water on donkey-back (in little barrels, slung
:

pannier-wise, at a charge often kopeks). Outside the town, at the entry of

the valley, one sees the cemetery of the Jews, shaded by magnificent trees
and covered with rows of tombs.
The Jews have such veneration for
this Valley of Jehoshaphat that at one time, whenever the Khans wanted
to make a levy on the Jews, they were sure of obtaining from them whatever sum they demanded by the threat of felling the trees surrounding
.

a
3

lus

The Jewish Encyclopaedia, s v. 'Krimchaks'.

I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp
76-7, above.
For the expansion of the Lithuanians to the shores of the Black Sea under the stimuexerted by the pressure of the Teutonic Knights from the Baltic, see II. D (v),
See

p. 172, above.
* Pallas, Professor: Voyages entrepiis dans les Gouvernemens Meridionaux de V Empire
de Russie dans les Anne'es f?93 et 1794 (French translation from the German: Paris 1805),
s
vol. 11, pp. 34-6.
Choraq-su?

412

ANNEX TO

II.

(vi)

the Jewish cemetery, on the pretext that they needed the timber. The
Jewish town is situated on the narrowest part of the salient of the mountain and is fenced in by walls and by houses. It has two outer gates,
which are shut every evening: one at the peak of the crag; the other at
the point where the ridge spreads out into a plateau. The streets are
narrow and tortuous but very clean. The rock itself serves for paving,
but the principal streets have side-walks for the convenience of the
In the centre of the town one sees a third gate which
inhabitants.
indicates the limit of the town's original area and gives a measure of the
extent to which it has grown. One observes in the vicinity the mausoleum of a daughter of Toqatmysh Khan.
The Synagogue, which is a
fine piece of architecture, possesses a little garden which serves for the
Feast of Tabernacles. All the courtyards are surrounded, in the Tatar
fashion, with high walls built of undressed limestone and clay. The
houses, which are built in continuous blocks, number about two hundred and are inhabited by twelve hundred persons of both sexes, who
are all Karaites. These Jews still use the name Qara'im among themselves, and do not admit the orthodoxy of any other Jews except the
Polish Karaites who agree with them in rejecting the Talmud. They
also import their bibles from Poland; but they have almost entirely
adopted the ancient costume and language of the Tatars, because they
have been living under the domination of that people from time immemorial, from the produce of their commerce, manufactures and
trades/
.

This brief survey

may give some notion of the great gulf in race,

and
ethos
which divides the little-known Jews in fastoccupation,
nesses from the well-known Jews in dispersion.

ANNEX I TO II. D (vii)

DR. ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON'S APPLICATION OF HIS
CLIMATE-AND-CIVILIZATION THEORY TO THE HISTORIES OF THE MAYAN AND YUCATEC CIVILIZATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND TO THE HISTORY
OF THE SYRIAC CIVILIZATION IN THE OASES OF THE
NORTH ARABIAN STEPPE
IT will be evident to any reader of this Study that the writer of it
has the greatest admiration for Dr. Ellsworth Himtington and his
work; and it is with considerable diffidence that the writer now
ventures upon a criticism of Dr. Huntingdon's views on one particular point. He therefore wishes to preface this criticism by noting
that the point in question does not touch the substance of Dr.
Huntington's theory the theory, that is to say, that the fluctuations
in the fortunes of civilizations are in some cases and to some extent
connected with variations in climate arising from a periodic shifting
of climatic zones. The criticism refers to two only out of a verylarge number of applications of this theory which Dr. Huntington
has made and the present critic will seek to show that, in these two
particular applications, Dr. Huntington is (no doubt, unintentionally) departing from his own theory in effect, instead of supporting it.
With Dr. Huntington's main positions, as he understands them,
the writer of this Study profoundly agrees.
He recognizes that Dr. Huntington with the just sense of proavoids the mental
portion which is characteristic of big minds
of
exclusive
or
even
ascribing
pitfall
paramount efficacy to the particular factors which happen to have been the object of the scholar's
own researches. Dr. Huntington perceives and declares that, in
human affairs, the efficacy of spiritual factors is primary and the
1
efficacy of climatic and other physical factors secondary.
And, in
the sphere of application which he assigns to the climatic factor,
he generally portrays this factor as acting upon human life, not in a
mechanical, a priori, necessitarian way, but in the form of a stimulus. Indeed, a sentence in which Dr. Huntington sums
up this view
of the relation between climate and civilization has been quoted in
an earlier passage of this Study as one in a series of illustrations
of the action of Challenge-and-Response. 'A relatively high degree
of storminess and a relatively long duration of the season of cyclonic
:

1
See, for example, his The Climatic Factor as illustrated in Arid America (Washington
1914, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication No. 192), p. 226,

ANNEX

4 i4

TO

II.

(vn)

storms have apparently been characteristic of the places where

'*
civilization has risen to high levels both in the past and at present.
Moreover, in the present Study, Dr. Huntington's special climatic
theory of the periodic shifting of climatic zones has been accepted
the Nomaas supplying the key to the geneses of three civilizations

and Sumeric on the assumption that a desiccation

of the former Afrasian Savannah into the present Afrasian Steppe

dic, Egyptiac,

has presented the human inhabitants of this region with a common

2
challenge that has evoked several alternative responses.
Dr. Huntington goes on, however, to apply this same special
theory of the shifting of climatic zones to explain the rises and falls
of the Mayan and Yucatec civilizations in Central America and
the Syriac Civilization in the oases of the North Arabian Steppe ;
and it is in regard to these two applications that the writer of this
Study finds himself unable to see eye to eye with Dr. Huntington
altogether.

Stated briefly, the theory of the shifting of climatic zones supin the first
poses that two things are constant from age to age
place, the amount of water existing on the surface of the planet, and
in the second place the nature and relative position of the sucwhile
cessive zones of climate that encircle the globe latitudinally
one thing varies periodically, this variable being the absolute positions of the boundaries between the same three successive zones as
measured by their respective distances, at different times, from the
Equator on the one hand and from the Pole on the other. This
periodic variation in the absolute positions of the zones is ascribed
to a periodic shifting of the track of the cyclonic storms, these
storms being the climatic agency (as distinct from the astronomical
factors involved) to which the differentiation of the face of the
planet into this series of climatic zones is ultimately due.
In order to grasp the application of this meteorological theory to
human affairs, we must remind ourselves of the respective characteristics of the successive climatic zones which always retain their
relative positions but periodically
change their absolute positions
on this view. Proceeding from the Equator towards the Pole, the
first zone is a tropical zone of
drenching rain and rank vegetation;
the second is a sub-tropical zone of drought and barrenness ; the
third is a temperate zone of moderate humidity and moderate

succeeding sub-arctic and arctic zones do not concern

us here). From the human standpoint, the temperate zone offers
Mankind the climatic and vegetational golden mean; the subfertility (the

Huntington, E. Civilization and Climate, 3rd ed. (New Haven 1924, Yale University
quoted above in II. C (ii) (6) i, vol. i, on p, 278.
See II. C (ii) (6) 2, vol. i, pp. 304-6, above.

Press), p. 12,
2

ANNEX I TO II. D (vii)

415
tropical zone challenges Man by offering him less moisture and less
vegetation than he requires and the tropical zone challenges him
equally severely by offering him an embarras de richesse in both
these commodities.
Assuming the truth of the hypothesis that the absolute positions
of these three zones periodically shift, it is obvious that there are
two sets of regions
one along the borderline between the tropical
and the sub-tropical zone, and the other along the borderline between the sub-tropical and the temperate zone which must be
periodically changing their climate in an alternation between one of
two different climates and the other. And this periodic alternation
of climates in any given area will obviously affect the character of
this area as a physical environment for human life. Confining our
;

attention, for present purposes, to the Northern Hemisphere, we

shall observe that, when the whole series of latitudinally parallel
zones shifts southward, certain areas on the borderline between the

temperate and the sub-tropical zone will now become easier for
human beings to live in because they will now be turning temperate
instead of sub-tropical and will thereby be making good their
previous deficiency in moisture and vegetation and concurrently
certain areas on the borderline between the sub-tropical and the
tropical zone will also now become easier for human beings to live
in because they will now be turning sub-tropical instead of tropical
and will thereby be getting rid of their previous excess of moisture
;

Conversely, when the whole series of latitudinally

parallel zones shifts northwards, the same two sets of areas in the
Northern Hemisphere will both now simultaneously become harder
for human beings to live in: on the margin between the tropical
and the sub-tropical zone owing to the northward advance of the
zone of excessive moisture and vegetation, and on the margin
between the sub-tropical and the temperate zone owing to the
simultaneous northward advance of the zone of insufficient moisture and vegetation.
Now, on the assumption that civilizations arise as responses to
challenges, and that their birth-places are therefore regions in
which life is relatively hard, and not regions in which life is relatively easy, we have found no difficulty in explaining the geneses of
the Nomadic, Egyptiac, and Sumeric civilizations as responses to
the challenge of a particular northward shift on the margin of
oscillation between the sub-tropical zone and the temperate zone.
On the same showing, the rise of the Syriac Civilization on the same
1
margin for example, in the oasis of Palmyra
ought to be the
result (in so far as it is due to the climatic factor at all) of a similar

and

vegetation.

For Palmyra, see

II.

(i),

pp. 9-12, above.

4 i6
northward

ANNEX

TO

II.

(vii)

a similar challenge of increasing aridity

and barrenness. Mutatis mutandis, on the margin of oscillation
between the sub-tropical zone and the tropical zone, the rise of the
1
Mayan Civilization in Guatemala ought also to be the result of a
northward shift: a shift which, on this other margin, presents the
antithetical but equally severe challenge of an increasingly excessive rainfall and an increasingly rank growth of vegetation.
It is here that Dr. Ellsworth Huntington appears to abandon, in
which he shares with the writer of this Study
detail, the view
shift presenting

and in

that civilizations arise as responses to

principle
challenges, whether these challenges be human or physical. For,
2
in a passage already quoted in this Study, Dr. Huntington suggests

in general

Guatemala when the local

climate was relatively dry and therefore relatively easy, and that its
eventual decline was due to a local increase in moisture and vegetation which made the homeland of the Mayan Civilization a relatively
3 he
difficult place to live in. Similarly, in another place,
suggests
that the age in which Palmyra rose to eminence was an age in which
the North Arabian Desert was relatively moist and fertile, and that
the decline of Palmyra was the consequence of desiccation. In
putting forward these two suggestions, Dr. Huntington appears to
depart from his own general view that civilizations flourish on challenges and decay in their absence, and to range himself, for the
moment, with the vulgar view that civilizations flourish on ease and
wilt under difficulties.
that the

Mayan

Civilization arose in

With regard
and we

to Palmyra, the climatological evidence is scanty;

shall simply observe that Dr. Huntington, in assuming a

deterioration of the local climate in the age of Palmyra's decline,

has to resort to the argument by exhaustion and that in arguing,
on this line, that we must assume a climatic cause for lack of a social

he gravely underestimates the strength of the social factors

the decline of Palmyra can actually be accounted for. 4
which
by
With regard to Central America, Dr. Huntington has at his disposal the far more precise and detailed evidence that is afforded by
a study of the growth-rings on cross-sections of the trunks of
cause,

On

the basis of
specimens of the Californian giant pine (Sequoia)*
6
this evidence, he has
compiled a remarkable table of dates purporting to show a chronological correspondence between 'inferred
1 For the
Mayan Civilization, see I. C (i) (i), vol. i, pp. 125-7; H. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i,
pp. 260-1 ; II. C (n) (6) 2, vol. i, p. 321 II.
(i), pp. 3-4; II.
(vn), pp. 304-6.
2
Huntington, E. Civilization and Climate, 3rd ed., pp. 330-2, quoted in II.
(vii)
on p. 305, above.
3
Huntington, E : Palestine and its Transformation (London 1911, Constable), ch, xv.
;

4
$

See, in particular, his Palestine and its Transformation, p. 335.

See The Climatic Factor as illustrated in Artd America, especially ch. xiv.
Huntington, op. cit., Table 12 on p. 231.

ANNEX

TO

climatic conditions in MayalancT

II.

and

(vii)

'historical conditions in

Maya-

And, on the strength of the correspondence which he believes

that he has established, he proceeds to argue 1 that, in the ages in
which the Mayas created and maintained their civilization in the
lowlands of Guatemala, this homeland of the Mayan Civilization
was not covered by a rain-sodden tropical forest, as it is to-day, but
then enjoyed the drier climate and less overwhelmingly luxuriant
vegetation that are to be found to-day on the Pacific Highlands of
Central America on the one hand and in the Mexican Province of
Yucatan in the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula on the other hand
these being the regions which are comparatively populous and
land*.

prosperous at the present time, when the rain-sodden forest that

covers the former homeland of the Mayan Civilization is almost
uninhabited.
In other words, Dr. Huntington suggests that, while the climatic
zones have shifted to and fro in the course of the last two or three
thousand years, the relation between Man and his Physical Environment has remained constant. As none of the present inhabitants of
Central America are masters of the tropical forest, so, he suggests,
it must always have been with their
predecessors. The fathers of
the Mayan Civilization must have made themselves at home in
Guatemala in an age when the boundary between the climatic
zones ran relatively far south and when accordingly, in Guatemala,
the tropical forest was not in possession. Their descendants must
have been evicted from Guatemala by the irresistible might of
Physical Nature when the climatic zones shifted northward again
and in consequence the tropical forest returned upon Guatemala to
reclaim the country for its own. Indeed, Dr. Huntington goes so
far as to maintain that the true tropical forest (as distinct from the
jungle through which it tails off into the sub-tropical bush) has
never yet been mastered by any human society at any time or in
2

any place.
In putting forward
elucidating both the

this view, Dr.

and the

Huntington believes that he

is

of the Mayan Civilization ;

but, to leave its fall out of the question for the moment, its rise, on
this showing, surely becomes more difficult, and not more easy, to
account for. Dr. Huntington asks us to believe that the Mayas have
never faced the challenge of the tropical forest at all, but have lived,
throughout the successive histories of the Mayan and Yucatec
civilizations, in no other physical environment but that of the subtropical bush in which their descendants in north-western Yucatan
1

In op.

and ch.
a

cit.,

fall

'Guatemala and the Highest Native American

Changes and Maya History',
pp. 180, 186, and 187.

ch, xvii:

xviii: 'Climatic

See op.

cit.,

rise

Ee

Civilization',

ANNEX

4 i8

TO

II.

(vii)

are living to-day. If that supposition is accepted as the truth, we

are left without an answer to the question of what the challenge was
that did evoke the Mayan Civilization. It was not, on Dr. Huntington's hypothesis, the challenge of the tropical forest ; and at the
same time we can cite the testimony of Dr. Huntington himself to

no equivalent challenge, and indeed no challenge of any

sort, is presented by the sub-tropical bush in which, according to
Dr. Huntington, the Maya have lived and moved and had their
physical being at all times in the history of the race and in all parts
of Central America in which the race has ever at any time established
In describing the life and ethos of the present-day Maya
itself.
in the bush of north-western Yucatan, Dr. Huntington draws a
picture that bears an amazing resemblance to a description of
primitive life in Tropical Africa which we have quoted already in

show

that

another connexion. 1

'The pure Indian is a quiet, slow being, inoffensive and retiring unless
He seems never to work unless compelled. As for storing up
anything for the future, the thought seems scarcely to enter his head.
If he has enough to eat, he simply sits still and enjoys life until hunger
again arouses him to activity. His wants are few and easily supplied.
His agriculture begins by cutting the small growths of the bush, or
jungle, girdling the larger trees, leaving the bush to dry during the
season of little rain, and finally burning it off. Then he goes around
with a pointed stick, making holes into which he drops corn, pumpkin
seed, beans, and the seeds of one or two other vegetables. The corn is
his chief reliance. When the corn is ripe, he has no thought of gathering
it all at once and
storing it away safely, perhaps in the form of flour or at
least shelled.
His method is to go out to the field in the early part of
the dry season after the corn is well ripe, and half break each stalk in the
middle so that it is bent over and the ears point downward. Little by
little, he picks what ears he needs for daily use, caring nothing that
insects, birds, and beasts are also eating what they need. He knows that
a quarter or a third of the ears may be spoiled but, so
long as there are
some for him, he cares little. The only thing that ultimately stirs him up
to gather the remainder of the crop is the end of the dry season. Before
the rains come he knows that he must harvest his crop and plant more
seed or else he will starve. Therefore he arouses himself for the one
period of effort during the year. He is hardly to be blamed for his
apparent laziness. He certainly is lazy according to our standards but he
has little to stimulate him, and it is easy to
get a living without much
abused.

work.' 2

One

has only to compare this passage with the

description, referred to above, of primitive life in
in
order to realize
Nyasaland
i
Drummond, H.: Tropical Africa (London 1888, Hodder and Stoughton), pp. 58-0,

quoted in II. D (i) on pp. 26-7, above.

*
Huntington, Ellsworth: The Climatic Factor as illustrated in Arid America (Washington 1914, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication No.
192), p. 180.

ANNEX
that, in the un-exacting,

TO

II.

419

(vii)

and therefore tin-stimulating, environment

of the sub-tropical bush, the descendants of the people who created

and maintained the Mayan and Yucatec civilizations have relapsed
right back to the primitive level. And, in the light of this fact, it is
surely more difficult to imagine how, once upon a time, this selfsame environment can have stimulated earlier representatives of the
self-same race to build Copan and Uxmal or to think out the Mayan
calendar than it is to suppose that these immense achievements were
evoked by the tremendous challenge that is presented
not by the
sub-tropical bush, but by the tropical forest.
So much for the attempt to ascribe the birth of the Mayan
Civilization in Northern Guatemala or the blossoming of the Syriac
Civilization at Palmyra to a state of physical ease arising from a
shift in the absolute position of the tropical and sub-tropical and
temperate climatic zones. At the same time, there is no objection
to supposing that, not only in these two cases but also in several
others which have been cited in this Study, a physical alleviation,
1

may have

played a secondary 'permissive* or

'enabling' part in the genesis of a civilization, not by introducing a
condition of physical ease, but by tempering a physical challenge of
previously prohibitive severity to a lesser degree at which the
severity has ceased to be prohibitive and has become, instead, a

produced in

this

way,

potent stimulus. And, conversely, we may legitimately suppose

that, in a case where a civilization is already in decline through
other causes, an accentuation in the severity of the climatic challenge may have the effect of making the decline irretrievable and
hurrying it towards a final fall.
may also suppose that, in a case where a civilization is in an

We

and therefore

equilibrium with its environment, a

the
change in
physical environment, arising from a shift of the
climatic zones, may act upon the society in question in a mechanical
way instead of through the vital give-and-take of Challenge-andResponse. This is to be expected, because a society that is 'arrested'
in static equilibrium is inhibited, ex hypothesi, from exercising the
vital mobility and free will and initiative which the movement of
*Challenge-and-Response' involves. In this condition, a society
must either remain unaffected by the impact of an external force or
else react to this impact in a merely mechanical fashion.
case in
point is the reaction of the 'arrested' Nomadic Civilization of the
Afrasian and Eurasian steppes to climatic changes arising from
the periodic shifting of the climatic zones in this area. In periods
of increasing humidity, the Nomads are apt to yield ground to the
exact,

static,

See

For such

II.

(vii),

pp. 306-9, above.

'arrested' civilizations see Part III.

A, below.

ANNEX

420

TO

II.

(vii)

encroachments of their agricultural neighbours in the borderland

between the Desert and the Sown. Conversely, in periods of increasing aridity, the Nomads are apt to burst the bounds of the
Steppe and to pour out, in eruptions of volcanic violence, over
the domains of their sedentary neighbours. The connexion be-

tween these eruptions of the Nomads and the pulsatory variations

in the climate of the Steppes is examined further in Part III. A,

Appendix

II, in

Volume

III, below.

ANNEX

II

TO

II.

(vii)

THE THREE-CORNERED RELATION BETWEEN THE

ROMAN CHURCH, ENGLAND, AND IRELAND
SINCE the first encounter between the English and Irish peoples
and the Roman Church, the relations between the three parties have
passed through almost every possible permutation and combination. From the seventh century to the twelfth, the English were the
obedient humble servants of the Roman See, while the Irish were
disinclined from the Roman practice and recalcitrant towards the
Roman authority. Since the sixteenth century, on the other hand,
the Irish have been devoted adherents of Rome, while the English
have been Protestants. It is noteworthy, however, that, although
the changes which the three-cornered relation has undergone in
the course of nearly thirteen centuries have been kaleidoscopic, the
English have always contrived, in each successive situation, to
retain the superior position which they secured in the seventh
century and to keep the Irish at a disadvantage.
It might have been supposed, for example, that the English
would have forfeited their advantage in the twelfth century when,
nearly five hundred years after the Synod of Whitby, the Irish at
length followed the English into the Papal fold. The incorporation
of the Irish Christendom into the Roman Church was formally
completed in A.D. 1152, when Cardinal Paparo, the first Papal
Legate in Ireland, convened the Synod of Kells and reorganized the
Irish dioceses. Yet it was only three years after this that a successor
of the Pope who had dispatched the legate addressed to a King of
1
England the Bull Laudabiliter, which gave approval to the project
of an English conquest of Ireland on the ground that this would
have the effect of enlarging the bounds of the Church (just as
though the Irish had not already come within the Roman fold of
their own accord). Thereafter, the English conquerors arrogated
to themselves
a virtual
again, apparently, with Papal approval
all
of
ecclesiastical
offices
in
from
which
the
Ireland,
monopoly
high
Irish came to be excluded generically. Thus their tardy reconciliation with Rome in the twelfth century profited the Irish nothing.
Again, it might have been supposed that the Irish would at least
have profited by their loyalty to Rome in and after the sixteenth
century, when the English turned Protestant; for now, at least, the
Roman Church was bound to treat Ireland as her child when her
former spoilt child, England, had shown herself so unfilial. Would
1

See

p. 337, footnote i,

above.

ANNEX

422

II

TO

II.

(vii)

not Ireland be strengthened now, as England had been strengthened

during the past nine centuries, by having the weight of the Continental Roman Church behind her in her everlasting struggle with
her insular enemy ? Unfortunately for Ireland, England has always

had

sufficient

isolate Ireland

command
from

of the sea since the sixteenth century to

the Catholic countries of the Continent and

to deal with her tgte-d-tte.

But was not

which Ireland was isolated from the

Continent by an English barrier, precisely the situation in which
the abortive Far Western Christian Civilization had flourished so
remarkably in the fifth and sixth centuries ? Unfortunately, again,
this situation, in

for Ireland, the situation since the sixteenth century has differed
from the situation in the fifth and sixth centuries in two important

the English in the modern age, instead

of being isolated and backward pagans, have been converts to
Protestantism : a revised version of Western Christianity which has
been adopted, not by the English alone, but by half the nations of
the Western World, including some of the most energetic and
respects.

In the

first place,

progressive and successful members of the Western Society. The

second difference in the situation is that, in the fifth and sixth
centuries, the English had not yet attempted to invade and conquer
Ireland and would not have been strong enough to succeed in the

attempt even if they had made it. By the sixteenth century, on

the other hand, the English conquest of Ireland was
already half
and
the
new
which
completed;
religious gulf
opened between the
and
the
Irish
when
the
former
turned against
English
peoples,
Rome and the latter remained loyal to her, inclined the English
more than ever to treat the Irish as 'natives' who were 'beyond the
(an expression which is actually derived from conditions
which prevailed in Ireland during the first phase of the
English
conquest). In the seventeenth century, the English 'planted' Catholic Ireland with Protestant settlers as
ruthlessly as they were 'plantl
In consequence, after the Reformation,
ing* pagan North America.
as before it, the Irish had to suffer from an
English ecclesiastical
which
remained
identical in substance in
tyranny
spite of its
in
form.
From
the
twelfth
change
century to the sixteenth, when
there was nominally one
church
in Ireland to which Irish and
single
English alike belonged, the English (as has been mentioned) assumed in this Church a monopoly of high ecclesiastical offices.
Since the sixteenth century there have been two Churches in Ireland, and the Catholic Church has been in the hands of the Irish
themselves. But from the moment when the Catholic Church in
Ireland was thus thrown back into Irish hands as an incidental
On this point see II. C (ri) (a) i, Annex, vol. pp. 465-7, above.
Pale*

j,

ANNEX

II

TO

II.

(vii)

423

consequence of the English secession from Rome, this local native

Irish Roman Church became a penalized institution with an alien
Protestant Church in a dominant position over it. Thus the effect
of the English Reformation upon the ecclesiastical position of the
Irish was simply to confirm and accentuate the inferiority of their
ecclesiastical status
an injustice which was only remedied by the
combined effect of two nineteenth-century acts of the Parliament
of the United Kingdom at Westminster the Catholic Emancipation
:

Act of 1829 an<i th e Episcopalian Church of Ireland Disestablishment and Disendowment Act of 1869.
It will be seen that the history of the three-cornered relation
between Ireland, England, and the Roman See from A.D. 664 to
A.D.

la

1869 aptly

m&me

chose.

illustrates the

aphorism that plus fa change, plus

c'est

TO II. D (vii)
THE EXTINCTION OF THE FAR WESTERN
CHRISTIAN CULTURE IN IRELAND

ANNEX

III

THE

discomfiture of the Far Western Church by the Roman Church

at the Synod of Whitby in A.D. 664 was the beginning of the end
of the distinctive Far Western Christian culture in 'the Celtic
Fringe' as a whole and in Ireland in particular, but the process of
extinction was long-drawn-out.

In Ireland, this process was completed at different dates in different spheres of social life. In the ecclesiastical sphere, it was completed in the twelfth century, with the thoroughgoing incorporation
of the Irish Christendom into the Roman Church. 1 In the political
and literary spheres, it was completed in the seventeenth century,
when Ireland was systematically 'planted' and subjected by the
successive efforts of James I/VI and Cromwell and William III,
and when the traditional art of the vernacular Irish literature fell
into decay. This tradition, which went back without a break to the
pre-Christian age, and which had been quickened into new life by
the conversion of Ireland to Christianity and the
development of a
peculiar Far Western Christian Civilization, was not broken by the
subjection of the Irish Christendom to Rome and of Ireland herself
to England in the twelfth century; but the tribulations of the seventeenth century were fatal to it. Finally, in the
linguistic sphere, the
Irish Celtic vernacular language itself died out
(except in a few
remote and secluded districts in the west) in the course of the nineteenth century, partly owing to the
spread of elementary education
in
the
imparted
English language, and partly through the retroaction upon Ireland of the Irish
community in America, who
became English-speaking instead of
Irish-speaking as a result of
crossing the Atlantic and settling in a New World where English
was the lingua franca.
The fact that, by the twentieth century, English had become the
real national language of Ireland was
brought out in an amusing
incident that occurred during the
negotiations which preceded the
conclusion of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of
1921. During these
negotiations, the Irish representatives had been making a point, in
the presence of the British
Irish with one
representatives, of
talking

another and signing their names in Irish

characters; and it had
become evident that they did not speak and write this Irish without
a certain difficulty. Thereafter, there came a
moment when the
1

See

II.

(vii),

Annex

II,

above.

ANNEX
principal British negotiator,

III

TO

II.

425

(vii)

who was none

other than the then

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr. David Lloyd George,

had occasion to hold a confidential conversation with his private
Instead of taking the trouble to
secretary, Mr. Thomas Jones.
withdraw from the room where the negotiations were taking place,
the two British representatives simply ceased talking English and
began to talk to one another in Welsh, which was the native
language of both of them. It then became evident to the Irish
representatives in the

room

that,

whereas their

own

real native

language was English, there were at least two British representatives negotiating with them whose real native
language was Welsh :
a Celtic language to which these champions of England resorted for
the sake of privacy because they could be certain that it would not
be understood by any representative of Celtic Ireland!
The last stage in the long-drawn-out process of the obliteration
of a distinctive Far Western Christian culture in Ireland has been
the establishment of the Irish Free State, in which the negotiations
of 1921 have happily resulted. Among the Irish themselves, this
happy event has been widely regarded as a great act of restoration
a liberation of the Irish genius from the shackles placed
upon it
by the successive acts of foreign aggression which have followed
one another since the seventh century. This is surely an amiable
illusion; for, when the nature of modern Irish nationalism is
analysed, it proves, like Zionism, to be really a radical form of
'Assimilationism'. 1 Nationalism (whatever nation's nationalism it
may happen to be) is the characteristic and fundamental political
creed of our modern Western Society; and 'to go nationalist* is the
most infallible of all the symptoms of 'Westernization'. The captivation of the Irish by Nationalism, like the captivation of the Jews
by Zionism, signifies the final renunciation of a great but tragic past
in the hope of securing in exchange a more modest but
perhaps less
uncomfortable future. If Jewish Zionism and Irish Nationalism
succeed in achieving their aims, then Jewry and Irishry will each
fit into its own
tiny nitch in the colossal structure of the modern

Western World as one among sixty or seventy national communities

all organized on the standard Western
pattern. In this posture, the
Irish and the Jews may find life in a Western environment somewhat easier than they have found it under the previous conditions

when each of them still represented, not just a commonplace

national articulation of an overgrown Western body social, but the
relic of an independent society of the same
species and order as
the whole of Western Christendom.
Thus

the establishment of the Irish Free State

1

See the critique of Zionism in

II.

(vi),

is

a prosaic rather

on pp. 252-4, above.

ANNEX

426

III

TO

II.

(vii)

than a romantic event. In fact, it signifies that the romance of

Ancient Ireland has at last come to an end, and that Modern Ireland
has made up her mind, in our generation, to find her level as a
The romantic
willing inmate in our workaday Western World.
trappings of the Free State, which catch (and are no doubt intended
to catch) the English eye, are superficial and perfunctory. While
the new Irish Parliament and political parties, and the Free State
itself, have been decked out with arresting Irish styles and titles,

and school-teachers are rebelling against the

that the qualifications required of them shall be made to
include an effective knowledge of the Irish language (a non-utilitarian accomplishment, inasmuch as Irish is no longer a
living
language except among the peasantry of a few districts in the west
of the island). It is also significant that there has been no movement in Ireland for changing the seat of government : a costly and
Irish civil servants

demand

inconvenient proceeding which is almost common form at the

foundation of 'successor-states'. Tara, the deserted capital of
the Ancient Irish High Bangs, has been left at the disposal of the
archaeologists, while the Government of the Irish Free State has
installed itself in Dublin a city originally founded by Scandinavian
interlopers and afterwards taken over from them by the English
conquerors to become the head-quarters of the foreign garrison by
which Ireland has been dominated for more than seven centuries.
Yet, in spite of this historic association with an alien ascendancy,
Dublin has been accepted as the inevitable capital of a new Irish
national state for the substantial reason that Dublin is the
geographical point of contact between little Ireland and the great
circumambient modern Western World in which Ireland has now
:

resolved to

merge

herself.

TO II. D (vii)
THE FORFEITED BIRTHRIGHT OF THE ABORTIVE
FAR WESTERN CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION

ANNEX

Now

IV

Rome

has been settled conclusively and irrevocably, it needs a vigorous effort of the historical
imagination to conceive that, in the seventh century of the Christian
Era, the embryonic Celtic and the embryonic Roman Church contended with one another for the prize of becoming the chrysalis of
the new society which was to emerge in the West. The actual
emergence of our modern Western Civilization from a Roman
that the issue

between lona and

ecclesiastical chrysalis is

such a prominent and important fact in

our Western history as it has happened to take shape, that it is

difficult to persuade oneself that this historic outcome was not
inevitable but was merely one of two possible alternatives. Yet this

now

barely credible proposition is the manifest truth. During the

post-Hellenic interregnum there was a real possibility of an Irish
which
victory and a Roman defeat ; and this alternative outcome
would have given the whole of our Western history quite a different
turn from that which it has actually taken
might have been realized
in the seventh century, or even in the eighth, if, in certain stubbornly contested battles between certain well-matched forces, the
victory had remained with the side which actually accepted defeat.
It may be suggested, without extravagance, that our modern

would probably have been derived from an

Irish instead of a Roman embryo either if Colman instead of Wilfrid
had won the Synod of Whitby in A.D. 664 or again if Abd-ar-Rahman instead of Charles Martel had won the Battle of Tours in
A.D. 732. And we may confidently promote this probability into a
Western

Civilization

of imagining
certainty if we allow ourselves the historical licence
5
that in both these 'decisive battles of the World the Fortune of
War had fallen out otherwise than it did.
The course which European history seemed likely to take, at the
c

moment when Abd-ar-Rahman, carrying all before him, was bearing down upon Charles Martel, has been imagined by Gibbon in a
famous

tour deforce of historical speculation:

'A victorious line of inarch had been prolonged above a thousand
miles from the Rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire the repetition
of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of
Poland and the Highlands of Scotland the Rhine is not more impassable
than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed
without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the
;

ANNEX

4 z8

IV

TO

II.

(vii)

in the schools of Oxinterpretation of the Koran would now be taught

ford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the
1
sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.'

We should rather be inclined to speculate that

'Abd-ar-Rahman's

had he overthrown Charles Mattel in A.D. 732 would

have proved of less advantage to the Arabs and Islam than to the
Celts and Far Western Christendom.
An Arab victory at Tours might conceivably have had the effect
of adding the Gallic territories south of the Loire and west of the
Alps to die permanent dominions of the Arab Caliphate. The cidevant Roman citizens of Aquitaine and Provence had already been

victory

linked once before with their fellow-Latins in the Iberian Peninsula

under the rule of the Visigoths the Teutonic barbarians who had
set up the first 'successor-state' of the Roman Empire in this
quarter. The Visigoths had been driven back from the Loire to the
:

2
yet,
Pyrenees by their Prankish kinsmen and rivals in A.D. 507-8
of
in
remainthem
the
their
until the Arabs superseded
possession
a foothold on the
retained
the
had
Goths
always
ing dominions,
Gallic side of the Pyrenees in Septimania; and, though more than
;

two centuries had passed between Clovis* march to the Pyrenees

and *Abd-ar-Rahman's march to the Loire, the Aquitanians had
never become reconciled to the rule of the Franks, whose little
3
No doubt the Latins
finger was thicker than the Visigoths' loins.
of Aquitaine would have been at least as well content as the Latins
of the Iberian Peninsula were to exchange a Teutonic for an Arab
master. And we can therefore readily imagine an Arab victory at
Tours being followed by a permanent annexation of Aquitaine and
Provence, as well as Spain and Septimania, to the Arab Caliphate.

On

the other hand, it is not so easy to follow Gibbon's flight of

c
imagination in fancying that the troops of Abd-ar-Rahman might

have doubled their thousand-mile march from Gibraltar to the

Loire by marching on from the line of the Loire to the line of the
Caledonian Canal or the line of the Oder. For even if Abd-arRahman had scattered the Franks to the winds and had found himself, on the morrow of a decisive victory at Tours, left master of the
situation, with no organized military power any longer in existence
c

anywhere in Northern Europe to contest his advance, it seems

probable that the further advance which Gibbon imagines, and
which no human obstacle would then have hindered, would have
been prohibited
as inexorably as Alexander's
ruefully abandoned
1

The

Gibbon, Edward: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. hi.
passage has been cited in this Study already, by anticipation, in I. B (lii), vol i, on

p. 30, footnote i, above.

2 For
Cloyis* victory at Vouilte in A.D. 507 see II.
3 2 Chronicles x. 10.

(v), p. 166,

above

ANNEX

TO

IV

II.

(vii)

429

advance beyond the Ganges

by the physical impossibility of
lengthening any further an already stupendously long line of communications. From their capital at Damascus and their reservoir of
soldiers in the Arabian hinterland, the Umayyad Caliphs were
unable to send reinforcements and supplies by sea from the Mediterranean ports of Syria and Egypt to those of Spain and Gaul, because the naval command of the Mediterranean had been retained
1
They thus had no short and easy
by the East Roman Empire.
alternative to the land-route across the whole breadth of North
Africa from the Isthmus of Suez to the Straits of Gibraltar; and
this route was not only long and round-about but was also beset
with obstacles, both physical and human : the difficulty of crossing
the desert and the danger of being set upon by the Berbers. Accordingly it seems wise, on this point, to differ (with great deference) from Gibbon ; and to imagine that an Arab victory at Tours
in A.D. 732 would have carried the North-West frontier of the Arab
Caliphate up to the Loire and the Alps but (in all probability) not

beyond them.
What would have been the probable effect of an expansion of the
Caliphate, up to but not beyond these limits, upon the history of

Europe ?

The

would have been once again to isolate the Far

Western Christendom of the British Isles from the Roman Church
as it had been isolated once before, three centuries earlier
by the
interposition of an alien society. In this respect, the Muslim Arabs
in Southern Gaul would have performed the same function as the
pagan English in Eastern Britain only, this time, the barrier would
have been drawn along a line which would have given a much
greater geographical advantage to the Far Western embryo of a
nascent Western Civilization than to its Roman competitor. In the
first place, the Far Western Church would assuredly have retrieved
the defeat which it had suffered at Whitby half a century earlier,
and would have drawn the English, as well as the Irish and the
Welsh and the Bretons, into its fold. In the second place, the Far
Western Church would then almost certainly have captured from
the Roman Church the whole existing and surviving extent of Continental North European Christendom. The country between the
Loire and the Rhine was already honeycombed with Irish monastic
cells a and in A.D. 732 the Irish missionaries in the Continental
pagan marches of the day Frisia and Hesse and Thuringia and
Bavaria
had not yet been suppressed by the English Romanizing
first effect

"Bury' sedttio minor of Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of
vol. vi Appendix 5 : 'The Byzantine Navy.'
Empire^
2 See the
map illustrating 'Les Expansions Irlandaises* in Gougaud, Les Chr&ientes
Celttques (Paris 1911, Gabalda), ad fin.
1

the

SeeJ.B

Roman

ANNEX

430
interloper Boniface.

IV

We may

TO

II.

(vii)

even conjecture that Boniface him-

would have found it impossible thereafter to carry on his own

missionary work in Central Europe without transferring his ecclesiastical allegiance from Rome to lona. In our mind's eye we begin
never committed to canvas by
to perceive the outlines of a picture
in which a Far Western Church, with
the Artist of human destiny
its centre and source of energy in Ireland and its southern frontier
along the Loire, consolidates its dominion over the British Isles and
the adjacent portions of the European Continent and then gradually
extends its domain north-eastwards
by converting the Saxons and

self

the Scandinavians
until its advance in this direction is eventually
barred by a collision with the Orthodox Christian Church, as the
actual advance of the Roman Church in the same direction was
eventually barred by the same barrier in the fourteenth century.

In studying

this actual historical process

we have had

occasion
to notice that when Roman and Orthodox Christendom did collide
in Northern Europe, after the elimination of the last of the pagan

which the two

contact ran south and north

North European barbarians, the eventual

line along

Christian civilizations established their

from the shores of the Adriatic to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. 1
Where are we to draw our imaginary boundary between the Orthodox and the Celtic Christendom in our hypothetical reconstruction
of our Western history?
may assume, to begin with, that if

We

Abd-ar-Rahman had won the

Battle of

Tours in

A.D.

732 and had

carried the

permanent frontier of the Caliphate to the foot of the

as
well
as to the banks of the Loire, the whole of Italy, inAlps
cluding Rome itself, would then have clung to the skirts of Orthodox Christendom as the only valid protection against this Arab
menace.

The moment when the Arabs and

the Franks were fighting their

Tours was also a turning-point in the relations of
the Roman See with Orthodox Christendom and of
Italy with the
East Roman Empire. At this moment, the iconoclastic policy of the
a policy which the EmImperial Government at Constantinople
was driving a
peror Leo the Syrian had promulgated in A.D. 726*
wedge between these two portions of a hitherto undivided Catholic
Christendom. 3 The Pope was refusing to accept the proscription
of image-worship by Imperial decree; the enclaves of
Imperial
in
Central
which
had
hitherto
held
out
territory
Italy
against the
decisive battle at

See II. D (v), pp. 168-9, above.

This policy of Iconoclasm was launched by Leo as soon as he had succeeded in
restoring the East Roman Empire (a ghost of the Roman Empire) in the homelands of
Orthodox Christendom. (For Leo's role in Orthodox Christian history see I. C (i) (),
vol. i, p. 64, footnote 3, above, and Part X, below. For Leo's
personal history see III. C
*

(n) (5), vol.

111,

pp. 2^4-6, below.)

For the progressive alienation of the Roman from the Orthodox branch of Catholic
Christendom see I. C (i) (&), vol. i, pp. 66-7, above.
*

IV TO II. D (vii)
43 1
Lombard barbarian intruders were renouncing their allegiance to
the Empire and the Lombards themselves were preparing to round
off their uncompleted conquest of the peninsula by attacking and
conquering piecemeal these long-recalcitrant enclaves which had

ANNEX

now

rendered themselves defenceless by deliberately repudiating the East Roman Government's support. At the news of
an Arab victory over the Franks at Tours we may conjecture that
all these incipient movements in Italy would have been arrested
at last

forthwith and reversed.

The Pope and the Romagnols would have hastened to make their
peace with the Emperor at Constantinople in order to make sure of

Imperial protection against an agile Arab aggressor who had shown

himself far more formidable than the heavy-footed Lombard. The
Franks
defeated at Tours and now cut off from Italy by the new
dominion of the Arab Caliphate in Southern Gaul would never
have suggested themselves to the minds of Papal statesmen as
possible alternative protectors of the Roman See, in lieu of the East
Roman Emperors. The Lombards would have ceased to cast
covetous eyes upon the surviving East Roman possessions in Italy,
and would rather have offered their own allegiance to the East
Roman Empire in order to save themselves from suffering, at Arab
hands, the fate which had already overtaken their own Teutonic
kinsmen the Visigoths and the Franks. Thus Justinian's 'great
idea* of reuniting the Italian with the Balkan and the Anatolian
Peninsula in a reconstituted Roman Empire
a feat which had

been accomplished in the sixth century, only to be undone

forthwith by the Lombard invasion
would have been realized

actually

definitively in the eighth century of the Christian Era, thanks to

the masterful intervention of the Arabs in Gaul.

In that event we may conjecture that, a century later, the Orthodox Christian missionaries Cyril and Methodius would have been
successful in winning the field of their labours
Moravia and

Bohemia

an Orthodox Christendom which would have embraced both the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Patriarchate
of Rome. 1 In these circumstances it is probable that, in the
partition of barbarian Europe between the Orthodox and the Celtic
Christendom, the Orthodox Church would have gathered into its
fold the whole vast family of the Slavs, and that the ecclesiastical
boundary between the two Christian societies would have run
through Central Europe, south and north, from the Alps to the
Baltic,

for

along the line of the contemporary linguistic boundary

1 The
geographical conditions resulting from the historical schism between the
Patriarchates of Constantinople and Rome in the eighth century actually rendered Cyril
and Methodius's work for Orthodox Christendom in Central Europe abortive. (See
I. C (i) (6), vol. i, p. 65, above.)

ANNEX

432

IV

TO

II.

(vii)

between the Slavonic and the Teutonic vernaculars. The new

Western Society derived from an Irish embryo would then have
been confined on the European Continent to a modest enclave
between the Loire and the Alps and the Bohmer Wald and the Elbe,
and its centre of gravity would have rested overseas in the British
:

Roman
perhaps eventually in Scandinavia.
of
the
function
to
to
itself
its
becoming
embryo,
arrogate
attempt
the chrysalis of a new Western Civilization would have been written
off by latter-day historians as an effort which was not uninteresting
As

Isles or

for the rival

in spite of its having been abortive, just as the Irish attempt

is written off now.
On this showing we may perhaps partly attenuate and partly

embroider Gibbon's fantasy.

We

have already represented the

Celtic pioneer Columbanus to ourselves as a second Bellovesus. *
Let us think of the Syriac conqueror Abd-ar- Rahman as a second
2
after a decisive victory over
Hannibal; and let us imagine him
the Franks at Tours
taking up again the brilliant policy, which
the Carthaginian statesman and strategist had conceived a thousand
years before, of an anti-Roman coalition, on West European ground,
between the Syriac Society and the Celts. 3 Let us further suppose
that the Arab
rendered more prudent than the Carthaginian by the
greater distance at which, in Gaul, he finds himself from his base
is content to
clip the wings of Rome by excluding her from Transalpine Europe, and that he does not follow the path of his Carthaginian predecessor in the hazardous enterprise of crossing the
mountains and seeking out his enemy in Italy itself. In that event,
the picture which we have already drawn will materialize. While
Italy and the Slayinias gravitate towards Orthodox Christendom, the
Arab victor at Tours, who is too prudent to attempt the passage of
the Alps, is equally firm in declining to march on, another thousand
miles, into the heart of an unknown and barbarous continent until
he arrives at the western confines of Slavdom or at the northern
extremity of Britain. Instead of embarking on any such crackbrained military adventure, he insures the exclusion of Roman and
East Roman influence from North-Western
Europe by making
friends, beyond the Loire, with the Bretons and the other Far
f

Western Christians who follow the Celtic Rite, and who are just as
ready as the Far Eastern Christian Nestorians and Monophysites
to escape the yoke of a Catholic-Orthodox Christendom
by placing
themselves under the aegis of Islam.
On this reckoning we need not push our flight of fancy so far
as to imagine the
interpretation of the Qur'an being taught in the
1

*
3

See II.
(vii), pp. 330-1, above.
This analogy had already been suggested in II. D (v), on
For Hannibal's policy see II. D (v), pp 161-3, above.

p. 203, above.

ANNEX

IV

TO

II.

(vii)

433

We

schools of modern Oxford.

may paint, instead, the rather less
sensational picture of a Celtic Easter being celebrated in the University Church by monks exhibiting the Celtic tonsure and belonging to the lonan Order of Saint Columba. And we may imagine
scholars, with their lively intellectual curiosity and their
not
restless Wanderlust, resorting to the seats of Arabic learning

Irish

and
merely to Cordova but to distant Baghdad and Samarqand
or
to
Paris
bringing back a knowledge of Aristotle, not to Oxford
but to Clonmacnois: the metropolitan university of a Western

World which looks for intellectual light to

Ireland. I Assuredly these

have acquired this precious

Irishmen would
knowledge from the Arabs at least three centuries earlier than the
date at which it was actually conveyed from Toledo to Paris by the
stolid descendants of Charles Mattel's Franks who have deflected
the course of our Western history for ever, but perhaps not for
f
good, by refusing to accept defeat at Tours at the hands of Abd-arRahman's Arabs
So near did the Celtic rear-guard of the North European Barbarism come to wresting from the Roman Church the privilege of
creating a new Western Civilization. In this conflict, Rome only
just succeeded in gaining the upper hand over Ireland.
active

and

brilliant

1
certain affinity between the Irish and the Saracenic genius appears to reveal itself
in the realm of art; for the Irish art of the now extinct Far Western Christendom is on a
par with the Saracenic art in its love for, and mastery of, geometrical design, while its
weakness lies in the delineation of living creatures, which, for Muslim artists, is tabu.
(For these characteristics of Irish art, see Gougaud: Christianity in Celtic Lands, pp.
371 and 374.)

II

Ff

ANNEX V TO II. D (vii)

THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE ABORTIVE SCANDINAVIAN CIVILIZATION AND THE HELLENIC CIVILIZATION
THE

resemblance of the abortive Scandinavian Civilization to the

successful Hellenic Civilization is not of course confined to the
fields of literary art and political organization ;* it reveals itself likewise in the fields of religion and of ethos. The resemblance in thos,

consists in the combination of a precocious originality with a

precocious rationalism, is touched upon on pp. 355-7, above. The
resemblance in religion is twofold. In the first place, the Pantheon
of Asgard resembles the Pantheon of Olympus in being a society of
divinities conceived in the likeness of human beings, and this not
only in their physical form but in their heart and mind and ex-

which

perience and fortune. In the second place the mythology of which

this pantheon is the subject is strangely divorced from worship.
The Gods and Goddesses who are most prominent in the myths are
not invariably the objects of the most popular or the most hallowed
cults ; and, conversely, some of the numina which are the objects of
these outstanding cults play quite an obscure part, or no part at all,
in the mythological drama. This divorce between myth and cult
is brought out in the case of the Hellenic religion by Miss J. E.
Harrison in her Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion* and in
the case of the Scandinavian religion by Professor H. M. Chadwick
in The Cult of Othin*
These resemblances in religion and in 6thos between the Scandinavian and the Hellenic Civilization cannot be explained, like the
political and artistic resemblances, as outcomes of the identic experience of transmarine migration which was common to the Greek
settlers in Ionia and to the Norse settlers in Iceland. On the other
hand, they seem too close to be fortuitous. Can we then account
for them otherwise ?
generation or so ago scholars would have confidently attributed all these resemblances alike to 'the common Indo-European
origin' of the Teutonic-speaking and Greek-speaking layers of
North European barbarians by whom the Scandinavian Civilization and the Hellenic Civilization were respectively created, but

this explanation

no longer

satisfies

us; for

we have now

realized
that a genetic relationship between two languages is no evidence for
the existence of any racial relationship between peoples
speaking
1

For the resemblance in these two fields, see

and ed., Cambridge 1908, University Press.

II.

(lii),

pp. 86-100, above.

3 London
1899, Clay.

ANNEX V TO

II.

(vii)

435

also that a racial relationship, even if effectively demonstrated by direct anthropometric measurements, is no
evidence for any community of thos or tradition between peoples
'those languages,

and

that prove to be racially akin to one another. In fact the old hypotheses of *an Indo-European race', 'an Indo-European ethos', and

'an Indo-European religion' have been exploded ; and explanations

of actual resemblances between different peoples of Indo-European
speech have therefore to be sought elsewhere.
The resemblances in certain religious phenomena between the

Scandinavian rear-guard of the Teutons and the post-Minoan

Greeks do extend to at least one other people speaking an IndoEuropean language: namely, the Aryan-speaking Nomads from
Eurasia who created the Indie Civilization on the site of the foregoing 'Indus Culture*. On the other hand there are other Indowho display
for example, the Italici
European-speaking peoples
trace of these particular religious phenomena. The Italici do
not appear to have conceived their divinities in human likeness ;

no

they had little or no mythology and their cults were crude magic.
Yet the Italici were 'Indo-European* in just the same sense (whatever the sense may be) as the Teutons and the Greeks and the
;

Thus

these particular religious phenomena are palpably

something less than the universal heritage of 'an Indo-European
family' of peoples. Yet, even if the old concept of 'an Indo-European family' is abandoned, this does not exclude the possibility of a

Aryas.

common

origin for certain particular Indo-European tribes which

are geographically far removed from one another at the time when
they first emerge into the light of History. It may not be fantastic to
conjecture that the Teutonic-speaking Goths and Gauts of Scandinavia may have been descended from a fragment of the same IndoEuropean-speaking tribe as the homonymous Getae and Thyssagetae and Massagetae of the Eurasian Steppe who are represented
1
similar connexion may be
to-day by the Jats of the Panjab.
postulated between the Aryan-speaking Bhrigus of India and their
Thraco-Phrygian-speaking homonyms the Brigoi of the Balkan

European Getae in the Lower Danube Basin were a fragment of the same
horde as the Thyssagetae between the Volga and Emba and the Massagetae on
the Lower Jaxartes, then it is natural to postulate the same relation between the Davi
or Daci, who were the historical neighbours of the European Getae in Transylvania, and
the Dahae, who were the historical neighbours of the Thyssagetae and Massagetae in
Transcaspia. Since the Damns, at any rate, were regarded as a Thracian people by the
time when they emerged into the full light of history in consequence of their collision
with Rome, it might seem at first sight as though the tribal names Getae and Davi were
both common to the Iranian-speaking and the Thracian-speaking branches of the IndoEuropean linguistic family. It is, however, perhaps more likely that the European Getae
and Davi, like their homonyms east of the Volga, were a pair of originally Iranianspeaking hordes who gradually became assimilated to the sedentary Thracian-speaking
populations whom they had conquered. Since the founders of *the Parthian Empire*
appear to have been Dahae (see p. 371, footnote a, above), it would follow that the Roman
Emperor Trajan's Transeuphratean and Transdanubian adversaries were blo6d brothers.
*

If the

Nomad

ANNEX V TO

436

II.

(vii)

Peninsula and the Bebryces and Phryges of Anatolia; and again

between the Kasyapas who were the historical neighbours of the
Bhrigus and the Cassiopaei who were the historical neighbours of
the Brigoi. The same postulate may be extended to another series of
tribal homonyms the Illyrian-speaking Veneti (Enetoi) of Venetia,
the presumably Thraco-Phrygian-speaking Enetoi on the Black Sea
coast of Anatolia, the Slavonic-speaking Venedi (Wends) in the
Pripet Marshes, and the Celtic-speaking Veneti on the Atlantic
coast of Gaul, whose tribal name has survived as Vannes. Is there
any evidence of the same kind for a common origin of the Teutonicspeaking and Greek-speaking tribes who respectively created the
Scandinavian and the Hellenic Pantheon ? In a recent study of the
Greek language 1 it is pointed out that 'there was a Germanic tribe
called Ingaev-ones, a name that apart from the suffix corresponds
exactly phonetically to the name Akhaiw-oi\ And when we ask
:

particular Teutonic peoples these Ingaevones were, we find

by native tradition assuredly the most trustworthy class of

which
that

evidence which we possess in such matters

the name Ingaevones
is connected with the peoples of the Baltic and with them alone'. 2
Then can we explain the common features of the Scandinavian
and Hellenic religions as the common heritage of a single IndoEuropean-speaking tribe, the Ingaevones- Akhaiwoi, which had
broken into fragments and come to be dispersed, in the course
of history, from the Baltic to the Aegean ? We may go on, if we
or weaken
this equation between the Teuchoose, to fortify
tonic Ingaevones and the Greek Akhaiwoi by adding an equation of
our own between the Teutonic Istaevones and the Greek Histiaioi
and at first sight this modified version of the 'common Indo-European origin' hypothesis looks attractive. Yet, before accepting it,
we may pause to take account of two considerations first, that it is
notoriously hazardous to build historical hypotheses upon resemblances in nomenclature which may be accidental and second that,
in this particular case, the 'tribal identity*
hypothesis which explains the resemblance between early Scandinavian religion and
early Hellenic religion does not explain their common resemblance
to early Indie
as it is conveyed in the Vedas.
religion
more convincing explanation will be found in a common experience and achievement of the Norsemen and the Achaeans and
the Aryas which has nothing whatever to do with the 'Indo-European* family-relationship between their respective languages. All
three peoples alike were barbarians who
happened each in their
;

'
Atkinson, B. F.
footnote i.

Chadwick, H.

versity Press), ch. ix:

The Greek Language (London 1932, Faber

&

Faber), p. 14,

The Origin of the English Nation (reprint: Cambridge 1024, Uni'The Classification of the Germam', p.

219.

ANNEX V TO
own

time and place

to

become

II.

437

(vii)

'external proletariats' of declining

and who each succeeded, or very nearly succeeded,

thereafter, in becoming the creators of new civilizations on the
sites of the antecedent civilizations whose domains they overran in
their Volkerwanderungen. At previous points in this Study 1 we
civilizations,

have already attributed the idiosyncrasy of the Hellenic religion

to the barbarian origin of the Hellenic Society. We have derived
the Olympian Pantheon from the barbarian war-band, and have
explained the divorce between Hellenic mythology and Hellenic
worship as a vestige of the unbridged cultural gulf between barbarian intruders who fashioned a new civilization out of their own
social heritage and the heirs of an antecedent civilization who had
failed to assimilate the intrusive barbarians.

If this explanation of

the Hellenic religion is right, then we can account in the same way
for the features which the Hellenic religion shares with the Indie
and the Scandinavian; since these are precisely the features that
derive from the barbarian origin which the successful Hellenic and
Indie and the abortive Scandinavian Civilization have in common.
1

e.g. in I.

(i) (a),

vol.

i,

on pp. 95-100, and in

II.

(vii)

on

p. 316.

D (vii)
THE FORFEITED BIRTHRIGHT OF THE ABORTIVE
SCANDINAVIAN CIVILIZATION

ANNEX

VI

TO

II.

of the margin by which the abortive Scandinavian Civilization failed to achieve its manifest destiny,
let us now imagine to ourselves that the historic encounter between
the Vikings and the Civilizations of the South had ended, not as it
actually did, but in the other of the two possible alternative outcomes. Let us imagine, that is to say, that the Teutonic rear-guard,
instead of being eventually discomfited like the Teutonic van-guard,
had eventually triumphed over Roman and Orthodox Christendom,
as the Achaean barbarians had once actually triumphed over the
Minoan Civilization and the Hittite Civilization. Owing to the
accident that, in the Scandinavian case, history has happened to
take the other of the two equally possible alternative courses, the
unfulfilled consequences of the unachieved victory of the Scandinavian barbarians are as difficult to apprehend in our latter-day
imaginations as the unfulfilled consequences of the unachieved
r
Yet, if we glance
victory of the Far Western Christians of Ireland.
the
in
of
at
the
critical
events
the
again
history
Viking Age, we shall
that
the
like
the
Scandinavian
Irish missionaries,
recognize
Vikings,
came within an ace of succeeding in their gigantic enterprise.
Let us suppose that they had just succeeded, instead of just fail2
ing, to capture Constantinople in A.D. 86o and Paris in A.D. 885-6
and London in A.D. 895 3 let us suppose that Rollo had not been
converted by Charles the Simple in A.D. 91 1* nor Svyatoslav defeated by John Zimisces in A.D. 972 5 let us suppose that, at the
turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries of the Christian Era, the
Scandinavian settlers in Greenland had just managed, instead of
just failing, to gain a footing on the North American Continent ; 6
and let us suppose that the Scandinavian settlers in Russia, having
actually made themselves masters of the Dniepr and the Volga
waterways, had proceeded to make use of these key-positions not
merely for occasional raids upon the Caspian provinces of the
'Abbasid Caliphate 7 but for the exploration and mastery of the
whole network of waterways that gives access to the Far East across
the face of Eurasia. None of these seven suppositions are at all
far-fetched or fantastic; and if we allow ourselves to
postulate all
1 See
Annex IV, above.
a See
p. 349, above.

HAVING observed the narrowness

4
7

See

II.

Annex, pp. 400-1, and II.

(vii), p. 349, above.
6 See
See p. 349, above.
pp. 291-3. above.
For these occasional Viking raids in the Caspian, see Kendrick, op. cit., pp.
158-63.
(v),

p. 199, II.

gee pp 347^8, above.

(v)
s

ANNEX

VI

TO

II.

(vii)

439
shall obtain a

of them, or even a majority of them, in imagination, we

reconstruction of the course of history which will perhaps surprise us.
shall see the Vikings trampling the nascent civilizations of
Roman and Orthodox Christendom out of existence as thoroughly
as the Achaeans actually crushed the decadent Minoan and the
rising Hittite Society so thoroughly, in fact, that the two annihilated

We

civilizations

do not leave any

spiritual children, affiliated to

them

through a universal church, behind, but vanish, bag and baggage,

from the face of the Earth to leave the field free for a new Scandinavian structure on barbarian foundations. 1 We shall then see this
new Scandinavian Civilization reigning supreme in Europe in
Christendom's stead and marching with the Arabic Civilization
across the Mediterranean, and with the Iranic Civilization across
the Caspian, as the Hellenic Civilization, once created on new barbarian foundations by the Achaeans, actually marched with the
Egyptiac and Babylonic civilizations in the place of the Minoan and
Hittite civilizations, when these had been so utterly overthrown
that their place did not know them any more. 2 And, after this, we
shall watch the Scandinavians turning their energies to the extension of their

domain

into the barbarian hinterlands

on

either flank.

The

Scandinavians, in their day, were assuredly as efficient in the

art of exploration and commerce and conquest and colonization
along the channel of inland waterways as the latter-day Cossack
pioneers of the Old World or the latter-day French and English
pioneers of the New World. The Cossacks, who made themselves
masters of the waterway of the Lower Dniepr some five or six
hundred years later than the Vikings, conducted their north-eastward operations from this base with such effect that, within two or
three centuries, they had threaded their way across the vast expanse
of river-shot continent that stretches away from the left bank of the
3
Dniepr to the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. Is it credible that the

Dniepr- Vikings and the Volga-Vikings would have failed to anticipate the achievement of the Cossacks if they had applied their
4
Again, the French
thoughts and energies seriously to this task ?
For this unfulfilled possibility, see I. C (i) (b), vol. i, p. 99, above.
Job vii. 10.
3 For the achievement of the
Cossacks, and the stimulus of alien pressure to which
this achievement was a reaction, see II. D (v), pp. 154-7, above.
4 The Vikings were actually better placed than the Cossacks for penetrating and
a watermastering the Great North-East, since they were already masters of the Volga
way of unique importance over which the Cossacks never obtained control (the Cossacks
were anticipated by the Muscovites on the Lower Volga and therefore had to make the
leap from the Don to the Yaik). The Vikings reached the Volga partly direct from the
Baltic (the portage to the Volga Basin from the Volkhov Basin is shorter, though less
level, than the portage to the Dniepr Basin from the Volkhov Basin) and partly by a
roundabout route down the Dniepr into the Black Sea and out of the Black Sea into the
Sea of Azov and up the River Don and across the portage between the Don and the
Volga at the point where the courses of the two rivers approach nearest to one another.
*

(See Kendrick, op.

cit.,

pp. 158-63

ANNEX

440

VI

TO

II.

(vii)

and English mariners who eventually made themselves masters of

the St. Lawrence and the Hudson, some six centuries after the
Greenland Vikings had just failed to master these two North American waterways, pushed westward, inland, up-stream, and on into
the Basin of the Mississippi with such effect that, within two
centuries, the victorious Western pioneers had reached the coast of
the Pacific. Is it credible that the Vinland- Vikings (if Vinland had
become, as it so nearly became, a Scandinavian colony)
would have failed to anticipate the achievement of the French
coureurs and the English backwoodsmen? The estuary of the St.
Lawrence, which offers itself invitingly to any seafarer approaching
North America from the direction of Greenland, inducts the exactually

through the chain of the Great Lakes, into the heart of the
Continent and here, at the head of the Lakes, lie vast tracts of
country with a soil and a climate in which the Viking pioneer would
have found a larger and more genial reproduction of his native
plorer,

Scandinavia.

The peculiar suitability of this region for Scandinavian agricultural settlement is demonstrated by the strength of the modern
Scandinavian contribution to the population of the present States
of Wisconsin and Iowa and Minnesota but the Swedish and Norwegian farmers who have been attracted to the American NorthWest and have 'made good' in these new surroundings within the
last half-century have not been pioneers themselves.
They have
waited for French and English pioneers to lead the way into an
American land of promise which these modern Scandinavian settlers'
Viking forefathers were on the verge of discovering for themselves
at the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries of the Christian Era.
;

few more Viking ships had made the passage from Greenland
to Vinland in that age, or if the ship's
companies that did make the
had
not
shown
less
than the usual Viking deterpassage
something
mination and enterprise in failing to push on beyond the
fringe of
If a

new world upon which they had stumbled, we must surely

suppose that, by Hauk Erlendsson's time, some three centuries

the great

the Scandinavian World would have extended to the Pacific

coast of North America 1 as well as to the Pacific coast of Northern
later,

Asia.

Perhaps the fourteenth century of the Christian Era, which

actually saw the completion of the partition of the ci-devant Scandinavian domain between Western and Orthodox
Christendom, would
have seen, instead, a Scandinavian'encirclement of the
when
globe,

There

is

one strange piece of material evidence

a Runic inscription, bearing the

date A.D. 1362, which came to light at
which opens
Kensington, Minnesota, in 1808
up the possibility that, in Hauk Erlendsson's age, one band of Norse explorers from
Greenland may have penetrated thus
deep, at any rate, into the interior of the North
American Continent. (See Roland, H. R.: The Kensington Stone
(privately printed:
Wisconsin 1932, Ephraim).)

ANNEX
Viking pioneers

VI

who had made

TO

their

II.

way

(vii)

44*

across the breadth of the

North Atlantic Ocean and the breadth of the North American

Continent to Alaska 1 joined hands at last, across the Behring
Straits, with other Vikings who, in starting out from Scandinavia,
had turned their faces in the opposite direction and had crossed the
Baltic in order to make their way across the breadth of Eurasia to

Kamchatka. 2
What would have been Iceland's rank and role in Hauk Erlendsson's day in a world in which Western Christendom and Orthodox
Christendom were both extinct, and in which a triumphant Scandinavian Civilization, that had overrun Europe and encircled the
globe, now found itself marching with the Arabic Civilization across
the Mediterranean and with the Iranic across the Caspian and with
the Far Eastern along the Amur and perhaps even with the Mexic
Civilization along the Rio Grande ? In this unrealized and therefore unfamiliar but by no means impossible world, it is evident that
Iceland would long since have ceased to be a Scandinavian Ultima
Thule and would have become, instead, the centre-point of the
Scandinavian World the inevitable stepping-stone, in mid-ocean,
between the European and the American half of the gigantically
expanded domain of a living and growing Scandinavian Society.
And what would then have been the state of Icelandic culture?
Would this brilliant culture, which actually wilted away under the
transforming touch of Christianity before it had attained its prime,
have been able to fulfil its early promise by going on steadily from
strength to strength if a successful Viking conquest of Europe had
extirpated Roman Christianity on its native soil before ever the
alien religion had acquired an opportunity of exerting its corrosive
influence upon Icelandic life ? And if the Icelandic culture really
had continued to develop, what special colour would it have taken
and what special lines would it have followed ?
From its actual development, before its life was cut short, we
can surmise with some confidence that its aesthetic sensibility
and intellectual penetration would have been of a rare quality and
that its religious temperature would have been sub-normal. 3 The
:

This Arctic route from Europe to North America, which the Scandinavian mariners
just failed to open up in the eleventh century of the Christian Era, is perhaps destined to
be opened in the twentieth century by Western airmen. 'On the British Arctic Air
1

Expedition [of 1930-1] we spent a year in Greenland investigating the possibilities of an

air route between Europe and America. The advantages of the Arctic route are many.
There are no long sea-crossings the weather in most parts of the Arctic is more stable
than in Europe; and, lastly, owing to the shape of the World, the Arctic route is the
shortest between England and Central North America.' Mr. H. G. Watkins in The
Times, soth June, 1933.
a See Annex VII,
below, for a comparison of the lost opportunities of the Scandinavians with those of the 'Osmanlis.
3 For an
imaginary reconstruction of the religious history of medieval and modern
on
the
Europe
supposition that Christendom had succumbed to Viking assaults instead
of beating them back, see I. C (i) (6), vol. i, p. 99, above.
;

44*

ANNEX

VI

TO

II.

(vii)

two tendencies are interdependent, for both spring equally fror

the specific 6thos of the Scandinavian Civilization which w
have attempted to appraise above. 1 This ethos, as we have ob
an
served, bears an unmistakable resemblance to the Hellenic
if we wish to conjecture what the Scandinavian genius migb
have achieved by the fourteenth century of the Christian Er
supposing that it had enjoyed the Hellenic immunity from
we cannot do better than to remini
sterilizing contamination
ourselves of what had actually been achieved by the more for
tunate Hellenic genius in its most brilliant early focus at a corre
;

spending date.

What is the corresponding century in Hellenic history to Hau

Erlendsson's in Scandinavian? Hauk Erlendsson actually livec
and was no doubt highly conscious of living, in the fourteen!
century of the Christian Era but if Scandinavian history had take:
the alternative course that we have allowed ourselves to imagine
Christianity would have been virtually extinct and the Christia]
Era therefore presumably obsolete by Hauk's time. In that cas
Hauk might have been conscious rather of living in the tent]
century since the moment when his Scandinavian forefathers ha<
struck out that independent course of their own which had even
tually led their descendants to unforeseen heights of achievement
He might have reckoned his chronology from the beginning of th
post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung (circa A.D. 375), when the Teutoni
van-guard went off to the wars and the Teutonic rear-guard mad
its momentous choice of
staying four centuries longer at home
And if we take the corresponding starting-point for Hellenic his
tory, and measure off the centuries from the beginning of the post
Minoan Volkerwanderung, when the Achaeans made a Vanda
choice and won Scandinavian laurels, what is the tenth
century o
the Hellenic Era on this computation? Simple arithmetic inform
us that the Hellenic century which corresponds to Hauk Erlends
son's century in Scandinavian chronology is the fifth
century B.c
And if we contemplate the historic cultura
(circa 525-425 B.C.).
in
that
famous
achievement,
century, of Ionia, the Hellenic Iceland
;

we may begin

to imagine what might have been

achieved, at ai
the
Scandinavian
date,
equivalent
by Iceland,
Ionia, if Fortune ha<
permitted the Icelanders, as she graciously permitted the lonians
to work out their own high destinies undisturbed.
In that con

tingency the Icelandic culture in Hauk Erlendsson's day might hav<

reached and even passed its zenith, and Iceland
might then hav<
been in the act of handing the torch of Scandinavian Civilizatioi
to

Norway and

to Vinland, as Ionia, in the fifth

century B.C., die
* See
as
well
as Annex V, above.
pp. 355-7,

ANNEX
hand the torch of Hellenic

VI

TO

II.

Civilization to

(vii)

443

Athens and to Magna

Graecia.

So near did the Scandinavians come, when they responded to the

challenge of Roman Christendom, to achieving the same success as
the Achaeans achieved when they responded to the challenge of the

Minoan

Civilization.

ANNEX

VII

TO

II.

(vii)

THE LOST OPPORTUNITIES OF THE SCANDINAVIANS

AND THE OSMANLIS
C

IN the narrowness of the margin by which the achievement of

success was missed on a number of crucial occasions, and in the
vastness of the difference in the course that would have been taken
by History if some or all of these enterprises had succeeded, the
of the Vikings bears a curious resemblance to the history of
history
C

the

0smanlis.

Western Christendom was at stake in

the Ottoman siege of Vienna in A.D. 1529, as it was at stake in the
Norse sieges of Paris in A.D. 885-6 and of London in A.D. 895.
Again, the 'Osmanlis, like the Vikings, just missed a number of
opportunities for expansion which other peoples took.

For example, the

fate of

The

'Osmanlis' acquisition of Algeria in A.D. 1512-19 came just

too late, and fell just too far short, to enable them to cut off, at its
base, the Oceanic enterprise of the Castilians and the Portuguese.
If Ottoman sea-power had been able to make itself felt at the

western end of the Mediterranean some thirty years earlier, it

might have come to the rescue of the last Moorish enclave in the
Iberian Peninsula and have compelled the Castilians to fight for the
retention of Andalusia at the moment when Ferdinand and Isabella
were actually rounding off their Peninsular dominions by the conquest of Granada. In that event, the Spanish sovereigns might
have lacked the leisure and the means for patronizing Christopher

Columbus; and Columbus himself might have found it impossible,

UIA.D. 1492, to set sail across the Atlantic from Palos, (The'Osmandid take sufficient interest in the discovery of the New World to
execute a careful copy of a very early map of the Americas which

lis

they found on board a Spanish prize that was captured by an

Ottoman squadron in the Western Mediterranean.) 1 Again, if the
C
0smanlis had followed up their acquisition of Algeria by
making
themselves also masters of Morocco, they
have
might
brought
Hemy the Navigator's work to naught by closing the Portuguese
route round Africa to India and the Far East. The
Portuguese
of
Africa
who
were
circumnavigators
scarcely hampered in their
enterprise by the activities of the Moorish pirates of Salee might
have found themselves paralysed if the Atlantic coast of Morocco
* See
Kahle, P.: Die verschollene Colwnbus-Karte von 1498 in einer ttirUschen Weltkarte von J5IJ (Berlin and Leipzig 1933, de Gruyter).

ANNEX

VIII

TO

II.

(vii)

THE FORFEITED BIRTHRIGHT OF THE ABORTIVE

FAR EASTERN CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION

WE

have found reason for believing that the capitulation of the

embryonic Far Eastern Christendom to Islam in A.D. 737-41 was
an event of historic importance. We may measure its importance
by allowing ourselves to conjecture what might have happened if
the

Umayyads had

unretrieved their great defeat of A.D. 731 in

the Pass between Kish and Samarqand, as they were content to
leave the defeat

left

which they suffered the year

after at Tours.

In that

event, it is scarcely credible that the situation on the north-eastern

front of the Arab Empire would have stabilized itself on the status

Arab

had not been carried forward, after A.D.

731, from the Murghab to the Jaxartes, it is improbable that the
Arabs would have retained their hold upon Khurasan. Within the
next half-century, the independent principalities in Sughd and
Tukharistan (reinforced by Turgesh and other adventurous Nomads
off the Steppe) might have driven the Arabs back south-westward
through Damaghan and the Caspian Gates, and have made the
Dasht-i-Lut the boundary between Far Eastern Christendom and
Dar-al-Islam for the time being. But if the frontier had once
moved back to that point, a comparison with the actual course of
events on the north-western front of the Arab
Empire, where the

quo.

If the

frontier

frontier actually did recede after the failure to retrieve the Battle of
Tours, indicates plainly that the ebb of the Islamic wave in this

quarter would eventually have gone very

Caspian Gates.

much

farther than the

The

strategic circumstances of the European and Central Asian

were curiously similar to one another. While the ultimate
base of the Umayyad Power
lay in Syria, it possessed two secondary
bases, nearer to the respective fronts, in two rich lowlands
Andalusia in the one case and
Iraq in the other from which armies
could draw abundant supplies.
Beyond these friendly lowlands the
Arab lines of communication had to traverse two
comparatively
arid and
the Plateau of Castile in
inhospitable plateaux
Europe,
and the Plateau of Iran in Asia and, on either
the
Arab
plateau,
lines were
flanked
to
the left
a
narrow
of
dangerously

fronts

by long,
strip
Western
Christian
masters
previous
of the Iberian Peninsula were still
holding out in the narrow zone
between the crest-line of the Asturian Mountains and the southern
coast-line of the Bay of
Biscay, The previous Zoroastrian masters
unconquered

territory.

The

ANNEX
of Iran were likewise

still

VIII

TO

II.

447

(vii)

holding out in the almost equally narrow

(though much longer and altogether more extensive) zone between

the crest-line of the Elbruz Mountains and the southern coast-line
of the Caspian Sea. 1 In both cases these unconquered enclaves of
hostile territory were dangerous
partly because they threatened a
long and exposed flank partly because they were natural fastnesses
;

would be extremely

occupy and subdue effectively in the teeth of a hostile population but, most of all, because
both enclaves were hemmed in by the Arab dominions on the landward side only, and were saved from the moral and material handicap of geographical isolation by the fact that they were in contact,
z
by sea, with more powerful opponents of the Arabs in still un-

which

it

difficult to

conquered hinterlands.

The

actual course of history in the north-west indicates what

have happened in the north-east had Qutaybah's work not

might
been performed over again and, this time, conclusively by Asad
and Nasr. Because, in A.D. 732, the Arabs lacked the will-power to
complete the conquest of Aquitaine, the Austrasian Franks were
able to join hands with the Asturians and to ensure that Asturia
should be an advanced base for future Western counter-offensives
against the Muslims. This was one of the objectives of Charlemagne's campaign which ended in A.D. 778 at Roncesvalles and,
in spite of that discomfiture, the objective had been achieved by
A.D. 80 1, when Charlemagne's Spanish march was pushed forward
;

From that date onwards, the local Asturian

beyond Barcelona.
front became part of a united front of Western Christendom; the
ascendancy on the Iberian border had definitely passed from the
Muslims to the Westerners and there is nothing surprising in the
developments of the next four centuries, which were consummated
in A.D. 1235 by the conquest of Cordova and which resulted in the
3

extinction of

Muslim

rule in every part of the Peninsula except the

enclave of Granada. 4
1
In climate and vegetation the Elbruz range may be considered as being a detached
and remote enclave of Northern Europe, and the sub-tropical coastal belt between the
Elbruz and the Caspian as a similar enclave of India. We may compare with this the

equally curious enclave of the Mediterranean climate along the eastern part of the south
coast of the Black Sea, which also, of course, faces northward.
2 At that time the main stream of the Oxus
may possibly have flowed into the Caspian,
and this would have afforded water transport all the way from Daylam to Sughd via
Khwarizm. But, in any case, there was alwavs a caravan-route between Khwarizm and
the eastern coast of the Caspian. (For the variations in the course of the River Oxus, see
Huntington, Ellsworth: This Pulse of Asia (London 1907, Constable), ch. xvii. The only
period for which a discharge of part of the waters of the Oxus into the Caspian instead
of into the Sea of Aral is satisfactorily attested is the period A.D. i22i~circa A.D. 1550
3 See
p. 363, above.
(op. cit., p. 350).)
*
the
enables
us to reconstruct, with
what
in
north-east
actually happened
Conversely,
some confidence and even in some detail, the first stages of what would presumably have
happened in the north-west had the fate of Aquitaine, like that of Transoxania, been redecided between A.D. 732 and 741. With the Arab Empire permanently established in

ANNEX

448

On

VIII

TO

II.

(vii)

showing, it is surely clear that, if the Far Eastern

Christendom of Central Asia had survived the Islamic impact, the
boundary between Dar-al-Islam and the new Central Asian World
which would then have taken substance would not have stood
permanently at the Caspian Gates. For while that narrow passage
between desert and mountain is admirably protected by the noman's-land of the Dasht-i-Lut on the south, it is outflanked on the
north by the fastnesses of Tabaristan and Daylam and we have
1
suggested already that the Zoroastrians who were holding out in
these fastnesses against the Arabs would have made common cause
with the Nestorians and Manichaeans and Buddhists of Central
Asia if the Central Asians had succeeded in turning back the tide of
Arab conquest in the eighth century of the Christian Era. Even as
it was, the Tabaris and Daylamis resisted conversion to Islam until
the ninth and tenth centuries, and even then they only accepted
their Arab enemies' religion in the unorthodox version of the Shi 'ah.
Had a previous turn of the tide encouraged them to hold out only
a few years longer than they actually did, then, upon the break-up of
the 'Abbasid Caliphate, the Buwayhids would duly have descended
upon the Iranian Plateau from Daylam, but as Zoroastrians and not
as Muslims and as conquerors of fresh territory for the nascent
Central Asian Civilization at the expense of Islam, instead of their
passage being a mere domestic incident in the last phase of Syriac
this

history.

The

progress of Central Asia at the expense of Dar-al-Islam

would, no doubt, have gone steadily forward. Even if the Sunnis
had made more effective efforts to save Iraq, or, at least, Baghdad
itself, from the hand of a Buwayhid unbeliever than they actually
made when the Caliph fell into the power of a Buwayhid sectarian,
the Buwayhid's work would have been finished
by a Zoroastrian or
a Nestorian Saljuq for, in the meantime, the Far Eastern Christen;

their rear, as well as in front of them, and with their

co-rehgionists in Aquitaine apostasizing in increasing numbers to Islam, the Christians of the Asturian enclave could no
more have resisted assimilation than the Zoroastrians of the Caspian Provinces found
themselves able to resist it after the Arab conquest of Transoxania. The
Astunans, like

the Daylamites, Tabans, and Jurjanis, would almost

inevitably have been converted to
Islam in the course of the ninth and tenth centuries of the Christian Era. It is true that
such conversion, had it taken place, would not have prevented the Asturian
mountaineers,
in the course of the tenth century and thereafter, from
issuing out of their fastnesses and
beginning to push down across the Castilian Plateau towards the lowlands of Andalusia,
as they actually did. That historical movement was a
consequence of the growing social
and political weakness, at that time, of the Arab Empire through its whole
extent, both
under Umayyad sovereignty in the Peninsula and under 'Abbasid
sovereignty elsewhere.
It was not affected by the religious
factor, and the converted Daylamites therefore took
the offensive in Iran simultaneously with the unconverted Astunans in the Peninsula.
In the sequel, however, the religious factor made a world of difference. The
Buwayhids,
descending as Muslims (though as Muslims of the Shl'i persuasion), were not, by their
conquests, diminishing the territories of Dar-al-Islam. For this reason, these conquests
were not so fiercely opposed as those of the Christian
Asturians, and were therefore not
only more rapid in their extension, but also more superficial and transitory in their effects.
* On
pp. 377-8, above.

ANNEX

VIII

TO

II.

(vii)

449

dom would

have become solidly established in between Dar-alIslam and the Eurasian Steppe, and the Nomadic peoples who
broke upon the Transoxanian coasts of the Steppe in the eruption
of A.D. 975-1 275 would therefore have been converted to Nestorianism and would have come, not as reinforcements, but as alien and
destructive enemies to Islam. As it was, the Saljuqs, meeting Islam

and succumbing to it in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin, travelled on westward as Muslims and discharged their thunder upon Orthodox
Christendom in Anatolia. If we may imagine them converted, in
Transoxania, to Nestorianism instead, and meting out to a Muslim
'Iraq and Syria the treatment which they actually meted out to an
Orthodox Christian Anatolia, we can estimate how disastrous the
effect would have been for the destinies of Islam.
This, again, is not a fantastic conjecture, for, in the last phase
of the post-Syriac Volkerwanderung, a catastrophe of this very kind
actually did bring Islam to within an ace of destruction. The postSyriac Volkerwanderung was contemporaneous with a period of
effervescence on the Steppes ; and on the Eurasian Steppe, in this
period, the convulsions reached their maximum degree of intensity
1
As the
immediately before the disturbance died down altogether.
disorder worked up towards its climax, successive hordes of Eurasian

Nomads were upheaved and

discharged outwards from deeper and

deeper recesses of Eurasia. The first elements discharged upon
Dar-al-Islam were the occupants of the peripheral or 'in-shore'
zone of the Steppe, of whom the Saljuqs may be taken as the leading example. Since, for a considerable period before their upheaval,
these peripheral Nomads had been in contact with, and under the
influence of, the religion then prevalent in Transoxania, and since,
furthermore, that religion happened, owing to the decision of A.D.
741, to be not an unconquered Nestorian Christianity but the conquering religion of Islam, the Saljuqs had themselves become
Muslims before the Volkerwanderung hurled them upon Muslim
lands, and it has just been remarked how this previous assimilation
rendered their invasion comparatively harmless to the invaded
society. In the final and most convulsive phase of the eruption,
however, the circumstances were not equally favourable from the
Islamic point of view for, in this phase, Dar-al-Islam was assailed
by Nomadic invaders from the innermost depths of the Steppe
depths to which Islam, in spite of having conquered Transoxania,
had not had time to penetrate during the five centuries which had
;

since elapsed.

These depths, however (which lay in what are now Mongolia and
Zungaria), had not been left unevangelized. In conquering the
'

On

this point, see further Part III.

A, Annex

II,

and Part VIII, below.

ANNEX

450

VIII

TO

II.

(vii)

Oxus-Jaxartes Basin, Islam had, indeed, effectively prevented that

region from becoming the centre of a new Far Eastern Christian

on an entente between all Islam's local rivals

Nestorianism and Buddhism and Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism
but she could not prevent these rival religions, whose future in
Central Asia she had destroyed for any effective purpose of social
construction, from drifting eastwards along the Central Asian corridor and establishing a curious, transitory, and abortive ascendancy
over the minds of Uighurs and Naimans. 1 Indeed, it is possible
that Muslim aggression against Sughd and Farghana hastened the
conversion of the Far North-East to Manichaeism and Nestorianism 2
Civilization based

dispersion of Transoxanian refugees abroad among

Nomad Gentiles. 3 If so, the unborn civilization of Central Asia at
any rate left a ghost in the shape of Trester John', and that ghost
very nearly succeeded in taking its revenge upon the remote suc-

by causing a

cessors of those

Muslim conquerors who,

had

five centuries before,

of life in the flesh. It is doubtful whether there were any

Buddhist or Nestorian elements in the original nucleus of Chingis
Elian's Nomadic confederacy; and, even among the tribes on the
pasture-lands immediately to the west of his, these elements were
probably very small in numbers. They possessed, however, something like a local monopoly of technique and knowledge; the

cheated

it

communities among whom they were found were incorporated into

Mongol community on terms more nearly approaching equality
than any terms granted to remoter and more alien populations that
were subsequently conquered; moreover, their incorporation occurred at a moment when Chingis' empire was assuming proportions which made the introduction of some kind of civil order a
and thus it was that these few and scattered survivors
necessity
of an abortive civilization were paradoxically raised to places of
honour and influence round a throne which bade fair to dominate
the

two continents.

Had this suddenly evoked spectre of the abortive Far Eastern

Christendom succeeded in grasping the hand of the Western
Christendom which (owing to thefaint-heartedness of Arab empirebuilders after A.D. 732) was by this time a creature of flesh and
blood in all the aggressive lustiness of early manhood, it is
hardly
See II. D (vi), pp. 237-8, above.
Buddhism, which travelled eastward and south-eastward to the Far Eastern World
along the corridor of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin and the Tarim Basin, does not appear to
have penetrated the steppe-country to the north.
3 The
ruling house of the Uighurs was converted to Manichaeism in A.D. 762-3 that
is to say, twenty-one years after the definitive
incorporation of the whole of Transoxania
into toe Arab Empire. In this case, however, the immediate source of radiation seems to
have been the Manichaean Church which by this time had been established for a
century
the Far East, and not the Manichaean Church in Transoxania.
(See Cordier, II.:
Histoire GMrale de la Chine (Pans 1920-1,
Geuthner, 3 vols.), vol. i, p. 500.)
*

ANNEX

VIII

TO

II.

(vii)

451

possible to believe that Islam could have survived ; and it is sometimes forgotten how very near to accomplishment this dramatic
reunion of co-religionists, long sundered by the barrier of Islam,
was several times brought, through overtures from both sides, in

the course of the thirteenth century after Christ. The overthrow

of the Khwarizm Shah in A.D. 1220 seemed at first sight to have
cancelled, at one stroke, five centuries of Islamic effort in the OxusJaxartes Basin; and the sack of Baghdad and the irreparable devastation of Iraq in A.D. 1258 by Hulagu Khan were like mortal
blows at the political and economic heart of the Islamic commonwealth. Now the project of Hulagu's expedition appears to have
been suggested to the mind of Hulagu's overlord, the Khaqan
Mangu, by the Uniate-Catholic King Hayton of Little Armenia;
and it may have been Hulagu's Nestorian wife who inspired him,
in turn, to send his advance-guard across the Euphrates, in order to
attack the Muslims in their last citadel of Egypt, under the command of the Nestorian general, Kit-Bugha. 1 In A.D, 1260, when
Kit-Bugha captured Damascus and momentarily gave the local
Monophysite and Orthodox Christians the dominion over their
Muslim neighbours, the Western Crusaders were still clinging to
Acre and a few other strongholds on the Syrian coast, and they were
not blind to the possibilities which Trester John's' miraculous
intervention might offer. Already Friar Giovanni di Piano Carpini
had been sent to the Khaqan's court at Qaraqorum by Pope Innocent IV in A.D. 1246 and Friar William of Rubruck by St. Louis in
A.D. 1253. Between 1260 and 1269 Marco Polo's father and uncle
made their way to the same destination as private merchants, and
returned as bearers of a letter to the Pope from the Khaqan. In
1271 they set out, this time from Acre, to make the journey to
Qaraqorum again, bearing an answer from the Pope, and accompanied by Marco, and it was not till 1295 that they returned to
Venice via the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, a letter (still preserved)
had been sent in 1295 by the Il-Khan Arghun to the Court of
France, to be followed by another in 1305 from his son Uljaytu.
Thus, during the latter half of the thirteenth century, the two
deadly enemies of Islam came within measurable distance of cooperation. It was not till after the fall of Acre in 1291 and the
successive failure of the second and third Mongol invasions of
Syria in 1281 and 1303 that this possibility disappeared.
Such were the straits to which Islam was reduced in the last phase
of the Nomad eruption and post-Syriac Volkerwanderung of A.D.

975-1275, and this although, as recently as A.D. 1220, Islam had

been the dominant cultural and political force as far north-eastward
*

See

II.

(vi)i

P 238, above.

ANNEX VIII TO II. D (vii)

453
as the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin. Supposing, however, that, five centuries
earlier, that region had resisted assimilation and had developed an
independent and aggressive civilization in the meantime on the lines
suggested above, the eventuality which, in actual fact, only passed
in a flash across the page of History as a picturesque possibility,
would almost certainly have taken shape as a historical event of
permanent importance. Supposing that, by A,D. 1220, Islam had
already been driven west of the Euphrates, and that a new Far
Eastern Christian Civilization had already extended its domain from
that river on the south-west to the border of Chingis Khan's homelands in the opposite quarter, it is probable that the BuddhistNestorian culture, which exercised so marked an influence upon the
and thirteenth-century Mongols even in its dim and shadowy
residue, would have captured them heart and soul, and that they
would have made themselves its apostles as they went forth, conquering and to conquer, to the ends of the Earth. In that case the
western bank of the Euphrates would have been Islam's first and
last line of defence, and it is hardly conceivable that a single line
would not have been broken. Had that breach occurred, Islam in
the thirteenth century of the Christian Era would have suffered the
fate of Orthodox Christendom in the eleventh. The Eastern and
the Western Christian enemy would have united to storm her
1
She would have become a submerged society,
Egyptian citadel.
and by the twentieth century of the Christian Era she might only
have been represented by such 'fossils' as now actually survive of
the Gregorian and Jacobite Monophysites or of the Nestorians

twelfth-

themselves.
1

Just as in the eleventh century the Saljuqs and the Normans broke simultaneously
upon the Orthodox Christian World from opposite quarters of the compass.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD

BY JOHN JOHNSON, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

THE DRAGON

STIRS

Chinese jtm^ at davun on the broad Yangtze "\iang

THE

"

DRAGON
STIRS
AN

INTIMATE SKETCH-BOOK

OF CHINA'S KUOMINTANG REVOLUTION

1927-29

Ey

HENRY FRANCIS MISSELWITZ

NEW

YORK: HARBINGER HOUSE

Copyright 1941 by Henry Francis Misselwitz

reproduction in "wnole or
rignts reserved.
in part forbidden, except for slLort excerpts
quoted, by reviewers.

FIRST EDITION

PRINTED

ENT

THE! TJNTTEiD STA.TE3S OF

CONTENTS
PREFACE
1

THE DRAGON

WHEN

THE "NANKING

INCIDENT"

32

"WHY WE ARE

IN CHINA"

52

IN THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

65

RED RULE AT HANKOW

87

UP

THE RED FLAME FADES

121

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

132

10

A "NEW

144

11

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

157

12

RED REBELLION

167

13

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD"

174

14

THE MARINES GET GOING

186

15

THE END

191

16

TOKYO'S DILEMMA

17

A DREAM

18

SOME AMERICANS

19

THE DRAGON LEARNS

20

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

239

21

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

248

22

THE "BoY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

262

23

THE ROAD AHEAD

276

INDEX

287

STIRS

11

SHANGHAI FELL

18

TO THE FRONT

103

DEAL" FOR CHINA

OF

CHANG TSO-LIN

202

THAT RIVALS GENGHIS

WHO WERE
TO

KHAN

206

THERE

215

FLY

229

PREFACE
The Chinese are

united

today

temporarily.

They were

finally

aroused, along with much of the rest of the world, by Japan's invasion of China. Smouldering coals of deep hatred against the Japanese
into

burst

quenchless

flames.

Internal

was

strife

forgotten

in

the

new menace from outside their Middle Kingdom, and

the Chinese made peace at home for the moment there in the tinderbox of Asia against a common foe.
The intolerable heat of their
white heat of a

hatred of the invaders from tiny, insular Japan welded

one vast loathing, incoherent mass.

One

definite

the

among

unity

those peoples
or any other

significant result

many

was the

first faint

China into

sign of real

totally different types of Asiatic peoples in that

Japan's invasion of China did more to unite

than any other one thing
those restless sons of Han
leader had done since the revolution in 1911, which

illiterate

broad,

and

all

land.

overthrew the craven, effete and criminally corrupt old Manchu Dynasty in Peking, the ancient Capital.

new

China, as the Dragon stirs and awakes,

with which we are concerned in the following pages, rather than
another book on Japan's sanguinary "undeclared war" with an unIt is

the birth of a

wieldy neighbor in the chaotic Orient.

of those vital days a few years ago,
a

national

consciousness

Here is a stirring cross-section

when China began fumbling for

and took the

first

faltering

steps

upward

toward unity.

The Chinese were

in

early

South

1927.

from united when

reached Shanghai,
deep-rooted uprising had begun far in the deep
far

of China, at Canton,

first

and was convulsing

all

east Asia.

It

was

the Kuomintang, or People's Party, against the war lords at Peking,

The rebels from China's far South were led by Chiang
in the North.

Kai-shek, then a youthful commander

issimo.

They swept

who was

to

become

their General-

swiftly northward, through the Yangtze Valley,

seizing province after province in their relentless advance,

ing

"Down

with the Peking war lords

!"

and shout-

and "Down with the Foreign

Foreigners from the West were denounced to the people of China as their enemies then, as now, by leaders
Devils

1"

in their

ruthless

fury.

in the Kuomintang.

dawn

It is this tense period, the

which

Orient,

is

discussed

in

this

of the current era in the exotic

No

volume.

effort

was made

to

write a "stop press" story of China, with bulletin-like accounts of her

frenzied, heroic attempts to ward off the land-hungry Japanese with

have concentrated essentially

on the beginnings of China's struggle toward unity as a nation, so very
recently, while her soul-baring People's Revolution swept to victory
our financial and material

aid.

Rather,

around me.

name and a bit of personal history may be of interest. Misselan old German name, from Saxony on the border of Poland.

My
witz
I

is

was born

century.

he and

My
my

Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1900, at the turn of the

father was born in New York eighty-two years ago, and

in

mother

still

live

in

His father was born

Missouri.

in

with a German girl who had lived long in France.

They fled Germany in the middle of the last century and settled first in
New York. Shortly after my father was born there, the family moved to

Saxony, and

fell

in love

He, Herman Francis Misselwitz,

became a Philadelphia lawyer; and about the time when Horace Greeley
was telling young men in the growing nation, reunited following our
Philadelphia where he

Civil

War,

was

to "go west,"

reared.

he went west.

There in Leavenworth, then a thriving trading post and jumping

off place for the still none too safe journey across the continent to the
West Coast and California, he hung out his shingle. And there this

She
sandy haired, blue-eyed Saxon from Manhattan met my mother.
was a tiny young lady, not long from the blue grass country of her
native Kentucky.
Shy dark eyes, like caves of sunlight, shone from
her delicate features beneath a cloud of jet black hair piled high in a
pompadour, then fashionable. From them, I get my light brown hair

and dark brown

eyes.

name then was Grace

Mother was but 4

Ella Fields.

Norman French on her

father's

our United States postal service

mother's side.

feet

She came

of

11

inches

a mixture

tall.

Her

of English-

he was Heniy Clay Fields, of

and of Scotch and Dutch on her

side

Rer mother was Laura

Belle

Embry, of Kentucky, who

became an ardent temperance leader of the post-war (Civil War) era

and one of the very early members of the Women's Christian Tern-

perance Union headed by her friend and associate, the dynamic Frances
Willard, in Wichita, Kansas.
I

was born

as

the twentieth

century began, near the very heart

of the United States. I asked a friend in Berlin a few
years ago
to look into the family name Misselwitz, and determine if I weren't at
least partly Jewish so that, as I put it in a letter to him, I couldn't "be
a genius, too/' like so

are in music and the other arts, to

as bankers and in almost any kind of

many Jews

say nothing of their success

commerce or business
My friend, a foreign correspondent originally
from New Orleans, La., had the name Misselwitz looked up and after
an extensive search in the Reichstag library in Berlin and through a
;

professional genealogist there, he wrote back to the effect that ''backto the year 800
D. you're 100 per cent Aryan, and could even suit
Hitler on that score ... so I'm very much afraid you can't become a

genius in that

way

or

might add,

in

any other

!"

In recognition of their helpful services, which played a large part

in making this book possible, thanks are due to several persons and

organizations, including B.
tiser,

an

American

Tokyo, for whom I

since has been sold

Thanks and
for giving

The Japan Adver-

morning newspaper printed in English in

went to the Far East in 1924. The Advertiser

daily
first

to the

Japanese government.

appreciation likewise are due to the United Press,

assignment in Shanghai, early in 1927; to The New

for appointing me their chief correspondent in China,

me an

York Times,
later

my

Fleisher, publisher of

in the

same year;

to

Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of The

Times, for telling me I could use material gathered for

the paper while I was in China, as the basis for much of this book;

New York

Kenworthy, in Washington, DC., who as an expert

on the Orient, did much to answer my queries or to get them answered
at the Chinese and Japanese embassies while this was being written.

and

to

Carroll

H. F. M.
February, 1941

Santa Monica,

Calif.

To

MY MOTHER

THE DRAGON

Chinese had the

STIRS

The idea
league of nations on earth.
nearly three centuries, until the Dragon

first

THE

worked smoothly for

Throne in Peking was overthrown in 191

The machinery
among men was set up when
1.

for

the
league
Manchus swarmed south over the Great Wall of China and conquered
half a continent.
They took over the Middle Kingdom, as the Chinese
this

initial

at

attempt

themselves invariably
autocratic rule over

country, and in 1644 inaugurated their

call their
all

the provinces.

The Manchu regime had

its

Peking, now Peiping.

Like the Tartars, Mongols and others

capital

at

contact

with

the

Chinese

peoples in that land

cess

was

None

races

Manchus

in time

were absorbed.

The pro-

passive, scarcely noticeable from generation to generation.

from outside the Great Wall ever has been capable of with-

the

standing
Chinese.

The

the

who have come into close

and there are many widely varied

and

ultimate

seemingly

inevitable

dominance

of

Japan may control the land we know as

Possibly

the

China.

subjugation of those peoples may last for generIt might well prove .a^great. "civilizing ^bpon*
ations, even centuries.
.to- the Chinese
bringing them modern life and its attendant benelatest

possible

'

factions

such

as

the

radio,

airplanes,

and even the

last

word

in.

plumbing and heating now so sadly lacking in countless millions of

Chinese homes.
But at last the descendants of these twentieth century militarists

may

The Manchus

be absorbed.

by banding the
various Chinese provinces together into what they called the Middle

They

Kingdom.

ruled

their

believed

first

that

league of nations

the

land

we

call

China,

and

quite
was
of
earth
consider
one
the
center
the
nation,
literally
erroneously
and that Peking was the dead center of the Universe.
One day not

stood on a stone at the great Temple of

I shouted
Forbidden City within Peking.

long ago I
erstwhile

11

Heaven
for

the

in

the

echo,

THE DRAGON STIRS

12

honoring
as

it

experience,

to

voice

actually

so long,

for

was convincing

is

a riddle.

still

was placed in authority in each Province under

Heaven and his court advisers in Peking, Each

military governor

the rule of the

Son

of

military governor swore allegiance to the

or

taxes,

at

tribute,

and

intervals

stipulated

He

Manchu Emperor.
ruled

his

paid

territory

in

long as the revenue flowed in regularly, Peking made no

The Provinces enjoyed an extended period of
interfere.

As

peace.

to

effort

under

tranquillity

this

freedom

of

rights

or

whatever

arrangement.
simple reason that

stultifying,

for

states'

nation

province,

state,

though perhaps

calm,

There was no question

the

you

care

to

They merely paid "taxes" to

Government, and went their own way.
It made not the slightest difference in the world
full

hollow,

in

the foxy old architects arranged that stunt, which

many

each

somewhat

sound

did

rather an odd
telephone booth anywhere
inasmuch as the "dead center" is right out in the open.

does

usually

How

The

custom.

of

call

action.

had

it

the

central

simple

to

peasant from the Shanghai area that he could not speak with a man
from Peking
or anyone from other remote cities and distant areas in
that

vast land.

Even

today,

from Peking cannot

a citizen

talk with a

the

of

man

Chinese

Republic

who

woman

or

from, say, Canton.

And a Hankow-man could not, and cannot now, talk with anyone of normal, peasant mentality from any of the other cities.
They
do
the
not
talk
same
simply
language.
hails

As

result,

an

official

word "mandarin" means

of

"mandarin

coat"

or

"mandarin*'

"official."

somewhat

For

instance,

popular

The
grew up.
when one speaks

language
in

the

West,

the

literal

garment once worn by an official of the old Manchu

Men \ve would call governors, mayors, judges and the like
regime.
wore these badges of office, and usually they were resplendent, to
reference

is

to a

These official*, all over the Middle Kingimpress the common people.
dom conversed in the Mandarin language, and eventually scholars in
every province learned

it

widespread

in later years

respected.

They proved

of

in

addition to their

own

tongue.

It

became

and scholars under the Mancluus were highly

invaluable to the

men running

the machinery

the government which ruled much of Asia.

But the "man in the street" remains unable to converse with

from other parts

of China.

Those who can read and

men

write, however,

DRAGON STIRS

TTIE

13

can get their thoughts over by writing them for others

know

both

if

enough of the countless hieroglyphs, or characters, which the Chinese

in

using in preference to the

a guess, for no
400,000,000 Chinese

persist

have mastered that formidable

Roman

census

accurate

There

task.

Few

alphabet,

is

an

available

is

effort

the

of

now meeting

with some measure of success to teach them the "thousand characters"

system of simplified writing and reading, and radio programs help to

bioadcast knowledge to the masses.
In the main, the Chinese remain

an

mass

inert

any foreign

of

illiterate

but each other.

land,

who

peoples

moment

are united at the

white-hot

heat

of

may weld them

will not

have died

But as a matter
no more

Cantonese

of

fact,

-a

short,

usually

"go-getter" in business.

In

abroad.

speech sounds

ft

sibilant,

They are

languages.

was from Canton

seeds of

speak

If

so,

The

the

The

men from Japan

sons

of

Cathay

swarthy or dark yellow, hot-headed, and

They are the Chinese one ordinarily finds

States,

the
that

thousands

are

revolutionaries,

the

the latest

war began, when

civil

restless

souls

of

the

Asia.
first

unity

different

They

rarely

original

dynasty in

lack unity

still

Canton-man and a Peking-man now

or a Spaniard, and an Irishman. The

tongue.

It

is

better

These men are less volcanic.

pleasing to hear.
the scholars, bankers, soldiers.
Some go into
fessions

coolies.

against the Japanese invaders.

little

is

were planted.
from the north are taller than those of the Canton area.

national

The men
,They

province

Their
laundrymen.
more "sing-song" in tone than other Chinese

United

the

an Italian

alike than

is

men from

in vain.

jare

Chinese

the

why

permanently.

together

only

man from the next

common peasantry, and

hatred for the sturdy

their

not

"a foreigner/' to millions of the

This is one fundamental reason

They

distrust

1911

travel,

as

too

and more

They are more

business

or

the

often

pro-

do the Cantonese.

Chinese revolutionaries

moved

modulated,

rapidly

for

who overthrew the Manchu

their own good.
They de-

The ousted
stroyed authority, but had none with which to replace it.
Son of Heaven was forced to watch bandits and war lords scramble
for

power

in his

rotting

realm.

Few
within China kept the world guessing for years.
people in the United States or elsewhere understand why the Chinese
The uproar

always

have

fought

among

themselves.

THE DRAGON STIRS

14

In the
the

in

first

vast

place,

it

should be understood that the causes of war

and teeming Provinces of China are

with

identical

the

In other words, they are economic and

war anywhere.
The difference is that these
if the two
can be separated.
political
causes affect the individuals involved more directly than they usually
of

causes

do elsewhere.

He

offered.

money

man
is

out of work,

number now join

creasing
chiefly

an army

joins

in

China because he needs the

he cannot

find

An

jo)).

in-

and are sincerely patriotic

because the Japanese threaten the economic existence of the
to fight Japan,

Chinese.

The majority

see in the uniform a license

to

in

loot;

the

rifle,

gain a wealth of sorts; in the roving life of a soldier, what

romance there is to be had out of an existence that is at best

chance
little

to

barren.

Conservative estimates place China's armed forces at from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 men, but none can count accurately the hordes in

armies and bandit bands that

the

roam

the wartorn face of a tired Cathay.

sanguinary way about

Famine has added to the horror
their

wars for decades and of Japanese invasions in latter years;

and thousands of men are ready to go into an army or join a desperate
Their increased numbers add to
bandit band to keep from starving.
of civil

the vital social problems they would escape; but their impulse
tainly

is

cer-

natural under the circumstances.

Chiang Kai-shek and other leaders in the old

Nanking regime, now on a wartime basis at Chungking, are hampered
by lack of communications and by the natural mountain lairs to be
Generalissimo

found

in

feeble

even

find

out

many
in

provinces.

Efforts

normal times.

at

Nanking,
Even a bona

will

Any

have

to

maintain

law

government, as

difficulty

in

and

Tokyo

bettering

the

order
will

are

now

situation

Chinese Central government would have

difficulty in maintaining order over all China until such time as railroads and highways can be built, the peasantry educated and a strong
rapidly.

national

fide

army evolved from

Bandits

have

the present

been a traditional

still

scourge

loosely
of

federated

China

for

forces.

centuries.

These roving robbers are considered as certain there as death and

taxes.
The bandit-suppression generals occasionally found it expedient
to incorporate bandit
gangs into their armies

rather than try to fight

THE DRAGON STIRS

with

out

it

the

"Bandit

outlaws.

one

IS

next"

the

soldier

day,

is

truism in China.

along the China coast of how the

first police force in the world came to be formed there. I outline it
here, to demonstrate the thoroughly resigned attitude toward these

There

is

classic

James" men

"Jesse

told

story

of Asia.

powerful bandit chieftain in olden times, it

with the daughter of a wealthy merchant in the
bandit and his

men

He was
scheme.
He

held sway.

one day he thought of a

merchant's palatial warehouse

and

is

said,

in

fell

area in which the

But

long unable to win her.

ordered his

when they

love

men

divided

raid

to

the

loot,

the
all

he took was an ivory miniature of the merchant's daughter.

Disguising himself as a traveler, the bandit Chief took the mini-

home a few days

ature to the merchant's

"I

beg you,
miniature which

permit me to return
chanced upon in a shop in the village.
he

sir,"
I

said,

"to

and am pleased to return

The merchant was not fooled. He

of

your

loss,

nized him

Now

that

later.

it

learned

the bandit that he

The

bandit

replied

recog-

amiably.

they understood one another, he said, he wanted merely to

marry the merchant's daughter. The merchant

indignantly it was impossible that a daughter
and they talked

thief,

ivory

to you."

told

and asked what he wanted.

this

of

He

refused.
of

his

declared

should

wed a

other things

He comwas made by the merchant.

which the bandit's raids were making on

Finally a counter-proposal

plained of the heavy levies

properties and

his

offered

pieces of silver each year

pay the chieftain a certain number of

the bandit would only quit robbing him,

to
if

and would assure him of immunity

They made a

deal

after

the

through thievery by others.

habitual polite haggling and swore an
to loss

oath to the pact.

week or so

later the bandit called his

prosperous band together.

He

had been quite busy in the meantime. When they had all come
He had seen most of
together he addressed them with his proposal.
the merchants
to

pay

set

"The

in

his

territory

sums a year

total,

my

and he had got the others to agree

for immunity.

brethren/' he said, "by far exceeds the

amount we

have averaged by working hard as bandits in recent years.

Hence,
we may retire and yet be assured of incomes greater than if we

THE DRAGON STIRS

16
continue

to

ply

our

and

ancient

honorable

worthy gentry of these noble hills."

There was no little dissension at

first.

The

bandits

the

among

profession

hesitated

to

up the ancient profession which they and their ancestors had

followed for generations.
But in the end, all agreed to their chief's
give

plans.

They would cease

to plunder

likewise, they agreed to prevent

bands from robbing their generous patrons.

police force on earth was founded.
lival

The

bandit leader,

the merchant's

now

daughter.

In a word, the

first

a respectable chief -of -police, paid court to

In due course, the story runs, they were

married and lived happily ever after.

True or not, this gives an insight into the average Chinese psyBandits continue to play an important part in
chology on banditry.

During Japan's "undeclared war" and

for years afterwards, bandits may be expected to roam from uniform
to uniform and back again with astonishing abandon.
the military

life

of the

land.

a strong and rapidly growing sentiment among

the loyal subjects of Emperor Hirohito for a greater, and ever more
Their new cry is, "Asia for the Asiatics!"
They
powerful Japan.
in
to
the
And
imachieve
Oriental
most
Utopia
hemisphere.
hope

In Tokyo, there

is

Japanese would evict the century-old dominating

influence of the white man from all the Far East
and rule them-

portant to

us,

the

selves.

Even among

the Chinese,

of latter days, the Japanese have

some

supporters in the surge toward renewed vigor and authority for the
Others who occasionally join the Japanese
yellow races of the world.
in

this

phase of their drive for power are the peoples

of

India,

the

Moro, Tagalog and others the Siamese, Tibetans,

Mongols, Arabs and even the Turks and roving Moslem tribes of
North Africa.

Filipino

races

Passionately, always in the guise of high patriotism,

hope that one day they

of

these

zealots

will achieve control of the entire

would

even

include

Australia

in

the Japanese

Far East. Many

their

far-flung

scheme.

Nippon's statesmen envisage Japan as the spearhead of this

In
movement, emerging one day as the greatest power in history.
the last century another island

kingdom England, in the Occident

rose to such heights through the dreams and exploits of Lord Clive
of India; of Gladstone, Disraeli and their imperialistic
men-of-the-pen,

THE DRAGON STIRS

Thus

such as the late Rudyard Kipling.

dream now for yellow men who ponder on

glory and achievements
There are observers
Orient

the

who

believe

world would be
military
that

the

is

wise

men and
not

our

books,

swift events

itself.

legations

similar

and consulates

in

fair-skinned peoples in the rest of the

now to ignore Japan's determined little

just

concern here

chief

to aspire to

that,

that

their antics, regardless

Japanese invasion

many

the embassies,

at

not too far-fetched a

is

it

17

of

But

China
I

is

what they

do.

be

the

However,
a fascinating study, and

undoubtedly

shall

that have kept the

It

of

discuss

Far East

will

subject

of

the

rugged

men and

in mystic

turmoil

for

here

more

than a quarter of a century.

The decade 1927-37 began with the start of the violent Kuomintang
I shall describe the rebels' seizure of Shanghai
Revolution at Canton.

and the turbulent events which followed while

in

the thick of

it.

was

living out there

WHEN SHANGHAI

FELL

from the United States Marine Corps abruptly leaned

across our dining table at the American Club in Shanghai and
surprised me with a sudden question.
'Can you keep a secret?" he asked.
His voice had become low and oddly intense. It was far from apI told him I could,
propriate to the heedless atmosphere around us,
officer

THE
4

necessary, but said that being a war correspondent at the height of

the Kuomintang Revolution convulsing all China meant cut-throat comif

petition, particularly in "secrets."

There were

literally scores

of other

press men who had been sent out East by the syndicated press services
as well as countless individual newspapers and magazines in practically

every civilized country on earth.

"I can/' I said, ".but you can't make

He

thought for a

"You'll

now.

But

know
will

moment.

Then

me

like

it.

Why?"

this

by morning anyway; I might as well tell you

you keep your source, at least, absolutely a secret

between us?"
"Positively."

"Okay," he answered, "but don't quote me.

listen,

this is

straight dope.

It's

official,

I'll

deny

it!

Now

or will be by morning, any-

So get this:
might issue our communique myself.
"The Cantonese are on the march. Their troops are closing in this
minute.
And that's
Shanghai will fall in the next forty-eight hours.
way.

a fact."
"I won't quote you," I promised, "but

get out of here,

If that's from your Marine
Intelligence reports, it goes to New
let's

now!
York

I'm cabling it urgent. And without qualification.

"You'd better be right or rather, I had! Come on."
hurried over to the gloomy-looking ramshackle United Press

tonight.

We

18

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

two blocks down Foochow Road toward the Bund, or waterThe officer and I stumbled down a black, cobble-stoned blind

offices,

front.

to

alley

19

my

wrote an urgent cable to the United Press in

It read:
relay point to the United States.

desk.

London, then

my

CANTONESE TROOPS MARCHING.

UNLATERN MONDAY INEVITABLE.
That was

But

all.

it

FALL SHANGHAI

was enough.

"Boy/

I shouted.

Get going

''Chop chop!

!"

came running.
He grabbed the dispatch, hopped on his
bicycle and was off for the Telegraph Building, two blocks away on
Avenue Edward VII. A few minutes after the Marine officer's quiet
coolie

announcement

at the

a smashing lead for

American Club, word was on

my

Saturday afternoon papers

its

all

It

gave
over the United
way.

and South America, and the evening editions in Europe. The

world had waited weeks, while China's revolution was at stalemate.
States

Many

were

foreigners

convinced

thoroughly

Some
newspapers back home

that Shanghai

the contrary, and also

was kind

lords

had won.

The

a Marine officer to dinner with

me

Nine

China

war

at

o'clock

was

still

invincible.

Fate proved

to me.

my

difference in time

moment.

North

that eventful night even cabled their friends or

made

casual

the

fortune possiblesthat, and inviting

at the American Club, in a purely

night

in

Shanghai

is

o'clock

eight

same day in New York, for New York is thirteen

hours behind Shanghai.
Time was with me; also the Marine. We
the

morning

of the

had been working together ever since his arrival on the troop transWe had swapped
port ship Chaumont several weeks before this night.
tips

and mutual confidences, and now he gave

been waiting for

all

Shanghai.
This incident

it

civil

occurred

war.

the tip on what

we had

those frenzied days in that most baffling of

tremendous upheaval.
called

me

March

on

19,

1927.

China

was

cities,

in

Her sons were engaged in revolution. Some

Her men from the North and those from the

Brothers
South were fighting in a desperate struggle for mastery.
The Soviet
fought brothers, as in our "War between the States."

The
Union was (and remains) more than an interested observer.
It was
rebellion had a Russian Advisorate sent out from Moscow.
headed

by

Mikal

Borodin.

Today,

he

runs

an

English-language

THE DRAGON STIRS

20

Japan likewise was

newspaper in Moscow sic transit gloria mundi.
far from idle.
She had no "advisorate" on either side
officially.
ever enchancing their power abroad, had an "ace
in the hole" in the person of the Boy Emperor, a scholarly but help-

But her

militarists,

young man
changed his name

The

the

of

less

Manchu Dynasty
"Mr. Henry Pu-yi."

to plain

Russians

in

old

Peking

who had

Japan tenaciously hung on.

Eventually, in 1931, she seized Manchuria, renamed it Manchukuo and
He is a Manput the Boy Emperor on the throne of his ancestors.

Some

chu.

power (or

day,

fled

later

in

1927.

the Japanese militarists

patriotism,

in

their

lust

as they are fully convinced)

for

may

glory and

be expected

It
puppet again on his Dragon Throne in Peiping.
but that is another story.
All China, meanwhile, recould happen
mains in chaos, and probably will, for years.

to

their

place

followed up the dispatch with a brief description of the advance

as described by the Marine.

He

said his Intelligence Corps lieutenants

had been out toward the rebel Cantonese

had talked with the advance guards.

"The drive is on, no question," he
on by morning, or

Monday

at

the

lines

said.

all

that

Saturday, and

"There'll be a good

show

latest."

We

got off those dispatches and then made a round of the Shanghai
defenses
both in the International Settlement and in the French
Concession.

Most

of

the

Americans

living in

in the latter area, chiefly within small

In

fact,

Shanghai were located

cannon range of the native

city.

some of their homes that turbulent, unforgettable spring, were

damaged by

shells.

On

the streets, patrols of foreign troops from half a dozen nations

around the world kept the curfew.
Our press and military passes,
however, made us immune to the strictly enforced orders that all
civilians

be off the streets by 10 p.m.

spring of 1927 when the Nationalist

(Kuomintang) armies from the South came roaring into the Valley
of the Yangtze, was even more than usual the exotic blend of East and

Shanghai,

West.

It

in

spread

missionaries,

and

that

its

eventful

gaiety and wickedness

its filth

among

its

the lowest dives

innocence

among

the

along the low banks

River, a few miles upstream from the place where

the broad, yellow Yangtze meets the sea
of

the

Whangpoo

While troops

of far nations

concentrated in martial array

behind

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

barbed

wire

21

and

Chinese as
sandbag emplacements, the populace
well as foreign
danced an amazing whirl in a wartime atmosphere
of thorough abandon.
Young Chinese maids foxtrotted to American

swank night

in

lazz

New

York.
of

versities

clubs

as

luxurious

as

any

in

Berlin

Paris,

or

They danced with Chinese youths educated in the uniOld Chinese, swathed in
Europe and the United States.

the coarse blue clothing of the country-side, mingled with the younger

generation.

Foreigners from the four corners of the earth came and

went on endless missions.

the

Some were spies working for

anybody who would pay them.

North, the Japanese

01 them were businessmen with eye to a quick

profit.

the

South,

But most

And

of course,

were the scores of press correspondents there to "cover" the

story for readers to whom the city was but a name.
But in the main they were traders
descendants of men who went

there

out in the romantic clipper ship days of the last century, and who now
owned spacious estates on the fashionable outskirts of the metropolis.

Others appeared with get-rich-quick schemes in which high intrigue

more often than not played a sinister part.
Tall Sikhs from India,
rifles

slung in readiness over their towering shoulders, policed the In-

ternational Settlement, their bright turbans, black beards

eyes
in

all

and flashing

United States Marines, smart

"Tommies," French sailors and their

part of the picturesque setting.

their

British

uniforms,

Anamites

from

Japanese troops and marines,

the men
Italians, and Portuguese swarmed in and around the city
in the Allied Army of Defense who threw a ring of bayonets around
swarthy

Shanghai and kept

it

Indo-China,

safe

from the

possession of the native part of that

Chinese armies
river

struggling

for

port.

Foreign men-of-war lay anchored off the Bund, ready to protect

There were fortythe lives and property of nationals from overseas.
six

foreign

strung out along the narrow waterway at

revolution.
In the foreign areas, six miles along

warships

height of the
river front and within a perimeter of nearly thirty miles,

modern mansions, banks,

hotels as

fully appointed clubs, all flourished.

fine

as

any on

earth,

the

the

handsome

and beauti-

Taxicabs, buses, trackless trolley-

cars ran on the broad avenues, cluttered with rickshaws and ancient,

creaking

Chinese wheelbarrows.

Hungjao Airport outside

the war beneath them,

the city,

Overhead, commercial planes from

or elsewhere, droned hourly despite

THEDRAGONSTIRS

22

On

Bund

the

the

stood

Shanghai

Club with

its

"longest bar

in

the world" packed three deep at noon and night for half a block along
its

burnished dark wooden length.

It

is

below Avenue Edward

just

VII, boundary between the French Concession and the International

Settlement.

few blocks away, down Foochow Road, the American

itself a magnificent stone structure

Club faced the Municipal Building
The American Club, an eight-story building of
covering a city block.

red brick, modern in every

room

with

filled

British

officers

men

took

was packed day and

detail,

brought there by the war,

quarters

finding

there,

it

night, its every

score

or

more

more cheery than a

hotel or another club.

Night clubs ran

home

unable to go

The

until

dawn.

until the

10 p.m. were
at dawn, about 4 a.m.

Patrons inside after

curfew was

lifted

were controlled by the British in the International Settlement.

The Commissioner was British, as were the Inspectors and
other officers.
Under them were the Sikhs, some Chinese and a few
police

Russian patrolmen and

The

traffic

officers.

International Settlement

was so named because

it

is

composed

and Japanese and what was to have been the

American Concessions. The American Concession was to have been
of

the

old

British

between the British and Japanese.

century,

when

this

who

in the last

arrangement was being made on the mudflats of

the mosquito-infested

Chinese

But the United States

Whangpoo

River,

at the

express orders

of the

wanted

badly to segregate the "foreign barbarian"

traders that pestered them with goods
refused to take a concession
in Shanghai or anywhere in China.

The

and Japanese as a result proposed a combination, and

the International Settlement was bora.
The French took their conBritish

which became a separate part of Shanghai, governed by a

French Municipal Council, under the French Consul-General.
Shangcession,

hai

was a

triply divided

city,

then,

of

some 3,250,000 inhabitants

predominantly, of course, Chinese.

Of

the

total

population,

possibly

50,000

were foreigners.
There
and possibly 2,000 other

were about 5,000 Americans, 8,000 British,

Europeans, most of them either French or German.

There were

also

some 15,000 or more Russians, chiefly emigres forced to leave home

These fled to China through
by the rise of the Bolshevik regime.
Siberia by way of Harbin, in what was Manchuria.
There were

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

20,000 or so Japanese or other Asiatics, as well.

most

of the opulent cotton-textile mills in

was

and

23

The Japanese owned

Shanghai.

most exciting period in Shanghai's

modern history that the Marine Captain and I made our way around
the outlying defenses that Saturday night.
We actually found nothing
It

in this setting

at a

although the French apparently had had word of the

advance and were more than usually alert.
In fact, they had been
extraordinary,

criticized

somewhat

by

the

other

officers

general

of

the

foreign

Shanghai Defense Force, and at one time in the proceedings the International Settlement contingent put up barbed-wire entanglements for
a mile

or more

down Avenue Edward VII,

Concession on the other

side,

separating

the

French

which faced the Chinese "native

city"

Nantao.

of

But while the Defense Force

officers

may have known,

certainly

few among the civilian population were aware that the Nationalists
from Canton were disregarding orders from the temporary Red-con-

government up the Yangtze River at Hankow, and were

It had originally been planned to proceed to
moving on Shanghai.

trolled rebel

Peking overland, by the back door, leaving Shanghai to fall once

the revolution had captured the ancient Capital.
But leaders in the
Nationalist

Army,

Hankow and

including

General

Kai-shek,

Chiang

broke

with

Russian Advisorate, captured Shanghai and set up

the semi-conservative regime in 1927 at Nanking.
The Cantonese, or Nationalists as they insisted on being called
its

movement was not purely Cantonese), had been dug in

about eighteen miles south of Shanghai for a month, waiting for word
(because the

to

attack.

Their presence at

first

startled

populace, including the Americans, but

complacent

Shanghai

when nothing happened week

subside

after week, their jitters began to

the

as

much

as they could in

The foreigners
atmosphere of uncertainty and military display.
proceeded with plans for their evacuation to the Bund and thence, if
that

necessary, to warships in the river.

The city was astir with intense excitement. Yet only a handful
knew the climax was due that week end.
The next day, March 20, was a clear, warm, spring Sabbath. I
had luncheon with
and
a

special

guest

J.

B. Powell, publisher of a local weekly in English

correspondent for

drove outside

the

the

lines

Chicago Tribune.

that

He and

and

Sunday afternoon, against the

THE DRAGON STIRS

24

and ran

orders of our Consular and Naval authorities

into advancing

We

had passed numerous cars on the drive, filled with

We
correspondents and photographers out for the news and the thrill.
all got plenty of both.
The retreating Northern troops were putting
Cantonese!

We ran into
up a half-hearted resistance to the Nationalist drive.
hundreds of them on the ten-mile drive through what, even then,
seemed a

We

scene

peaceful, pastoral

and motored rapidly past farmers going about

The road toward Minghong,
truck-farming chores as usual.

left

their little

Shanghai,

a nearby village, was dotted with more and more Northern soldiers
in little groups or alone, straggling not from but toward the front

Further along, some carried boxes swung clumsily on bamboo

These we discovered were the ammunition bearers.
They in-

lines.

poles.

number as we proceeded,

creased in
of

these

coolie

troops

Shanghai than most people

The

defeated troops

too cheerful, but

came

into view

quarter of a mile away.

We decided

It

difficulties
little

we rounded

until

more than a

dashed toward us waving his arms and shouting.

"Just

go

frightened,

now

about a

was guarded by about a hundred men.

this bridge, inquire about things and then

an

feur, visibly

to

a bend and

culvert,

return to
officer,

closer

this

Some seemed none

down to
As we drove up one
Shanghai.
to drive

in

Settlement knew.

looked at us in surprise.

a tiny bridge,

comrades

their

to

was apparent, was much

in the

we had no
of

it

was a steady stream

there

bullets

transporting

The war,

fashion.

primitive

until

of

the soldiers,

evidently

The

chauf-

interpreted:

shooting/'

he

*4

sputtered.

He

say no

can

go.

Must

back-side, plenty chop-chop!"

It

was

men

true.

We

were

in the front

lines.

On

either

side

of

the

gray uniforms, stretched out as skirmishers, formed an

irregular line as far as we could see.
They lay behind an embankment by the canal or creek which the bridge spanned.
From time to

bridge

in

apparently without orders,

they took a pot-shot at the enemy.

Others glided around barns, the trees here and there, or raised Chinese graves
and kept up a scattering
anywhere they could find shelter
time,

fire

at the

enemy.

The Cantonese

the intervening lowlands.

of a mile away.

on a

similar

They were,

Their faint

hit-and-miss

rifle

method

was gradually pushing across

line
I

should say, about a quarter

shots indicated
of

warfare

they were carrying

As

far

as

one could

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

25

there were no casualties on the Northern side, and certainly the

only hope these alleged defenders of Shanghai had of hitting the enemy

tell,

lay

in

chance.

But there was a chance

The chauffeur needed no

that the

enemy might shoot

orders to whisk that

in our direction.

machine around,
although he "killed" the motor twice in doing so on the narrow country
lane.
We streaked away from the front at a mile a minute, back to
safety within Shanghai's lines of

men and

steel

little

and

to the cable wires.

Shanghai fell the next day, on March 21, 1927, to the marching
men from Canton. All through a moonlit Sunday night the blue-gray
lines

fired

swept in waves across the soft meadows.

Hardly a shot was
in actual defense of the port.
The Northern troops, dispirited,

Some were trapped

virtually leaderless, fled in rout, deserting the city.

along the railroad and at North Station, just outside the International

Settlement.
laborers

in

reign of terror began that

black

Armed

Monday morning.

gowns scurried through the narrow

in

streets

the

Chinese citizens poured into the

foreign-protected areas by the thousands, a miserable stream of des-

native areas, firing indiscriminately.

titute families.
It

was on

United

morning that the 4th Regiment of the

"took" Shanghai.
The men had been

this bright spring

Marines

States

also

quartered on board the transport Chaumont, tied up downstream for

two weeks awaiting word they were needed.
There was some talk

even of sending them on to Manila

if

if

the

"show"

failed to break,

or

the Northern forces attacked, pushing the rebels back into the south.

The Marines were

restless.

They came ashore

gladly,

ready for a

but immensely glad to get their feet on Nanking Road,

marching to billets in the Western District where a few days later
they stood shoulder to shoulder with the famed Coldstream Guards
fight or a frolic,

from London.
rabble

fought off a
through barbed wire

Together

seeking to pour

they

half-maddened
entanglements

Chinese
into

the

International Settlement.

With bands

playing, the

Marines had landed.

Their

"tin

hats'*

and side-arms glistened in the sunshine.

Foreigners, including hunBut the Chinese looked
dreds of local American residents, cheered.
on
it

hating this display of foreign force even though they knew

meant further protection for them. The 6th Regiment landed some
stolidly,

weeks

later.

For most

of the spring

and summer

of 1927, the

United

THE DRAGON STIRS

26

Uncle Sam's part of

an allied foreign defense force that at one time totaled more than
The Marines
This was exclusive of the naval forces.
25,000 men.

men

States had over 4,000 fighting

in Shanghai,

got plenty of action the minute they stepped ashore.

their posts in the front lines around the western rim
national

Settlement and

down once more under

inspired

stuck there for weeks,

until

They took up
of

the

the city

Inter-

calmed

the smug, victorious forces of the Cantonese-

Kuomintang armies.

Shanghai fell practically without a struggle, except for one or two

One occurred when a corps of
clashes which were sharp and bloody.

White Russians (desperate emigres

enlisted in the

Northern

Army

to

keep from starving in a strange land) were trapped and tried to fight
their way out from behind the Cantonese lines.
They manned an
armored train on the Nanking Railway with its terminal at the Shanghai

North

and

Station,

finally surrendered.

The Northern Chinese soldiers, however, panic-stricken on that

Monday when the Cantonese attacked in force, threw down their guns.
They stormed

the

One incident of this

Road gates, between
blockhouse

there

begging for protection.

kind occurred about dusk at the North Honan

International

the native city and the

inside

the

tall

command.

Settlement.

sandbag
iron gates was manned by a squad

youth hardly out of his 'teens was

The Northern rabble stormed the gates, and in their

of very young British troops.

in

Settlement,

panic fired on the

met with a return

men whom
The

fire.

they sought as protectors.

They were
first ranks pressing against the iron bars

were shot down apparently without mercy. There was no help for
Snipers along Range Road, which crosses North Honan Road
the
this

Settlement limits,
sector

just

after

fired

indiscriminately

the clash

on both

sides.

it.

at

got to

between the British and Chinese, in

time to get in on the interpreted instructions to the Chinese to lay

down their guns if they would enter. It was almost dark. Together
with four or

five

other

foreign

correspondents,

had motored out

Szechuan Road from the heart of Shanghai.

We left our car some
blocks behind.
Clinging close to a ten-foot-high brick wall guarding
the front yards of most houses facing Range Road, we
crept along

toward the North Station blockhouse, three blocks away.

I counted
three or four dead Chinese, one in Northern uniform, lying in their

own

blood in the

street.

We

scurried along under the protection

of

WHEN SHANGHAI
that friendly wall.
secting streets,

We

making

one took a shot at

had to run for

us.

man

one

it

Still,

in

at a time.

27

crossing the two interSo far as I know, no

the fact that they might, sniping from

windows and from dark

shuttered

it

FELL

was a thought

roofs,

that did not

calm the nerves, none too good by that time, anyway.

The Chinese forces, cowed, finally laid down their rifles and began
to stream into the Settlement, before jubilant Southern forces could
catch

did

up with them and make them

seize

shamble to comparative,
barbed wire.

victors

actually

watched about 2,000 badly battered men

temporary, safety through the gates and

but I

thousands,

The

prisoners.

if

body of men I ever saw

in my life. Their uniforms were ragged and torn
scores were wounded
and poorly bandaged. A few were fortunate enough to get rickshaws,

They were

the most desolate,

dispirited

pulled by a comrade

but in the main,

wounded and

well, they

Their grass sandals and flapping wrap-puttees were in

along.

and disintegration seemed

sorry looking

members

They were interned

to

possess

the

souls

very

of

hobbled
tatters,

these

men,

of another "lost battalion."

for several

weeks but

finally

were repatriated

Shantung Province, to the north, on foreign ships saved to fight

some other day by the same foreign devils that they themselves and

to

the Southern Nationalists were one in damning.

of their incessant jumble

of politico-military

bitter hatred against outside interference

Kingdom.

On

unity inside

their

All Chinese, regardless

faiths,

at

least

had that

within their troubled Middle

ancient

Great

Wall,

these

yellow

men

themselves were fatally divided.

They still are.
Meanwhile, white men and women up-country, including scores of

Americans, were in very real danger of their lives from the victorious
Southern hordes who swept everything before them up to" the southern

bank

of

the

possible.

Yangtze.
In fact, the

They were urged

United

States

to

evacuate

consular

as

authorities

rapidly

as

had been

missionaries and business men the

trying for months to impress upon
Many
necessity of hurrying back to the less dangerous treaty ports.
did.

He was
correspondent, an Australian, was less fortunate.
killed up-country, near a small town called Chengchow, north of HanOne

kow, in Honan Province.

down

the

railroad tracks

At
to

he was engulfed while walking

inspect a "model village" a mile away
least,

THE DRAGON STIRS

28

from Chengchow.

Consul-General stationed up
the Yangtze at Hankow, reported him missing when he hurried back
to the river port alone.
search was ordered by the "Christian
Marshal Feng had just returned from
General/' Feng Yu-hsiang.

His

host, the Belgian

His headquarters were temporarily at Chengchow.

The correspondent, a war veteran from Europe's battlefields, had interIt was not quite the sensible thing
viewed the impenetrable Feng.
exile

in

Moscow.

do and was undertaken against the advice of friends, official and

I
otherwise.
But Feng's return to China was news.
nearly went
to

up from Hankow myself.

had just seen Feng

over at Hsuchow-fu, near Shantung, and heard from his own hps of
his desertion of the Russian Advisorate and his "deal"
(it proved

Only the

fact

that

with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the revolutionary chief,

prevented such a possibly fatal excursion.
The mystery of the disappearance
Feng's "search" was fruitless.
transient)

Some

man

by soldiers or bandits.
Others blamed the prevalent anti-foreignism which propagandists of
the revolution spread throughout the length and breadth of China.
remains a

secret.

Even

simplest peasant

the

foreign ballads.

thought the

was

infected.

killed

School children

sang anti-

They shouted "Down with the Foreign Devils

I"

and

"Down

In any case,
with Imperialism!" along with the multitude.
the body was never found.
Whether the man was kidnaped or whether
he died a sudden death, I cannot say.

The name

martyr to journalism was Frank Riley, the son

of a bishop in Australia.
Riley said that he had escaped from a German prison camp during the first World War. After that he had lived
in

various

of this

countries,

including

He was

Mesopotamia.

companion, a chap about thirty-five years of age,

and

tall,

delightful

with black hair

His dispatches went to The London Times.

I
always suspected he had some sort of connection with the British
I never knew.
He was the sort of man who had
Foreign Office.
intelligent eyes.

He

the "long view," instinctively.

spective,

saw peoples and problems

an essential to good reporting anywhere.

Scores of foreigners, however, took

missionaries.
insisted they

They
were

felt

they

knew

sides.

In the main, these were

the Chinese races thoroughly,

Many maintained that

business.
And these refused

safe.

main, that was their

of

in per-

them and a score or more

of

if

and

they wanted to re-

to budge.

number

American business men, as well as the

WHEN SHANGHAI FELL

29

who

stuck by their posts, were in Nanking when the

victorious troops got out of hand on Thursday of the week that Shang-

consular

hai

officials

fell

had an urgent

call

chief-of-staff

Vernou,

from Captain

on the old

(now Rear- Admiral)

flagship

U.

S.

S.

Wallace

Pittsburgh,

that

Thursday,
"All hell's busted

loose

ship-to-shore telephone.

and

icans

other

Nanking," the Captain said over the

laid down a barrage to bring out Amerthink
The British have joined us.
I

at

"We

foreigners.

were no foreign casualties.

hear from our men on the Noa"
there

I'll

let

you know more when we

The U. S. S. Noa was a destroyer on the Yangtze Patrol Lieut.

Commander Roy C. Smith was in command. The British destroyer
H. M. S. Emerald joined the Noa in saving more than fifty foreign
men, women and children and seeing

that they got safely

downstream

to Shanghai.

The "Nanking
forces

were out of

men

the

new

Incident"
control.

occurred on

They

March

looted the city.

The Southern
Drunk with victory,
24.

and raped foreigners as well as Chinese in the then

The United States and British destroyers lying off Nan-

killed

capital.

when called on by the refugees

ashore, in imminent danger of their lives. The Noa fired first, although
the British skipper was the superior naval officer present.
Commander

king in the Yangtze River opened

fire

Smith had asked the English captain for his approval.

Both vessels laid down a heavy barrage around "Socony

Smith
Ensign
York.)

got

Hill,"

it.

the

New

York's headquarters in Nanking, conIt saved the lives of all present.

the refugees.

Standard Oil Company of

centration

He

point 'for
had sent a

Woodward
Phelps,

landing party

Phelps.

an

officer

ashore,

commanded by

the late

(Phelps subsequently shot himself in New

born to the tradition of the sea, led his

He and his men rescued members of the

squad to "Socony Hill."
United States Consulate-General staff, as well as some refugees who
The hordes swept on toward the hill. Phelps
Under fire, the American
ordered a signalman to stand on the roof.
Back on the Noa, Commander Smith watched
sailor signaled the ship.

had gathered

for the
his

signal.

gunnery

there.

He

officer,

disregarded formal naval regulations.

Calling to
the late Lieut. Ben Staude (who afterwards com-

mitted suicide in Southampton, England), he shouted:

THE DRAGON STIRS

30

know whether

don't

"I

but

for this

let 'er

go,

or a decoration

Benny!"

Not a

Benny obeyed.

get a court-martial

we'll

Noa

derous barrage which the

have penetrated the thunand Emerald laid down. The foreigners,

living soul could

down

scrambled

knotting sheets together,

the ancient

sixty-foot wall

which surrounds Nanking. They scuttled across the lowlands bordering

the river and were quickly taken off in small boats to the destroyers.

The Noa brought

others

came on

down

several refugees

the

river.

of the

Commander Smith

Chinese river steamers.

friendly

Most

got no court-martial!
Inside the International Settlement and French Concession the gay

The

routine went on and on.

by the war going on

all,

all

inhabitants

were disturbed

The

around them.

field

in

the

breeze, a

left

upper

flapping

American
sight

a red

of the Nationalists

on the

hand

emblem

sailors
streets

fluttered

It

"new

of the

at

Kuomintang

with a white star in the blue

flag,

corner.

if

old five-barred flag of

the original Chinese Republic was replaced by the scarlet

emblem

little,

deal"

in

everywhere in the

China.

and United States Marines long were a familiar

there.
We kept a permanent "China Patrol" of

warships on duty along the coast, and up the Yangtze for more than
a thousand miles.
The 4th Regiment, U. S. Marine Corps, remains
stationed in Shanghai.
Until the country is less chaotic these forces
will

The men frequent

stay to protect our interests there.

the same

dance halls and other amusement spots in the beguiling "Paris of the
East," which

members

of

the other

services

when men

Occasionally from a corner,

of

patronize.

the

Noa and Emerald

got together you would hear this ditty

Staude of an old Marine ballad,

orating the

"

Nanking Incident."

From
To

a paraphrase by the late Lieut.

The Halls of Montesuma, commem-

It

goes

the dance halls of old Shanghai

the walls of old Nanking,

We
And

have met

all

kinds oj

we've fought

all

women,

kinds of men.

Chorus
// the

Noa and

Ever join
Ifll be

And

the

Emerald

in fight again,

good-bye to Chiang Kai-shek

to Hell with Eugene Chen!

WHEN SHANGHAI

FELL

31

Eugene Chen was foreign minister in the now defunct Red-controlled regime at Hankow, in Central China, some six hundred miles
up the Yangtze River.
The foreigners, within ten days after the city's fall, returned to
their normal routine of club life, roulette, night clubs, golf, tennis,
dogs

and

horse

racing.

Shanghai

under

the

Kuomintang

revolu-

and foreign allied "Army of Occupation" appeared to have

changed but little from Shanghai under the North China war lords

tionists

and the

British.

THE "NANKING INCIDENT"

"Nanking Incident/* as it became known around the startled,

uncomprehending world, happened on Thursday of the week
which began with Shanghai's fall. The marching men from Canton seized Shanghai on Monday
and took Nanking, 175 miles inland
on the Yangtze, on Thursday.
The fall of Shanghai was a peaceful

THE

event compared to the horrors which accompanied the seizure of power

in the pleasant city of Nanking.
The Kuomintang troops, sweeping
ever northward toward Peking, their goal, got out of hand completely

Their

officers

could do nothing with their wild-eyed

men from South

China.

Men

hand, pillaged the town.

They looted
and sacked that town as a city has rarely been looted, even in China.
The worst part of that "incident" was that there were two score or
more foreigners residing there who refused all advice to clear out.
in

uniforms,

rifles

in

These "old China-hands" thought they

believed they could trust them, soldiers
out they were wrong
those who lived.

"knew the Chinese."

They
found
or no soldiers.
They

What these men and sturdy women did not know was that any
man with a gun, riding the high crest of victory, is not responsible
for his actions.
He may do anything, and usually does. That is an
axiom

of war.

The

victorious

soldiers

roamed through the

city,

destroying, pilhorrible events

raping the women, killing the men.

Many
occurred, but few were so cold-blooded as the wanton murder of Dr.
laging,

E. Williams, a missionary.
He had lived for years among the Chinese and could talk to them in their language.
He also thought that

J.

remaining in Nanking was safe.

Many others, too, preferred to remain and "save face" with their trusted Chinese friends.
But many

who saved face

man of God, was

lost

one.

their

lives.

He was

Dr.

Williams,

the head of

elderly

Nanking University. To go

along with the trend of the times, he had agreed to

32

kindly,

make a Chinese

THE
nominally
dent, but

the

"NANKING INCIDENT"

President

of

the

He

University

33

became Vice-Presi-

governed that missionary institution

still

The change was due

to the

wave

of anti-f oreignism

and nationalism

which swept over Asia.

Dr. Williams lost his life when a youth in
uniform, bent on robbery, loot and rape, shot the missionary dead.
The gunman doubtless had not the faintest inkling of Dr. William's
identity or the
area.

It

good he was doing countless Chinese

the corpse and went on his carefree

spoils

He

did not matter to the youth.

of war.

way

in

the

Nanking

killed him, leisurely

robbed

rejoicing in his share of the

These included the dead man's watch.

It

is

doubtful

whether the gay young man with the gun could read the timepiece
but time meant nothing to him then.
The ticking may have amused
his infantile mind, or the glint of the gold may have attracted his eye.

The "Nanking Incident" is a black spot on

The Chinese admit
Kuomintang Revolution.

the escutcheon of the

that.

For one

thing,

That meant "international complications."

The Chinese revolutionaries were not ready for such complications

were involved.

foreigners

They had

Hankow

war of

preferred

coast, until

their

men then at
Shanghai and Nanking, down near the

own on

avoiding

Peking was taken.

Railway to the ancient

Capital.

their hands.

They wanted

Also, the

to

They feared such

go on up the Kin-han
"incidents/' involving

not only the usually easy going United States Government, but tougher
customers to deal with when protection of their nationals is concerned,

such as Great Britain.

But men within the Kuomintang disliked the growing influence of

Moscow and Communism. This group included Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-shek, the

They

new Commander-in-Chief

of the Revolutionary Annies.

Shanghai and Nanking in a sudden swift bit of

definitely with the radical bloc in control of the

therefore took

strategy,

and

"government"

split

set

up

at

Hankow,

in the

center

of

China.

And

the

Nanking bloc eventually won out. General Chiang organized the National Government at Nanking in April 1927, less than a month after

He

Chungking today as President

of the Executive Yuan, or Council
His Man Friday, Lin Sen, has
But Chiang
the nominal title of President of the Chinese Republic.
the

"Nanking

Incident."

controls

Kai-shek rules "Free China" with dictatorial powers.

of the Communist influence in China

is

The

only vestige

the Committee form of govern-

THE DRAGON STIRS

34
ment,

and

outbreaks

sporadic

of

Communist bands

in

the

interior

South-Central sections.

The

official

was made

report on the "Nanking Incident"

week by the United States Consul

His data was made available to me and

citing

been printed generally, in

believe

Consul Davis, a

full.

Mr. John K. Davis.

there,
I

ex-

that

man

never before

has

then in his forties,

whose wife went through the "Incident/' wrote his report under difHe remarked as he ended it on board a United States warficulty.
our Yangtze River Patrol, that "the task of drafting it by
longhand when without my glasses, of which I was robbed by Naof

ship

tionalist

soldiers,

and by

artificial

has been painfully

light,

laborious

and slow."
Nevertheless,

work

the

happened that week

is

an interesting, precise resume of what

Nanking, especially insofar as the events affected the foreigners there.

Mr. Davis called his report Anti-Foreign
No one in the foreign comOutrages at Nanking on March 24, 1927.
at

munity was concerned very deeply about what happened to the Chinese, but it may be assumed these "occurrences" were at least as grueThe Consul's report treats without mincing words of what
some.
happened

to

American women who refused

to

heed advice and

get

out while the getting was good.

Mr. Davis was forced

to flee

from the United States Consulate

In

and two small children the morning of March

24, finding refuge in the Standard Oil Company's house on Socony
Hill.
Here he, together with E. T. Hobart, a Standard Oil executive,

Nanking with

his wife

and members

of the

before forced

to

order the

Mr. Davis'

river.

Consular

report,

staff,

signal

kept the

for

therefore,

is

Chinese

off

for hours

from destroyers in the

based on his own eyewitness

relief

experiences in addition to conversations with others

who went through

the affair.

He

described

how

the

United

States

Consulate

was

looted,

and

brought out vividly the manner in which the American flag was intenHe said, in a paragraph on
tionally desecrated by Chinese soldiers.
the flag incident:

"The

flag

was

evidently as an

first

hauled

insult;

it

down and then

raised upside down,

was then hauled down, torn and the

halyard cut and taken away."

"

THE

NANKING INCIDENT"

35

This and the looting, Mr. Davis added, were done "by Nationalist
It was this point that men in the Hankow "govtroops in uniform."

ernment"

desired

mission to

to

inquire

argue,

into

the

contending

Nanking

that

affair

an

International

was the only

Com-

"civilized"

go about establishing whether or not Nationalist soldiers were

guilty; and, secondly, if so, whether the Hankow government could

way

to

be held responsible.
To this "Note," written by Eugene Chen Hankow's Minister for Foreign Affairs and note-writer par excellence
none of the Powers involved publicly replied.

Consul Davis'
at

official

report on the

"Nanking

Incident,"

prepared

Nanking while he was temporarily a refugee on board the U.

I

Isabel,

reproduce here in

S.

S.

full.

THE ANTI-FOREIGN OUTRAGES AT NANKING

ON MARCH TWENTY-FOURTH, 1927
From John K.

Davis, Consul.

Nanking, China.
Date of preparation: April 2, 1927.
Date of mailing: April 3, 1927.
File

No. 800/300.

The

outrages against foreign lives and property perpetrated by

soldiers

the

of

American

Nationalist

citizens

affected so

many

widely separated parts of the city

property, that it is impossible even now

located

and involved so much

army on March 24
in

a comprehensive picture of American injuries and losses.

In this report, however, an effort will be made to give a general
to give

picture

by

my

and to supply such pertinent information as is supported

own personal observation, sworn affidavits by American

citizens

and by statements

of the

Nanking Consular

of thoroughly reliable Chinese

members

staff.

L INJURIES AND LOSSES SUFFERED BY AMERICANS:

a. To Persons:
The most

serious single incident that occurred

blooded murder of Dr.

J.

was the cold-

E. Williams, Vice-President of Nan-

king University, by a uniformed Nationalist soldier at 8 a.m. on

the twenty-fourth.
From the sworn statements of Dr. Bowen,

Mr.

Speers and

Mr, Lowdermilk, enclosures Nos.

1,

and 3

THE DRAGON STIRS

36

no provocation whatsoever was

given by the victim and that the murder was entirely wanton.
Further, after killing Dr. Williams, the soldier callously robbed

to this report,

his

it

will be seen that

body.

As

members

five other

No.

11,

recognized

that

they

soldiers

obeyed

time

short

Nationalist

and

Women,

of the Ginling College for

comparatively
the

Williams,

proving

Minnie Vautrin and

be seen by the affidavit of Miss

will

were

the

looting

Nationalist

not

the

after

Ginling

the

of

"agents"

murder

thus

officer,

enclosure

Dr.

of

College

conclusively

Chihli-Shantung

Since the Ginling College is the first foreign compound

army.
west of the University of Nanking where Dr. Williams was
murdered and is less than half a mile from it, with no other

houses

intervening,

it

a large group, the members

Nationalist

Next

of

which were clearly proven to be

of

soldiers.

in seriousness after the

murder

Miss Anna E.

Moffett,

Presbyterian Mission.
Hull, enclosure No. 4,

Secretary

From
it

will

the

of

Dr. Williams was the

of

and wounding by a uniformed

shooting

was one

evident that the murderer

is

Nationalist

the

affidavit

soldier

American
of

of

Northern

Miriam E.

Miss

be seen that this crime was entirely

The sworn stateunprovoked, deliberate and peculiarly brutal

ment of William Jamieson, enclosure No. 5, also gives a general
idea of the attitude of the soldiers at this time,
ject
in

was the

the

stealing of property,

means

employed

to

whose main ob-

and who were uniformly brutal

force

their

victims

to

disclose

the

whereabouts of their valuables.

There occurred two known cases

of

attempted

American women by uniformed Nationalist

believed that

similar

cases

of

and

is

soldiers,

occurred of which

it

have not

For obvious reasons of modesty, the two

do not wish their names given and were unwilling to

yet been
victims

other

violation

informed.

make written sworn statements.

known to me and are thoroughly
teria or exaggeration.

or

more

However, both women are

truthful and not given to hysIn one case the woman was held by one

soldiers while the

would-be rapist pulled up her clothing

and was only stopped by the fortunate rushing

rable bent on loot in the wake of the soldiers.

in

of

civilian

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

so invariably the rule that to include all known

require a far longer report that it is possible now

was

Brutality

would

cases

under

to prepare

37

my

present limitations of staff and

office

equip-

ment.

From my

personal observation I can vouch for the rough

handling and robbing of Mr. E. T. Hobart, Vice-Consul Paxton
were repeatedly
and myself at the residence of Mr. Hobart.

We

menaced with loaded

pistols

soldier started to shoot

and

rifles

Mr. Hobart

One

and by bayonets.

order that he might get

in

and only desisted when I promised

that it would be promptly taken off, and pointed out that they
would get more money if we were not killed.
Women were treated with as much brutality as men and the
off a tightly fitting finger ring,

number

reported instances of extreme

brutality to them \vas due (1) to the fact that the greater part
of the American women and children had heeded my advice and

absence

of

larger

of

already been evacuated; and (2) because of those who were in

the city, many were either assembled in the places of greatest
safety

were hidden away singly or

or

houses

of

friendly

in

small groups

in

the

Chinese.

Mrs. Bates, whose husband's statement appears as enclosure

No. 6, was very roughly handled and partly stripped by NaBrenton, an American lady of 60 or
more who lay seriously ill in a chair, had her bedding torn off
her and was searched and robbed; and a young American nurse

was made
enclosure
feelings
ing,
dier.

Mrs.

soldiers.

tionalist

of

to

show her

garters

(see

Mr. Alspech,
woman, who from

affidavit

One young American

modesty refused to make a sworn

No.

7).

of

statement in writ-

had her sanitary napkin torn off her by a Nationalist solMrs. Mills (enclosure No. 6) reports the threatening of

an old lady because

could

she

not

get

off

her

wedding

ring

quickly enough.

In Mr. L.
that his wife,

J.

Owen's

whom

affidavit

know

abdomen and her

searched. Their two little

to

her

Miss Van Vliet

(enclosure No.

10),

he states

be pregnant, had a bayonet pressed

dress ripped and her underclothing

to

were also roughly handled.

(see enclosure No. 1) was robbed, partigirls

THEDRAGONSTIRS

38

and then searched, the soldiers feeling her garter

convinced of its lack of
clasp and intending to remove it until
Even children of tender age were not exempt.
intrinsic value.
Mr. Lowdermilk (enclosure No. 3) states they were searched,
stripped

ally

while Mr. Speers (enclosure No. 2)

tells

of the deliberate firing

a child of seven.

at

The

greatest brutality

They were

ican men.
fire

shot

arms,

at

was shown the majority

beaten,

and many

of the

Amer-

repeatedly threatened with loaded

had their outer clothing stripped

Dr. Jones in his statement (enclosure No. 9)

described how Mr. A. A. Taylor (British) was dragged along
with a rope around his neck and was shot at, and many other
their backs.

off

instances

will

be found described in

the

sworn

enclosed

state-

ments.
b.

Robbing and Destruction

Only second

and

in

American Property:
the

importance to

violence

lesser

of

American

to

taking

persons

of

were

American
the

life

wholesale

robbery and destruction of American property.

Practically all Americans in the city were robbed of

all

their

belongings on their persons and in their homes, and usually with

Details of the circumstances will be
great violence and brutality.
found in the enclosed sworn statements.
Even stairways, win-

dow

frames, doors and in short everything which could be torn

Not content with this destruction, three
out, were taken away.
institutional

dren,

the

buildings,

the

Hillcrest

School

for

Nanking Theological Seminary and

American
one

chil-

building

of

the Friends* (Quaker) Mission Hospital were burned.

Approximately ten American residences suffered a similar fate.

Some American

business offices and the

Pukow and
up to now to be

pany's installations in

kwan

are believed

the

Standard Oil Com-

riverine

intact,

suburb of Hsia-

an immunity growing

out of their location and the fact that the naval barrage stopped
the worst violence before the Nationalist soldiers had
got down
to the river.
c.

Attack

Upon American

The most outrageous

Consulate:

destruction of

American property from

THE

"NANKING INCIDENT"

39

an international standpoint, however, was the attack upon and

thorough looting of the American Consulate shortly before

the

noon on March 24 by Nationalist soldiers.

Entry was gained
through the rear entrance upon which in large Chinese characters was a sign "American Consulate," so that the attack could
been through "misunderstanding/* Moreover, the flag
on the flag staff was fully visible from all around.

not have

The

soldiers

came

in holding their

rifles

ready to shoot and

"show us where the foreigners

are so that we may kill them" and similar threats.
Upon being
told by the Chinese staff and the servants that this was the
American Consulate and that Americans were friendly to the
Chinese, the soldiers replied that all foreigners were alike and
were to be killed.
out

calling

When

"kill

the foreigners,"

satisfied

no Americans were there, the soldiers

everything in the office and residence and to
that

proceeded to steal
break up what they could not carry away.
They paid special
attention to the safes and metal filing cabinets and endeavored

by threats and force to compel the Chinese employes to open

the former.
Using various implements, they then attacked the
safes and managed to make a good sized hole in the back of one.
Fortunately, the compartment reached only contained stationery,

upon the discovery of which they decided

worth further effort.

The

that this safe

soldiers even took off metal beds, metal

similar large pieces of furniture.

When

they had

file

all

cabinets

and common people were urged by them

and take what was left
As a result, the Chinese

two

stoves,

latter,

is

and

they wanted,

the loafers

that the building

was not

to

come

staff

in

report

looted clean with the exception of the safes,

books

scattered

and papers

and

some

desks,

the

however, being seriously damaged.

The

flag

was

first

hauled

evidently as an insult;

it

down and then

raised upside down,

was then hauled down, torn and the

halyard cut and taken away.

Thus,
its

the

furniture

American Consulate was robbed

of

virtually

all

and equipment and the American Consul stripped

THEDRAGONSTIRS

40
of all
all

household furnishings, clothing and personal

by the Nationalist troops in uniform.

property

his

No

was made

effort

to stop this orgy until subsequent to the

naval barrage, and after

damage had been done.

the

all

INJURIES TO OTHER NATIONALS-

2,

In a manner similar
foreigners,

including

to that

used against Americans,

Japanese,

were assaulted and

all

other

robbed,

but

American buildings were burned,

no buildings owned by other nationals were so treated.
The Japanese Consulate was the first government center
The large number of Japanese assembled there were
attacked.
it is

significant that while

some

13

According to the statement of

then in charge here, shots were de-

robbed and brutally mistreated.

naval

the Japanese
liberately

officer

and several times

fired

at

the

Japanese

Consul

who

Three Japanese members of the consular staff

were attacked and wounded by Nationalist soldiers, while the

was

ill

in

consular
looted.

bed.

offices

and

residences

Japanese hotels,

dences

all

were

hospitals,

suffered similar fates.

thoroughly

places

of

robbed

and

and

resi-

business

One Japanese

sailor

was

also

shot and killed.

A
of

French Catholic father was murdered.

the

men

Alerte

stated

that

Nationalist

officer

The commander
followed

entered the school where the priest was and,

warning whatsoever, himself shot him.

An Italian Catholic priest was also shot and

by

his

without any

killed

by Na-

and without provocation.

Nationalist soldiers are reported to have poured kerosene on
parts of the Catholic church, but were prevented from actually

tionalist

soldiers

setting fire to

of their

The

own

it

by Chinese neighbors who feared for the safety

property.

having two men

S. Smith, a much respected and honored local
killed, Dr. L.
practitioner, and Mr. Huber, the Harbormaster of the Chinese
Maritime Customs.
Both were murdered at the British ConBritish suffered the heaviest loss of

life,

where they had been taking refuge. Mr. Bertram

Giles and Captain Spear were also shot and wounded at the
Both the murders and wounding were done
Consulate General.
sulate General

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

41

by Nationalist soldiers who knew where they were and,

Giles*

who

case,

The
cessive

their victim

Mr.

in

was.

was thoroughly looted by sucsoldiers and the two wounded men

British Consulate General

waves of Nationalist

accompanied by Mrs. Giles and a Miss Blake were for 31 hours

in the back room of the gate house.
Although the outrages at
Consulate

the

were matters

General,

the

including

wounding of Mr.

common knowledge throughout

of

the

Giles,

nothing

city,

whatsoever was done towards affording adequate protection and

afternoon

the

until

relief

British

25.

wherever found were robbed and abused in

citizens

same manner

the

March

of

Americans, and their residences, places of

as

business and the hulks, alongside of which ships load and

were

charge,

all

were

buildings

thoroughly

burned,

in

looted.

Although

cases

many

none

and

door

the

dis-

their

of

window

frames were torn out, and in one case, even the floors were dug
up.

CHINESE OFFICERS AND TROOPS RESPONSIBLE:

3.

Cheng Chien, Commander-in-Chief of

General

Army and

tionalist

River,

the

is

high

for

sponsible

deavor to

the

the

city

4th

city

of

the

whose troops are

re-

(South)

probably be useless to en-

time of the incidents.

informed us, however, that

The Red Swastika

the Commander of

(2nd Nationalist Army) was actually in the

24th; it has also been subsequently learned that

Division

on the

Hu

General
Division,

My

will

Bank

Na-

upon any particular division, as

both the 2nd and 6th Nationalist Armies were

Society's officers

the

It

6th

responsibility

the

at

Officer

Commanding

outrages.

fix the

at least parts of

in

Director of the Right

the

was

Yao-tau,

Commander

of

the

2nd

"Independent"

also then in the city.

Chinese

staff

inform

me

that the

troops which attacked

and looted the American Consulate belonged to the 2nd Independent Division.

However,

this

fact should

not be mentioned

might result in the persecution of our very loyal employes

who have already suffered both loss and hardship because of
as

it

their connection with our office.

THE DRAGON STIRS

42

PROOFS OF ORGANIZATION AND PREMEDITATION:

As

sworn

of

affidavits

of

some 30 American

which are ap-

citizens

a number of the
report as enclosures or exhibits,
level headed of the Americans have stated it as their firm
this

to

pended

more

noted from an examination of the certified copies

will be

outrages of

the

belief that

March 24 were not only committed

with the knowledge and consent of the higher Nationalist officers,

but were part of a premeditated and carefully arranged plan to

From

drive Americans and other foreigners out of China.

written

and verbal

statements,

as

well

as

from

the

their

of

series

came under my personal observation and the statements made to me by uniformed Nationalist soldiers and petty
events that

am

fully

king Incident

was

convinced both

of the guilty

knowledge
of
on
the part
the higher
of, and the consent to, the outrages
officers, including General Cheng Chien, and (2) that the Nan-

officers,

carefully

(1)

planned

in

advance by

at

least

part of the controlling leaders of the so-called Nationalist move-

ment.

This

is

a serious statement, but

believe that after care-

examining the enclosed affidavits and noting the following

points, the Department and Legation will fully concur in my

fully

conclusions
a.

It

Chen

Time Within Which Outrages Occurred:

has been claimed
that

agents

of

the

Nanking

in

a public statement

incidents

the Chihli-Shantung

were the

by Mr.

work

Army and were

of

Eugene

disguised

planned with a

view to bring discredit upon the Nationalist government. There are

many proofs that this was not and could not have been the case.

The

single item of the time within

almost

which the outrages occurred

and

sufficient
throughout the city, is
alone to prove that they could not have occurred without the
knowledge and consent of the higher Nationalist commanders.

simultaneously

Commencing

at

about

in

the

morning,

they

continued

with

ever increasing violence until after the naval barrage which

began
in
the
at 3:25
Not only so, but the three consulates
afternoon.
are

all

located on the principal street of the

city,

and whatever

took place there must have been promptly and

fully
the higher officers.

known

to

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

43

Further, although General Cheng Chien, Commander of the

6th Army, issued an order for the protection of foreign lives

and property, according

own

written statement, after hearnot enforced.

For while the

to his

barrage, this was

barrage stopped violence to persons, foreign buildings were looted
on the 25th and 26th, according to the statements of servants

ing

naval

the

who would have no

reason

to

lie

in

this

Moreover,

regard.

petty looting at the British Consulate General by soldiers continued on the 28th and the residences of the British employes

Tientsin-Pukow Railway at Puchen, three miles above

Pukow, were reported as looted on the first of April. Had it

of

the

been true that the outrages were the work of Northern soldiers,
they could not possibly have been continued under the noses of
the Nationalists

for so long.
In the affidavit of Miss Minne Vautrin

(enclosure No.

11),

she states that at about 10 in the morning of March 24 an officer,

the brother of a Ginling College student, came to the college
and rendered assistance in protecting the American teachers.

As

that time he must have seen and heard

at

outrages

many

of

the

Americans, including the murder of Dr. Wilcertainly would have reported them; the uninter-

against

and

liams,

of

2 hours thererupted continuance of the worst incidents for $y

after could not have occurred without the full knowledge and

consent of the higher

b.

officers.

Similarity of Incidents Throughout City:

The
number
as five

were perpetrated in a large

of separate premises located, in some instances, as much
miles apart were all characterized by so striking a simianti-foreign outrages which

larity as

to indicate that they

a prearranged

were carried out

in

the execution

In practically each case the soldiers entered the foreign premises threatening the occupants with rifles
of

or pistols

would

and

plan.

calling

When

kill.

for the foreigners

whom

foreigners were found, they were

and then forced

at the point of loaded fire

whereabouts

concealed

given

up,

of

the

they stated they

soldiers

valuables.

proceeded

to

arms to

After
kill

or

all

first

robbed

disclose the

these

otherwise

had been
mistreat

THE DRAGON STIRS

44
their

victims,

in

many

cases

stripping

them

outer

their

of

clothing.

was noted by Mr. Hobart and myself and also reported by

missionaries who at the time were many miles from us, that the
It

soldiers bore every evidence of having been

worked up by

care-

propaganda to perform deeds which they naturally feared to

commit.
It was noted that when one soldier gave evidence of
ful

being somewhat
of his fellows

by our attitude and arguments, one

would remind him

army"
them all.

lutionary
killed

restrained

which

In the majority

did

that he belonged to the

not

fear

and purposely

foreigners

of cases, and notably at

"revo-

American and

the

Japanese Consulates, after the soldiers had taken what they could
carry,

come
an

they forced the

in

alibi

later

in

loot also

people at

the

of

point

the

gun

to

This was palpably done in order to create

advance that the "ignorant and stupid'

people might

be blamed.

The
on

and

local

looters proceeded in groups of 4,

when

one

6 or more, which moved

number, evidently a petty

This plan was noticed both at the Standard
officer, to do so.
Oil residence and at the American missions many miles away.
See the
c.

directed

affidavit

by

of Dr.

of

their

Bowen

(enclosure

No.

1).

And

Lesser Officers Were Often With Looters

Control Them When They Desired:

Had

the looters been Northern agents, they

Could

would not have

been

accompanied in some cases by Nationalist officers, nor

would they have been recognized as Nationalist soldiers by, or
have

obeyed

statements

of

the

orders

of,

such

officers.

Yet

Miss Minnie Vautrin and other

in

the

Ginling

sworn
College

faculty members (enclosure No. 11) it is distinctly shown that

not only was a Nationalist officer on the scene of looting, but
that he was able, when he chose, to exercise control over the
soldiers.
it

As

this action took place at about

clearly proves

that

10 in the morning,

the Nationalist

have known at approximately

being perpetrated by their men.

commanding officers must

10-30 just what outrages were
Their failure to

take

any

re-

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

45

straining action until after the naval barrage, which did not occur
until five hours later, is a clear indication of their guilty knowl-

In view of the control

edge of and acquiescence in the outrages.
exercised over the Nationalist soldiers elsewhere, the permitting
of the anti-foreign orgy at

Nanking

It is inconceivable that the higher

able

to control

their

men

for

also indicates premeditation.

officers

commanding

practically

were un-

hours and then,

eight

upon the barrage from the American and British naval vessels,
The unavoidable
suddenly became able to exercise such control.
conclusion is that control was exercised according to the desires
of the higher commanding officers, and that since at approximately 4 p. m. the troops were suddenly and promptly called
together, they had for the preceding eight hours been functioning
under orders

The

fact that

the looting

by

their

acquiesced in by various Nationalist

out in the sworn statement of Dr. A.
(enclosure No.
statements in the enclosed affidavits.

Nanking University

d.

soldiers
officers

was seen by and

is

clearly

brought

Bowen, President
1) and by several

of the

J.

Looting Soldiers Directed by Whistles

other

And Assembled

by

Bugle Calls:

Reverend Walter R. Williams (enclosure No. 12) states that

the successive bands of looting soldiers were moved on by shrill
whistles evidently blown by leaders.
As Mr. Williams was at
that time in hiding and not then being molested, he was in a
what took

place,

not enjoyed by those whose observations were

made

peculiarly advantageous position carefully to note

an

ability

while

undergoing violence at the hands of Nationalist

For this reason, and because he is a peculiarly con-

actually

soldiers.

servative

and

truthful

individual,

his

statement

in

this

regard

should be given special weight.

Reverend Walter R. Williams,

Mr. James M. Speers, Dr. Harry F. Rowe, and Dr. Donald W.
Richardson (enclosures Nos. 12, 2, 13, and 14, respectively),
According

to the statements of

immediately after the naval barrage bugles sounded the soldiers

As no
were evidently assembled or called off under orders.

THEDRAGONSTIRS

46

bugles had been previously noted,

did nothing to

officers

naval gun

men

Civilians

From my own
sworn

until

frightened by the

general control.

Looting Well Organised and in

e.

the

off their

commanding

but were able at will almost instantly to bring

fire,

men under

their

call

appears that the

it

Who Know

Some Cases

Nanking:

observation on the Standard Oil

statements

Directed by

made by

missionaries,

and from

hill

notably

by Dr.

Bowen, Mr. Owen and Mrs. C. H. Flopper (enclosures Nos.

was not haphazard
1, 10, and 15), it was clear that the looting
The small
but was carried out in a generally organized manner.
groups seemingly had known objectives and all followed 'the same
procedure of robbing, securing of concealed valuables by intimidation and violence to Americans.

According to statements of Messrs. Speers, Jones, Smith and

Mrs. Mills (enclosures Nos. 2, 9, 16 and 8, respectively), looting
groups of Nationalist soldiers were
nese

civilians

looters to

as

it

who,

known

led, in

familiar

being

with

This point

several cases,

Nanking,
is

by Chi-

guided

the

of great

importance
indicates that the outrages were planned in advance and that
objectives.

Nationalist

civilians

soldiers

their

f.

in

were

As

it

in

directing

and guiding the

campaign of outrage and terrorization.

All Civilian Looting

diers

utilized

Ordered or Led by Nationalist Sol-

has been asserted that

all

looting

was done by Northern

soldiers or

by the local people, it should be carefully noted that

from enclosures Nos. 17, 2, 4, 18, 13, 19, 20, 15, 7, and 26, it is
distinctly established by sworn statements by thoroughly reliable

American
by

citizens

occur,

it

although considerable

looting

was done

was only committed when ordered or led by

In other words, although some civilian looting did

local people,

the soldiers.

that

it

was never

initiated

by the people who merely followed

the soldiers' lead.

At

Consulate when the police endeavored to

stop some late looters from taking out bundles of articles which
the American

they had picked up, they (the police) were covered by the guns

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

of passing soldiers who said that

to loot foreign property at will

should be allowed

the people

At

47

time the proclamation

this

ordering the protection of foreign lives and property had already

been posted at the consular entrance gate.
g.

Houses Indicates Motiue Injury

of Chinese

Exemption

Mere Loot:

Foreigners and Not

From

to

several of the enclosed statements

from

Chinese houses were exempt

will

it

be seen that

In the

looting.

affidavit

of

Mr. Holroyd (enclosure No. 22) it is pointed out that the residence of Mr. Ip, a Cantonese member of the University of Nanescaped looting although located in the midst of a group
of American residences.
Had mere looting been the object of
king,

the troops, or had they been actually out of control, this building
Thus the prime actuating motive
would also have been robbed.
of the

outrages

is

seen to be injury to foreigners and not loot

alone.
h.

Evidences of Planning

From
it

W.

the statements of Reverend

and

No. 12)

of

Reverend

W.

P.

R. Williams (enclosure
Roberts (enclosure No. 23)

appears that certain steps were definitely planned in advance.

Mr. Williams heard soldiers stating that foreigners were to

be stripped to their underwear and that to kill a foreigner would

be to gain prestige.
As this was exactly the procedure followed
in several
this

cases in different parts of the city,

was a prearranged

plan,

the

eventual

it

is

evident that

execution

of

which

was only frustrated by the unanticipated naval barrage.

Mr. Roberts was told by a Nationalist officer that the
British hatred

was caused by the finding

anti-

of a dead

Englishman
"white"
dead
Russian
and
this
soldiers
that
discovery
among the
had so inflamed the minds of the Nationalist soldiers that they
had determined to

Mr.

found.

ganda

kill

Roberts

all

Russians and Englishmen

believes

purposely used to stir

hesitate

to

kill.

fully warranted.

It

appears

that

this

is

evidence

whom

they

of

propaup the soldiers that they would not

probable

that

this

conclusion

was

THE DRAGON STIRS

48
i.

Refusal oj Responsible

Officers

See Foreign Consuls:

to

Efforts to get into touch with the higher Nationalist

me

were made by

throughout

through the police

the

entire

by giving
Political Bureau

officials,

my

March

of

day
card

officers

to

24th,

and

soldiers

in the Hsiakwan surburb.

through the self-styled
While it is
Similar efforts were made by other foreign officials.

understandable

that

that all did so,

and

some messages miscarried

it

is

and be

officials.

Their

Even

obvious

were they to see such

officials

informed of the outrages, they could not disclaim

officially

knowledge or

is

impossible

only too plain that the higher officers

did not desire or intend to be seen by foreign

motive for this refusal

is

it

responsibility.

in the

evening

when General Cheng Chien

word

sent

through the Red Swastika Society asking that the barrage not
be repeated, he refused to send any responsible high officer to

Rear Admiral H. H. Hough, Captain

This refusal was continued
the Emerald and myself.

discuss the situation with

England of
on the 25th, when an impudent and evasive reply was received
from him.

j.

Neglect to

Had
erty, as

shek)

Take Advance Precautions:

the Nationalists desired to protect foreign lives and prop-

was claimed by General Chiang Chieh-shih (Chiang Kai-

in his statement to press representatives

in

Shanghai, ad-

vance steps would have been taken in view of the

known

pres-

ence in Nanking of three foreign consulates and a large foreign

population.

The

fact that

steps

Committee had no

that the Central

foreigners, but

no such

that anti-foreign outrages should occur.

vance

the protection

desire for

on the contrary, and for

that personally

were taken, clearly proves

its

own

It is

of

purposes, desired

believed, however,

General Chiang Chieh-shih probably had no ad-

knowledge

of

this

plan

and perhaps

regrets

the

occur-

rence.

However, General Chiang does not control the Nationalist

government and his own personal seemingly more reasonable

attitude

cannot be considered

trolling element

in

his

party.

as

representing

that

of

the

con-

"NANKING INCIDENT"

THE

49

Troops Committing Outrages Were Southern Chinese

k.

The

troops

which committed the outrages were from their

speech unquestionably Southerners. The large number with whom

I was forced to parley for over two hours at Mr. Hobart's resi-

dence and the

several

with

whom

spoke

before

leaving

the

American Consulate were either Hunanese or from Kiangsi and

few were evidently from Kwangtung, as they could not speak
Mandarin.
They wore straw sandals and many had the typical
Cantonese, large round bamboo hats strapped to their backs.
5.

EFFECT OF THE BARRAGE:

The
the U.

naval barrage which was put

S.

Preston and H. M.

S.

S.

down by

the U. S. S. Noa,

Emerald

in order to

save

the 52 foreigners beseiged in the Standard Oil house, unquestionably saved the lives not only of this party, but of a smaller 'group
at the British

Consulate General, of the large group of Japanese

at the Japanese Consulate and of some 120 Americans mainly as-

sembled at the University of Nanking.

It was directed at the
open hill country immediately around the Standard Oil residences

and while a few

shells

went beyond, the damage done to Chinese

other than to the attackers of the residences in question, was

infinitesimal
the damage to Chinese property was also negligible.

life,

Not only

the country around the Standard Oil hill open and

with only occasional groups of farm houses, but the same statement is true of the country beyond and in line with the fire. The
is

Nanking was not bombarded and all of the statements to

the contrary by Mr. Eugene Chen are palpably mendacious and
intended to deceive the Western world.
City of

The

statements of Americans in their sworn affidavits as to

the beneficial effect of the naval barrage are too

quoted

here

but

should

be

carefully

noted.

numerous to be

In

general these
the lives of all

agree that the naval gun fire saved

foreigners then within the city walls; that it instantly stopped
the firing off of rifles and pistols by looting Nationalist soldiers;
statements

that

it

that

it

possible the evacuation of foreigners on March 25th;

caused the blowing of bugles to call off the looters; that

made

the worst violence and looting

was

instantly stopped

by

it;

that

THEDRAGONSTIRS

50
civilian

in brief,

of the results desired both effectively

all

produced
6.

were awed and restrained; and,

looters

that

it

and promptly.

CONCLUSION.

From

the facts as brought out above, and from the abundant

material contained in the enclosed affidavits, it is shown that on

March 24th

there occurred a deliberate and evidently prearranged

campaign of unparalleled violence and outrage against all foreigners in Nanking by portions of the 2nd and 6th Nationalist
Besides doing nothing to restrain his troops until forced
to do so by the naval barrage, the Nationalist commanding officer
armies.

refused to send any high ranking officer to discuss

consistently

and arrange for the

whose actual evacuation

the incidents

the

city,

relief

of the foreigners left in

described

as

in

my

despatch

March 28th, was only made possible by a strong threat to

bombard the city.
Further, after the outrage he has shown no
of

and

contrition

done

has

nothing

whatsoever

towards

making

amends or punishing those guilty on the contrary, he has maintained an attitude of truculence and impudence, and has lightly
;

dismissed

the

instigated

by Northern agents.

It

incidents

has been

as

the

work

impossible to cover

therefore, that the

of

all

local

points

Department and Legation

"bad

and

characters"

it

is

hoped,

will not confine their

attention to those elucidated in his report, but will carefully ex-

amine the mass of valuable material contained

in

the enclosed

copies of sworn statements by American citizens.

7.

THIS REPORT PREPARED UNDER DIFFICULTIES:

In

spite

Commander

of

the

generous assistance of LieutenantFrank H. Luckel and the officers of the U. S. S.

very

John D. Ford, the preparation

with

much

without
diers,

slow.

difficulty.

my

glasses,

and by

shortage

appearance.

for

of

report has been attended

task of drafting

which

it

by longhand when

was robbed by Nationalist

sol-

been painfully laborious and

of typewriters on board and limitations of

artificial

space have also

accountable

The

of this

light,

has

These conditions are

delayed its completion.
the many obvious imperfections in style and

THE "NANKING INCIDENT"

In making the enclosed copies of

affidavits,

do good typing and many corrections

required to make them exact.
Finally credit is due Vice-Consul Paxton

possible to

assistance

worked

and

far

to Clerk

into

the

51
it

has been im-

in ink

for

have been

his

constant

A. H. Zee who has come on board and

night

in

order that this

report

might be

completed and put upon a down river steamer.

John K. Davis
American Consul
Davis*

report

would seem

Washington as the
so

many

dren)

foreigners

official

It

remains

on

file

in

version of the "Nanking Incident," in which

(including

were involved.

self-sufficient.

American men, women and some

chil-

"WHY WE ARE

if

Corps
FEW,
idea

IN CHINA"

any, of the men in the United States

officers as well as enlisted personnel

of

why

they

were sent

to

China in

Navy and Marine

had a very clear

such numbers by the

American Government during the chaos which began with the Kuomintang Revoution.
Some eventually gained a rudimentary knowledge (1) of the basic
causes of the trouble that was endangering all life and property in
Asia, native as well as foreign; and (2) that they, for this very fundamental reason, were sent East to protect American lives and property
in that persistently erupting area in the Orient. Their task was not to
interfere with domestic difficulties of the Chinese, but to prevent these
frequent outbreaks from interfering too greatly with the activities of

American

families

who

chose or were obliged to reside in that almost

constant "danger zone" in the Far East.

This protection of foreign "lives and property" became a catchphrase among the inhabitants of China during the Canton-inspired
revolution which swept northward over the entire country beneath
the Great Wall, from 1926 to 1928.
With some observers, this ordiserious
business
of
our
men
in
uniform became known as the
narily
"protection of

&

1.

or "lives and property

p."

as usual,

don't

you

know."

The

fighting

men

toward the Chinese

that surge.

them

with the popular attitude of the traders

imbroglio and the Chinese peoples involved in
fell

in

knew

the causes of the turmoil which brought

on the long voyage to the Orient, let alone understood the races

They

rarely

of yellow-skinned, slant-eyed peoples around them.

odd in that lack of comprehension by men in the

In the

was

There

is

nothing

Navy

or

Marine

"not to reason why."

Their oath to the flag and their own country was but "to do or die."
These men had not the slighest interest in the cause of China's trouCorps.

first

place,

theirs

52

certainly

S3

The majority were a happy-go-lucky lot of men, without a care

the world.
The "tour of duty" out China-way was just another

bles.

in

assignment which made the

men who were

pealing to

look for a

Marine so ap-

or naive

enough to
They were largely intent on taking
"causes" be damned.
They were

by "joining up."
where they found it

was enough.

strangers in a strange land, and that

To combat

sentimental

romantic,

thrill

fun

their

of a soldier, sailor or

life

"know-nothing" lethargy among the United States

Navy in the Far East during the Kuomintang Revolution, an officer
aboard the U. S. S. Cincinnati issued a mimeographed Memorandum
this

to fellow-officers

The

Cincinnati

and

was

enlisted

men

flagship

of a cruiser

in

our

on the ''China Station/

fleet

squadron rushed to China

The

during the height of the trouble in the spring of 1927.

ships were cruisers

They were
fleet

sent

in those

U.

S.

S.

Richmond and

out to reinforce the

the

S.

normal strength

S.

sister

Memphis.

our Asiatic

of

abnormal times.

In addition, the United States had two bodies of Marines at Shanghai then
the 4th and 6th Regiments.
Their ignorance of why the

Chinese fought, endangering foreign lives and property, was abysmal

but, be it emphasized, no more abject than that of the average trader

who moved

make

into a strange land for the usual reason, namely, to

money.

The Memorandum was

nery

officer

issued by Lieut.

of exceptional intelligence.

Stanley A. Jones, a gun-

Jones rose from the

He was

own
The

a natural student, and passed on his

others with him in the China "adventure."

which

the

Lieutenant gave was

He

ation in the Orient.

our

government's

the

Chinese races.

few

words

follows, in

told
its

what

information to the
outline

of

history

situa comprehensive study

gave a thumb-nail sketch of the reasons for

intense

He

ranks.

interest

in

1927

in

the

developments

among

"Our Mission to China," and in a

mission was.
The unique Memorandum

called

that

of

it,

entirety:

OUR MISSION TO CHINA

To

the crew of the U. S.

S.

Cincinnati:

time to acquaint you all with the

Our mission is to protect the lives
object of our cruise to China.
It

is

appropriate at this

THE DRAGON STIRS

54

and property

of

American

and by reciprocity, we protect

citizens,

the lives of other foreigners.

You might ask:1. What are American

doing in China?
don't they leave China if their lives are in danger?
grievance have the Chinese against foreigners?
citizens

2.

Why

3.

4.

What
What

5.

be our relations with them under the present difficulties?

What countries are in sympathy with the Chinese in their

are

countries

involved,

particularly

and what

will

present stand?
6.

Cannot the Chinese government handle their own affairs?

seem

These
minds

the

of

to

be

those

the

who

questions

logical

are

to

likely

not acquainted with

the

arise

in

situation

In reply thereto, the following extracts from

various sources, coupled with first hand knowledge of the Chinese

Far

in the

East.

question gathered during seven years of duty on the China station, should enlighten you as to why the foreigner is persistent
in his interest to get

China on her

feet.

As

a result of the experience of one John Ledyard of Connecticut with the Captain Cook Expedition to the Pacific, the
first ship to sail from America to engage in trade with Asia was
the

Empress of China
coast of America with
with Canton.

He

Ledyard returned from the northwest

stories of the fur trade being carried on

told of traders buying furs for sixpence

which

These tales interested merchants of

Canton for $100.
Boston and New York so the Empress of China was fitted out
and sailed for Canton on February 22, 1784. She returned May
sold

in

1785.

12,

The

return of the

sensation.

Empress

of

China created somewhat of a

report of the cruise to our President contained the

statements that the Americans were treated as barbarians.

today,

among

the illiterate Chinese,

we

Even

are referred to as foreign

Americans and Europeans have always been unwelcome

Until the year 1842 Canton was the only
prospectors in China.
devils.

China open to foreign trade; and the merchants who

attempted to do business with the Chinese suffered many inport

of

justices.

The

foreigners

made every

effort

to

come

to

friendly

"WHY WE ARE
terms with the

Chinese,

CHINA"

IN
to

yielding

55

Chinese authority as

cir-

cumstances demanded.
Terranova, from an American
ship out of Baltimore, was turned over to the Chinese for punThe
ishment for the killing of a Chinese bumboat woman.

In

1821

Francis

seaman,

punishment for slaughter under Chinese law was only a small fine.
As an indication of the prejudice against foreigners, Terranova

was strangled without even a hearing.

Until 1840, the United States Government offered little or
no protection to our citizens in China.
Since then, however, we
have entered into treaties with the Chinese and become interested
and involved in Far Eastern affairs, along with other Powers

who

are competitors in the commercial

John Quincy Adams,

field.

a lecture in 1841, before the Mass-

in

The fundamental principles of

achusetts Historical Society, said
It admits no obligation
the Chinese Empire are anti-commercial.
It utterly denies
to hold commercial intercourse with others,
:

the equality of other nations with

itself,

and even

is

independent

It holds itself to be the center of the terraqueous globe, equal to

the heavenly host,

and

relations,

or

political

reverently submissive

all

other nations with

commercial,

as

outside,

whom
tribal

to the will of its despotic chief.

it

has any

barbarians,
It is

upon

openly avowed and inflexibly maintained, that the

principal maritime nations of Europe for several centuries, and
the United States of America from the time of their acknowlthis principle,

edged independence, have been content to hold commercial interIt is time tJiat this enormous
course with the Empire of China.
outrage upon

the

rights

of

human

nature,

and upon

the

first

principles of the rights of nations should cease.

The caus

war

arrogant and
unsupportable pretensions of China that she will hold commercial
intercourse with the rest of mankind, not upon the terms of equal
reciprocity,
lation

of

the

but upon

the

is

the

insulting

"kowtow,"

the

and degrading forms of re-

between lord and vassal.

Adams was
execution,
foreigners.

and

Secretary of State at the time of Terranova's

well understood the Chinese attitude toward

THE DRAGON STIRS

56

Nanking (British) provided for the

Foochow, Ningpo, Amoy and Shanghai

In 1842, the Treaty

of

opening of the ports of

for the purposes of trade.

The

American

first

He

Caleb Gushing.

Commissioner,

resident

in

was

China,

the United States with detailed instruc-

left

make a

tions and with the authority to

treaty to regulate trade.

After the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, England believed

that Cushing's mission would be fruitless.
However, he proved
himself an able diplomat and

without intimidation.

Wanghai, contains
has

there
ticles

recently

won

several concessions

Cushing's treaty,

known

from China

as the Treaty of

the doctrine of extraterritoriality, over

much

been

discussion.

The

with reference to extra-territorial rights

China who

is

text

which

the

of

as follows

ar-

"Sub-

be guilty of any criminal act toward

citizens of the United States shall be arrested and punished by
of

jects

may

the Chinese authorities according to the laws of China,

zens of the United States

who may commit any crime

and
in

citi-

China

be tried and punished only by the consul or other public

official of the United States thereto authorized according to the

shall

laws of the United States," And,

"all articles in

regard to rights,

property or person, arising between citizens of the

United States and China shall be subject to the .jurisdiction of,

whether

of

and regulated by, the

this

article

authorities of their

also adds:

between the

citizens

and

of

all

the

own government."

controversies

United

States

And

occurring in China

and the subjects

of

any other government shall be regulated by the treaties existing

between the United States and such governments, respectively,
without interference on the part of China.
That until the Chinese laws are distinctly made known and recognized, the punish-

ment

for

others

wrongs committed by foreigners upon the Chinese or

shall

not

be greater

than

their

applicability

to

offense by the laws of the United States or England;

any punishment be

inflicted

foreigner until the guilt of

the

nor

like

shall

by the Chinese authorities upon any

the party shall have been fairly and

dearly proven."

In drafting

famous

this

Terranova

treaty,
case.

Gushing evidently had in mind the

Other

Powers

now have

the

same

"

\V

H Y

A R E

XA

"

57

The Treaty of Wanghai provided also

agreement with China.
for the right of American citizens to establish residences in treaty
Thus, the Treaty of Wanghai marked the entrance
the United States into Far Eastern politics.

ports.

of

our dealings with China we have endeavored to follow

The present unrest
diplomatic channels rather than military.
In

all

by no means our

experience with the anti-foreign feeling

in China.
During the Taiping Rebellion in 1853 the walled city
of Shanghai came into the possession of the rebels.
The customs
is

first

house was looted and the Imperial Chinese Government sought

assistance in the suppression of the rebels.

While

has always
to interfere with the
it

been the policy of the United States not

internal politics of a nation, we consented to concerted action of
the treaty Powers in rendering assistance to the Imperial Government of China. The United States took no part in the affair

because of our

own

civil

war

at

home.

The Taiping

Rebellion

ended in 1863 in favor of the Imperial Government.

On account of the corruptness of Chinese officials and as a

made by

the treaty Powers, all revenue is

collected at the treaty ports by the Chinese Maritime Customs,
which is officered by the Powers.

guarantee

for loans

In 1923, Sun Yat-sen,

threatened

tonese,
t

his

collect

to

who was

seize

own*' revenue.

Sun

this occasion.

customs

house

The Powers saw

The writer was

at

to

it

Canton
that

his

and
in-

present at Canton
issued a statement to the effect that, while

tentions did not materialize.

on

the

then the leader of the Can-

the Chinese people might expect a second Lafayette, the

Powers

concentrated men-of-war at Canton to prevent him from taking

The Powers could
over what he believed wr ere his just rights.
not yield to Sun Yat-sen's demand without violating their treaty
Sun was not recognized as in any
with the Peking Government.
way connected with the Chinese Government.

Cantonese, with their recent successes, are now in control

the treaty ports south of and along the Yangtze River.

The
of

all

Even though they

are in control they cannot collect the revenue,

due to the treaties which exist between the Powers and the rec-

ognized

Peking

Government.

This

provokes

the

anti-foreign

THE DRAGON STIRS

feeling.

Should

the

Cantonese overthrow the

Peking Govern-

ment, they will no doubt negotiate for the modification of existing

opinon of many correspondents that the
Powers will not consent to the abrogation of extra-territoriality
Also, that the best solution to the Chinese question is
rights.

treaties.

It

is

the appointment

the

a council

of

or commission,

expert in govern-

mental organization, to straighten out the government in China.

Another anti-foreign demonstration took place in 1900 when
a secret society, known as the "Boxers/' said to have been in
collusion with the Manchu Government, attacked the foreign lega-

Peking and massacred native Christians and foreign misThe Legation guards were unable to handle the situsionaries.

tions at

ation, so a force of

19,000 troops composed of British, American,

Russian, French and Germans, advanced on Peking.

This affair

Government $337,500,000. The idemnity

by the Powers was $750,000,000, but through the good
of the United States, it was reduced.

cost the Chinese

levied
offices

The death of the Emperor in 1908 hastened the overthrow of

Sun Yat-sen organized a revolutionary
the Manchu Dynasty.
party in 1910 and became the leader of a movement for a govThis move was successful, and Dr. Sun
ernment by the people.
abdicated his leadership in 1911 in favor of Yuan Shi-kai, who
subsequently became the first President of the Chinese Republic.
Yuan was confronted with a very difficult task, for neither he

nor his associates had the experience necessary for the establish-

ment

of a stable federal government.

During the organization of

some dissension developed regarding the representatives of the provinces.

In 1916, a movement was started to
abolish the Republic and return to a monarchy.
Yuan Shi-kai
the Cabinet

was to become Emperor.

throughout the country.

This step met with wide opposition

Sun Yat-sen set up a Provincial Gov-

Canton and started another revolutionary campaign

that has been active ever since.

ernment

in

Sun Yat-sen was

tireless

in his

efforts to gain foreign

recog-

nition, but was unsuccessful.

After the Powers blocked his plans

to take over the Canton Customs in 1923, he
accepted the aid and
counsel of Soviet Russia.

The propaganda and

activity

of

Red

"WHY WE ARE

CHINA"

IN

59

Russia has prevailed among the Cantonese forces for the past
three years.
Russia, an outcast so far as world politics is conthe only country allied to the Cantonese and

is

cerned,

is

agita-

ting the anti-foreign feeling in China.

study of American participation in Chinese affairs clearly

indicates that were it not for the United States, China would
not be enjoying the sovereign rights she has today.
The United States Government and other European Powers,

having due regard for the recognition of treaties made according

to the laws of nations, are represented at Shanghai ready to use
force,

if

the various

enforce our

to

necessary,

treaty

The

rights.

forces

of

Chan Kai-shek (Chiang

provincial war lords, viz.
of the Cantonese,
Pei-fu, of the Central Govern-

Wu

Kai-shek)

ment; Chang Tso-lin,

the so-called

of the

Manchurians, and Feng Yu-hsiang,

"Christian General/' are

all

mercenary.

They are
pay them

often disloyal and will fight for anyone who is able to

More often they receive their pay through the
and feed them.
privilege

"The

of looting.

national

Dr,

writes

oped,"

spirit

of

the

Koo

Perhaps so, but it

tional spirit" be directed against the

to

the

British

tactics

of

war
menace

the Chinese

and can be expected to prove a further

the organization of the Chinese Government, than toward the

lords
to

devel-

Legation at
would be far better that this "na-

Wellington

Peking.

who

has been

Chinese people

are,

foreigners who are anxious to see a stable government at Peking.

The British and American Governments have both expressed

desire

for

the

modification

of

existing

treaties.

We

cannot

deal with rebels.

the

Summing up

information

contained

in

this

thesis,

the

answers to the opening questions are:

1.

American

2.

by right of treaty.
While treaties call for the protection
tionals,

citizens

citizens are in

we

of

lives

of

our na-

tolerate the actions of the Chinese rebels.

look

to

us for protection.
have us believe that

would
our rights as Americans
opinion

China engaged in legitimate trade

citizens,

we

Our

Some

expressions of
in order to demand

should remain within

THEDRAGONSTIRS
boundaries

the

nation

on

founded

is

of

rest

our

of

the

our

In

world.

The

country.

commercial

order

to

of

our

with

the

prosperity
relations

maintain

our

national

commercial interests require their representatives

establish residences in foreign countries.
They should

prestige,
to

and religious prejudice,

and protected against the laws of a country where the loss
of a human life is often not recorded.

at least be protected against racial

3.

Modern China

be unequal
and unjust. They forget the fact that the national indebtedness of China is in the neighborhood of one billion dollars.
All of the

believes the existing treaties

Powers of Europe, the United

to

States and Japan,

are concerned in the present situation in China.

allied

5.

the

determination

that the

foreign

Settlement

at

Shanghai shall not be disturbed.

None but Red Russia. She is trying to drag China down
to

6.

in

are

They

her level

China has not proven herself able to handle her own

ficulties.
The Government is bankrupt.

(SIGNED)

Stanley A. Jones,
Lieut.,

This document
bly tabulated form,

tells

its

which

own

all

story and

dif-

U.

S.

N.

answers the questions in

could read, given the desire.

Few had

ven that, of course;

professional fighters rarely care to get so deeply
iterested in the subject nearest them.
The Lieutenant's Memorandum,
lerefore, did but little

icture

aces

of

the

basic

good other than to show an exceptionally clear

relations between the Chinese peoples and the

from abroad
*

Sometimes the afternoon sun shone through the gray of February's

louds that lowered most days in the winter of 1927-28 over the

Vhangpoo

River

flats.

When

it

did,

the

rays

set

aglow the bur-

ished curves of a silver cup on a desk in a cold stone building in the

sart

of

Shanghai

Then

spattered sunlight, broken into myriad tiny

brightened the eyes of the man in uniform at the desk, and he

ioked at the loving-cup with admiration and pride.
The man was
lafts,

01

H.

C. Davis,

commanding

officer of the

Fourth Regiment, United

"

States

WH

Marine Corps,

stationed

The cup bore

headquarters.

ARE

in

Shanghai.

this inscription

NA

The

"

61
building

was

his

Presented to the Fourth Regiment,

United

States

Marine

Corps, by Major-General J. Duncan, Commanding British Shanghai Defense Force, as a memento of our friendly cooperation in
Shanghai, 1927-28.

The Duncan Cup was presented

January

who

Colonel

at

1928,

17,

Davis'

to

the

Regiment on

Fourth

headquarters.

General Duncan,

became Major-General Sir John Duncan and who returned

to England after nearly a year's service in China, presented it himself
later

token of appreciation of the friendship and cooperation

which existed between the American and British defense forces in the
as a personal

The General had appeared on

Far East.

the morning of the presen-

American Marine headquarters, unaccompanied by any of

In honor of that event, a full company of Marines had been

tation at the

his staff.

helmets and light marching equipment.

The
regimental band and the Marine fife and drum corps had taken part.
General Duncan had been given two ruffles and flourishes which he

present with

steel

rifles,

rated as a Major-General.

Just across the room, facing Colonel Davis' desk, another trophy
It was a flagstand bearing a silver
stood, also won in friendship.
plaque,

and on

it

was the

inscription

Presented to the Fourth

Regiment,

United

States

Corps by the First Battalion, the Green Howards,

orate Their Service Together in Shanghai, 1927.

The

to

Marine

Commem-

Green Howards, a British regiment, was at the

the plaque, and the Marine crest, with its motto, Semper

crest of the

bottom of

was engraved at the top. The American flag and

Regiment's colors were crossed, in the stand.
Throughout those earlier months the American and

fidelis,

other defense forces cooperated in a

The Nations

allied

in

fighting forces in the

the Great
field,

this

remarkable

War

in

time in

spirit

of

the Fourth

British

and

friendship.

Europe again had to place

And the manner in
China.

which they worked together and formed lasting friendships was the
When the Green
subject of much favorable comment out East.

Howards

left

for

England, the

Shanghai gave their

officers

officers

of

the

American Marines

in

a farewell dinner in the American Club,

THE DRAGON STIRS

62

December

the night of

port on January

down
sion.

the

6,

them

to see

As

1927

28.

they departed on board a trans-

company of American Marines

and the Marine Band turned out for the occa-

1928, there was a

off,

The "Tommies'* and the "Yanks" were

The same sort of spirit was noticeable in

entire

the

While there was no formal arrangement

American and British, and others too, in com-

covering the subject,

mand of naval vessels up the Yangtze River, took
io protect the lives and property not only of their
of other foreigners

example of the

two navies during

China.

in

year

buddies.

as

spirit

of

upon themselves

own

nationals, but

Incident" was a striking

The "Nanking

well.

it

was apparent throughout.

cooperation that

be recalled that American and British destroyers at Nanking

fired when called upon by refugees ashore in danger of their lives that
will

It

Every day the American and British commanding

spring of 1927.
The Japanese also attended. Although a
officers conferred together.
British officer, Captain England, was the superior naval officer present

when Lieut -Comdr

the time,

at

S.

S.

Noa, requested

England readily granted

And now, in the wardroom

the

Smith,

commanding

Jr.,

the

Cap-

it.

silver cigarette box,

not to the

but

his permission to fire first if necessary,

tain

tiful

Roy

the

to

wardroom

was the

of

U.

S.

Noa

S.

there

is

a beau-

suitably engraved, presented to the destroyer

officer,

his

British

warship,

commanding

Noa

of the

officers

by

the

the

Emerald stands a

or any other individual,

H.

large

British ship from the

M.

Emerald.

S.

silver

cocktail

In

shaker.

Noa.

Already a tradition
has arisen the shaker never is to be used except when an officer from
the U. S. S. Noa comes on board the H. M. S. Emerald.
It

gift to the

These are but a few

showing the cooperation and

spirit of friendship which marked the relations of the American and
British forces in China.
The fact that General Duncan and the late

Admiral

Mark

L.

of the incidents

Bristol,

commanding

the

American

naval

forces

were also close personal friends should be remarked.

Following their official calls, the British General and the American
Admiral were often together at social functions, and General Duncan
in

the

Orient,

was frequently a guest

Bristol.

at the

Shanghai residence of Admiral and Mrs,

This personal diplomacy,

this

getting to

know

the

men

of

other nations in charge of the affairs of their peoples, previously de-

monstrated in Turkey, again marked Admiral Bristol as an unusual

"

WH

A RE

and outstanding naval man who,

it

NA

"

was widely agreed,

63
fitted

fectly with his job in the Orient in those trying days.

In relating these incidents I have discussed only

States and

in

the

per-

United

Britain because these two nations had the largest defense

China during 1927.

It must not be thought that the other
Powers represented were not almost as friendly.
However, speaking

forces in

other languages, their men did not become as well acquainted as did
the British and Americans.
And, again, having smaller forces, there

was

little

occasion for the individual units of the French, for example,

or the Italians or others to work together intimately

A
that

study of the American and British forces in 1927-28 discloses

altogether the United States had, according to official figures,

men

4,399 officers and

in

the

Marine Corps

and men, and the usual complement

gunboats, destroyers and other men-of-war
officers

1,000

Army

United States

Navy

in

of
in

China,

the

"China

Station,"

together with three cruisers sent out to augment normal naval strength.

These were the

under

command

light

of

cruisers

Rear-Admiral

defense force in Shanghai

The American

Richmond and Marblehead,

The British
R. Y. Blakely.

Cincinnati,

was cut

J.

to 4,500 officers

and men.

strength in China of nearly 4,500 Marines in 1927-

28 was the greatest in the history of our relations with the East. The
Fourth Regiment, less the Second Battalion, embarked for China at

San Diego on February

3,

1927, aboard the U. S. S. Chaitmont.

They

The regiment
Shanghai on February 24 of that year.
remained aboard the ship until March 21, the day the Nationalists
captured Shanghai, when the men were ordered ashore to protect
arrived

in

and property. The Sixth Regiment (minus the Third

Battalion), the Third Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company, and the Third Brigade Service Company, one battery of the

American

lives

squadron sailed from San

Diego on board the transport Henderson on April 7, 1927, following
a request for reinforcements. In the meantime, Brig.-Gen. Smedley D.

Tenth

Artillery

and a Marine Aviation

Butler arrived, landing the day after the "Nanking Incident."

Other additions were made shortly after the Henderson

The passenger

liner President

sailed.

Grant was chartered for use as a trans-

port and sailed April 17 for the Philippines with the Third Battalion
of the Sixth Regiment and the Second Battalion of the Fourth Regi-

THE DRA GON STIRS

64

ment, together with the First Battalion of the Tenth Artillery (less
one battery), one light tank platoon, the Fifth Company Engineers,

and part

Marine aviation squadron. The rest of this aviation squadron was picked
up at Guam and the vessel proceeded to
The men were held there in reserve and
Olongapo, near Manila.
of another

subsequently brought to
mained there ever since.
to Tientsin in June,

The Fourth

Shanghai.

where

have

re-

Third Brigade was shifted

was stationed until withdrawn. General

The
it

Marines

rest of the

who is now dead, made Tientsin his headquarters.

The Marines fell into regular encampment routine much

Butler,

they were in San Diego or anywhere

initial

novelty

of

else,

aside,

of course,

as though

from the

The men were given every

surroundings.
they could in the way of an education out of their

their

opportunity to get all

And they had their sports
"tour of duty*' in China by sight-seeing.
and amusements there as in America. The Marine dramatic club gave
occasional plays in the

Navy Y. M.

C.

A.

The men had

basketball

teams, played football and other sports and went in for boxing matches
which were attended by civilians and men in uniform, alike.
The

Marine Band played for various formal and social affairs, and some
of the musicians formed a dance orchestra that was popular and often
In the summer
played at the Columbia Country Club tea-dances.
Shanghai had a baseball league, and the Marines' team always was

among

the best.

IN THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek captured Nankking and set that ancient city up as the new Capital of China, I
went up the Yangtze-kiang to Hankow, in the heart of that warafter

SHORTLY

The kiang

part of the name means "river," although this

like the way the Chinese themselves pronounce it

ring land.
really is

very little
the word sounds more
Chinese.

Why we

The Yangtze
treacherous

spell

is

streams

like "giang,"

one

on

with a

it

the

of

with a hard G, when spoken by a

is another Chinese puzzle.

longest,

widest,

deepest

and

most

frequently overflows, flooding the

placid countryside for miles until the valley resembles an inland sea,
storm-tossed and angry.
The Chinese take such evidence of the
earth.

It

unfathomable caprices of the river god in resigned or philosophical

manner: as a whim of the elements, over which they have no control.

So they accept it with a shrug, bury their dead, and rebuild their
dismantled homes and towns which they realize must be destroyed
There are flood control movements, but they have
failed to accomplish much.
Until recent years the Chinese peoples
could not be persuaded even to try to stand in the way of an inexorable
god, bent on mischief.
They felt, and still feel, that to do so is to
risk an even greater vengeance.
again another day.

to

From the source

The Yangtze remains unbridged to this day.
its broad mouth at the sea, there is no bridge across its impetuous

current.

Construction of one

cash outlay involved, but

it

is

not only prohibitive because of the

still too dangerous a
job in structural

is

engineering.

The size and power of the Yangtze may be grasped when it is

known that men-of-war as large as the 10,000-ton U. S. S. Cincinnati,
a sea-going light cruiser, not only can but do cruise right up the
The Cincinnati spent
center of China along this river's deep channel.
the summer of 1927 at Hankow, her guns adding their protection to
65

THE DRAGON STIRS

66

those of gunboats on the customary U. S. Yangtze Patrol in behalf of

American lives and property up the river.
The cruiser was pre-

vented from returning to the sea by low water during that hot, fetid

summer

in the

Hankow

area.

was there during the exciting days

the end of the Russian Advisorate in the seat of the revolution

Mikal Borodin and

My

first

trip

his

little

when

fled.

up the Yangtze was made

spring of 1927.*

comrades

at

river steamer, the

in
S.

the latter part of the

S.

Loongwo, operated

by a British navigating and trading concern, made the trip with a convoy of foreign war-craft, including American destroyers.
The Yangtze at that period in China's warring history was the
dividing

line

between

Northern war

lords.

From

and at us

at each other

Kuomintang and those

the

of

troops

the

banks they took pot-shots

Chinese cowpradore, or clerk, had been

the stream's

of

flat

by a stray shot on the previous trip, and this brought the war
home to the crew and to us. No one was hurt on our trip, although
killed

we were

My

occasionally under
files

fire.

show notes and

copies

of dispatches

which

sent back

while on that cruise into the heart of China and her revolution.
are reproduced here to give an idea of what the voyage
"griffin" (less than a year in China,

China-hand),

like

myself.

In

was

They

like to

and anyone is a "griffin" to an old

sense it was like a Frenchman's

up the Mississippi on a French boat, convoyed by French

for most of us among that ship's company certainly were
war-craft
cruising

not Chinese,

Impressions to

Yangtze River

my

editor

S,erics

No

follow:
1.

ON BOARD THE STEAMER LOONGWO,

Far away, high amid the mountains
pirates, the
* I

had been

Yangtze, begins

\vith

New York

of

its rollicking,

The United Press

April 20.

Tibet, that old father

of

pillaging course through

Associations on a retainer basis.

They

a "part-time" assignment.
It
was later made a regular Bureau. Frederick Moore, chief of The New York
Times staff in the Far East, had already offered a billet as full time correspondent with them, and under the circumstances I was forced to accept. Walter
decided in

to keep the post there then

Duranty came across Siberia from Moscow and was stationed that summer in
Frederick Moore remained as chief at Shanghai; and I completed this
Peking.
three-way coverage set-up by going to Hankow and reporting the decline of the
Reds there. Later, when Mr Moore and Mr Duranty left, I became the chief
correspondent in China for The New York Times, remaining until late in 1929.

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

IN

China to where, yellow with looted

Shanghai, eternally flings

Leaping mountain

broad mouth, near

soggy bandit's burden into the sea.

its

streams,

67

leisurely

soil,

its

tributaries

in

long

valleys

lowlands, creeks and tiny rivulets seeping to their

level, combine to abet and strengthen the broad-chested old brigand that exacts tribute from half of Asia.

and, in the

flat

mantle of romance, thick as the silken folds of an opulent

Mandarin's coat, hides the coarse figure of this robber river. It

The Yangtze must ever be veiled in

tradition.
Steaming along its muddy course between its flat,
commonplace banks, one cannot but remember the tales of its
cannot be seen as

it

is.

they say, run red with the blood of

as often as its golden flood has swept

history; that this river has,

ancient

warriors almost

angrily over the lowlands in the spring; that in the pleasant

life

China's early culture, gorgeous processions, rich in splendor

with the brocade and yellow gold of potentates and princesses,
bobbed along this highway; that in times of conquest, stern warof

manned by savage men from beyond

came down to ravage and conquer and

craft,

the hills to the west,

the

invaders

tarried,

and were absorbed.

The Yangtze, predominantly

Sweeping across the lowlands
havoc in

its

path, leaves

survive are glad.

They

cruel,

proves

kind

to

some.

in flood times, the river, spreading

a carpet of fertile

silt,

and those who

prosper.

Prospering, they sought markets for their products. In turn,

they formed a market for other products, these agricultural millions in the Yangtze Valley, and in less than a century traders

from the West

have

built

up

sturdy

commerce with these

people.

War

Revoluhas again torn at the heart of that commerce.

tion beginning in Canton has swept northward, and the Yangtze
today is a line of demarcation between the north and the south.

The
ply a dangerous trade up the Yangtze.
The markets
of river steamers is growing steadily less.

River packets

number

still

The Chinese are afraid to buy.

up-country are dull and stagnant
The armies, first one and then another, confiscate whatever they
desire.

The

revolution

is costly.

Many men-of-war from

nations abroad are plying the

Yang-

THE DRAGON STIRS

68

tze today, in ever increasing numbers.

in

way,

the

main,

to

once

warships

up and down

escort river steamers

Merchantmen have given

more.

Stern

the Yangtze,

gray craft

for soldiers

the north and of the south fire indiscriminately on

all

of

shipping.

It is not, therefore, without a feeling of adventure that one

boards a river steamer these days and embarks for Hankow, as

Shanghai, that wickedest city, they say, in China,

safe behind the lines of men and barbed wire entanglements

did last night.

is

as safe as

New York

Chinese

concerned.

is

itself

Shanghai, bulging with people,

from everywhere in the

in China at present is,

The

could be, so far as attack from the

interior, is well guarded.

hiding his

ostrich-like,

The

cially, in

who

lives

These men point out the futility of existence, commerIt's the body
China if only a city like Shanghai is held.

of trade they

Men

foreigner

head in the sand.

people of Shanghai are ridiculed by the foreigner

inland.

refugees

would

like

save.

these inland traders keep the river steamers run-

Pioneers in commerce, they go into the country and sell

Chinese goods
always on a cash basis in these troubled

ning.

the

but the point is that they sell products from

There are two of these
abroad and prevent trade from dying.
men on board, tobacco merchants on their way to Wuhu to

times, to be sure,

straighten out their

the revolution.

One

is

and

seek to carry on despite

an American, the district manager from

office there

Nanking; the other is British.

and on for sixteen years. He

The
is

to

latter

has been in China off

typical of these traders,

speaks

the language in half a dozen dialects, hardy, a big fellow, afraid

of nothing. He has just come out of Pengpu, he said, going

north by train to Tientsin and thence south to Shanghai by boat.

And then, straight away back into the thick of it. His experiences would

fill

a large volume.

The Loongwo, scheduled

finally got under way at about
British

sailors

on guard from

to

sail

at

midnight

last

night,

three o'clock this morning.

The
the flagship Hawkins patrolling

the dock and the steamer, while inspring a feeling of comparative

safety, also

were constant reminders

that

this

trip

up-river was

not exactly the safest thing in the world just at present.

I was
surprised to find the steamer nearly full.
strange person in

IN

my

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

cabin with

me

words of German.
Russians on board,

69

speaks only Russian and a few, a very few,

There are, as a matter of fact, about a dozen

bound for Hankow; four or five Chinese

in first cabin; my two tobacco merchant friends, a Commander
Ward coming out from England to take a post on the British
cruiser Vindictive now at Hankow; and a Catholic priest.
all

my bunk

Clambering into
asleep,

despite

the

was soon
and their
The
the hold.

shortly after midnight, I

cries of the wharf coolies

shrill

staccato sing-song chant as they loaded cargo into

hoarse blast of the fog horn awakened me several hours later.

The dawn was

peered out into the mists.

drear.

drifted slowly past in the semi-twilight of the

Phantom

new

day.

ships
slept

midmorning and then, dozing, listened to the strange noises

around me the swish of swirling water against the ship's sides
the low hum of the engines; someone in the saloon playing
There's a Long, Long Trail A-winding; voices on the promenade
until

deck outside; snatches of conversation:

"business
"Cantonese have been,".
.

glad these warships are

"looks pretty bad,".

.

terrible

dangerous

*.

We

were stuck in the mud. The tide

Two other ships and a river gunboat were
was going out.
The wind
sighted off our stern, seen dimly through the mist.
I

went out on deck.

blew a gale.
maneuvering.
waited for us.

Two

hours later

The
I,

we

got off somehow, after endless

other vessels had gone ahead a little and

for one,

was glad

to

have that American gun-

Our group of four ships (we picked up another

along.
One ship could only do
during the afternoon) made slow speed.
eight knots, and that held back the whole procession.

boat

The day wore

Commander Ward,

two tobacco
merchants and myself, and, in a way, "the Padre/' thrown more
or less together by our common interests and language, formed
The Padre, a little chap with horn-rimmed
a bit of a clique.
spectacles, was forever peering at the shore through a pair of
He announced about three o'clock the sighting of
binoculars.
on.

the

a group of Chinese warships.

There were four

Peary, which had been

of

them

in

all.

just alongside the

The American gunboat

Loongwo, shoved ahead

THE DRAGON STIRS

70
a

as

little

were

we drew

lined

up

The
The

near.

in a row.

Chinese, flying the Cantonese flag,

place is known as the Crossroads,

Each
being at the mouth of a tributary to the Yangtze River.
dipped her flag in reply to our salute of a similar nature as we
it

This was the only evidence of war the whole day long.
Aside from our convoy and these ships, and the fact that our

passed.

steamer has quarter-inch iron plates lined up

armor against

as

from

fire

either shore,

we might
Not a

been steaming up the Mississippi River.

sight

the

all

day up the

first

Yangtze River Series No.

ON BOARD THE
A man named
April 21.

around the deck

all

as well have

soldier

did

we

river.

2.

LOONGWO,

Yangtze River,
H. C. Felling who has been, he says,
China for more than sixteen years, off and on, sat at dinner

in

on

steamer

this

S.

S.

night and painted as dismal a picture of the

last

Chinese people as one could well imagine.

The man, a tobacco merchant born in London and in the

employ

American organization, spoke of cruelty

He told tales of the hell the White Russian

an

of

to conceive.

difficult

soldiers

have been through of Chinese soldiers who, taking other Chinese

and Russians prisoners, have set their captives aflame after
;

pouring kerosene over their clothing.

"One popular method

of

he

torture,"

giving the victim 'the thousand

cuts.'

Men

bodies, each cut too small to be fatal but

ingly painful.

The

find relief

finally

"I

victims live for days

in

have also

known

"is

said,

are cut

all

as

over their

enough to be exceed-

sometimes, before they

death.

seen

women

tortured

horribly,

their

breasts

some victims burned, one skinned alive.

You have no
idea what is going on in the interior during these wars.
It is
cut off,

frightful."

What
will

the

women

never know.

nese mothers of
year's

of China have suffered, he says, the world

They must
the men who

suffer without protest,

pillage their

own

these Chi-

people from one

end to the next.

"They

jump

in

the

wells

in

frantic

efforts

to

escape

the

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

IN

71

"Often, we have been unable to get water

have been full of dead women and children.

soldiers," Felling said.

because the wells

"The merchants never know when they may next lose their
I know of one man, and his case is typical, who
entire stock.
Yet
everything he had once a year three years running.
he started up again each time.
It is marvelous the way they
stick to it.
Yet what can the poor devils do?"
lost

war

Felling described how they get their armies, these Chinese

lords who have been the curse of the nation since the 1911

revolution.

"Suppose," he

''General

said,

Chang Chung-chang wants

000 men out of Shantung province.

that

many

district

The

troops.

province

of the various cities

sends out an order for

divided into districts.

The headman

has a headman.

headmen

is

He

40,-

Each

of the district advises the

and towns and

villages in his area

must produce so many soldiers by a certain date.

"The village or city headman calls a meeting of the heads
He tells them how many men
of all the families in his town.
Then they pro-rate the thing. A family
the city must produce.
with three boys sends two, one with four sends three, and so on.
that they

They never take a son

Chinese are very
an heir.

if

strict

he

is

on the family system.

There must be

"In a few days you have your 'army' of 40,000 men.

are trained a very short while and then sent into battle.
is

how you

The

the only boy in the family.

get your 'volunteer armies'

in

China.

The

They
That

soldiers

In a battle,
main, inexperienced and they can't fight.
they are as likely as not to turn and run for it any time they
think they are getting the worst of it.
They have no stomach for
are, in the

fighting.

army.

They

Up

are

against
those fellows."

afraid.

any

real

They are even

opposition

they

afraid

to

run

like

quit

the

rabbits,

seems to be true that they do, too. It is significant to note

that the Nationalist revolution has come to the Yangtze almost
without opposition.
They took Shanghai without a struggle.
It

It was a Northern
Nanking was expected to be a battle.
One wonders what would happen if the Northerners were to

rout.
fight

THE DRAGON STIRS

72

and win a

Felling believes the

victory.

Southerners would run

just as quickly.

"Of

course,"

he

"the

said,

are a

Nationalists

They've got a cause to fight for. They seem to have a

spirit than the Northern soldiers."
Felling has just

come out

Pukow-Tientsin

railway

looted

thoroughly.

that

city

of Pengpu, north of

He

line.

The

nese as well as to foreign firms, he

different.

bit

more

little

Nanking on

said

the

Northerners

losses

are

enormous

the

have

to

Chi-

said.

Yangtze River Series No. 3

ON BOARD THE

S.

interviewed the

April 21.

dangerous

in

LOONGWO,

S.

white

woman

River,

Yangtze
in

Chinkiang toShe is Mrs. B. M. Smith, an American, the wife of a

day.
Standard Oil Company man who is "carrying on" in Chinkiang.
She said it is not
Mrs. Smith didn't have much to say.

Not

Chinkiang.

She and

anyway.

Mr.

last

as

much

one

might

Bruce,

they

as

SmithBetty and

happy young pair married not very long

live

know

all

don't have

the

such a bad time," Mrs.

Navy men

American gunboat.

Not

so

young

good,
girl

either,

like

tions at present.

And

It

Mrs.

here, and

at

There

isn't

was

Smith

"We

said.

usually dine on board the

bad as you might

think.

For a

bit.

Chinkiang offers very few attrac-

Smith,

It is rather

(there

as

just

and she laughed a

that,"

the circle of foreigners

and American

isn't

really

we

are,

on a launch

alongside the Standard Oil installation in Chinkiang.

a white man, woman or child on shore.

"We

think,

not being able to go ashore.

even with the Navy, both British

dull

is,

one

of

gunboat

each

here

today),

rather small.

Mrs. Smith was

chiefly

interested

in

her mail.

The

trains

Shanghai run now and then and the river boats bring mail
twice a week, so they are not so out of touch with the world.
She is from Binghamton, New York and admits that at times
to

she wouldn't

mind being back

to find this girl, bobbed hair,

thing

in

sleeveless

sport

her husband, living on a

seemed most incongruous

nice eyes and wearing the latest

there.

dress,

little

It

bravely

launch.

sticking

it

out

with

IN

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

73

The Loongwo arrived at Chinkiang shortly after noon today.

The day was perfect, warm, the sun shining in a sky devoid
of clouds.
About 11:30 a. m. we saw our first soldiers, a few
here and there on the north bank.
They were Marshal Sun
Chuan-fang's men, as one could
the

little

hats they wear.

tell

They are

by their gray uniforms and

like

and with slanting bills.

All they lack
But they do not look very cocky, these
little

to

spirit,

on the south

Robin Hood
is

a cocky

peaked

hats,
little

feather.

They have very

fellows.

None of them fired. Fortresses

say the least.
bank looked ominous, their guns trained on the

but nothing happened.

It lies scattered along
Chinkiang is not a very large city.
the waterfront, a hodge-podge of houses overshadowed at the east
river,

end of the

city

by the Standard Oil

We

plant.

came alongside

Jardme-Matheson Company's hulk where an old resident, a

British representative of the shipping company, told us nobody
is left on shore at all.
He, like the rest of the little community,
All live in boats.
is living on board the hulk.
Two tobacco merchants on board the Loongwo knew the oil
merchant, so I joined them and rode over in their launch to call.
the

man, said that he is still doing a little business.

"We demand cash on delivery, however/' he said. "Only way
we can do it." He said there wasn't much to do, but insisted
that ''business is really rather good, despite the war and our cash
Smith, the

oil

requirements."
It

seems that Americans are getting the British

trade.

feeling against the British is rather high everywhere,

are persistent efforts to boycott all British goods.

For some reason, we spent the night

in

The

and there

Chinkiang harbor.
The river boats do

Last night we spent anchored in midstream.

It is only a few hours' run
not, it seems, travel at night now.
up to Nanking from here but we were unable to get under wa\

due to one thing and another with

the gunboats and our cargo; so the skipper decided to remain
all night.
Again I went for a ride around the harbor with the
early

enough

in the afternoon,

tobacco merchants,

this

warlike attitude of the

dusk,

we calkd on

being apparently quite

safe

despite

the

Nationalist

At

Smiths

an

the

troops along the Bund.

once more and there met

THE DRAGON STIRS

74

from the American gunboat Paul Jones, stationed

His
said everything had been rather quiet recently.

officer

here.

He

chief

when he found

complaint,

who

out

York Times was not being

was,

delivered until

was
at

that

least

The New

two months

after date of publication.

Martial law goes into effect at six o'clock, but we were permitted to stay out after that time.
The sun sank and after a
not

twilight

We

ten

minutes

took the Paul Jones

long,

officer

darkness

fell

over

the

harbor.

back to his ship and then chugged

back to the Loongwo for the night

Yangtze River Series No.
22.

ON BOARD THE S. S. LOONGWO, NANKING, April

We had our baptism of fire this morning. Soldiers on the

south bank and, a

Nanking,

let

fly

learned, striking

four

at

little

river

Jones, also

any

boats.

further on,

on the north not far from

Their aim, fortunately,
bullets, as far as I have

us indiscriminately.

None of

was bad.
of

4.

us

was

no

hit,

of the steamers in our adventurous quartet

Our

convoy, the American

gunboat Paul

was untouched.

The Paul Jones

returned the

fire

from the south bank with

a brief spurt of machine gun fire. There was no further shooting.

On board, none was excited, although the Chinese boys were
inclined to be a bit frightened.
They lay flat on the deck wherever they

happened to

One

be.

yesterday,

in

fact,

when we

were passing the forts below Chinkiang, dropped the dishes he

was serving at table and ran for the galley, there to join his
fellows prone on the deck.
since the

vious

He

explained that that

was

orders,

Chinese compradore had been shot dead on the pre-

trip.

The passengers were permitted

to

do as they pleased.

re-

So
mained, for the most part, inside my cabin during the firing.
few bravely foolish souls took a turn about the
did most of us.

promenade deck. They dodged

after each shot, involuntarily.

We

were, however, pretty safe inside our wall of armor plate.

Nanking, crown jewel of the Yangtze, lay glistening at noon

in the

warm

a suburb,

all

spring sunshine.

The

harbor, the Bund, Hsia-kwan,

were deserted, not a soul

in sight.

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

IN

We

75

On the northern
past in midstream.
bank, the town of Pukow stretched its ramshackle acreage here
and there along the river.
At that point yonder, a steamer lay
sunk.

steamed

It

rapidly

was the

am

vessel,

told,

on which Madame M. Bor-

odin, wife of the Russian adviser to the Nationalists at

was

recently

taken captive.

stark

Its

masts stuck

We finally berthed a mile

We were opposite the

blue at a crazy angle.

Nanking in midstream.

Emerald, lying

off

or

tip

Hankow,
into

the

more beyond

British

warship
The United

between us and the north bank.

States gunboat Paul Jones, stationed at Chinkiang, returned there.

The Ford pulled into a berth just above the Emerald. Further
on, a Japanese gunboat lay

The
firing

we

three warships in

all.

Nanking was that intermittent

between Nanking and Pukow was going on and it was
reason

considered

too

did not

tie

dangerous to

up

at

remain

in

the

line

of

fire.

The

Northerners, so said officers from the Emerald who came aboard

to see about getting provisions, have a good lot of heavy artillery.

Each morning they

"strafe" the

Southerners in Nanking,
of artillery could be heard

and the Southerners reply. The boom

from time to time as we lunched, and an occasional rattle of
rifle fire added to the war noises in the harbor.
It is doubtful
whether either side did much damage in their firing.
Nanking from the steamer was uncanny in its desertion and
What must usually be a busy harbor was swept clean
quiet.
even of its sampans.
These last swarmed around us and the
other river steamers in droves, safe in our company, the miserable
coolies seeking a fare, alms, anything to earn a few coppers.

a sorry plight.
Pukow, its back to a long, low range of mountains, was too
far away to be seen clearly, even with field glasses.
Nanking

Theirs

we

is

could view quite plainly.

lows, steamed slowly

tobacco

merchant,
places of interest.

up

Two

Nationalist gunboats, tiny felthe creek outside the city's wall.

The

who has

lived

in

Nanking, pointed out the

"See that house on the hill, away back there, in line with
That
that smoke stack?
Well," he said, "that's Socony House.
is where the foreigners gathered and the American and British
gunboats bombarded the place so they could escape.

Right along

THEDRAGONSTIRS

76

BAT.

house (British-and- Amer"

ican Tobacco Company), and further along
and he told me of

there on the next

hill

is

the

two miles or more away

across the flat lowlands, were in plain view from the river.
The black line of Nanking's city wall runs an uncertain course
of interest.

places

Bund.
size

these

houses,

perhaps a mile or so back from the

Nanking from the river does not give an impression of

miles along

for

All

the

river,

or of particular beauty.

Its

modern buildings

the

in

busi-

ness section lend a certain spick-and-span-ness to the place, and

But even so, my
its wall recalls the splendor of another day

impression was of anything but awe.

beauty, seen from midstream, will not

Two young

Nanking
last

as

thing

of

forever.

Emerald came on board,

Both were
the other after the mail

British officers from the

one to get the provisions,

lads yet in their teens, rosy-cheeked boys with a serious air, nice

young

fellows,

strangely youthful for their chevrons.

old enough to be their fathers,

answered with a

The men,

"sir,"

to

each

query and were completely respectful.

It was two o'clock before we got under way again, this time
The other three steamers had gone ahead with our conalone.
along the route between here
and Wuhu. Throughout the afternoon the south bank was dotted from time to time with soldiers walking about amid their
It

voy.

seems there

dingy

little

green

fields

is little to fear

mud-hut barracks, thatched roofs yellow against the

of grain.
We saw no Northerners the whole after-

noon, but the North holds everything right up to the Yangtze,

from

all

reports.

They come

take a few pot-shots

to the river

(both sides

fire

whenever they

please,

on foreign vessels without

and go their way again.

Darkness had settled over the river when we reached Wuhu,
on the south bank, about eight o'clock.
Our erstwhile comdiscrimination)

had reached port before us and there were no berths

We anchored in midstream again for the night. The Wuhu

panions
left.

harbor was a busy place with four river steamers arriving. Sig-

from the gunboats and the cruiser Caradoc, naval

motorboats popped about, two calling to inquire as to our wel-

nals

flashed

fare

and the British

to

instructions to "keep

all

leave

an

soldiers

armed guard on board with

off

this

"

ship

IN

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

The few remaining

these

motorboats, are

77

foreigners, I learned from the officers of

They go
living in ships in the harbor.

ashore during the day but return at night to their floating homes.
The Chinese have done a little looting, but it seems that they have

returned

the

Club

Recreation

to

the

moving the
Aside from an occasional
foreigners,

troops barracked there to other billets.

effort to board river steamers and go elsewhere, the Nationalist

Three tried to do
troops have apparently caused little trouble.
that yesterday, the young British officer remarked.
They were
slightly

wounded with bayonets while the

sailors

insisted

that

they remain ashore.

Lights down, anchored in midstream with an armed guard

on board to protect us, our ship's company turned in tonight
with a feeling of comparative security.
tonese soldiers do in a case like that?

What

could 20,000 Can-

Nothing.

In

fact,

our

news from the outside world.

Aside
from a word here and there from these youthful officers who
and these not always
get it from their naval radio dispatches
accurate and never with any detail
we are completely cut off.
The general impression seems to be that the North controls everything right up to the Yangtze once more and that the Nationalists
chief complaint

is

lack of

are holding on to their positions on the south bank.

munists apparently continue to hold the dominant

The Composition

in

Hankow.
Yangtze River Scries No.

ON BOARD THE
This has been an

idle

5.

S. S.

LOONGWO, WUHU,

day on board the Locngwo.

April 23.

The

coolies

have been busy enough unloading cargo and loading other stuff
for up-river with a terrific shouting and din the whole day long.
The passengers, forced to remain aboard, idled about the deck,
reading and fretting at the delay.
The two tobacco merchants left us here.

One, H. C. Felling,
is remaining in Wuhu.
The other, a chap from Boston named
Foley, is returning to Shanghai on the next boat, the Tuckwo,
which is due to sail downstream tomorrow, Sunday.
Foley is
taking my dispatches to Shanghai where they are to be relayed.

There

is

no other way

of

getting

them out from up here

at

THEDRAGONSTIRS

78

Communications are impossible.

present.

get to the telegraph office safely,

it

is

Even

one

if

could

doubtful whether the mes-

And then
sage would get through within three or four days.
it would doubtless be
subjected to the strictest censorship.
The first news of what is going on around us came through
today in the form of a carbon copy of the American Pr,ess wireless kindly given us by the captain of the British cruiser here,

He

the Caradoc.

Powers which,

it

also told us the

news of the ultimatum

seems, has been handed

He

Hankow.

of the

was not

sure whether or not a similar document had been handed General

Furthermore, we heard that the

Chiang Kai-shek at Nanking.
allies have given orders to their captains of the Yangtze patrol
to reply "with all they've got" to any further firing from either
shore.

seems they now intend

It

to stop this playful halit of the

Chinese soldiers.

The Loongwo docked

were awakened
of

alongside the hulk about dawn, and

the amazing turmoil that only

to

a small band

The harder they work

Chinese coolies can make.

we

the

more

Beggars in sampans and one actually

they shout, these fellows.
in an oblong wooden tub with wooden shovels for oars swarmed

around

Above

the

steamer,

was an

adding

their

shrill

cries

the

to

hubbub.

shouting for all the world like

the noise heard on approaching a football stadium at home when
one is, however, still some blocks away from the game.
it

all

occasional

turned out, was a sound made by companies of Cantonese soldiers drilling on the Bund, not a hundred yards from
This,

our

it

The soldiers, whole companies of them, shouted their

command in unison as they sought to execute the order.

ship.

officer's

or five companies were marching about drilling, and very

Here and there on the green parade-ground others
badly, too.

Four

squads of four or six, stalked about doing the "gooserather, a Cantonese version of that German exercise

singly, or in

"

step

Or

for troops which

was strange

to observe.

knee so that they gave the impression

that the ringmaster

tells

Most

of

them bent the

of a circus horse

the local yokels will

the one

"now execute

the

waltz."

The day has been

breeze

blowing.

perfect,

Wuhu,

like

clear,

most

warm, not
of

these

hot,

river

with a cool
towns,

lies

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

IN
stretched

out

hind the

city,

all

along the waterfront.

and on

am

their

tops

are

now

fine

Hills

foreign

rise

79

abruptly be-

homes have been

occupied by Nationalist troops.

Foreigners do not live ashore and now even during the daytime
There are less than a dozen still
rarely go as far as the Bund.
built.

These,

here.

They

live

armed guard

Wuhu

told,

on launches or hulks alongside the Bund.

An

protects them.

It has a
way, a rather pretty little city.
In normal times,
Chinese population of about 100,000 persons.
there are perhaps 100 foreigners living here.
The customs house,

now

is,

in

virtually idle, stands in the center of things

clock

on

its

tower

Below the clock now is a

Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Kuo-

tolling the

great picture of the late

hours.

Eh-.

The Bund and one

mintang.

the hills are partially shaded

in this part of the world.

the Yangtze to

on the Bund, a

of the avenues leading back toward

by rows of

One seldom

trees,

an unusual thing

sees a tree

anywhere along

Hankow.

went over to the hulk alongside which

we were docked and talked with the shipping company agent
there
His name is C. B. Wortley. He is a Britisher, as most of
After

tiffin

(lunch)

men

are up here.
J. Canim, of the Standard Oil, is still
here, and H. L. Mecklenburgh, a tobacco man, also an American,
these

is

is

The Commissioner

carrying on for the present.

a Belgian, Baron de Cartier.

Customs

of

Wortley said that there has been no excitement here for some
time.
He said, however, that a few days ago a number of soldiers and students came down from Hankow and started trouble.
"
Orders came from Nanking, from Chiang Kai-shek, I'm told,
to run these students out of here," Wortley said.
"They have
been leaving as fast as possible ever since.
I still see a few of
them around, agitators for the 'Bolshies/ You're taking some of
them on the Loongwo back to Hankow."

And
dents

so

we

are.

who came on

There are a number of these so-called stuboard at

Wuhu, down

said

they can't be prevented from

still,

ostensibly at least, peace

below.

coming aboard

times.

If

The
in

captain
what are

they cause no trouble

they won't be molested, he said.

Scheduled to get under

way

at twelve

noon and then

at

two

'

THE DRAGON STIRS

80
the

o'clock,

Loongwo

finally

pulled out at

o'clock.

five

At

the

western extremity of Wuhu, two Chinese gunboats lay at anchor,

We did not dip our flag
steam up, flying the Cantonese flag.

The next

this time, nor, to be sure, did they.

stop

is

Kiukiang.

toWithout mishap, we should arrive late Sunday

morrow, that is by steaming all night. We are alone, without
convoy or accompanying merchantmen. Up to dark we saw no
A few miles above Wuhu, on the south bank, we
soldiers.
The brick
passed a little village that has been thoroughly looted.

afternoon

customs

house,

vacant,

stared

window and door frame had

us

at

been

blank

with

torn

out

eyes.

Each

and carted away,

leaving a jagged outline of brick.

Yangtze River Series No.

ON BOARD THE
One

24.

6.

S.

LOONGWO, KIUKIANG,

April

paradoxes of this revolution in China occurred

The Chinese Kuommtang foreign commissioner, a

of the

here today.

man named Mr.

Y. Z. Lieu,

fleeing for

came on board the Loongivo and

and sanctuary which he desires

his life

from Kiukiang,

being given the safe passage

In other words, the foreigners

is

the British, American, Japanese and other warships up-river

are giving protection to an official of the government whose

diers, responsible or not, have made it essential for the white
to evacuate

He

is

much

sol-

man

of China.

thoroughly appreciative

And

he declares that his party,

the Kuomintang moderates, want the foreigners to stay in China,

and he adds that the Nationalists are doing everything in their

power
going

make

to

else.

He

for everybody

safe

Hankow on

to

where

it

The

He

has

Loongivo because he cannot go anyfor the radical adflee from Kiukiang,

must

telegraph

is

useless,

They

Mr. Lieu

are expected any

says, at least to him.

or no news of events outside this vicinity.

Loongwo reached Kiukiang about four o'clock this after-

We

the hulk.
of each.

is

little

The
noon after an
side.

He

the

herents are sending their troops there

moment.

including himself.

anchored

The

The customs launch came alongmidstream because there was no room at

uneventful day.
in

and American destroyers are alongside, one

There also is a Japanese cruiser here and an American
British

IN

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

81

and a British gunboat

The captain of the British warship Wild
Swan came on board with an armed guard. He scrutinized the
passports of the Russians
then left.

we

are

transporting to

Hankow and

Businessmen who came on board for a brief visit said that

the Chinese on shore are nonplused.
They don't know which
to turn,

way
the

Red and

the

others

it

seems, for Kiukiang

is

just

on the border between

Moderate influences in the Kuomintang.

General Chiang Kai-shek's men were still here when we left.
But
The Reds are expected momentarily, and
they may not stay.
the

probably retreat down-river until they find reThe dozen or so foreigners are living in houses
enforcements.
Each, I am told, has a bag packed and is ready
along the Bund.
to

will

make

ness

is

a run for a warship alongside at a moment's notice. Busivirtually nil, the representatives of the various companies

remaining to clean up back accounts and to keep in touch

the day, if any,
nearly normal.

when they may expect

There has been

We got under way
Mr. Lieu, until

to

find

conditions

until

more

or no fighting here in the last few days.

at five o'clock, off for Hankow, our next stop.
this afternoon Foreign Commissioner in Kiulittle

kiang, is being given every courtesy on board. He has been placed

at the captain's table in the dining saloon, where in his halting
English this evening he eagerly told us of his desire to be friendly

toward foreigners, and the desire of the Kuomintang to be the

same.
His is a rather pitiful tale, but he clings to the silver
lining which he believes, he says, is behind the present dark <^oud
of dissension in the Nationalist Party.

"We

must put out the Communists,*' Mr. Lieu told us. "This
They have no troops. We will win out and
split had to come.
then we can continue our drive on the North.
But/' he reIt
peated, "we had to break with the Communists in our party.
had to come."
There was in his attitude a "Don't you see?"
plea.

came along

my

cabin where

could talk at length

with him about his plans and those of his party, and we talked
for an hour about the situation, which, he declares, does not
Later, he

mean

to

the breakdown of the Nationalist movement, but which,

it

THE DRAGON STIRS

82

appears to me, looks bad for adherents to the theories of the late
The disintegration is apparent on all sides.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
Whether Chiang Kai-shek and his loyal political advisers and
friends can patch

of a semi-state is con-

up the floundering ship

jectural.

"I think

we

'The Communists

can/' said Commissioner Lieu.

Hankow have no

General Chiang will

speak of.
Then he will
surround Hankow, I think, as he did Shanghai.
He will, I think,
There is no doubt about it.
capture it again.
Once
bring men up from the south to help him accomplish this.
at

troops

he wins a victory, he

Communist

in the

will

to

The

have no trouble.

forces are not with the Reds.

under-officers

They

for

are

our country," he said earnestly, with a touch of the dramatic,

That is true.
"not for one man or for the Communists.

"General

Teng Yen-tah, head

Hankow, has no power.

tse,

Hunan

the

He

of

the

Political

has no troops.

General

leader, has a big force, but

he

is

not

Bureau

in

Tang Shenfor the Com-

He

has been persuaded to act independently and refuse

He only wants
to accept orders from General Chiang Kai-shek.
to increase his own force.
He is a very foolish and selfish man.
munists.

He

commander

Eighth Army, and has many troops.

But he is neither Communist nor Kuomintang. He is, I think,
a selfish man."
independent
is

of

The Commissioner

the

bring up forces from the south.

said

Chiang Kai-shek would

asked him from where.
He

said that General

I

from Kweichow, Fukien and Kwantung, around Canton,

his

stronghold.

These men, who, he said, number scores of thousands in all,

would, he admitted, have to walk, in the main, to Hankow. That
will take a long time.
it

will

trying

be hot soon.
military

The country

mountainous and wild, and

march across that vast area will be a

maneuver.

It

is

might be done.

But

it

is

like

marching a band of ill-paid, badly trained young fellows, mere

boys most of them, from Arizona to Michigan, more or less,
across the
do.

Rocky Mountains.

The Commissioner

be downcast
available,

said

a job that will prove hard to

would take time, but refused to

It's
it

(The Chinese know "time"

though one man's

life-span

is

always present and

be brief.)

IN

THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

As we

talked,

the

of

crazy quilt picture

83

China slowly ap-

The Nationalists, split among themselves, fighting for

peared.
control of their own party against the Communists' influence, are
There are enough patches in that half
to make the task of knitting them together in anything like a coordinate pattern almost futile and certainly discouraging.
And
on the North of this Yangtze are other factions, united for the
moment against the Nationalist movement.
Marshal Chang
Chung-chang and his ally, Marshal Sun Chuan-fang of Shanghai,
are said to be somewhere in the near vicinity of Nanking and
Hankow. Marshal Sun has not held a very high head since his
ignominious defeat and cry for assistance in Chekiang Province,
and at Shanghai. He can hardly be expected to feel thoroughly
safe with Marshal Chang, an enormous old bandit from Shanone part of the picture.

Chang's history reads like a Wild West tale, or a yellowthe Tale of

back that might be entitled From Coolie to Marshal
tung.

a Successjul Warrior.
He certainly worked his way up in his
chosen profession, from a wharf coolie through the essential
stages of banditry to the military control of Shantung and
the temporary ally of Marshal Chang Tso-lin, of Mukden

now
and

Peking.

Wu

and faded, a very

small bit of the picture right now, and one, everybody seems to
believe, who will not return to his erstwhile brilliance and power.
He is content with the quiet life of a poet and scholar. He has
gained a reputation for scholarship and as a poet, chiefly, his
critics affirm, because he is one of the few militarists of the old
Marshal

school

who

Pei-fu, once powerful,

could even read or write.

is

He

old

is

somewhere in north-

seems, content to let his successors in militarism

carry on the ancient feudal pastime of the Chinese.
Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang in Shensi with perhaps 100,000 men,

ern Honan,

it

Commisexpected to remain with General Chiang Kai-shek.

sioner Lieu fervidly averred that the widely known "Christian

is

He has sent a delegate

General" will never go back on Chiang.
to the Nanking Conference, Mr. Lieu pointed out, and his army
is

to be a vital factor in the taking of Peking

some day.

Mr.

Lieu was not sure when that victory could be expected to occur.

Things are too

unsettled.

THE DRAGON STIRS

84

The Commissioner was

bitter

against

He

Russia.

the

said

this
trying to get at the Powers through China, using
as a catspaw.
"They don't want a war in their own

Soviet

is

nation

country/' he said.

"They

with the

field of their battle

Thus, Russia

in China.

desire to stir

is

up one

here, to have the

Powers, as they call them,

I don't think they will
not harmed.
capitalistic

send an army to China," he added in response to a query.

He said he had advised General Chiang Kai-shek to accept aid

from Japan,

and

to

cooperate

with

Japan.

That

in

brought

another part of the picture of disintegrated China, namely, Marshal Chang Tso-lin.
I said that if Chiang Kai-shek worked with

But
Japan he would have to work with Marshal Chang, too.
the Commissioner, a true Cantonese, said that would never come
to pass.

"General Chiang Kai-shek will never shake hands with Marhe said.
shal Chang Tso-lin,
"Why? Well, because they have
1 '

work together in China

But Japan must work with China; and if we take all of China,
we will have to work with Japan. That is natural. Japan is so
been

enemies

close,

it

is

They

long.

can't

America and Britain are

necessary to her existence.

too far away.

So

too

We

that part

the figure),

of

would be

friendly,

of course,

the picture, or the crazy

not

in

with the

to everybody."

quilt

(to

to

stick

Hence, the unity of

China may have to wait again for a while, Mr. Lieu admitted.
Then there is Yunnan, that vast province on the border of
will

fit

Burma where
frayed edge

rest.

That
brigands and opium smugglers abound.
of the quilt which causes no little trouble to

is

the

Yunnan, it will be recalled, a few months ago had a

revolution all on its own, and now instead of the military governor in charge, there is a Citizens' Committee of Five running
toilers.

That it is a
Communistic, exactly.
''commission form" of government.
Yet it has a certain crimson

things.

They say

it

isn't

which won't wash away

Furthermore, Yunnan is a
wild country, sparsely settled and infested with bandits.
It is
tinge to

it

another problem which these

toilers

must face who would unite

a feudal state whose people are

China of today
admittedly
centuries behind the times in thought, culture, education and in
their dealings with one another.
Their warlords still, one must

this

IN

VALLEY OF THE YANGTZE

TTIE

are similar to the feudal barons of

fear,

Ages whose

certain an affair.

can

that

Chinese

the

is

in

the

today,

Middle

none

too

could be bought by the highest bidder.

So
These
average Chinese military chieftain.

It

or

said

things

the

of

as

was,

loyalty

Europe

85

implied.

Yet

the

Commissioner

remained

optimistic.

We

The Commissioner said that

Hunan Province is the hotbed of Communism. He said that there
they demand that everybody who has more than $200 must divide
it

discussed names and places.

This seems to be the usual report on

heard recently that they have tried out dividing up

with his fellow-men.

Hunan.

the

and

land

f'^rms

instituting

the

Communistic

for

Communal)

of government.

General Chen Chien, in

to

all

Hankow. He was

in

command

Nanking.

of the Sixth

Army, has gone

He commanded

the armies that

captured and looted that ill-fated city on "March 24. Commissioner

Lieu thinks General Chen will stay in Hankow.
Chien Tsu-min,

Kweichow army, is dead. He was executed at Chanteh, in western Hunan, at the order of General Tang
The Commissioner thought, therefore,
Shen-tse, now at Hankow.
that General Chien's men, some 35,000, would be loyal to General
Chiang Kai-shek, sworn enemy of the man who killed their chief.
late

commander

of the

General Teng Yen-tah

He

declared.

is

is

a "very bad man/' the Commissioner

the recognized "Reddest of the Reds" at

Hankow:

he and George Hsu-chien, Minister of Justice.

The Commissioner was not sure where he

stands but seemed inclined to think Chen might like to get back
with the Moderates. He had heard that Chen, the Hankow ForEugene Chen?

eign Minister, wants to get to Shanghai, but the Radicals are holdHe thinks that Chen "might be all
ing him virtually a prisoner.
right," but

"Don't

it

tell

isn't certain.

Eugene Chen/' the Commissioner

said as

we

said

goodnight, "that I am on the Loongwo" I promised I would not

It would not be
breathe a word of his presence in Hankow.
healthy.

We

are due before noon tomorrow, April 25.

This exciting trip up-river to Hankow ended on April 25, 1927, as

The
I landed in some trepidation but was not molested.
scheduled.

THE DRAGON STIRS

86

most anguish which I suffered was during a mile walk along the Bund
to the United States Consulate-General, to meet Col. Frank P. Lockhart,
our genial Consul-General there.
He put me up at the ConsulateThe ''anguish*' was
General for my stay, which lasted several weeks.

due

to the heat

not to bands of insulting Chinese on murder bent.

RED RULE AT

HANKOW

dust, fine, hot, thick as a rug, lay heavily over the macadamized sections of the Bund at Hankow.
The street, paved

RED

only in a few spots, stretched its slender length two miles and
more along the Yangtze. No breeze stirred, but an occasional hurtling
motorcar spurted handfuls of dirt over pedestrians and disappeared in
a dull red cloud.

These rare automobiles usually bore on

the Nationalist flag, also predominantly red, with

corner of blue.

The

hoods

white star in a

Morning was sultry even on the

Hankow was hot. The heat wave was premature.

dull red clouds

twenty-fifth of April.
But Hankow's climate
States.

its

their

Its

were
is

stifling.

similar to the middle-south

summers are long and

sticky

and

fetid.

of

The

the

United

city is strik-

ingly similar to any river port along the Mississippi River, below St.
Louis.
If you could exchange the Chinese coolies for Negroes, the

towns would almost appear identical. The coolies shout and "hee-haw"
as they carry their burdens on bamboo poles or piled high on their
sturdy broad shoulders and necks, just as Negroes shout and sing as

But
Hankow, to be sure, is a little more cosmopolitan.
they work.
there is a striking similarity
except for one thing: recurrent wars.
Even that was not noticeable as one disembarked from a river
steamer and walked along the Bund.

an abnormal situation prevailed

It

in 1927.

was

The

noticeable, to be sure, that

chief reason

was the pres-

On the
ence of some thirty or more foreign warships in the river there.
Yangtze's rising, rumpled waters floated a remarkable collection of fighting craft of half a dozen nations there to see that foreign lives and propwere protected, regardless of what Chinese
tory which includes Wuhan.

erty

Wuhan

name

faction held the lerri-

given the three cities that have been built up

around the joining of the Han and Yangtze Rivers at this point. On the
southern bank of the Yangtze is Wuchang; immediately opposite is
is

the

87

THE DRAGON STIRS

88

Hankow and
;

have a

way

tue of

West"

The

Hanyang.

Wuhan

million.

three cities
the "gate-

is

controls the interior markets

It

by
almost no

position

along the river

made and

are

The Yangtze

routes.

was

Mississippi

Yangtze

of China.

two

is

vir-

railon the Yangtze.

There are still
the rich central and western provinces, and goods must flow

its

roads in

to

fifty

still

modern times

in

seventy-five years

being

made

what the

is

Fortunes have been

ago.

the river transport business in the

in

valley.

Hankow
interests

ings

of perhaps

total population

to the

Hankow

just to the west of

is

the

The Bund

are centered.

which

house

for

structures

the

foreign

is

all

three

the

cities.

lined with

commercial

The

banks.

These buildings

the Bund.

of

port

principal

firms,

foreign

large

There foreign

modern

including

consulates-general

face the river.

The

river

build-

magnificent
are
side

along
of the

given over to a parkway lined with trees and benches, bordering a broad sidewalk where one may promenade in search of air
street

is

on humid

nights.

one big difference between the present and the "good

old days," they say.
Formerly the Bund's parkway was reserved enNow it is alive with Chinese, chiefly
tirely for the use of foreigners.

There

is

The Bund was built by

green trees.
the foreigners, each nation with a concession doing its share.
The
that is, farthest upBritish Concession is at the far end of the Bund
coolies, lolling in the

shade of

its

stream; the old Russian Concession is next; the French after that;
and at the lower end, the Japanese
then, the old German Concession
;

Concession.

This

last

and sandbags so that

On

it

by barbed wire barricades

remains free from Chinese loafers.

usually

is

cut

off

Loongwo, I was advised by the Captain and others

There had been reports of trouble with the
not to take a rickshaw.
coolies, who, it was said, had been making exorbitant charges and had
leaving the

been insulting on

Hence

plodded along the Bund to

the American Consulate-General, a mile or so from where our steamer
docked.
Later, I found that there was little or no reason for endurall

ing this discomfort.

erous.

They charged

occasions.

The

coolies

were not then

in

the least obstrep-

the usual low prices and were inclined to assist

The change from a week prior

any foreigner cheerfully.
rival was described as remarkable.
This, in fact,

was

the subject which

all

to

my

ar-

foreigners were discussing

RED RULE
was the

first to

89
Col.

mention

were safe to ride

rickshaws and he

in

HANKOW

The American Consul-General,

that April 25, 1927.

hart,

AT

said

it.

he

that

asked whether

thought

it

it

was

Frank Lock-

adding that

the

He was at a
change which had come over the coolies was amazing.
loss to explain it to himself satisfactorily, but was inclined to believe,
as
of

most foreigners were, that the change was caused by the presence
the numerous foreign warships in the river.
The attitude of the

apparently changed chiefly because of government orders to

The government worked through the
them to be kind to foreigners.
coolies

Labor Unions and seemed

be in complete

to

as

control,

far

as

the

workers were concerned.

Most

Americans

of the

still

Hankow were residing in the Amerrooms.

The Consul-General offered

in

ican Consulate, using cots in the

me

his hospitality.

the hotels in

be too

Hankow,

And

luxurious.

I accepted.

It

like hotels in

at that time there

seemed the better part of valor

many a river town, were far from

was no assurance

that they

would

safe.

From

proceeded to the American flagship Isabel

to call on Rear-Admiral H. H. Hough, then in charge of the AmeriAfter paying my respects, I withcan Navy patrol in the Yangtze.
the

Consulate,

drew and met the captain and

of the Isabel's launch to get
it

port

to

the dock.

officers of the flagship.

my

luggage off the

had some

slight

difficulty

was given use

Loongwo and
in

trans-

getting the bags

No wharf coolie was in

transported from the dock to the Consulate.
sight, and one of the sailors handed the bags over to a coaling coolie.
Innocent of any breach of coolie etiquette,

proceeded ahead of the

fellow toward the Bund, across the wooden pier that extends out over

Looking around

sudden outcry, I discovered before we had gone fifty yards that he had been beset by three or four
rough looking characters who seemed to be insisting that he release
the foreshore.

my

baggage.
ment, unable

at his

Alone, unable to speak the language and, for the moto understand the cause of the argument, I could do

From

had heard, I was ready to believe we

were being robbed on the shore in broad daylight.
I shoved one of the attackers aside, finally, after he had struck

nothing.

my
and

the stories I

coolie frequently

told

failed to

on the face and head with the

the fellow to continue, brandishing

work.

They returned

to the fray,

my

flat

of his hand,

stick the

while.

It

and one motioned that he

THE DRAGON STIRS

90
wanted

to carry the bags, pointing to

ing junk.
ently

The

my

coolie

had been unloading the junk.

coal-

and apparseemed that that was his job

had was smirched with

fellow I

and then to the

It

coal dust

and he could not do

his "pigeon" as they say in the vernacular there

he should want to be enterprising. If he did, he

I paid the first chap
cut some other coolie out of a bowl of rice.

anything else even

if

twenty cents Mex.

time).

When two

(or about eight cents in U. S. currency at the

others grabbed my two bags, each taking one, I

decided, rather than suggest that one take both of them, to

them

let

gave them a Mexican dollar to fight over and they grinned their way back into oblivion.

have their way.

It

At

the Consulate a block

was probably three or four times

away

their usual

wage

for that sort of

but getting rid of the pair of them without an "incident" was

I was told later that hitting or
worth the forty cents it cost me.

job,

shoving one of these fellows a week earlier would have been almost
like signing one's own death warrant.

There were only two or three places to eat in Hankow at that

time.
The most popular was the U. S. Navy Y. M. C. A., a block

from the American Consulate and just off the Bund.

The hotels
were serving food again, and the Hankow
there were two of them
Club was running its dining-room for members and guests.
tiffin with a man from the Consulate and two Standard Oil

M. C. A. The
with Hankow's officials,

had

men

at

afternoon was spent in making appointments

including the Minister for Foreign Affairs,

the Y.

Mr. Eugene Chen, and that remarkable adviser, Comrade Mikal Borodin.
He was the man behind most of the Kuomintang Revolution
the "brains" of the whole show.

The whole day was

extraordinarily quiet so far as warfare or un-

was concerned, and

were absurd.
The city,

Hankow's "tenseness"
aside from the warships and the occasional
Nationalist soldier seen on the streets, was as quiet then as Detroit.
Tea at the Hankow Race Club was another surprise.
Here, as the
sun went down, I sat with Bruno Schwartz, of New York, then pub-

rest

lisher of the

There were
clubhouse,

thing from

the wild reports about

Hankow

Herald, and listened to music by the club band.

scores of persons sitting on the broad lawn before the

chatting
their

as

in

minds.

everyday

life

number

mostly Germans, and a few French.

anywhere,

farthest

women, too, were present,

was still impressed then with

of
I

war the

HANKOW

RED RULE AT
Hankow was
who refused to

dangerous, and inclined to believe that

take it seriously were sitting on the edge
But Mr. Schwartz disabused my mind of such illusions.

idea that

the

these people
of a volcano.

The

women

other

dancing

large cities

Hankow were

in

The

of the cabarets.

girls

Not

that

it

but to find

it

unique thing.
It

91

was the climax

to a

the

Russians,

cabaret system of

including

the

Hankow was

found anywhere in China's

there at a time like that was utterly odd.

isn't

still

to be

grotesque day not at

all

like

one

the

had

After dinner, with two sound and respectable busiexpected to find.

ness men who were not at all of the "tired'' type, I rounded out the
day's education in the ways of that city by a visit to the cabarets.

first

There were probably half a dozen in one block.

The orchestras
pounded out music which in the gaudily lighted street blended into
one raucous howl of
halls,

though

description, I

The

jazz.

cabarets were, after

all,

merely dance

The best
palmier days they had had entertainers.
think, of the street and the dance halls in 1927 is to be
in

found in a comparison with the typical motion picture "set" depicting

the dance halls of America's Wild West in the days of '49.
There

was no pretense of finery. Only one place had even an attempt at it,
and here one found vari-colored electric lights stuck in a line around
the walls about ten feet above the floor.

a burlesque on the Christmas spirit.

The girls, Russians all, were a

It

gave a weird

effect,

gaudy,

They danced with

sailors in the afternoon, and at night with men of all ranks and positions and nationalities who for one reason or another had come to
those

My

places.

guides

pointed

clever

out to

lot.

me

diplomats,

captains

of

heads of large foreign firms, lawyers, doctors, bankers, Chinese

It was one of the most bizarre sights to be seen anywhere
officials.

ships,

of

governments mingled with officials of the Hankow government in those dives; Communists from
Moscow danced side by side with the men they were seeking to force
in

the

world.

Officials

foreign

young girls, always Russians, laughed at them and

danced with them all, demanding frequently, "You buy me a small
out

of

China;

bottle wine, pliss?"

The "wine" was usually a pint of vile imitation champagne which

was sold to the men at $8 a bottle, Mex., the girl getting $1 as her
commission.

Mex.

If she danced, she

Everything in China

is

was given a
still

on

this

ticket

worth forty cents,

"silver basis,"

originally

THE DRAGON STIRS

92

imported from Mexico to aid trade. The

but they earned a living in this fashion.
learned

things which

many

not become wealthy

girls did

Some

enabled them

of them,

was

told,

enhance their usual

to

in-

come.
In these cafes which
Some, the whisperings said, were spies.
formed so much a part of Hankow's life during those strange days,
they were supposed to learn much from foreigners and to retail their

knowledge

witting victim often

scheme

let

it

Whether

of cross-purposes in the Orient.

do not know.

true, I

The uncould prove useful.

something drop that had value in the muddled

channels where

to certain

there were songs of

kow; and

the

red

It

was highly

Moscow sung
dust

that

lay

at

possible,

their spy scare

least.

But

certainly

Han-

often in those dance halls of

the

in

narrow,

was

rickshaw-cluttered

"Street of the Cabarets" was often swirled into angry eddies by the
hurtling motor cars
I

of the Bolsheviki.

interviewed Eugene Chen the next day.

Everybody interviewed

He was

Foreign Minister in the radical Hankow

Government and was, therefore, a major source of information about

Mr.

Chen

then.

China's actions,

man*'
fore,

of

the

desires

Hankow

for the horde of

and

He was

reactions.

Nationalist

men who

the

Administration.

flocked

from

all

Hankow and out again, led to his busy door.

The Foreign Minister was occupied with the
He sought as a member of the Cabinet
tion.

"official

All

spokesthere-

paths,

over the world into

mechanics of a revoluto

run that section of

China then under Hankow's control; and Chen was worried

at

that

time by a crisis within the Kuomintang, the split which, for a while,
divided the Nationalist forces.
However, occupied with these things

and the

on the "Nanking Incident," Mr. Chen

conception of the aims and aspirations

He

pleaded for "sanity

among

sat

of the

Kuomintang Revolution.

the powers" in their attitude toward

He

hoped that the Powers would not blockade the Yangtze.

did not deny that they could, but said that China hoped the Powers

China.

He

Note from the Powers

for an hour and told of his

possible necessity of replying to another

would refrain from

that sort of action.

t(

don't

think that this

'will

happen," he said, "unless the world has gone mad."

Yet, he wondered about the thirty or more foreign warships in Hankow then.
"If they blockade the Yangtze," he said, "we still have rice and

peanut

oil.

We

shall continue to eat

and to have lamps.

And,

after

R E D
all,

we do

will,

not

H A X K

AT

R U L E

up nights and read very much."

But I hope most sincerely
think, get along.

sit

93

He

"We

smiled.

that that does not

happen."

Eugene Chen, a man nervously energetic, sank back into his blue
He was a
plush chair and regarded me, awaiting the next query.
rather

man, perhaps fifty years old then, his black hair shot
with gray, his thin hands gesticulating in emphasis or explanation of
his remarks.
Journalist and temporary statesman of the new China,
his

slight

was a pleasant

personality.

ions, his views, the

activities

of

One might not agree with his opinthe men with whom he was allied in

but his personality on

seeking to unite China under Nationalism
acquaintance was certainly not against him.
;

"The
reply

Nationalist revolution

next

my

to

will

''We

question.

continue as planned/' he

first

said in

not

permit the defection of

will deal with him later.
In the
will

We
Chiang Kai-shek to stop us.
meantime we plan to proceed with our drive to the north.

think

you will find something interesting happening in the next few weeks.
I do not say months, but weeks.
We already have the lower half, or

Honan

more, of
section

Province.

on the north.

"Marshal

We

Tso-lin's armies

Chang
will

Feng Yu-hsiang

soon control
is

with

us.

all

He

of

hold but a scant

Honan.

will

not

stay

with

He is now in Shensi. Our forces will combine

Chiang Kai-shek.
and drive Chang Tso-lin back into Manchuria.
It will not be long.

few weeks.

Interesting developments are at hand.

We

originally

The split in the party has

planned to proceed on Peking via Hankow.
caused a temporary delay.
Now, we are on the march."

_Chen

that

said

expected.

The

the

plan of

Chiang Kai-shek had been long

the revolution, he said, never had been to take
breach with

he

they wanted to get to

Peking inland.
Nanking in particular had, the Minister said earnestof ill omen to revolutions.
But
ly, forever been, a Nemesis, a city

*"5fiangha"i"

or Nanking in 1927.

First,

said,

He
Chiang Kai-shek turned against advices from the Government.
called Chiang a "rebel and a militarist of the old school," out for
"The split," Chen insisted, "is final, there
"personal gain and glory."
will deal with Chiang Kai-shek when once we
is no doubt of it.

We

get Peking.

He

has only 30,000

kept busy with the

Hankow/'

men

Northern troops.

at the most,

We

and they

will

be

don't fear their attacking

THE DRAGON STIRS

94
These

figures,

of course, varied extraordinarily

from figures given

The
spring by General Chiang Kai-shek's adherents.
It was imposNanking block asserted that Hankow had few men.
sible to count them, so I can but relate what each side declared then.
earlier

that

In 1927 one could only await developments to determine which side

was correct. Chen, of course, lost out, and had to flee later that same
year but he could not foresee those events then.

One

reason the Minister said the Government had opposed taking

until

Shanghai

He

was the danger

later

of

conflict

with

foreign

troops

holding of Shanghai by the Powers with

in China; that it
force was against "the principles of Nationalism'
there.

said

the

that

was

"an

intolerable

ereignty."

Hence,

Nationalists

in

situation,"

the

troops

and
must

control they must,

that the troops depart.

"challenge

go,

Chen

to be true

They did make

their

to

to

China's

said,

and

their

cause,

sov-

with

the

demand

demand, but the troops

remained.

He
hai,

Chiang Kai-shek had disobeyed orders in taking Shangand his Government in Hankow was not responsible for what
said

The matter of the foreign Settlement and the

might occur next.
French Concession there he felt would "have to await the time when

Hankow
"The

controls that part of China, as

Powers

defeat

their

well as

own end

Peking."
in

sending troops to
"The presence of those troops has done more
China," Chen added.
to arouse the people of China against foreign imperialism than all our
foreign

propaganda ever could have hoped to

No

do.

It

means China

is

not free.

country virtually run by foreigners is free.

The super-government of China has been the Diplomatic Corps at
In Shanghai, of course, there is the local government in
Peking.
nation that

the Settlement.

has

Its

its

duty

is

to police the city.

government it keeps things clean."

The United States, Chen said, was
being, as he

China.

saw

Until

it,

that she

America

sent

troops

had joined Britain

a scavenger

making a great mistake

in

out

Shanghai, he said, the

States as a friend.
However,
to

in using force,

he said

it

was

diffi-

"our traditional friendship with the AmerChen was born in Trinidad, and was a British subject

cult to continue to maintain

ican people."

it

misled by the British into following their lead in

Chinese had looked upon the United

now

I call

but he denounced Great Britain.

RED RULE AT
Chen

HANKOW

emphatically that the Hankow

He denied reports which were

said

Communistic.

that the principles of the

Kuomintang

in

95

Government

was

not

common in Shanghai,
Hankow were being colored

red.

"We
nomic

are just

questions

now

tackling in the
us,"

facing

advising the workers that

and not seek to obtain

is

it

the
is

Hankow Government

Foreign

Minister

said.

the eco-

"We

are

best to better their position gradually

Ours

once a 100 per cent increase in wages.

a workers' and peasants' revolution.
They have worked for
at

many

If a
generations at wages too low almost to permit them to exist.
man gets sick and is out of work, he and his whole family must starve.

That

is

not right.

We

want to change

that,

and we think the workers

are entitled to better treatment.

"The

labor unions themselves are taking responsibility

ling the workers.

Labor leaders are

of control-

in control of the situation.

They

are advising the workers to go slow and take gradual increases.

"On the farms, things are different. In Hunan, it is true we have

man will be a better

experiment of dividing up land.
citizen if he is a land owner.
He will fight for his land. Hence, we
are trying it out to see how it works.
That, no doubt, is where these
tried

the

rumors about our Communistic principles originate. China never will

be Communistic.
We will not do away with private ownership of

The

property.

him a

fact that the peasant

owns land

will,

we

believe,

make

better citizen."

He
China were comparatively safe.
said that they were as safe in Hankow as in New York.
Hence, he
Chen

was

said that foreigners in

bitter against warships being sent there.

Chinese/'

he

said.

He

added

that

they

"They
were

only aggravate the

not

needed.

This

brought up the "Nanking Incident," and the position of foreigners in

China in general.
"Foreigners in China are, as a
"In the case of Nanking,
avowed.

from any harm," Chen

we do not accept guilt for what-

rule,

safe

ever happened during the taking of that city.

for

We

will,

of course,

any damage done to the American Consulate at Nanking.

"But the charge that we deliberately organized the attack on

pay
for-

we do most certainly deny. The only way to settle the

we see it, is to have an investigation. That is the way

eigners there

matter, as

these things are done in any other country.

Why

not in China?"

THE DRAGON STIRS

96

Chen again

made by

referred to statements,

many thousands

of

Northern troops were

Cantonese captured the

He

city.

the

Nat'onalists,

that

Nanking when the

these men were more

in

still

implied that

was pointed out that Americans and British coming from Nanking had sworn the attack was by
men in Nationalist uniforms, chiefly from Hunan Province.
Chen
likely the ones guilty

then said the only

He

remain.

China and that

The Minister

it.

said

It

was

to settle the affair

way

committee look into

to

of the looting.

also,

have an international

China wanted foreigners

said

there

that

however,

to

was a revolution

in

If foreigners thought
might at times be dangerous.
it too dangerous, they should leave, he said; but he emphasized that
4<
the Chinese were
not anti-foreign and do not want the foreigners

to

it

depart."

"We

want them

We

to

Chen added.

remain,"

"We

are

not fighting

however, to do away with the

Imperialistic policies of foreign governments toward our country.
want our country back. We want the unequal treaties abolished, along
the foreigners.

are determined,

We

with

We

extra-territoriality.

are

We'd

handle our nation now.

Comrade Mikal Borodin was

Government during

to

ready

like

the

prove ourselves

able

to

chance/'

the dominating figure in the

Hankow

He was

dynamic head of
the Russian Advisorate and directed the more radical branch of the
its

rocket-like career.

He
Kuomintang Revolution.
in the days when it was at

Hankow's regime for a time

and the Reds ruled in China.

controlled
its

peak,

His word was law, and he was far from silent. He made few speeches
but he was the "power behind the throne."
or public appearances
It was too good to last; and when the wheel of fortune turned
;

abruptly against him, Borodin

bowed

to

land through Mongolia to Siberia and

His career
absolute.

of
It

the inevitable

made

and

the long trek to

fled

over-

Moscow.

power in Asia was brief but spectacular and in all ways

was this last fact that caused his fall
Chinese led by

Chiang Kai-shek saw the omnipotence of Moscow as

He became
exemplified by Borodin, its agent so they threw him out.
an editor in Moscow.
Generalissimo

At

the

He

height

of

his

mission

in

Hankow, Borodin was a world

was a revolutionary from his youth, and even before the

Revolution in Russia, had been forced to flee his native land.
JI917
He went to the United States before the World War and attended
figure.

HANKOW

RED RULE AT
school

at

school

teacher,

Valparaiso

Chicago, and

in

in

University

He met

Indiana.

his

wife,

marriage he conducted a

their

after

97

His name is Berg, I believe, and he

School of Political Economy.
and his wife ran the school under that name.
He returned to Russia
at

the time

1917 revolution.

the

of

Borodin (or was Berg assumed

wanted

Naturally,

to see

he took the name

Eventually,

and was given the mission

?)

him

in

in China.

The appointment was

Hankow.

woman from Chicago,

the Red rule.
She was

arranged by Rayna Prohme, a dynamic young

then editing

who

of

William

Prohme, another journalist of rare intelligence

a propathat time was head of the Nationalist News Agency

wife

the

The People's Tribune, organ

at

of

Both are now dead.

Rayna (as
ganda organization in Shanghai.
with
her shock of
everyone came to know this quite amazing girl

Moscow

died some years ago in

flaming red hair)

of overwork and

1935 in Honolulu, after suffering for years

brain fever; Bill died in

from a pulmonary illness.

Despite political differences, all who met
Rayna and Bill were influenced by their personalities and their clarity
of vision.

In Hankow, Rayna was very much alive and arranged my entree

to the great man's sanctum that week in late April with no apparent
trouble.

She said: ''You want to see Borodin?

can be done."

me

got a note the third day I was in

Hankow,

Borodin had

that the meeting had been arranged.

see

I'll

Okay,

offices

what
telling

on the

second floor of a building in the old German Concession (seized by

After waiting half an hour, I was
the Chinese in the World War).

He was about fifty, tall, heavy but well

ushered into his presence
He had a flowing black musbuilt, with a thick mane of black hair.
marked by an

tache, setting off a face

While

eyes.
pipe.

He

was

there,

Borodin strode

up

asked Borodin

and candid dark

restlessly about,

He was

spoke volubly, and in perfect English.

living

figure,

aquiline nose

sucking a

an imposing

to his reputation for sagacity as well as fearlessness.

how he happened

to

join

the Chinese revolutionary

movement.

'The
ago,"

late

he

Dr. Sun Yat-sen invited

said.

naturally I have
people.

"I

am

in

my own

their

me

to

revolution

come

an individual

as

ideas for conducting

to China four years

it

have no connection with Moscow."

though

for the good of their

THE DRAGON STIRS

98

Communist

Borodin said that there could be no truly

China at that time.

in

China were being named today," he

I have found it is impossible
could not be called Communist.

Communist Party

"If the
said, "it

State

of

communize the Chinese simply because

munize poverty. The Chinese peoples are
to

it

is

not possible to com-

different

from the Russians

might be possible to communize the United

States, where you have vast wealth and property can be communal,

or

the

Americans.

It

owned by the community.

munism (in its pure sense)

or

JJutChina
is

is

impossible.

poverty-stricken.

Com-

Hence, our theories are

We

seek, of course, to aid the plight of laborers and the

changed.
fanner, or peasant, classes."
The split which was to overthrow him so swiftly was explained

from
<4

of view.

his point

We

broke with Nanking, or General Chiang Kai-shek, for two

"First, Chiang began the Northern Expedimajor reasons," he said.
He reached the Yangtze
tion from Canton in 1926 with 50,000 men.

In that vast army there were scores of

Their officers were not injoined to save their necks.

Valley with 400,000 troops.

rabble

who

spired with

the

purposes of

this

revolution

they influenced

Chiang

Kai-shek to seize Shanghai, solely to fill their own pockets with gold.
"Second, General Chiang Kai-shek came under the influence of
the merchants and compradore class in Shanghai.

He

got a few millabor so the greedy

from them and agreed to hold down

might continue to wax fat and wealthier. Chiang was also swayed by
the foreign banks and is lost in the shadows of those iniquitous
lion dollars

Hence, as far as
temples of the money-changers in Shanghai.
Chinese movement, or revolution, is concerned, he is doomed."

But

for

once,

Borodin erred.

man, as a revolutionary

He

He, not Chiang, was the doomed

in China.

explained his attitude toward the foreign

Powers

the

Powers.

Chiang Kai-shek a second Marshal Chang

Tso-lin they will try to throw China back into chaos, and anti-foreignThis revolution will not end there.
ism will continue indefinitely.
"If the

see in

These peoples are aroused.

Momentarily stopped, they
toward their destiny blindly at times, yes; but they
It is
toward the goal we now desire.
us, the Powers should now recognize

inevitable.

the

To

will continue
will

continue

aid them and

Nationalist

Government

HANKOW

RED RULE AT
Hankow.

here in

99

It is for

your government in Washington, for any

foreign government, to make up its mind which is China's true government, best equipped to lead these peoples toward achievement of
If

their goal.

make up

they cannot

turmoil will persist

their minds,

and present conditions in China will remain indefinitely.

"The United States seems to be growing as imperialistic as Great

Why

Britain has been for the past century.

why do you back one

there

support factions

America, and

Central

all

you have

because

simply

Well,

You

Nicaragua and not the other?

in

side

back any factions?

You

America.

Latin

interests

special

are

in

an imperialistic

nation."

.The

man

insisted that

the purpose of the Chinese revolution

primarily to aid laborers and

social

men and women

problems must be solved, he

could become united.

was a farm

said,

The Kuomintang

on the farms.

before the

was

These

Chinese peoples

Revolution, as viewed by him,

program a joint Farmer-Labor Movement, in its

His desire seemed to be to aid the Chinese in their

relief

highest sense.

England and America of

the past hundred years; to aid them to become an industrial nation,
and thus offer a greater market for farm products of every sort.
"industrial revolution," similar to the one in

Thus the yellow man could emerge as a power on

me

earth.

to lunch at his

apartment a day or so later.

At that time he put out a feeler toward an American loan to the
Hankow Government, emphasizing and reiterating that China was

Borodin invited

getting

no money from Moscow

at that time.

would not be a better prospect, or

if

had asked

if

Moscow

they were not getting revenue

there.

"Not one

cent,"

Borodin

said,

"absolutely not a cent.

The

Soviet

We

are spending around $200,always rather economical.

We can get this from
000,000 Mex. a year here in this revolution.

Union

is

various taxes, of course, in time."

for

the

debts.

no idea

hire

"We

of

the

money,"

desire to stabilize

He

insisted

Hankow was "good

and certainly would meet her foreign

our credit abroad," he said. "We have

of renouncing our debts, or those

we may

incur.

"Furthermore, you were not stopped by the bogey of

'security'

in

World War. What security did AmerWith a loan, we could refund China's na-

the case of Europe during the

ica

have then?

tional debt;

None!

and we would pay

it

off in a certain period of time,

say

THE DRAGON STIRS

100

a century
the same as France, or any
need have no fear of lack of security here."

other

half

From

later

history

concerning

international

nation.

obligations,

America

it

would

appear that Borodin's opinions were not so far-fetched as they seemed

in Hankow then.
But nothing ever came of that visionary scheme in

China; at

least,

Yangtze.
As one vital
ers,

not

for the Communist-controlled

before

the

business stood almost

their daily

unmolested.

life

ways nearly

full.

evening.

The

its

the

usual

golf course

in

Hankow

the

in

most

was

The

popular.

in use

with

that

Bars were

al-

French Club and

the evening the

tea-dances,

virtually
fact

few women went about

Various clubs were open.

At noon and

Hankow Club were

Race Club had

men and

the

life

Aside from the

Chinese struggle.

idle,

toward foreign-

attitude

lenient

the tiny colony of foreigners carried on

the same as

the

more

the

of

result

regime far up the

beautiful

Hankow

orchestra

foreign

each

and the tennis courts occupied

but the whole thing reminded me of a skeleton strutting about.

In
normal times that vast club is the meeting-place of 200 or 300 persons

each afternoon.
the only

women

Hankow, 100

In those days, perhaps a score or so gathered there,

There were 70 Americans still in
being Germans.

British, about

500 Japanese and 250 Germans.

business reopened a few days later.

The Japanese made the firmest

mand
wire

for the removal of their

and

sandbags.

Shanghai, and passes

however,

stand and

armed guards

refused
as

Japanese

Hankow's de-

well as their barbed

The Japanese Concession was reminiscent of

The rest of Hankow,
were required to enter.

was wide open.

Nationalist

soldiers

and

officers

strutted

about the streets everywhere.

Thousands of foreign sailors aboard
warships in the harbor were not permitted shore leave for weeks because of an "incident" in the Japanese Concession.
Banks remained
closed, but eventually the men in the Hankow Government found a

way

to permit

them to operate

at a profit, despite the

temporary

silver

embargo.

The

only foreign newspaper there then was The People's Tribune,

However, The Hankow Herald republished by the government.

opened with its first new issue the next Friday morning after my
arrival.
There was no stopping Bruno Schwartz, the editor and publisher of this wide-awake American daily.
The reopening of the banks,

HAN ROW

RED RULE AT
as well as the return of

Japanese, indicated a general lessening

many

Soon

of the tension, at least temporarily.

to

walk about

at

night

101

anywhere,

was no longer dangerous

it

in

except

the

native

The

city.

French Concession was not touched, Annamites policing the streets as

The movies were running nightly. Foreigners,
they did in Shanghai.
especially

Americans, moved back into their homes.

Consulate

now had

on the third

floor.

The American

only myself as guest in a barracks-style quarters

I slept on an iron cot shipped there from Kenosha,

Wisconsin.

The government-owned
functioning was

telegraph

lines

Privileges

unsatisfactory.

were operating, but

to

their

war correspondents

to

send their messages collect were cancelled, for the Hankow office did
not cooperate with Nanking and Shanghai during the split with the

down

Dispatches had to go out by

messenger on board an occasional British river steamer, or through a
They were relayed abroad
foreign destroyer going "out" to the coast.
leaders

Kuomintang

the Yangtze.

by cable from Shanghai, but were invariably

if

fortnight late,

delivered at

Hot and panting

layers

of

banks,

swarmed

several

days or even a

all.

already noisy and dirty enough beneath

dust which rose from clay of the river

coolies,

penetrating

red

the streets in various stages of undress.

They popped

the inevitable Chinese firecrackers everywhere day and night, adding

to the din of

Hankow

at the start of that nightmarish

summer.

contribution to the confusion of daily existence (and the

the

to the popular

lie

Western

was a thing

lent Oriental'*

belief

to behold!)

in

Their

way they gave

the inscrutability of the "si-

was no

aid to the nerves, already

jumpy and frayed by events in recent weeks.

The Yangtze was a remarkable sight then, unlike anything before
or since.
The broad stream was literally crammed with warships of

many

nations.

my window

Their

in the

Lights from

many

impressiveness

craft

it

objects

ship's

didn't matter

Powerful searchlights

peered

which were often

be

exaggerated.

From

seemed aglow at night.

gleamed through the darkness, and the men
Often these naval
signals to one another.

United States Consulate,

on board sent frequent

signals were merely some
next day, but

cannot

officer

it

inviting another

there

was mystery and awe

over

the

afloat

stream's

on that dark

surface

river's

to

tiffin

the

in the sight.

for

sinister

strange
current

THE DRAGON STIRS

102

These added
Northern

their

lights

in

fingers

of

blaze

to

the

whole

touch

of

the

effect.

In a short time I was to return to Shanghai and the trustworthiness of a foreign-run cable-head there.
June had just drawn the curtain on her eventful

not without a sigh of

weeks when
relief.

headed back down the Yangtze,

UP TO THE FRONT

Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, was back

from a sojourn in Moscow.
There were rumors that he might
confer with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek somewhere near the
Front in the Kuomintang Revolution's advance toward the north. His
"Christian

General/'

THE

position in the Nanking-Hankow split was vital to China's revolt.

from the astute Marshal in pertask was to discover what it was

My

than two weeks, he came east to meet General Chiang at Hsuchow-fu, in Kiangsu Province, near the Shantung
son,

if

In

possible.

less

border.

So

went there

also.

Mystery survives but faintly in the heart of China. In June 1927,

with two other foreign correspondents I spent a fortnight in the interior.
We visited the war front and we traveled hundreds of miles
Peasants at work in peaceful valleys are
through a land of farmers.
not glamorous; and tales of days when ancient tyrants ruled and
warred, and this land of the Dragon was unknown to a wondering
West, faded in the

Old temples

still

warm

sunshine of June's modern days.

existed and towering pagodas reared their storied

fingers into the blue; but the temples rotted hi decay, skeletons of an
older glory, occupied by troops who, like gray rats, scuttled in and out

of vacant doors.

The pagodas, one

felt,

must have been used as

silos

China's golden harvest which, like her gold in another

day, was sapped from its source to provide the ever-diminishing sinews
of war so that the Kuomintang Revolution might go on.
for the grain

China, in being born again, destroyed every vestige of her former

self.

The dragon

yet a view of

it

shuffled off

its

ancient

at close range in 1927

coil.

had

The
its

process is tragic,
merits in a series of

queer experiences in the East.

were three on that expedition to quaint Hsuchow-fu, in the
extreme northern tip of Kiangsu Province, near the Shantung Province

We

103

THE DRAGON STIRS

104
border, where the
ally

Nanking

Nationalist line

northward and eastward to the

noticed

not

the

slightest

Pacific.

anti-foreignism

had been pushing gradu-

During the

among

the

entire trip

Chinese

we

people,

thorough-going propaganda of the Nanking authorities

against what they termed ''imperialists/' which the average Chinese
despite

the

The propaganda posters

naturally expected to include all foreigners.
Most of them were illustrated, in order that the
were everywhere.
illiterate

faint

(the vast

Chinese

idea

of

what

it

was

the people) might get some

And the "imperialist" was in-

of

majority
all

about.

a white foreigner. We also saw a number of antiJapanese posters during this trip, which were characterized by figures
evitably, of course,

of Japanese troops

despoiling the

I started for the exciting trip

Chinese.

up

to the front

on Sunday, June

12,

Nanking with former Senator Hiram Bingham,

of Connecticut, who, with his son, Woodbridge Bingham, had been
making a thorough tour of China, both North and South. In Nanking,
1927, going as far as

met Robert

S.

Pickens,

special

correspondent

for

the

Chicago

Tribune, and a Danish correspondent named Dr. Aage Kaarup Nielsen.

Dr. Nielsen was a South Polar explorer, among other things, and for

seven years had been traveling for three Scandinavian newspapers, returning to Europe to lecture and write books on what he
had seen. I hired a cook, took food and bottled drinking water, and
six or

with a translator started for Nanking and the front.

I left Shanghai at 9:10 a.m., going to
Nanking in a private car
with the Binghams and Mr. Julean Arnold, the American Commercial

Attache in Shanghai.

We

arrived about four o'clock in the afternoon.

An

under-secretary from the Nanking Foreign Office met us, together

with two officers from the United States destroyer Peary, stationed
After getting settled,
there, and we proceeded to the Garden Hotel.

Mr. Arnold and

with the Foreign Office secretary (a chap named

Chang), called on the late Dr. C. C. Wu, the Nanking Foreign Minister.
told us briefly of the desire of his Government to have
Dr.
I,

Wu

the foreigners return to Nanking, assuring us that neither he nor his

were

We

compared Nanking's Government

with the Hankow Nationalist group, and Dr. Wu said the only difference was that Nanking was anti-Red.
The general mechanism of
the two governments was the same.
These people, however, did not
colleagues

feel that labor

anti-foreign.

should be placed yet in such an exalted position.

UP TO THE FRONT
Mr. Arnold and

We

visited

Ginling

I,

Nanking
for

College

with Chang, departed for a tour of Nanking.

University and drove through the ground of

girls.

graduate classes that week.

Both were functioning

The

missions

and expected to

supporting them,

charge told me, were planning to continue to do

that no foreign teachers remained.

The

105

so,

men

in

despite the fact

Nanking where I stayed, while not the most modern

The rooms were large and comfortable.
in the world, was a surprise.
The place was full then, and I took over a room belonging to Pickens,
hotel at

who had gone

than

Shanghai over the week end.

had been led to believe, and none of us,

slightest danger.

dences that

Nanking was quieter

it seemed, was in the
noticed a few isolated evi-

to

all

However, the next day I

was not well in the relations between foreigners and

the Chinese.

Next morning we went on another tour of Nanking. The Standard Oil house, where fifty-odd foreigners had gathered during the
"Nanking Incident," was a wreck. It was a stiff climb up the hill on
Nanking to where it stood overlooking the city and
the Yangtze River.
There was an old tin cup four feet high, a trophy
the outskirts

made
and

Standard Oil five-gallon

of

On

bent.

on the trophy.
They read: "American Team, InPolo," and beneath this, one under the other, were the

ternational

names

of

its

standing in the yard, battered

defaced surface one could still make out the words
tins,

black

in

painted

of

members

of the team.

Below

this

list

was the

date,

1921

and at the bottom, a rudely sketched figure of a horse. The Chinese

rabble considered this sentimental trophy too trivial to bother stealing.

They

left

fixtures

little

else.

The bath

had been ripped

out,

tubs

were gone,

all

light

and water

windows broken, baseboards stripped

off,

everything left in complete confusion.

Letters and parts of envelopes lay everywhere, together with old
torn page from The New York Times
newspapers and magazines.

lay in a hallway with scraps of personal letters to the

mothers,

once

men from

their

Desolation hung like a shroud around this

whose eaves now dripped rain.
Blank, sightless

wives, friends.

lively

house

windows gazed unseeing across the verdant landscape, over the valley
and river flats below to where the yellow Yangtze sweeps gracefully
out of sight past Lion Hill to the west.

Julean Arnold and I called again at Nanking University, where

we

THE DRAGON STIRS

106

He and

met the Acting Dean.

lege graduates,

took us to

another professor, both American colthe

visit

home

an American professor

of

who had evacuated, John Reisner, It was occupied by Nationalist

We pushed by and went
troops who sought to obstruct our entrance.
No furniture was left other than a batFurther desolation.
inside.
tered piano,

We

useless.
diers,

ivory keys stripped from the board, its strings snapped,

were ordered out before we could go farther, the sol-

its

ugly and menacing, speaking in guttural tones to our Chinese

My

friends.

translator told

me

they had called the professors ''run-

1 '

a then popular Chinese slogan.

ning dogs of imperialism,
It was our first sign of anything like anti-foreignism, although the
Senator's son had told us of an occurrence the night before that was

He was

worse.

on the U.

Peary, and about

to the dock to meet a launch he had been told

to spend the night

S.

8 o'clock went down

would await him. He found no launch, so took a sampan. The navy
men told him the launch had waited for him, but that while waiting
dusk a Chinese mob gathered and demanded that they be allowed
The sailors refused and were greeted by
aboard to inspect the boat.
Rather than create a disturbance, the Americans
a shower of stones.
at

decided to withdraw

sampan

to the

Peary

young Bingham $2, he said, to hire a

The usual price is 20 or 30 cents for this ten-

It

cost

minutes' rowing to midstream.

Mr

Arnold

left

at

noon

After

tiffin,

the Foreign Office secretary

brought us invitations to a dinner being given for Senator Bingham.

During the afternoon, we visited the American Consulate. Here again

we found a wreck safes battered, papers scattered everywhere, trunks
:

two

minus bed clothing or mattresses.

There was little to guard.
A NaOutside, a policeman stood guard.
tionalist seal had been placed over the doors of the huge office safe.
emptied,

It

or

three

bedsteads

was not opened, but evidences were many

onets

of

soldiers.

From

there,

we

home of the late Dr.

man who was murdered. It

visited

John Williams, the Nanking University

was occupied by troops.

of a battle with the

bay-

the

next to General Chiang Kai-shek at dinner that

It
evening.
was the first time I had seen him since late April, in Shanghai, and
we talked of his victories and what he planned to do next. He said
I

sat

he wanted the Americans to come back to Nanking, and that he would

He also said he would order the troops out
see that they were safe.

UP TO THE FRONT

107

somebody would submit to him a list of the

houses so occupied, and their owners.
I made arrangements on Tuesday to go north to the Hsuchow-fu
of

if

foreign propert}

front, the

Nanking outpost

at the tip of

Kiangsu Province, near Shan-

Chiang Kai-shek offered me a guard when I talked with him in

the afternoon, and this I gladly accepted.
He also wrote two letters

tung.

me and

asking that they ex-

was a queer

flimsy document, be-

to his generals at the front, introducing

My

tend courtesies.

local passport

ing really a military pass, but

Chang (my

interpreter)

said

it

would

me

by anywhere in Nanking-controlled territory.

He again
Chiang Kai-shek gave me his autographed photograph.
stressed his desire to have Americans return to Nanking.
I suggested
that the anti-imperialistic posters they had up all around were hardly

get

conducive

to

the

return

of

foreigners

posters favorable to the white

man

they

put up.

changed and
The Commander-in-Chief
be

should

He said also that he and Marshal Feng

"might be done."
Yu-hsiang were in complete accord, and that Marshal Yen Hsi-san in
said

this

Shansi Province west of Peking was working with him in the NationBut one cannot tell. It was fatal to rely on such inalist revolution.

even when given by

formation,
their

own

interests

men

in

high places.

They

all

had

to protect.

Dr. Nielsen, the Danish correspondent, arrived at the Garden Hotel

He

and Pickens, who had returned, and I planned to

There was no way of
get under way the next morning by train.
telling what sort of train it would be, however, for most of the rolling

that evening.

had gone northward with the retreating Shantung soldiers.

The three of us and Secretary Chang had "Chinese chow**

stock

night on a picturesque canal boat.

along; Chinese lanterns bobbed on

that

Brown-bodied boatmen sculled us

all

sides; there

was the sound

of

Chinese music and thin voices of the sing-song girls, the chatter
scene of color and laughof Mah Jongg tiles as we floated along.
shrill

and paper lanterns, reflected in the dark water.

The Chinese are like that.
rumors of wars here.

ter

However, I found on Wednesday

was not as easy as one might think.

that getting

The

No

wars

or

away from Nanking

train left at seven instead

we had been told, and the Chinese

One is impotent in the face
sorry.

who

told us

of nine, as

chap

was very

of that "very sorry" ex-

pression of the East.

Our

wrong

military "guard/' a rather inconsequential

THE DRAGON STIRS

108

young

told us that another left at

officer,

But we hadn't

to take that.

two

o'clock,

on the cook.

figured

and we planned
This remarkable

person left early in the morning to buy provisions for the journey;
and he returned just at two o'clock, promptly. We had told him the
He arrived on the
train left at two, hence he must get back in time.
dot,

and when

at two,

it

was explained

in

was improbable we could get

bil of force that it

the Yangtze River

all

in

and not without a

detail

an instant to catch the

train,

comprehension

and sorrow spread over his demure features.

He, too,
to wait
had
was "very sorry."
In the meantime, we
to

morning

We

and across

to the ferry

turned out,

it

until

another

go.

got under

finally

way toward

on Thursday.

the front

It

took

from four-thirty that rainy morning until ten at night to get started
from Pukow, but at last we were on the train, and that was some-

tte

thing.

Rising in the gray dawn,

o'clock.

Our

we rushed

ahead, and he

train
I

soldiers.

might pull out at seven

He

o'clock,

little

fellow,

The cook we had

future.
station

ferry at five

platform

said that

it

for

was

sent

us beside a
possible that

but had his doubts.

might pull out at seven or any other o'clock for all we

we couldn't ride on it. There wasn't a square inch of space

said

cared

it

anywhere on any one

could

own

was waiting on the

jammed with

train

coolie

a dandy

special officer failed to appear, like

leaving us to worry about our

Pukow

to get the

never

of those freight cars;

have packed our cook and

and

if

there

had been, we

three packing

his

cases

of

It was hopeless.
Our officer had failed to appear
provisions aboard.
anywhere along the route, but now as we were gazing about he blew

in

and

said there

wouldn't be a train until at least two o'clock that

afternoon.

But we moved our cook and his luggage and ourselves alongside
another and a far better train which, I discovered by asking one of
the soldiers who spoke English, was waiting for General Chiang Kaishek.

The Commander-in-Chief was expected

that day, he said.

There were two

first-class

to

go up

to

the front

compartment cars which

suggested prodigious possibilities!

I asked our interpreter to get it across to the "Little Colonel" with

us that

we

desired to enter one of these cars and rest until the Gen-

eral arrived.

He was

shocked and surprised, and escorted us to the

THE FRONT

UP TO
waiting

room

109

we

After half an hour, as

instead.

on hard chairs

sat

and watched the Chinese guzzle soup, he pounced

in on us and announced a train was leaving in a few minutes and that
fetid place

in this

we had

better take

we dashed

Elated,

wide open

the

to

it.

out

all

spaces

of

He

ready for Big Things.

that

coolie

He

train.

led us back

skipped nimbly

and we, our ardor dampened by many

light
Even
things when we gazed on this familiar sight, followed warily.
He had evidently taken somebody's
the escort was a bit crestfallen.
ahead through a

word

for

that

that

it

train

offered

war correspondents and

accommodations for a

excellent

hardy and used to

looked at the train where soldiers and coolies sat

of

trio

drizzle

We
roughing it!
on trucks, filled open

their

friends,

all

from grain cars and sat

\Ve looked
perched everywhere atop anything, with their umbrellas.
and then we walked away.
It
sorrowfully at our wayward escort
coal

cars,

exuded

simply could not be done.

As we

strolled along in the light drizzle, I thought

and that

of cushions

we were now going

tice.

He

doubted

try

for

we

it,

car.

It

was

first

class

to open the car

But

carriage

and

sit

more and more

told our interpreter that

therein until further no-

companions, disgusted and ready to

couldn't be worse off, assented.
I tried the door to the
it.

locked.

my

stepped out of the next car, and

It turned out that he was a member of the
Propa-

young

officer

appealed to him.
ganda Corps and a former newspaper
I

man from

Shanghai and 'Peking

who used to work on a paper that Eugene Chen had edited. His
name was Paul Chu, he said, and he was a graduate of an American
mission college in China.

told

him

the General had invited us to

go to Hsuchow-fu, that we were getting no attention at

all in all, the trip so far had been no howling success.

all,

and that

He

pointed out that the car which we wanted to enter was locked.
I admitted this, but suggested we pay a little social call on the Station

Master and see what he would do.

learned

was

we were

true.

We

did.

The

Station

Master

guests of the Commander-in-Chief, which, in a way,

He was

apologetic.

And what

is

more

to

the point,

he

We

parked in a compartment for the rest of our

journey to Hsuchow-fu, for despite efforts on the part of our little
officer-escort, we refused to budge from our comfortable compartment,

opened that car!

where one might

lie

stretched

out on a leather upholstered seat and

THE DRAGON STIRS

110

looking document which

\ve had had at the hotel in Nanking, given us by the Foreign Office.

Bob Pickens produced an important

sleep.

It

did

actually

declare,

under the

Government

Seal,

that

we were

We

guests of the Foreign Office and were not to be disturbed.

were

alone henceforth and had a good ride.

left

The

vision boxes
insist

back in the baggage

cook,

for

the

fear

with lemonade.

rice in

The day passed

afraid

to

open his pro-

with him might

large bowls and washed it clown

soldiers

playful

on their share. So we ate

was

car,

quartered

We

photographed the coolie

train with its accompanying cars loaded with six motor trucks that,
with white-arched backs, looked like covered wagons.
They were for
slowly.

use at the front in transport service and as ambulances,

The Propaganda boys were busy

of the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen on

we were

told.

the whole day long painting pictures

and copies of the Kuominputting up new and better posters.

the train

tang emblem everywhere, as well as

Our 'guard" joined us without display late in the afternoon, glad
to admit defeat and desert his baggage car quarters now jammed with
He said Chiang's
part, I presume, of General Chiang's guard.
troops
*

was

departure

still

indefinite,

but

\ve

had

decided

to

stick

by

our

compartments (we now had taken two adjoining ones and kept them),
if it took a week.
The Chinese were most friendly, and I found one
of
It

on the train spoke English with an American accent.

seems he worked in Vladivostok when we had troops in Siberia

the "boys"

during the World War.

About

six o'clock,

a lucky hunch.

We

we went

onto the platform for a stroll

It

was

met the managing director of the railway and he

His name
foreigners and practise his English.

was glad to talk to

was Wood perversion of some Chinese name, of course
a graduate of an American university.
He was much

and he was
interested

in

and he suggested we might have trouble getting train accommodations from Hsuchow-fu back to Pukow.
I had thought of
our

trip;

So Mr. Wood wrote a note to his man at Hsuchowand ordered him to give us a private car when we wanted it.

the same thing.

fu

Chiang Kai-shek arrived at 9:40, and five minutes later

we were off for Hsuchow-fu. He caught sight of us as he marched
General

past,

we

and returned our

salute.

With a

great blowing of

many

bugles,

pulled out for the north at 9:45 p.m.

What

spitters the

Chinese are

Our

car,

in

the

narrow

aisle

out-

THE FRONT

UP TO

111

our compartments, was alive with noises by daybreak, and the

loudest of these was the spitting by even-body, everywhere, preferIt was a game of "hock, spit and jump/'
ably, it seemed, on the floor.

side

with us doing the jumping.

One of those things you have to get used
to in China, and elsewhere in the East.
It is a national custom.

We
I

used

tour)

had

my
as

to sleep in our clothing during the night,

(which was

brief-case

a pillow.

It

was a

meadows and frequent

the

all

my

clothes.

luggage, incidentally, on that

beautiful night

and quite

lakes

Xo bed

with moonlight across

As we stopped

chilly.

at

each town, the Political Bureau poster propaganda boys went about
putting

up new and shiny posters on everything.

On

tered with signs.

in Chinese read:

HIS

Our

was

train

lit-

the General's car a big black-and-white poster

To CONGRATULATE GENERAL CHIANG KAI-SHEK ON

NORTHERN EXPEDITION

10,000 YEARS!

This

last

was a

typical

and happiness. Dr. Sun's photoand there were the usual slogans, as

Chinese expression meaning long

life

graph was painted on the car,

DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM! DOWN WITH THE COMMUNIST PARTY!

and CLEAN UP THE MILITARISTS!

The

cook, like a good fellow, turned

ing with tinned food and

up

at six o'clock in the

morn-

and the boy brought tea and hot water.

The train's personnel, aside from the many troops, included numerous people of importance, among them representatives of Marshal
fruit,

Feng Yu-hsiang. Two of them, very good fellows, came in for a chat.
They swore that Feng was all for General Chiang, and they said he
was already half-way to Hsuchow-fu on the Lunghai Railway Line
One chap also swore Feng was dead against the Communist Party in
This seemed to me rather strange, after the help Feng YuChina.
hsiang, the alleged "Christian General," got from Moscow after his
The doubtful man seemed rather to be Yen
defeat in Peking in 1925.
But, they said, he was bound to come over to the
of the men, Ting Tuan-siao, a former director of the

Hsi-san, in Shansi,

South.

One

Peking-Mukden Railway,

said he thought

Peking to the

Both were

troops

to

last

ditch.

Shantung.

Japan's aiding

Chang

Tso-lin would

bitter against

So was everybody,
Tso-lin against

Chang

Kuo

it

hold

Japan for sending

seemed.

They

recalled

Sung-lin in Manchuria in

December and January, 1925-26, when Tokyo declared a ''neutral

zone" at Mukden and staved off what seemed to be certain defeat for
Chang.

THE DRAGON STIRS

112

We
greet

passed numerous stations.

their

Everywhere crowds turned out to

The country was as flat as Kansas beautiful

General.

farm country, stretching away for miles in all directions as far as one
could see.
We started from Pukow through a low range of mounbackground, were still visible
It
against the blue sky.
passed through Fu Li Chi at 10 a.m.
Mud
was one of the prettiest purely Chinese hamlets I ever saw.
houses with white tile roofs, curling up at the eaves ... a walled

tains,

and

high

hills,

brown

the

in

We

temple high on a far

hill

some old and

beggars,

bent,

others

them coppers, and as the train pulled out

a big boy grabbed one coin of three I'd thrown a naked little chap not
over three years of age.
The baby howled, and I shouted loudly and

young and naked.

I tossed

without dignity at the rascal.

He dropped the coin and fled.
reached Hsuchow-fu at noon.
milling, banner-waving re-

We

General

awaited

ception

Hsuchow-fu

Chiang Kai-shek.

en

fete,

We

holiday declared, greeted our party.

got rickshaws to the Garden
Hotel where I met General Pei Chung-hsi, capturer of Shanghai, talking with Merle Lavoy, a jovial Pathe newsreel veteran who had been
over to the front in Shantung.
The place was full of soldiers, for

General Chiang made his

GHQ

ing the Police Commissioner,

after our hot ride.
It did.

Another

officer

arranged

We

there.

who
for

met many

thought a cold drink would go good

rooms for

us

through the Chinese

at the hotel and then moved to

Commerce. We had tiffin

our quarters.
They were in a spacious room

Chamber

of

temple, with

General

Ma

bamboo and many

Ho-chow,

inside

an old Chinese

flowers growing in the yard.

in charge

on

officers, includ-

of

the artillery unit with the

MajorTenth

He

brought General Pang Tsientsai, also of the Tenth Army, along, a smiling Buddha of a man, good
natured and funny, a broad, rather self-conscious grin always beaming

Army, quartered

across

his

here, called

us.

round

Shortening his name,

The
Pang, we dubbed him Pa, to go with General Ma, our host.
latter spoke fairly good English.
He was a spirited fellow whose men
must have loved him.

We

left

fat,

at

pleasant,

four

brown,

o'clock,

after

tea,

face.

and interviewed

General

Li

He agreed to take us up to the front with

Chung-jen at his yaman.
him in a few days. It was about 100 li, or a little over 30 miles to
the lines where he was assigned, which with troops would be a two

UP TO THE FRONT
days' march.
in

we

About

the market-place.

we took our departure, to seek bed clothes

Until we got a policeman at GHQ to help us,

six

The merchants, on

got nowhere.

113

holiday, refused to open up.

We

our mosquito netting, unfortunately, and all of us had a

hard fight during the night with these pests, and with flies at sun-up.
Lavoy and his cameraman, Chen, were waiting for us when we got
didn't

get

back to our temple-home about seven.

They had been to the Eastern
front in Shantung with General Pei Chung-hsi, and Lavoy told us of

He was

experiences there.

a jolly big fellow

who had been

the world with his camera, in wars everywhere, and on

all

all

over

fronts

in

Europe during the World War. He could tell a merry tale well. He
anticipated a break-up in the Northern forces that summer of 1927
and a march

to

While we were

Peking

by

chatting, General

Dixie!

He was

tall,

Nationalists

Ma

before

many months.

joined us and as his contribution

American song, / want

to the party sang a popular

in

the

to see

my home

with a fierce black mustache, kind eyes and a

roving spirit that was always hitting on something new to say or do.
He was a natural soldier and well-fitted to be a leader of his ragged

and none too

He
we

spirited

troops.

brought in half a dozen

officers ten

minutes later and insisted

go into his quarters and dine "Chinese-chow" style.

Lavoy
we
to
refuse
the
cook
had
but
had
accepted, although
already preall

We dined by candlelight around a board table, with

pared dinner.
food in the center in enormous quantities which we ate with chopTwo of the officers spoke Japanese but no other foreign lansticks.
guage.

General

Ma

finally felt constrained to sing

once more and did,

He then insisted that his guests sing, and

a hoarse, jovial voice.
Bob Pickens and I obliged with some of the college songs we both

in

knew, ending up with Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here, to which our
there were five Generals and several lesser officers
dignified Generals
present

The

thumped the

table

resoundingly!

mass meeting

welcome General Chiang

Kai-shek next day was present at the dinner, and he invited us also
We held a conference on this subject, and it was
to make a speech.
vice-chairman of the

to

agreed that I was to make a brief acknowledgment of the

honor done us in Hsuchow-fu, the three of us to be introduced at one
finally

time and I to say the piece.

The next day was Saturday, June

18,

and the huge Chinese mass

THE DRAGON STIRS

114

The
meeting was an impressive success although we did not speak.
Chinese were long on addresses, and when it was time for our debut
weary of standing m the hot sun and it was past
General
noon and everybody was hungry, including us.
So we left.
Chiang made a good speech, as usual, and he denied that the Kuopeople were

the

mintang members were against Christianity or Confucianism or anything else in the way of religion or freedom of speech and thought.

The meeting was held on a broad plain at the edge of the

The sun was broiling hot but we didn't mind
beyond the wall

city,

that

so much, being guests on a shady platform.

General Chiang arrived
about ten o'clock.
He saluted us and came over to ask if we'd got

comfortable quarters.
The meeting broke up about 12 :30. The stream
The Doc
of humanity up the hill and back to town was a great sight.
in a rickshaw covered all over like a covered-wagon was a fantastic
sight in his

We
I

w hite
r

day being hot and no one stirring

three o'clock to find the room filled with soldiers.
They

had a

awoke

at

helmet, riding breeches, khaki coat and camera.

siesta after tiffin, the

were an inquisitive lot, all Hunanese, and very "fresh," but they left
It saved us some embarrassment,
quickly when an assembly bell rang.
for

we would have had

cigarettes

taken a

and

lot

tea,

some

in,

evict

fifty

them

we complained

to

them.

They had been demanding

or more of them, and that would have

of cigarettes and tea.

the bell which called

but

to

But we were

to formation.

rid of them, thanks to

don't

know how

they got

our General Ma, and he posted a guard

which prevented further trouble of this kind.

Our next caller was a student-teacher of

art

who

called

for

no

with these "foreign devils." He was pleasant enough, although a fatuous-faced galoot, and he promised to paint
He said he thought the people would like the Nationus a fan apiece.

good reason except to

alists

cers

talk

once they got acquainted better, for, he said, many of the offiwere well educated.
'These Nationalists/' he confided, "have

interests

in art

and

lows, uneducated.

while the

Northerners are rough felthink the Nationalists will be popular, therefore."

literature,

Now, that was a new angle on the revolution.

The town was preparing for the welcome
Posters
hsiang, who was due in the morning.
bought mosquito

nets, looked at jade,

netting for the night,

of

Marshal Feng Yu-

flew everywhere.

We

and after fixing our quarters and

went to General

Wang

Tien-pei's -quarters for

UP TO THE FRONT
There we learned we had to move

dinner.

115

at once, for

Feng was

to

be given our rooms in the temple

So we moved before dinner in a
great caravan of rickshaws through the narrow, roughly cobbled streets
!

of

Hsuchow-fu, and dined

General Wang's mess.

late

at

eleven

The General had

o'clock

with the

officers

to leave to attend a

of

welcome

committee meeting to prepare for Feng's arrival at dawn the next day.
Pei-fu man;
He was commander of the Tenth Army and an old

Wu

We
a cordial host and pleasant, as most of these people were to us.
were treated like princes on all hands, and even among the people
there

was not a

Our new

trace of anti-foreignism.

quarters were in a deserted girls' school at the edge of

Hsuchow-fu, occupied by General Wang and his guard and the propaganda bureau chaps. It was a barn-like place, but picturesque a fine
view was to be had of the entire

After dinner, several of the

city.

Two of them had studied enaccompanied us to our rooms.

gineering in France and Germany, and we got along nobly in broken
French, discovering a common knowledge of several French ballads.
officers

One young Major was

particularly

proud of

his Terpsichorean

accom-

plishments and proved his statements by essaying the Charleston on

the rough boards of that attic chamber.
They left us shortly after

We

midnight.

wood

remade our

billets

on doors rigged up as beds

the

have yet discovered.

We were invited to lunch with Chiang Kai-shek and Feng YuFoolishly presuming the
hsiang on Sunday morning, but missed it.
party would be at noon or later, we went about calling on headhardest

quarters,

and rode

to the railway station to see the

a note about a private car,

the

Chamber

of

and when we would want

Commerce where Feng was giving

noon and the party was

to eat lunch

if

man

We

over.

It

had begun

to
it.

the

at eleven.

whom

We

had

got to

luncheon at

What an hour

arranged to interview Feng at his quarters at four

o'clock.

He

gave us no direct answers

asked him what he expected to do in Hsuchow-fu.

Feng Yu-hsiang proved

to be foxy.

I
on anything.
He said he expected to confer with Chiang Kai-shek. We asked him
why, and he said he had heard much about Chiang and that he, Feng,
was a member of the Kuomintang and wanted to make Chiang's ac-

quaintance.

Asked

if

he

had

come

to

offer

full

cooperation

Chiang, he said that he had been cooperating with Chiang for

with

many

THE DRAGON STIRS

116

He said Borodin was

months, anyway, and would continue to do so.
He said he
an acquaintance of his, but that he liked Chiang better.
did not intend to support separately either Nanking or Hankow, because he declared they would soon merge into one government again.
As to the Communist Party in China, Feng said he could say
nothing, that questions concerning politics were settled by the Central
In that fashion he sideExecutive Committee of the Kuomintang.
all

major questions.
As we were leaving, I said:

stepped

He

tian?"

And

and

grinned

was

''Well, General, are

replied,

"Do you

think

you

still

look

a Chris-

like

one?"

He

posed for pictures and, still grinning behind

a little too cordial, I thought
his three-days' beard, bid us a cordial
that

that.

farewell.

We

went

to

Garden Hotel

referring to the noble principles of the Nationalist Cause

ingless,

calling

a dinner that night given by Chiang for Feng at the

Both the Generals made short speeches, rather mean-

on

everybody to

welcomed him into the

in

tories

stick

together.

Chiang extolled

and

Feng and

and Feng extolled Chiang for his vicAfter it was over I spoke
his march north from Canton.
fold;

Chiang about getting a photograph of the two of them toSo, "home" to our schoolhouse
gether, and he promised to arrange it.
briefly to

rooms

tumbly old walled city.

The Chiang-Feng conference was due to end the next day, and we
in rickety rickshaws, through the

decided that since there was no

news out but by messenger,

it was time to
We asked Mr. Yu, the Station
get back to Shanghai.
He gave us a private freight car, and put it on
Master, to fix us up.
a siding for our use
There was nothing else available.
Then, while

way

to get

waiting to see Chiang at the hotel, we met a young Major-General,

David Loh, chief of communications at the front, who offered us cots

So we were

and a guard.

all

ready to depart when the conference

ended.

General

Wang

afternoon and
terrific

three

strain

cups

sent his signed photograph over to us that

later,

on

and

with his

our

staff,

cook and

saucers,

But we made

four

paid us a formal

his

tea

glasses

service,

and

some

call.

Monday

It

was a

which consisted of
tins

of

cakes

and

parking the General and his officers around

on wooden benches and our door-beds. Wang confirmed my impresAnd it looked as though Nanking could not move
sions of Feng.
crackers.

it,

UP TO THE FRONT
Hankow

north until the

We

there.

Feng

our box-car

into

We

had a quiet evening

We

as

found

learned,

guards, others as

given

special

privilege

was due

dropped
to the train at 11:30

to

who had important

officials

right.

afraid

of

to

move

to go

at

noon.

good as his word, and his army cots were on

about half a dozen others in our car also

We

had no other means of transportation.

all

at

They were still

home and decided

first

Loh was

we

men,

settled.

thing in the morning.

The train
went aboard at 10 a.m.

General
hand.

was

split

117

TPC'

ride

with us,

some as

Nanking and
weren't crowded, so it was
business in

cards of farewell at

GHQ

and returned

We

had got our photoaway.

graph of Feng and Chiang together, and were assured that Feng was
Chiang said no statement on the
leaving at noon also, which he did.
set

all

to get

conference would be issued until he got back to Nanking.

Our

under way at 2:45 p.m.

ten miles in two hours, and stopped in the rain.
coolie

train got

It

crawled a scant

We

stayed there an

hour arguing with the station man and a military train inspector to
That bedraggled engine
cut the train in half and let part of us go on.
could do nothing with the twenty-four cars it was expected to pull.

We

Hsuchow-fu once more, where

we spent the night. General Chiang was leaving early Wednesday
He said
morning, and I asked Mr. Yu to attach our car to his train.
ended by backing

the

all

way

to

one would leave at ten o clock that night and we had better get it
We agreed, and I went back to the siding, rolled
attached to that.
up in a blanket and dropped off to sleep, hoping but not expecting to
get

under way that night.

General Loh came to see us about nine o'clock and talked for an

hour about his work and how the Nationalists and Northerners

and about the Red Cross work

wounded

to bother with
'If
it

well,

privates

privates

China.
in

most

He

said the doctors refuse

cases.

through the leg or shoulder, but could get

difference.
They order the burial squad to toss

are

makes no

in

fight,

shot

and they are buried alive.

They are told
they are of no use, that there is no place to tend to them, and that
they had better die for their country now and save further suffering,"

them into the

Loh

said.

'dead* heap

"It is

terrible.

Officers

are

sometimes spared."

moment later, he left and I turned in for the night.

Our interpreter awakened me about 6:30 a.m. the next morning,

THE DRAGON STIRS

118

and

"They Ye waiting

said:

General Chiang and he is going to

ran over to the
I
shall we do?"

for

What
any minute now.
Hsuchow-fu station to find soldiers lined up, bugles playing and our
He was "very sorry" that no
Station Master of absolutely no use.

leave

during the night; but he had no time then.

The Police Commissioner was on hand. He tried to get us accommodations on another car on the General's train, but it was packed.

Had

train

was

frantic

and

The

behind.

We

left

furious,

and demanded that our car be switched on

Master tore his hair and said

Station

out for a quarter of an hour,

young fellow said: "Why worry about
it

fought

One

The Commander-in-Chief

anyway?
holler

but

bother

don't

them.

about

is
1 '

but

was too

it

nothing

these

crazy

due any moment.

My

late.

happened.
foreigners

Let them

translated

interpreter

all

this.

was misting and the General drove up and the train was about
Bob and the Doc were still over in the box-car on the
leave.
It

to

siding,

The General was on

a block away.

Cheers and

the car step.

grabbed the interpreter, pushed through the mass right up

to the General and paused, speaking rapidly to the interpreter and
I

bugles.

looking at
that

we wanted

plained,

him

in

Chiang.
to

told

him

to

tell

the

When this was exNanking.

I told
"Well, come on in my car."

take that train

to

Chiang smiled and said,

my brand of Japanese (he studied

American newspaper

He

General our troubles and

in

Tokyo

in Japan,

three years)

said to get the others.

and

that there

was on an

were three of

ran, while the train waited,

and got
Bob and the Doc, told the cook to pack his things and catch the next
train to Pukow and Xanking, and with my camera and brief case, ran
us.

back to the

train.

We

made

An

it.

instant later the train shoved off,

while the crowd roared.

Once we had our

wanted

We

We

gladly accepted, and he brought us

While
jam, and the best coffee in months.

to eat.

and

breakfast.

boy appeared and asked us if we

had brought no food and had had no chance

breath,

tated to his

secretaries.

He looked over and

He and his staff then

ham and eggs, toast

we ate, Chiang dic-

asked an hour later

if

we had had "chow."

dined, just as we had.
The three meals we had were all "foreign-style," the General and his
men eating with knives, forks and spoons, and eating food that foreigners eat

no

rice or other

Chinese dishes.

UP TO THE FRONT
After

119

young Captain who was a gradPennsylvania, said that he had a message

the chief secretary, a

tiffin

uate of the University

of

which we might like to see. It was a telegram which Feng Yu-hsiang

had sent to Hankow demanding the eviction of Borodin and the other
Communists there, and the merging of the Hankow people with Nanking forthwith!

The
I

secretary read

our papers

cabled

it

off

after

in fairly

good English, and Pickens and

The Feng message

Shanghai.

reaching

looked as though he really meant to stick by Chiang, at least for the

Even
moment. What his game was to be later was still a mystery.
I asked General Chiang
the staff officers did not trust him much.

what he thought of Feng and whether he believed Feng would stick

by Nanking, and he, of course, said that he trusted Feng and was
convinced the ''Christian General" would continue to support Nanking.
But I doubted it.
If it hadn't

been for Bob Pickens

He

king that night.

we would

not have reached Nan-

used to work summers in a round-house

The wobbly engine broke down

down

But Bob got out

and fixed it both times, cutting a fireman's shovel handle in two to get
Then he showed them how to fix the same
a pin for a driving rod.
in Carolina

when

pin

it

worked

loose

and the threads on the nuts were worn

smooth as a whistle an hour

We

Pukow

reached

twice

after the first

breakdown.

about eleven o'clock and ferried across to Nan-

room only after a Chinese moved out, permitting

The hotel was packed, one guest being Fuad Bey,
us to use it.
former Turkish Minister at Tokyo, who was there talking with Dr.

king, getting a hotel

C.

Wu

C.

train

then

to

about

new commercial

Shanghai, traveling

Mayor

of

Shanghai,

in

treaty.

We

a car provided

who was

took

for

the

General

morning

Huang,

also returning after a visit to the

front.

us had

only praise for the way in which we were

treated in a country where older residents warned us that our heads
All

three

of

would not be worth

that "wild

their chemical content

interior in

if

such troublous times."

we were
It

to venture into

was a

lark for

us,

got data on the Chiang-Feng combine at first hand.

It resulted in the rapid decline of the Red Russian rule in Hankow.

anyway
I

and

caught the

first

river steamer back

up

the Yangtze on July 2 to

break the details to Comrade Borodin and his Russian Advisorate, and

THE DRAGON" STIRS

120
to watch the end of
tion.

The

Moscow's

over the Kuomintang Revolumanner in which their house of cards tumbled about them,
control

I had to wait
forcing them to flee, was nothing short of astounding.
a week for a river boat, and I heard tales from Hankow of the ruth-

less

actions of desperate

They foreshadowed

men

still

the inevitable

vainly seeking a foothold

fall

of that regime.

up

there.

THE RED FLAME FADES

up the Yangtze-kiang left an hour earlier

than I had been told it would for the nerve-tingling voyage to
Hankow, and we nearly missed the boat. Frank Riley of The
London Times (The "Thunderer") and I telephoned to check the
river

steamer

THE

time of departure again, for steamers along that water highway in the
muddled days of 1927-28 left any port when the leaving was good.
I had been told at the pier that the S. S. Tuckwo would sail at

noon so Riley and I had a leisurely breakfast at the well-appointed

American Club that idle morning of July 2, when we went "up the
river."
He was making it for what apparently turned out to be his
We packed one bag each, had the Club's doorman call a
last trip.
motor car, drove to the dock at 1 1 :30 a.m., in what we believed was
and saw the elusive little Tuckwo just breaking away
ample time
for her voyage, and ours.
We drove on to the pier. Pickens of the
Chicago Tribune, was gesticulating wildly to us. Riley and I jumped
The Tuckwo was already two yards from the wooden
from the car.
pier, and the angry waters of the yellow Yangtze were below us.
"Catch
writer.

this,"

"And

this."

yelled

He

Bob and threw him my portable typemy bag, also. Bob and others on board

at

got
kept shouting to us to catch a

sampan to midstream and come aboard

But instead, Riley, a six-footer and long of limb, made a leap
there.
I ran a
I had no time to think.
for it over the ever widening gap.
few paces, made a flying leap in turn and they yanked me on board.
We had made it by the narrowest of margins, but we both were on
board, and safe.

Among

our ardent cheerers as we made that unaided

space were two young American women.

One was going

through
up-river

Navy ensign on board the U. S. S.

to be married to a United States

Cincinnati, a cruiser then standing

bridesmaid.

flight

They had come from

by

at

the

121

Hankow.
States,

and

The

other

after

was her

meeting her

THE DRAGON STIRS

122

finance in Honolulu, the bride decided to "join the

her

She was

sailor.

called

Navy" and marry

and her bridesmaid was

"Chris,"

Miss

The wedding took place in Hankow, the fiance proving to be a Navy officer named William Eddy.
The war
These women enlivened the trip upstream considerably.
was at least superficially quiescent in the unbearable heat of midsummer.
The voyage was less tense than the one on the Loongwo
in April, and we had a gala time among a more responsive ship's
Myrtle Johnson,

from Michigan.

company. My personal recollections of that Fourth of July

The wedding at Hankow a
remain especially delightful.
later

added a touch

romance

of

to the

off

Wuhu

few

days

Both

grim business of warfare.

Riley and I attended in the quiet compound of members of the Lutheran Church there, many of whom were Swedish.

One

not unattractive young person sought to teach

me

a few rudi-

The only one which I still rementary expressions in that tongue.

call from that romantic interlude in the white heat of China's revolu-

To

tion is: "Jag elskar dig!"

The wedding was

love you."

to encounter in

about

Of

us.

a Scandinavian, those sounds mean "I

the only bit of romance which

Hankow amid

the revolutionary events which swirled

course, there were

still

the dancing girls at the cabarets.

In the awful heat, even they faded and their cheap

tense

we were

tinsel

lost all pre-

of glamour.

One
U.

S.

evening I had dinner in the "officers' mess" on board the

The cruiser was anchored in midstream
S. Cincinnati
The

Yangtze
low and
oven,

it

is

a mile or more wide

at

Wuhan, and

the clay

banks are

a breeze were stirring anywhere across that stifling

should waft over that stream's center.
There is nothing whatflat.

If

ever to stop it, no windbreak or barricade of any description.

Yet
at seven o'clock that evening a thermometer below decks, with all portholes open, registered 107 degrees Fahrenheit.
And that was the
"cool

there
the

of

the

those

Foreign

evening"

who

see

Service

Hankow

in

that

in

the lamps

officials

of

the

of

Old-timers

mid-July.

China have

oil,

living

the bankers,

and the missionaries

was the same in any mid-summer,
Consulates,

and publishers were agreed that it

and that the July of 1927 experienced no unheard-of heat wave.

The Hankow government withered and

blew away.
revolution's

Mikal Borodin and

northward

tide

died

in

that

heat,

his comrades,
riding the crest

when

and

of the

was among them a few weeks

THE RED FLAME FADES

fled

before,

haphazardly

northwest by motor caravan toward

123

Outer

though still nominally independent Soviet ReEventually they all reached Siberia and proceeded to Moscow.
a friendly

Mongolia,
public.

The

heat which caused this swift

phenomenon in China's struggle

toward her destiny was of a different nature from that which caused
us so much bodily discomfort.
In the main, it was applied by General

with

ference

and

Kai-shek

Chiang

the

his

unpredictable

new regime
"Christian

His conNanking.
General/' Marshal Feng
at

Yu-hsiang, had swung that powerful ex-traitor into line and brought
a public pronouncement by Feng to that effect.
Feng quit his Com-

munist friends at

Hankow

without a quiver.

He

had just come back

China from Moscow, making the journey overland through Siberia

and Mongolia
His "open door" was through Shensi Province, near
to

Chengchow, in Honan Province athwart the

He seized control of Chengrailway linking Hankow and Peking.
chow, promised aid to his "comrades" in Hankow, secretly went to
to

Tibet,

the

town

of

Hsuchow-fu, conferred there with Generalissimo Chiang and turned

his back on Communism and Hankow.
Feng sent a telegram to the

men

Hankow

government, referring to Bdrodin and his Russian

Advisorate there, and politely but firmly telling them to get out. They

did.

in the

There was nothing

At

else

to do.

Borodin refused to believe in Feng's perfidy.

I told him
that I had seen a copy of Feng's telegram, which had been made
first,

me

while returning with Generalissimo

Chiang Kai-shek
from his meeting with Feng.
The Russian's pale face turned livid.
Then he said: "Marshal Feng is our friend.
He is my friend, no
He is still with us. I am sure he stays true to Hankow."
matter.

available to

But Feng did not "stay true" to anybody or anything for very ^long.
Rayna Prohme, the red-headed young woman who had so ably
edited The People's Tribune, also had to flee.
She made her way to
Peking and

after a

heart-broken but
the

few weeks went across Siberia to Moscow.

still

communal theory

The

telegram

"Christian

wei and other radical

I

of

life,

for the spread of a true conception of

she died.

Feng to Hankow was a self-portrait of the

The message was addressed to Wang ChingChinese leaders at Hankow.
It follows:

from

General."

When

fighting

There,

met you gentlemen

in

Chengchow, we talked

of the

THE DRAGON STIRS

124

oppression of the merchants and other

members

owners and

oppressing the factory

fanners by landowners.
labor

of the gentry, of

the

of

oppression

of

The people wish to suppress this form of despotism. Many

soldiers who fight at the front suffer because their families are
In the
mistreated in Honan and elsewhere in Central China.
name of the Nationalist Party, many things are being done
which are wrong.
There is an effort being made to throw our
country into further
of a few individuals.

way

confusion

for

the

personal

of the radical element

Many

into our Party Organization in

an

effort

benefit

wormed

their

to control the en-

They have done all the unlawful

Higher members in our Party Or-

Kuomintang Movement.

tire

merely

things they can to this end.

ganization have sought to stop this creation of unrest within our

Party, but the radicals have refused to obey orders.

We

also talked of remedies for this situation.

The only

(which we also discussed) is, as I see it,

Mikal Borodin, who already has resigned, should

solution

as follows: 1)

return to his
the

own country

Executive

Central

immediately;

2)

Committee in the

who wish to go abroad for

The others may join with

Those members

Hankow Government

a rest should be allowed to do

the

of

Nanking Government,

if

so.

they

desire.

In Hsuchow-fu,

Government

officials.

discussed this problem with

When

the

Nanking

they had heard the results of our

Chengchow, they were both joyous and sad.

They have welcomed the above suggestions. Both Nanking and
Hankow, I believe, understand these mutual problems.
conversations

in

need not remind you gentlemen, of course, that our country

facing a severe crisis; but in view of this, I feel constrained
I

is

to insist that the present is

factions

for

desire that

you

immediately.
revolution

the

fight

a good time to unite the Nationalist

against

our

common

accept the above solution

enemies.

It

is

my

and reach a conclusion

Individual conflicts must be overcome so that our

may

succeed

Sun Yat-sen's Three

in

the

shortest

possible

time,

Principles be put into effect.

We

and Dr.

This

is

the

must revere the memory of

only salvation of our country.
Dr. Sun, and we must remember those brave soldiers who have

THEREDFLAMEFADES
their

given
healed.

in

lives

Thousands

militarists.

They

the

Our

cause.

the north are

in

anxious

are

for

125

wounds

under the

still

our

have

help.

We

been

not

will

of

the

must unite

forthwith.

General Tang Shen-tse is patriotic and still a true revolutionist, so he should send troops to Chengchow immediately and

me

cooperate with

in order to capture

Peking and complete the

task of our Northern Expedition.

make

these suggestions sincerely, and expect you

to

accept

them.

Chiang Kai-shek, commenting on the above, said:

most happy at this firm stand taken by Marshal Feng Yu-

Generalissimo
"I

am

We

hsiang.

are planning

to

continue

our northern

campaign very

soon now, no longer fearing that our rear may be cut off at Hsuchowfu from the west."
In less than a month the Reds had gone from
and Borodin was in the van of that defeated band on the long
China
overland trek, back to Moscow.
Earlier, Borodin

ernment
I

whom

wanted

to

get

was the

first

man

in the declining

saw when we reached Wuhan

his

reaction

to

that

telegram

early

Hankow
in

from the

July,

gov1927.

''Christian

Whether Borodin saw that his Russian Advisorate's part

in that rapidly shifting revolt was over remains conjectural, but highly
His quick eyes normally not only saw the problems conprobable.
stantly arising all about him, but also saw all around them as well
General."

and sometimes on past them to their inevitable conclusions.

When I talked with him this time, Borodin looked tired. His attitude was still one of defiance to those (to him) lesser men who would
interrupt him as he fought toward his goal of bringing all China into
the world

revolution led by

again that I saw him

Moscow.

It

was

in his

spacious

offices

Despite growing agitation here and elsewhere against him and his Communist assistants, he insisted that he
was not ready to quit. He felt that his work in China was not yet
finished.

principles

He

last.

somewhat heatedly that he was following the

outlined by the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who had invited
reiterated

Borodin to participate in the Cantonese-inspired Revolution against

Peking, and asserted that the Agrarian Revolution of China "must

go on."

THE DRAGON STIRS

126

He

me

received

enough,

cordially

evincing

interest

great

in

all

happenings in Nanking and Shanghai, particularly since Hankow was

The telegraph wires were down and there was no
again isolated.

word except for brief wireless dispatches that reached the Capital. He
wanted to know how General Chiang Kai-shek's government was pro-

how Feng and Chiang were

ceeding, and

agreeing.

Borodin, like the rest of the Hankowites, professed to believe that

Chiang Kai-shek ruled Nanking with an iron hand. The chief objections

to

Chiang were

his

alleged militarism

Hankow saw

and

his

desire

for

per-

Borodin insisted that Feng's telegram

demanding his resignation was a fake.
sonal gain, as

it.

"He didn't write that teleHis personal telegrams to Hankow have been engram, I am sure.
His letters to me are not like that.
Queer things
tirely different.
One
happen in the military and political line-ups in China, however.
must understand how to take these things.
Feng is continuing to
"That

not Feng's

is

style,"

he

said.

He has representatives here now. How do you

cooperate with us.
think he can support such a telegram?
I don't believe Feng wrote
it

although he might have been influenced to sign some such docu-

ment."

We
more

returned to this subject later, and Borodin admitted in manner

than in speech his bitterness at Feng's action, despite his ex-

pressed belief that Feng remained a loyal supporter of their Wuhan

Borodin then refused to talk further on this subject, saying:
faction.
I cannot discuss his actions."
''Feng is my friend.

Borodin readily

"Our
with

discussed

other

things.

problem right here is an early settlement of the split

Nanking," he said.
"Apparently we must do this by force.
chief

Hence, we are sending a military expedition toward Nanking immediately.

We

far better

aren't

will

fighters

very

loyal.

capture

paign will proceed."

bad economic
that time, but

Our men

are

than Chiang Kai-shek's troops, who, furthermore,

They are ready to come over to our side, once

Once

given the opportunity.

about finances,

Nanking without a doubt.

this

The Russian

despite

split

is

also

insisted he

what he termed

situation there.

He

settled,

our

Peking cam-

was not worried

"propaganda"

concerning

admitted that business was bad at

added that the revolution would continue despite

this,

THEREDFLAMEFADES
at

"as long as rice

least

is

available,

which

it

127

still

is

in

great quan-

tities."

Borodin expressed high

ment; he declared the

He

die out."

said

"Nanking Incident" settleIncident "must be settled and not allowed to

"We

interest

cannot

in

now prove

the guilt for this incident,

where the true guilt lies.
continue under

We

but history will show

Hence, we must see that

the stigma of the world for this affair now.

The

reason Chiang Kai-shek disarmed the Sixth Army

at Nanking wasn't to punish them for the Nanking Affair, but beit

settled.

is

cause

they had captured

Pukow

Nanking, and he ordered them to capture

and move northward without the rest, he himself moving into

Nanking

in

safety

own

with his

The Sixth Army

armies.

officers

and opposed him.

Hence he disarmed them, shooting down
many soldiers. I wish that America would take the lead and settle
It must be cleared up."
Nanking.

refused,

Borodin persisted

camp

in

the

idea

that

the

followers did the anti-foreign looting.

men

rabble

He

and

irresponsible

barked out a denial

Hankow had

organized that notorious affair.

Borodin laughed at the constant reports that he had already fled
Hankow. He even scouted the idea that his dismissal was imminent

that

at

he was merely an employe of the government and as such would always submit to its mandates.
but added that, after

all,

This seemingly idle comment was prophetic.

night, Borodin was gone.

The next

stop in

my

itinerary

was

at

In

less

the door of

than a fort-

Eugene Chen,

Chen straightway uttered shrill criticism of a suggestion by Senator Bingham that America send official high commis-

across the street.

sioners to each of China's various de facto governments.

such action would defeat

tion

of China's

disunity,

which Chen declared

his

its

own

He

said that

ends, causing an indefinite continua-

and would work against the common cause

government, through revolutions, sought to

propagate.

Chen

said:

"The Hankow Government

will

never agree to such a

commissioners to each

Bingham's of sending
I suggest as a counter-proposal that Washington
group in China.
send a competent official representative to China whose report would
If such an ofenable America clearly to understand our movement.
suggestion

ficial

as

Senator

represented the United States in Peking today things might be

THE DRAGON STIRS

128

different/ but that representative of the British Empire heading your

do not want another man
Legation has never been fair to us.

We

a new mind giving a

new and yet expert report on what he sees here not a man with the
ability of a clerk!

from or

sent

"He must have

what we are trying
ica's
of.

What

to Peking.

is

and

vision

a fresh

insight,

mind

can grasp

that

That would do more to

do here.

to

is

necessary

clarify

Amer-

can think
understanding of our revolution than anything else I
But if you send representatives here and to Nanking and Peking,

you tend to continue the separation of these

Such quasi-recognition would have the worst
doubt

the

that

Senator's

ideas

idle

will

factions
effect

receive

indefinitely.
I

imaginable.

much

in

attention

Washington.*'
like

Chen,
timistic

the other

Hankow's

concerning

was any more

serious that

Nanking within

take

shek's

men

continued ostensibly dapper and opfuture.

He denied that the situation

officials,

to

in

without

days,

forty

now

are ready

had been

it

come

will

Chiang Kai-

question.

Hankow

to

"We

May, declaring:
as soon as

we move

in

He is pandering to Shangnot loyal.

hai's merchants and as a revolutionary he is finished."
His

that direction.

Chen

officers are

however, bitterly denounced Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang,

also,

He added, "But Feng will

dubbing him the "Leopard of China."
never attack Hankow; his hands are full handling Honan Province
which he
still

is

control

able to use

now

as a result of our appointment.

Honan."

Chen admitted

that

Hankow was

"considering the position of our

Russian advisers, particularly Borodin."

would be retained as long as they were
to

discharge

really

them as

deserved

"He

But we

yet,

He

said,

useful.

however, that they

Chen saw no reason

adding however that he thought Borodin

vacation.

has worked in our revolution for the

"and has done remarkably

last

four years,"

Chen

working hard day and night.

This does
Hence, like any man, he needs and deserves a vacation.
not mean that we consider suggesting that he actually take one nor
said,

that his

work

physical

situation

It

was

is

unsatisfactory.
of

difficult

well,

am

merely talking frankly of the

any man."

to

tell

just

what Chen meant by

this,

but

am

THE RED FLAME FADES

129

he actually meant that any man who works

four years without a rest needs a little time away from the job.
Chen also averred: " Everything is going smoothly here in Haninclined

believe

to

kow.

We

fident

of

that

On

are not worried.

the

future."

daily events that

we remain most

the contrary,

Chen's statement was hardly

summer

in

con-

compatible with

the strange revolutionary regime.

Chen,

Borodin, insisted that the "Nanking Incident*' should be settled

because the world thought that Hankow was guilty.
"We will take it
like

to the

League of Nations

sition for

reply?

if

necessary," he said.

made

"I

Why

an International Investigation Commission.

We

stand

ready to face the

facts,

but

we

the propo-

are not

don't

you

ready to

accept hasty affidavits from biased refugees."

Chen was

gone within the month.

Consul-General Frank Lockhart said later that day that he personally believed things would continue to worry along in Hankow
indefinitely.

also

The Colonel thought

two months had been

that the stupendous changes

in the

Foreigners generally were interested in knowing when America would return a Consul to Nanking.
The traders and bankers were wondering whether any political realast

sons lay behind the delay.

superficial.

The fading glow

of

the

They wanted things returned

red star of

Communism

to normalcy.

lighted

Hankow

few succeeding weeks of that dismal, fateful midAll China, from the unwieldy, uncomprehending masses in
summer.
Yunnan Province on Burma's border to the steppes of the still
but dimly in the

troubled Siberian frontier to the north

new

idea.

The day

of

the

was

infected

self-centered

old-time,

of a

by the virus

militarist

who had

sway so long, dividing the continent piece-meal, also was closing,

though more slowly than the influence of Communal theories from
abroad.
The last days of Hankow's Red regime seem garish, bizarre
held

in the light of present-day perspective.

At

the time they seemed very

indeed and each day of that sunset era was packed with action.
Frank Riley came rushing into my room a day or so after "Chris"

real

had married her naval

officer.

some 200 miles north

into

He

Honan

wanted

me

Province,

to join
to

see

him

in

Marshal

trip

Feng

In the first place, I had seen

Yu-hsiang at the town of Chengchow.
Feng, and in the second, Chengchow was too far from anything like
Too much was going on, and I had to watch
reliable telegraph wires.
it

happen there

in

Hankow.

THE DRAGON STIRS

130
It

was fortunate

me

for

Riley never came back.

when about to start the

that I didn't go.

He

disappeared quite mysteriously one day,

return journey.
He simply walked down the railroad toward a "model
from Chengchow
village" which Feng was constructing a mile out

and was "swallowed by the dragon." Inquiries proved nothing, except

He still is.
that he was lost, without visible trace.
Among the correspondents flocking to Hankow then was Vincent

Jimmy was educated at the University

common with Rayna Prohme, to whom

Sheean.

much

in

of

Chicago and found

introduced him, for

she too came from Chicago.

His full name is James Vincent Sheean,
and every one came to know this sentimental but completely lovable

Irish-American

six-foot

Jimmy and

as

"Jimmy."

had innumerable encounters both

socially

and

re-

Many of these were

porting the Kuomintang Revolution at Hankow.
One I recall was our hailing two Chinese coolies shortly
amusing.
dawn.

before

The

were engaged

coolies

in

the

carrying

inevitable

As was customary,

"night soil" to the city's sewage dump.

they had

their barrel of this vile-smelling concoction, or "honey-bucket" as

known,

generally

The "boys" were

footed way along

slung

on

them

between

as

shouting lustily

bamboo
made their

six-foot

they carefully

The one preceding

the narrow street.

it

is

pole.

sure-

the "bucket"

<4

yelled
albeit

"Hai-ho!" and the other shouted,

Hai-ho" in vigorous tones,
in lesser volume.
Thus, keeping their traditional sing-song, duo-

syllabic

rhythm,

coolies

wended

their

not in perfect quietude.

then we met them.
Suddenly,

seriously,

And

the

way about

business

their

if

found myself holding the

rear end of that bamboo pole and marching along with Mr. Sheean.
He led the procession. The coolies, happy with an "iron" Chinese
dollar apiece

(more than a day's

ceeded along the darkened

full

street,

pay)

shouting in rhythm.

We

cellent progress at the outset of this ridiculous adventure.

stubbed his toe.

The "bucket"

jostled,

we promade ex-

cheered us on as

and the

barrel,

But Jimmy
pole and all,

with a clatter and splash to the pavement.

pole-cat would have
run at our approach when we finally reached the hotel.
And so to

fell

bed!

There were ludicrous incidents such as

main was

serious

Bitterness

day

and a

in

and day

certain

sense

this,

but our work in the

out.

of

desperation

tempered

by

the

THE RED FLAME FADES

determination

grimmest
sphere.

The

tinued.

Officials

superficially

struggle

predominated

against

were

in

131

Hankow's

what proved to be the

outwardly

optimistic,

inevitable

least,

The Yangtze was

appeared unchanged.

was calm.

at

atmo-

clouded

and

still

con-

Hankow

filled

with

was the calm before the storm.

Then Borodin fled suddenly on July IS. That was the end.
All the Reds were soon gone from China.
As far as the eye

foreign warships.

All

It

could see there was not a Communist Russian anywhere

The Russians had

the

gone,

Hankow was

north around Chengchow

with picked

visible..

quiet again, the fighting to

Fengtien

Province

troops

News

from Manchuria was ended.

of any sort dwindled, and it was

almost unbelievably hot, so I went back down the Yangtze again to

Shanghai.
General Chiang seemed to be on top of the world at that moment
despite Hankow's loud threats and denunciations, but in less than
u

out."
another month he, too, was
Hankow for the moment, he went

An

apparent sacrifice to appease

south to a delightful, calm and

extraordinarily picturesque old temple in Chekiang Province, near his

birthplace.

After a few
see

him and

summer days

find out

why.

of idleness in

Shanghai,

went there to

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

Chiang Kai-shek

mintang Revolution
GENERALISSIMO
toward success in
leaders

young
in

his

among
the

side

from the Kuo-

at the height of its apparently rapid strides

of

August

out

resigned

1927.

Internal

dissension broke

commanding generals, led in the main by the fiery

from the Kwangsi Clique who were to prove a thorn

of

General

Chiang again

He

later

tried

compromise,

and quit the revolution.

failed,

month earlier,
run the Reds out of
The midsummer

with the "Christian General," Chiang had

Now he was out himself.
China.

allied
all

resignation

was

partly

due

to

entrance

Japan's

These persistent neighbors flocked into Shantung

Province, blocking an easy way of progress up toward
Peking.
take
felt
it
was
best
to
for
the
moment,
Peking
Chiang
ignore Japan
from the "back door" route up the Kinhan Railroad, as originally
He wanted first to eliminate
planned, and then deal with Tokyo.
Marshal Chang Tso-hn, then declining in glory and power at Peking.
into

the picture.

Dissension arose as to the next

got out to

He
more

let

in

in

the Revolution, and

Chiang

the others try their hands at running the advance.

went south

far"

move

that

to

an old temple

in

story-book land,

Chekiang Province, via "Ningpo

to

ponder.

followed

him

into

calm to learn why.

It is not far as miles go from Shanghai southeast into Chekiang
Province to the mountain village of Chi-ko, nestling in the green
wooded hills where Chiang Kai-shek was born.
Yet to reach this

this pastoral

150 miles away one must travel the better part of a

day and a night, and in the heart of that hill country one may find
old China, unchanged by the parade of the years, as ancient and inOld men and
teresting as a page from the book of Marco Polo.
spot less

than

small boys tend sheep in the verdant valleys beneath

132

tall

peaks whose

"

slender,

NGPO MORE

F A R

"

133

dense evergreens touch white fuzzy tufts of clouds from the

bowl of blue sky above.

Water
little

buffaloes,

fellows,

and thus

punched with

walk interminably

roll

a heavy stone over grain, powdering

which these folk make those

Men

every hamlet.

exactly

the

flat

and women

same fashion as

raised stone graves,

cultivating endless fields of rice

their

some centuries

was not long ago

a flour with

into

it

pancakes one sees in big trays at

under floppy straw sun hats work

summer sun

long days in the broiling

in

in

by half-naked brown-skinned
a circle under thatched round roofs
sticks

forefathers,

now

lying

in

old

old.

China go that Kai-shek, son of

Chiang, the wine merchant, was running about the narrow dirty streets
of Chi-ko, a lively youngster who even then, they say, was always the
It

leader in boyish

games

as

things

in

He

the village.

in

liked

to

play soldier, and

whenever a company of soldiers came that way Kai-shek was thrilled

for days.
His father wanted the boy to become proprietor of his comfortable business in the little wine shop and carry on the family name
in

Fenghwa County

as he

and

his ancestors

had done for generations.

But the boy grew into manhood with no thought but of becoming a
soldier.
His ambition drew him into military school, and by the time
he was twenty he had gained parental permission to go to Japan to
study military science and

good marks and some

practical soldier.

He

little

tactics.

It

is

fame for his

said

that

there

he attained

as a strategist

brilliance

and

returned to China to join the revolution against

Peking military regime and was eventually appointed to his high

post through the influence and friendship he had with the founder of
the

the

Kuomintang movement, Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

He

had learned some-

thing of politics in the years that he studied soldiering, and this combination aided the ambitious youth in his climb to fame.

half

dozen years had passed

since

Kai-shek visited his

His parents, they said in Chi-ko, had long since

old name of Chiang is no longer famous for fine vintages

village.

light wines.

It

has a

new

significance.

become the most outstanding

dozen years of his absence.

figure

The

in

A
the

villagers

native

died.

The

of Chinese

son of Chi-ko had

revolution

did

native

not

in

those

blame him

half

for

remaining away.

"The
heads

at

And they wagged proud

they said, "has been busy."
what young Kai-shek had accomplished.
For the Chinese

lad,"

THE DRAGON STIRS

134

almost as proud over the accomplishments of one

The lad
village as they do of one of their own family.

of

feel

busy returned

to

native

his

That

he

own

their

who had been

returned

deposed
Inhis fellow townsmen.

village.

made not the slightest difference to

it was doubtful that
they knew why he had come.

leader

deed,

Chiang hurried through Shanghai from Nanking on his

way home. He left his manifesto of resignation with the civil officials and went away.
I followed him into the quietude of his retreat,
General

but

was not alone

difficult

to reach

in

my

him but

The Commander-in-Chief made

quest.

all

it

paths led to his door and day and night

the tedious pilgrimage to his temple where he

It was denied him, for his day was as full as
sought peace and rest.
His vacation lodge was not in his old
ever of conferences and calls.
scores of people

home

made

in Chi-ko.

It

was

straight

up that

old

tall

mountain, a climb

of about five miles, to where, just over the ridge, a temple sprawled in

a virgin wilderness and cool breezes made life pleasant in the midst
score of
of a torrid August
The temple was old and little used.

monks

lived there, studying the

word

ancient place in a degree of order.

of

It

Buddha and maintaining

was

quiet

and

restful,

an

the

ideal

place for one seeking surcease from the turmoil that agitated the valley

below.
It

was here

and a day.
Kaltenborn,

material

gathering

we found

General Chiang after journeying a night

There were four in our party myself and Mr. H. V.
at that time Associate Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle,
that

for

and

lectures

articles;

and two

Chinese

who

acted as guides and interpreters.

Nothing but Chinese, and the dialect of the district at that, was understood there.
were the first

We

to

foreigners

visit

that

in

village

four

or

parchment-skinned chap told us in Chi-ko.

siderable interest

and some

Knives and forks were

were

still

We

five

years,

Our caravan

curious

old

created con-

amusement, particularly at meal time

the devil in this land where chopsticks

little

tools of

the only utensils of that sort in use.

Shanghai at six o'clock in the evening, Wednesday, August

17, on board the steamer Ningshao, bound for Ningpo as our first
port of

left

call.

From

there

we

got into the district of

Fenghwa.

We

expected to be rather isolated on this Chinese steamer, having heard

tales of the danger of traveling anywhere off the beaten track in those
days, but to our surprise we met another foreigner on board, a Dr.

135

Thomas

of the Baptist Mission in Ningpo, returning to his post after

a visit to Shanghai.
And we also discovered a friend in Dr. Fong
Sec, head of the English section of a large publishing house in Shang-

Dr. Fong, with his wife and family, was going to the holy island
of Pu-to (pronounced poo-doo) for a fortnight.
His two daughters,
hai.

wearing modern sport dresses, and Mrs. Fong

spoke perfect English, Mrs. Fong having been born in San Francisco
We joined forces, our two parties feeling at home together. We dis-

bobbed-haired

and

covered that a party of half a dozen or so Nationalist officers were

going to see General Chiang, also, so that our journey, it seemed,
would not be lonesome anywhere along the route.

Thomas

Dr.

said

dinner that there

at

were only about a dozen

Nfngpo then, as compared to 125 or so in ordinary

times.
However, he minimized the danger of living there, as most
And so far as I saw
people do who persist in refusing to evacuate.
anywhere in the Yangtze Valley and its vicinity, the Chinese on the
The soldiers at times became bothersome, but
whole were not hostile.
foreigners

in

only rarely.

queer customer aboard was a little Cantonese chap who called

He spoke English fluently, as well as
himself "Professor Young."
German and French and a little Russian, as he pointed out in his perand I must say he would probably make a good
sistent conversation
reporter, with his

He knew

met.

smiling

moon

curled up in
fellow

quest for information about everyone he

insatiable

all

about

and

face

me

his

in ten minutes,

long as an

hair,

some monstrous fashion

that

and despite

his vacuous,
girl's

and

appear bobbed,

this

old-fashioned

made

it

was no dumbbell.

He looked at my card and demanded to know who founded The

New York Times and in what year I had to confess ignorance as to
the answers to both queries, and shall never forgive the fellow for that

bad moment.

and was eager

The

Professor had been to America once, he confided,

He

candidly admitted he traveled "as a

guest of the public," that he had no connections anywhere and that
he picked up a little money now and then by selling photographs of
interesting

to

people

go again.

and

strange

places.

His album

was

filled

with

photographs of prominent persons in China, with autographs of most.

He
its

Ghandi, spoke intelligently of American journalism and

of certain great dailies, discussed life in
history and the founders
criticized

THE DRAGON STIRS

136
Paris,

Berlin and most other

cities

in

Europe, and confessed he had

not been in China for twenty years.

He was then, he admitted, writing a history of

was

also admitted

He

to be a valuable volume.

China, which he

had no idea how he

would get from Ningpo to General Chiang, and I gave him no information.
He wanted to exchange Chinese photographs for some of
Japan that I had in my collection.

two hours by steamer up the Yu-yao River, being inWe docked there
every chief port along the China coast.

Ningpo
land, as

is

is

on Thursday, August

ways than anyone

else.

can make

Chinese coolies

18.

We

arrived at

noise

dawn and we knew

it

more

in

at once.

Countless bells of the tiny servant-calling type were jangling the

ment we were
turned loose.

in
I

sight

the dock.

of

They sounded

like

all

mo-

bedlam

discovered that they belonged to the rickshaw coolies

who rang them

constantly

trotting through

the narrow

while

seeking

winding

customers and

again

while

streets.

We

had three hours to wait while our Chinese got a houseboat

and launch and provisions for the upriver trip, so I took a rickshaw

and an interpreter and drove out to the other side of the city to call
I found the good Doctor
on Dr. Barlow, also of the Baptist Mission.

up

to his armpits in the stream that flows alongside his house,

ing his

He

boat.

little

fixing a place

for

at

it

repair-

had just acquired an engine and was busily

the rear

of

the flatboat.

We

chatted awhile

about the new Baptist hospital, which was half Chinese, half foreign
There was little enough to do
in architecture, and about his work
just then,

on the

it

job,

His family had gone home and he was alone

with Dr. Thomas and the handful of other foreigners,
seemed.

He was interested
mostly merchants and customs people, in Ningpo.
in news of Chiang Kai-shek and especially in the rumors of his comMiss Mei-ling Soong.
The British-American Tobacco manager

ing mairiage to

Varhol, was aboard

to get things lined

boat and launch,

when

got back.

He

Ningpo, a man named

assisted us in every way

in

for a comfortable journey, furnishing his housewith camp beds and chairs and all the rest of it.

up

These foreigners in the out ports are most hospitable, and Mr. Varhol
was no exception. Without him, we would have had no end of delay
and trouble. We got under way finally at about 10:30, the tiny launch
tugging us upriver.

We

started

up the Fenghwa River, which joins

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

the

at

Yu-yao

we moved

137

Slowly, for the houseboat was a large affair,

Ningpo.

and upstream past scores

into the river

of picturesque old

junks and myriads of scuttling sampans, along the narrow, dingy old

Ningpo Bund, and so into the open country beyond.

We had tiffin aboard, an excellent meal served by

we

the cook-boy

Ningpo. The journey so far had been de luxe. Rain

squalls delayed our progress from time to time, the wind being against
us, and at one o'clock we found we were less than half way to the place

had acquired

at

where we would take sedan chairs or rickshaws across country. At that

rate we would not make General Chiang's temple by night.
We con-

and Mr. Kaltenborn suggested cutting away from the houseboat

ferred,

and going ahead in the launch.

possible in

two

We

baskets, together with

did

camp

cots

an hour or so the rain quit and we got only a

to shield the food and ourselves.

much food

taking as

this,

and

little

toilet articles.

as

After

wet, using umbrellas

Our

progress was interrupted at two-thirty, when a junk moved into

the stream ahead of us and a soldier signaled us to stop.
He wanted to

know

we

could take him and his orderly upriver with us.

Already
in
of
five
us
the
boatwith
the
loaded
tiny launch, including
heavily
man, we were inclined to refuse his request, but the Chinese advised
if

this.

against

So

the

two clambered

aboard and

we

set

off

again,

slower than ever.

A
until

few miles on, as we got into the foot hills, the stream dwindled
our propeller was digging up mud half the time and we were

We

muddled through until almost four o'clock when

We could go no further.
the boatman grunted and we went aground.
The stream had become little better than a mountain rill a few yards

barely moving.

We

wide.

got out and walked to a

little

village a quarter of a mile

got rickshaws to the place whence we took chairs.

launch, lightened of all of us but the boatman, came on to the

beyond, where

The

village,

we

where we

left

it

after

instructing the

boatman

to wait for

our

return the next day.

There were some 300

village

of

Kiangkow.

soldiers

We

of General

Chiang's guards in this

were greeted most

cordially

and had no

trouble in getting rickshaws for the hour's ride to Shaowangrniao, arafter an interesting ride through paddy
riving there at five o'clock
fields

the

in

hills.

the shadow of green mountains.

The sun sank low behind

In thirty minutes we had procured four chairs and a carry

THE DRAGON STIRS

138

With

coolie for our luggage.

twenty Chinese

"li" distant.

we were

ten chair coolies

"li"

is

off for Chi-ko,

about a third of a mile.

Riding in a chair is not uncomfortable, but after a while it becomes

tedious, and Mr. Kaltenborn and I found relief in walking at intervals.
Chinese peasants turned to stare at our party as we swung along in
the twilight.
met many farmers returning home, weary after a

We

day under that sun, and every one of them was pleasant, looking
docile and kindly and not at all as though we were the hated foreign
devils they were supposed to think us.

We

Chi-ko

reached

at

seven-thirty,

The town was en

appearing.

fete,

just

scores

the

as

first

stars

were

of children running about

with picturesque lanterns of all shapes and sizes, from big red fish to
a model airplane.
It was a parade in honor of their returned General.

We

went

inside

General

Chiang's

house.

It

was

rather

large

for

Chi-ko, indicating that the Chiang family had enjoyed a certain degree
of prosperity.
in

Soldiers, apparently

officers

of his guard,

were dining

Our interpreter told us we were most welWe discovered

officers bowed and smiled genially.

the outer room.

come, and the

we were expected Mr. T. V.

in the Hankow regime and a

Soong, former Minister of Finance

brother-in-law of Chiang's, having

wired ahead.
General

Chiang had had a private telegraph

line

strung up

We brought
Ningpo to his headquarters up in those hills.
out our food and dined at a table given us for that purpose.
I
had never been quite so much the center of all eyes before. The
from

parade broke up for the moment and the whole town, it

seemed, crammed in at the doors and climbed up to peer in at
kids'

the
to

windows as we ate. They said we were the

come that way in four or five years.
Many

could

not

before.

remember

They asked

ever
if

having

seen

first

of

wai-go-jen

foreigners

the children
(foreigner)

we were Americans, and when we

said

we

were, they seemed pleased, grinning broadly.

We

had to Tiurry on, for General Chiang was in his temple

high above us on the hill.
Leaving Chi-ko about eight o'clock,
we pushed on across the narrow strip of valley between us and

At the edge of the village we ran into the lantern

Our chair coolies, undismayed, stalked right down
procession.
the same narrow street the parade was coming up, and we were
the mountain.

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

in

midst

the

babbling of

of

and

bobbing lanterns

many

voices.

It

139

clashing

was a great

cymbals

sight, those

and a

paper

fish,

and forms carried by children, some

infants in arms holding swaying lanterns on thin reeds.
Why the
children were giving the demonstration we never discovered.
animals, lanterns of

Perhaps

it

was

Through
of

the

lantern

sizes

all

their

day.

we

the night

procession.

jogged, our

Fireflies

grass and scattered

chair processions.

great

bamboo

tall

other

in

trees.

the

Up

own

chairs forming a sort

sparkled amid
In an hour we noticed

hordes

winding

mountain

path

we

walking part of the way, riding when we got tired.

Those sturdy Chinese coolies were marvels. With our load, two
of them could go right ahead at a great pace up the steepest inTheir legs are heavily muscled, hard as steel. Below one
clines.
climbed,

could look back into the valley and see other pilgrims traversing
the long path to the mountain top to see the retired leader.
His
"seclusion"

At

was a myth.

We

the temple!
arrived before the massive wooden
There were at least ten chairs and some
gates at ten o'clock.
An orderly took our cards and a letter Kaltenborn
thirty coolies.
last

had from T. V. Soong to General Chiang and with a grunt

dis-

appeared through the courtyard into the dark building beyond.

We waited. He returned and opened the gates. A shout went

up as the

brought in their chairs.

The General had retired.

coolies

ordered silence.

The guard harshly

We were led into an inner chamber and offered food and tea.
We could not see the General that night, but after long parleys
with his secretary
the next morning

we made
in

it

we wanted to see him early

under way to catch the four

clear

order to get

Ningpo boat for Shanghai. We were then shown to another room in the rambling old temple, where we found mats on
wooden couches ready for our use. We were given every couro'clock

tesy.

eleven

We

got our bed clothing, laid

o'clock

were

asleep,

for

the

it

over the mats, and before

silence

in

those

woods was

heavy.

awakened us at five o'clock the next

Their resonant tones sounded through the woods and
morning.
The sunlight streamed in at our window. We arose
filled the air.

Booming temple

bells

THE DRAGON STIRS

140

and found a

coolie

had brought hot water and towels ...

comforts of home.

General

membered from our Hsuchow-fu

trip

young man

Chiang's valet,

in June,

all

the
re-

soon appeared* and

brought us oranges (Sunkist oranges from California) and breakfast, including hot milk, cakes, bread and a sort of chocolate
wafer.
While we were eating, the valet returned and announced
that General Chiang

We

was waiting

receive us.

to

found him on the broad verandah outside the main build-

We

had chairs arranged around a small table

ing of the temple.
on which hot green tea was placed, together with the inevitable
little

such as

delicacies

nuts,

General

etc.

candies,

Chiang was

dressed in a silk suit tailored like that of a foreigner except that

the coat buttoned up around the neck in semi-military fashion.
It

was the uniform

the

of

He wore

Sun Yat-sen.

Kuomintang,

by

designed

the

socks and patent leather pumps.

silk

looked cool and rather less worn and drawn than

when

Hsuchow-fu

front.

seen him on the

late

way back from

the

had

Dr.

He
last

He

greeted us cordially and shook hands with me, expressing

his appreciation of the hardships one has to go through to get to
place and inviting us to remain over the day
so that he might take us on a hike around the hills and show us a
this out of the

way

particularly beautiful waterfall not far

disappointed

suggested

told

we might go

escort for the journey.

General Chiang was

believed

sincerely

him we must rush through the interShanghai where things were happening. He

when we

view and get back to

He was

away.

to the waterfall

anyway, and ordered an

But we could not make

bitter

them responsible

against

for

his

the

defeat

it.

Japanese.
in

the

He

north

said

and

he
the

failure of the Nationalists' northern expedition in July.

"Their occupation of Tsinan and the railway blocked us," he

said.
"Our success was assured until Japan stepped in."

Chiang said he did not want to talk any more about this, nor
would he go into detail about his quitting as Commander-in-Chief.

He

said,

"My

reasons are in

my

manifesto given out in Shanghai.

There are no other reasons."

He
egotist

ments.

took his position philosophically.

There was a bit of the
in the General, pardonable no doubt in view of his achieve-

He was

asked

if

he didn't think his leaving the revolu-

141

and he said:
said he had to quit
cause,

was bound

weaken the
But he
"Yes, I think so."
Cryptic enough.
in view of what had gone before and referred

tion at this time of crucial happenings

to

In this he said that

again to his long message of resignation.
there had been too much opposition to him personally and that

he thought until confidence in him was restored he had better get

He bowed

out.

to the criticism

of

Hankow and

to the political

exigencies of the moment.

The Commander-in-Chief said he might return to

"I am too much a part of it, it is too much a
tion.

me

to get out for all time.

ment, but I do not know when.
for

"Where?"

I
I

the revolu-

part of me,
expect to return to the movewould like to go abroad."

asked.

"You tell me they are

Chiang replied.
sympathetic there. Well, I would like to go and see. After that,
It is all indefinite, of course.
to Europe and elsewhere.
But I
'To America

need a real

first,"

rest."

He

intimated that overtures were being made to get him back

He was undecided but he intended to remain in
into the Party.

He smiled when we
temple retreat for a time, in any case.
referred to the many visitors he was having, even up here. "Yes,"
his

"one's real friends take the trouble to journey even into

He said T. V. Soong was expected in a few
a place like this."
Soong wanted to urge Chiang's return.
days.

he

said,

We

talked for nearly an hour and then, after photographing

the General on his front porch with his eleven-year old son,
Chiang Ching-pang, we left in our chairs at eight o'clock.

Swinging over the ridge and down into the valley below, we
had a half hour of one of the most marvelous views I have ever
We could see for miles across the plains to where mounseen.
tains rose again on the far side, and below us a mountain stream
widened into a silvery lake whose still waters glistened in the
early

morning sunshine.

The journey down

We

to our boat at

Kiangkow took from

eight

got to Kiangkow at noon, but the boatman, remembering the mud and the shallow stream, had left his launch
had to walk it through the midday furnace of
ten li away!
until

one.

We

THE DRAGON STIRS

142
that valley

and we arrived an hour

rice fields,

humid, swampy

on foot through the

later

dripping with perspiration.

Shanghai at four o'clock.

cided again not to use the houseboat, which had reached

The steamer

left

Ningpo

We

for

this

de-

point

At
during the afternoon and night, but to hurry along in the launch.
two forty-five we were only about half way to Ningpo, and the prosof

pects

catching the boat were

upriver

aboard,

we found

class.

arrival.

hove

run

regular

in

dim.

sight

Then a

and we

launch

large

hailed

on the

Clambering

it.

Chinese of the peasant or coolie

They were most friendly, laughing and jabbering away at our

jammed

it

One remarked

in

of

full

Chinese:

<k

Well, I must say I have seen whiter foreigners than these."

He was doubtless right. Our faces were a bright red, and the

sunburn smarted for days, despite our broadbrimmed straw

hats.

The launch got to Ningpo just at four o'clock. We raced along

the Bund a half mile to where our steamer was to depart.
It had
We could see it a quarter of a mile down stream but far from
gone.
our hopes of catching

However, our Chinese discovered a steamer

it.

was leaving at four-thirty. We sighed with relief.

spend a night and a day in Ningpo would have been tiring.
alongside that

To

We

got under way at four-thirty, after paying off our bills and
giving our Chinese friends many thanks for a most diverting trip.
The voyage was uneventful during the evening.
passed the other

We

ship,

incidentally,

at

After dinner, which

on

rice

turned
It

by a

at

six

much

about eight o'clock,

we

o'clock

our unholy glee.

ate in solitary splendor, the Chinese dining

and we having "foreign chow"

at

seven,

we

in.

was three-twenty-five
series

a.m.,

August

20,

when we were awakened

of terrific explosions.

into the night.

Leaning out of my bunk, I peered

crash, and a flash of fire came from a dark ship not

400 yards away.

Again this was repeated.

the women aboard, and men rushed about.
I

to

went on deck

in

that a Chinese warship

kimono

was

to

discover

firing at us.

Shrill

the

cries

trouble.

came from
It

appeared
Six shots came roaring over

our head, one landing just ahead of the bow and skittering across the
water.
It was no fun, that business, and I returned to search the
cabin for a life belt.
There was none.

The Chinese

cabin boy,

who

could speak English, said the ship was

"NINGPO MORE FAR"

143

a gunboat sent by Chang Tso-lin to bombard the Woosung forts and

harass shipping.
This, after he had said the guns were a signal to

and anchor for the

him

"belong no
good/' and he admitted he was trying to prevent our being worried.
The warship apparently gave it up as a bad job after six shots and
ceased firing.
Why they didn't chase us is still a mystery. But they
lay to

night.

told

that

story

turned their broadside away, to my vast relief, and disappeared into

the night.
Another version of the story was that they were bombarding the
besides
I

Woosung

the forts did not reply.

finally

was glad

Bund

But we were not yet near Woosung, and

forts.

to

went back
get

to

sleep

a rickshaw at

in Shanghai once more.

to

dream

six-thirty

of battles until

as

we came

dawn, and

alongside the

A "NEW DEAL" FOR CHINA

10

Kai-shek

Chiang
tional Government
GENERALISSIMO
was

was April

date

Nanking

less

Nathat

captured by the revolutionary forces from the South.

city

The

at

organized the
than a month after

had

in

Incidentally,

1927.

18,

the

Mandarin

King/' mean, "Southern

dialect

The

Capital.*'

word

the

first

or

character,

"Nan"Nan," means
words,

"Southern;" and "King," (Ching, or Jing, as it is pronounced by the

That is why the name Peking was altered
Chinese) means "Capital."
The newly
to Peiping
for
Pe-King" meant "Northern Capital"
(i

enriched

men

of the

Kuomintang clung

to the theory that there could

There need be but one, they held, and that

Hence, they issued a decree in 1928, and the

be no northern

capital.

should be

Nanking.
had been known as Peking for ages became known in a surprisingly short time as Peiping, or "Northern Peace,"
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek split with his old comrades in concity that

trol at

Hankow

that turbulent spring of

1927,

and

his

men

captured

Chiang disliked the ComShanghai and then Nanking, as described.

munist influence in Hankow.
It was growing in great strides.
He
wanted to check

this

from Moscow.

interference

He

distrusted

the

Russian Advisorate, headed by Mikal Borodin.

The Russian Advisorate had worked smoothly and with rare precision
that cannot be
questioned.

It

worked

for the most part under cover.

Borodin rarely
that it was a

He saw to it
appeared in public or made a speech.
he and his
purely "Chinese movement," on the surface
from within, and well.
Chiang had realized what was
losing control of all their plans at

occurring.

home

to a

He saw

new and

men bored
the

Chinese

insidious foreign

Chiang envisioned them using the Kuomintang

merely as a tool with which to gain eventual mastery of Asia, in the
Russian conception of their goal
the "world revolution."
From the
"barbarian"

bloc.

144

FOR CHINA
General

the

start,

He was overruled.
whom millions in

Moscow.
mintang,"
in

had advised

against

the

145

from

aid

of

acceptance

But Sun Yat-sen, "Father of the RuoChina today revere, had died in Peking

1926.

General Chiang, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Kuominchun

(The

Party), was

Hankow when

He

to

free

struck

the

his

obey

men

well

as

Army)

Peoples*

the

as

own

Kuomintang

dictates.

Once

swiftly.

own

after the dictates of his

The General was

orate.

(The

chose to

Peoples'

split

with

there refused to follow his commands.

in

control

of

Chiang sought a "new deal" for the welfare of

it

He

Shanghai
all

and

Chinese.

Nanking,

He

sought
desires, not those of the Russian Advis-

free.

He

could do good in his

own manner,

and none could say him nay.

The

when he sought a "new

General,

deal" for the

Chinese peo-

National Government at Nanking.

He was denounced as a "neo-militarist" by the voluble Eugene Chen at Hankow.
ples,

The

set

first

his

up

Chinese as well as foreign, from

path was a rocky road toward unity and a more abun-

infant government had

the start.

dant

life

Its

its critics,

for the downtrodden men,

women and

children inhabiting

all

China.

Chiang was one of the rare men in China who believed that it
was time to let the Chinese in on the better things of this existence.

He

was, and remains, a

man who

has the idea that the various treaties

which foreign nations signed with the now defunct Dragon Throne
the days of the

His

scrapped.

For one
her
ally

Manchu Dynasty
slogan

is

thing, the General

still:

felt

at

Peking should be revised,

"Down

with

if

in

not

the

unequal treaties!"
that China should be allowed to run

own Customs
British)

Administration instead of having a foreigner (usuat the head of it.

One result was that the old five per

on everything imported into any "treaty port" in

China was scrapped. The new National Government, nearly two years
after its inception, set up its own first Tariff Schedule on February 1,
1929.
Some foreign traders and others objected, but the tariff
cent ad valorem tariff

remained.

The abolition of extra-territoriality was another goal toward which

It means the end of consular
the men at Nanking were working.
courts for the trial of foreigners

(including Americans)

in China,

and

THE DRAGON STIRS

146
the

end

the

of

United States Federal Court for

with head-

China,

quarters in Shanghai.

was issued shortly

the People

to

Manifesto

after

this

Chinese

idea of a "new deal" was put into effect with the foundation of the
National Government at Nanking.
This historic manifesto was made

me

available to
stirring

and

foi

and for

unsettled

all.

China

the time

at

days

interest

its

was

issued.

present this

for

and

conception in
attaining practical welfare

General

as

the methods

of

it

for its value as a matter of record

document here

vital

information
those

in

Chiang's

His text:

MANIFESTO TO THE PEOPLE

1.

The

Nationalist revolution against the imperialists

and

mili-

the

Kuo-

tarists.

2.
3.

4.

The popularity of the Chinese Nationalist Army.

The crimes of the Chinese Communists.
The three points of fundamental difference between
mintang and the Communist Party.

5.

The misleading

6.

China's three paths:

term,

"New

a.

Military rule.

b.

Communist regime.
The "party government"

The purpose
San-min

of the

Militarist."

of the

Kuomintang.

Kuomintang, since

it

is

founded on the

promote the welfare of the Chinese

people, to free the entire race and to strive for the equality of
all

is

principles,

to

the nations of the world.

Its

task,

overthrow militarism and imperialwicked and violent forces both within and

therefore,

ism, to eliminate

all

is

to

without the country and to obtain China's independence, liberty

and equality. This is also a part of the task of the world revolution.

For many years our country has been oppressed continuously

by imperialism which has invaded our territory, infringed upon
our

sovereignty,

encroached

trolled our political

upon our maritime customs, conand economic life and even killed our youths

(upon such an occasion, for

30,

1925.)

instance,

as the massacre

of

May

Imperialism has also imposed unequal treaties upon

w DEAL'* FOR CHINA

147

and treated us as a semi-colonial possession.

Could China
still be regarded as an independent and free state?
us

In addition to

this the foreign imperialistic

powers

utilize the

ignorance and the ruthlessness of the Chinese militarists in order

to rule China, and they allow the latter's animal instincts to
develop to such a degree that they cannot be checked.

At

first

waged war every few years for selfish ends,

then they waged war once a year, and then several wars every
year for many years, thereby breaking up social organizations
and increasing the sufferings of the people.
With the national
affairs entrusted to the hands of these incompetent, ignorant and
inhuman creatures, can our people have any hope of existence?
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Kuomintang, was the
these

militarists

founder of the Republic of China.

Actuated by a desire to save
China from the peril of extinction and to give the Chinese people

a more satisfactory life, he founded the San-mln principles, which

are: nationalism, democracy and socialization of economic organization.
Unfortunately, however, after forty years of heroic
effort, he died for the Chinese people and entrusted, in his will,
the loyal members of the Kuomintang and the true believers of
the Scm-wiin principles, with the task of the continuation, to-

gether with the masses of the people, of his unaccomplished work

of nationalist revolution.
Since I took the oath to command the

northern

have

always kept Dr. Sun's

ideals as my guide in the struggle with the northern militarists.
Since it aims for the welfare of the country, the nationalist
expeditionary

revolutionary

army

is

army,

not merely for the people,

it

is

also of the

Relying upon public support, our army has succeeded

people.
at every stage; at first occupying Hunan and Hupeh and overPei-fu; then seizing
throwing the reactionary militarist,

Wu

Kiangsi, Fukien, Chekiang, and Anhwei, thereby eliminating the

cunning militarist, Sun Chuang-fang, and then capturing Shanghai

and Nanking, driving away the

brutal militarist,

Chang Chung-

chang.
Since Szechwan, Kweichow, Yunnan, Shensi, and Kansu are
now under the glorious flag of the revolutionary army, the power
of the cruel northern militarists has so far decreased that further

strong resistance seems impossible.

Wherever our

soldiers

have

THE DRAGON STIRS

148

The
gone they have met with the cooperation of the people.
soldiers not only cause no trouble among the people but also
consider them as brethren; while the people whole-heartedly and
This
voluntarily welcome the soldiers with food and kindness.

shows the

of

popularity

the

Kuomintang

soldiers

the

among

people.

The Chinese Communists, having secured membership in the

Kuomintang with malicious intent, masked by our party and
with

the

protection

our

of

unexpectedly

army,

extended

their

and created a reign of terror through the

secret and treacherous plots.

influence everywhere

agency of their

They knew
concrete

for

program

reckless

Kuomintang had its own systematic and

national and political reconstruction, so

utilized

purposely

they

and

that the

notorious

politicians,

rioters

ruffians,

youths and abused government power in

order

to

prevent the program of the Kuomintang from being carried out.

They knew that the Kuomintang supports the peasants' and

movement and pays a

laborers'

great deal of attention

to

their

and economic condition and yet the Communists employed

these treacherous persons mentioned above to harass and oppress
social

and

the real peasants

On

laborers.

one hand they excluded the members of the Kuomintang from participation in the peasants' and laborers' movements, and on the other they ruined the popularity of the Kuothe

mintang among the toiling masses, so that the welfare of the

peasants and laborers has been completely neglected and their
sufferings have increased greatly day by day.
In
ing

this

towards

Chinese

are the tactics of the Chinese

way

the

social

and economic

With regard

is

not

Under

bankruptcy

of

the

state.

advancement and acquisition of

the manipulation of the masses.
In

revolutionary
rule

to

they adopted the

therefore,

their

complete

to education, the

knowledge are hindrances

Hupeh,

and

destruction

Communists work-

in

and therefore

slogans:
it

is

Hunan and Hupeh

"To go

to

school

counter-revolutionary."
education is practically

neglected.

With regard

to

foreign policy, they have rejected the policy

of the Kuomintang, which is to deal with a
single power first,

"NEW DEAL'* FOR CHINA

and they have forced the

149

powers into a strong and

united front so that China might face enemies everywhere and
be forced, in consequence, to come under the grip of a special
imperialistic

foreign organization.

With regard

to party affairs, they

knew

that

we have main-

tained the policy of "Party government" as China's only hope of

salvation, and so they have sneaked into the Kuomintang in

order to upset our system and, by using traitors, to alienate our

comrades.
On the one hand they dominated the "central organi-

and on the other they controlled the lower branches of

the party and excluded the real and loyal members of the KuoThus have they tried to make the
mintang from party affairs.
zation/'

party Kuomintang in name but Communist in fact.

In military affairs, they saw the rapid advance made by our
army and feared an early success for the nationalist revolution

which would allow no time for the Communist propaganda work

when the program of reconstruction commenced, and so they
alienated our army comrades, interrupted military movements,
held up provisions and ammunition and did every other embarrassing thing in their power.
These conditions have all been detailed in

my

"Declaration to

Kuomintang Members/' which all persons may read.

In short, they have deceitfully assumed our name in order to
commit every possible crime and they, being the tools of a special foreign organization, have made use of mobs and ruffians
That is the
and have put into practice their horrible politics.
the

reason

why

there

is

the cry

all

along the Yangtze Valley,

"Down

with the Party men!"

I

desire

that

our

people have a clear conception of the

cannot say that of our million Kuomintang

I
"Party men."
comrades every one

is

perfect, but the true ones follow our party

deceitful

and cannot permit themselves to be misled by the

Those who do not conform to the
Communist Party.

San-min

principles,

principles

Kuomintang, are

even though they hold membership in the

party traitors and will be punished severely.

hope that the people

mintang members.
I

With regard

will not recognize in

to the present revolutionary

them the

real

Kuo-

movement, the Kuo-

THE DRAGON STIRS

150

differs fundamentally

mintang
three

in the

outstanding points:

following

In the

from the Communist Party

we aim

first place,

we

at the

freedom of the entire Chinese

The

cooperation of all classes.

unemandictatorship of one class would leave the other classes
Our
cipated and create another tyrannical and high-handed rule.

hence

people,

the

require

sincere desire is to have a grand union of farmers, laborers, mer-

and

chants, students

need the

not

soldiers.

of

dictatorship

We

firmly believe that China does

the

proletariat.

Furthermore

we

were practised
in China it would not be a true one but would be a mob rule.
Besides, we started the revolution for the people as a whole,
whereas the Communists do it only for the creation of a dictatorbelieve that

if

the dictatorship of the proletariat

ship of the proletariat with the

object

of

destroying

social

and

economic foundations wholesale.

we

the right

recognize that the people of China should have

of self-determination for we understand that only we

ourselves

know

Secondly,

means

of

perfectly

dealing

with

our

them.

own interests and the ways and

The "super-government of the

Legation Quarter in Peking" should not be replaced by a "supergovernment of Borodin" in Hankow.

own liberation we ought to help liberate the other

oppressed and weak races, for we cherish the hope and glory of
As the revolution in China is
fighting the battle of humanity.
part of the world movement we should hasten the completion
of it.
Then we should, independently and voluntarily, join in
After our

the world revolution and not be dragged into

Finally,

we must

lessen

the

sufferings

of

it.

our people during

the transition period and, as soon as our military success

plete,

shall

we must

is

com-

work of reconstruction so that society

have adequate facilities for development.
But the Comstart

the

munists try to destroy every social order and usurp the political
power through mob violence, not counting such a cost as
390,000,000 lives for the purpose of creating a state of 10,000,000 Communists to be the tool of a special foreign organization
It is true that Dr. Sun consented to admit the Communists
into

the

Kuomintang

speaking of

it

as

individuals,

as the "alliance of the

but

two

not

as

unit.

So,

parties" is a misinter-

"NEW DEAL" FOR CHINA

pretation of the

facts

by the Communists.

151

In his consent, Dr.

Sun had two intentions; first to prevent them from practising

the Communist ideals in China and to convert them intellectually
San-min

and second, to afford them

an opportunity to participate in the nationalist revolution.
But
this was not done so that they might usurp the party power and
dictate the party policy, disregarding the San-win principles.
Dr. Sun's policy of cooperation with Russia was made posto a belief in the

principles,

It
only by the Soviet's "equal treatment of our people."
was not to invite Comrade Borodin purposely to hinder our
The determining factor of whether or
revolutionary progress.

sible

not the policy of cooperation with Soviet Russia is to be maintained does not lie with China, but the test is whether or not
If Soviet Russia had not
Soviet Russia can treat us as equals.
In
changed her policy we could have still cooperated with her.

the

world only principles dictate

policies,

policies

never

dictate

principles.

The

insidious

of

intrigues

the

Communist

Party,

whereby

they try to destroy the revolutionary army, the Kuomintang and

At the very outset they frauduthe nation, have been exposed.
lently

placed their

members

in

every

corner

of

our party and

then got control of the so-called "Wuhan central executive committee," which enabled them to deceive and threaten our Kuo-

Our "Central Kuomintang

mintang comrades and the public.
censor
committee" could not endure their domination and
tyranny, which was leading toward the end of our party, and
and traitorous actions of the socalled "Wuhan central executive committee," and at the same
time urged our Nationalist Government committeemen to assume
office at Nanking and with Nanking as the capital.
resolutely

exposed the

Historically,

and was
for

illegal

Nanking was the

later reestablished as

independence and

Those who are

at

capital.

It

had

fallen

once

such by the struggle of our people

liberty.

the

helm both

of

the

Party and

of

the

State are mostly men of experience and of the highest virtue,

who advocated the revolution for years and have been respected
as intellectual pioneers by the whole country.

As

the party power has

now been

restored I shall lead faith-

THE DRAGON STIRS

152

I take the oath to

our revolutionary armies northward.

fully all

support the Kuomintang to the

the

accomplish

revolutionary

and

and obey

last

work, to

commands,

its

eliminate

the

to

sufferings

promote the welfare of the country. I trust

that all our people, unwilling to see China being ruined by the
militarists or by the Communists, will come and give us their
of the people

unanimous and

to

full support.

The movement

to

"Support the Party" and to "Save China"

height within the Kuomintang, and this proves

the reality of the Kuomintang and the strong will of its members.

present at

is at

Now

its

upon the people

call

to

join us

in

the

same cause without the slightest hesitation.

Once more I must inform the whole nation
the

international

present

conditions,

every

class

in

situation

To

considering
internal

changing

awake immediately and

For years, forreadjustments.

have believed that Chinese,

for organization.

our

that,

China must

organize thoroughly for positive

eigners

and

for the

struggle

like

save the nation

is

sand,

lack

a high and

the capacity
vital

mission

and so we must organize ourselves actively and systematically.

You, peasants and laborers, must not be deceived by the
Communists, but must organize yourselves to assist in the revoIn accordance with Dr. Sun's program of ecolutionary work.

nomic survival you may plan for your own permanent welfare.
You, merchants, should do the same with all your power and
resources, for you must not be so short-sighted as to regard the

were the

you need not bother with the

condition of the government and society and that you can do
business behind closed doors and disregard conditions.
You

present as

if

it

past, that

should not think that the workers' hardships need not be your
If the conditions of labor be not
concern.
improved, how can
peace be long preserved?

Please assist them voluntarily to better

their living conditions.

You,

the

"easy-chair"

proper

lines,

so-called

intellectual

class,

should

Please guide the thought

promote mass education and

life.

knowledge and technical

skill

of

give

your

youth along the

apply

in the constructive

up

your

special

work.

In order to get rid of psychological weakness, passiveness and

torpidity all must combine together and work for the revolution.

A
Organization

your

spirit

"NEW DEAL" FOR CHINA

is

and

strength, work is
energy the revolution in

your

your
China

with great success.

The Chinese people should not consider the

153

With

salvation.
will be

split

crowned

between the

Communists and the Kuomintang merely as a problem within the

It is a vital problem which concerns all of us.
party.

friend of mine, sickened with the trend of current affairs,

said that

the

it

was

Communist

still

movement of opposing
not because the Communist crimes

too early to start the

reign of terror;

have not been exposed, but because our people are not yet

fully

I believe not.
Is that really so?
conscious of their sufferings.
In Hunan and Hupeh the Communists have only just begun the

operation of their policy and yet every one feels that

In Hangchow and Shanghai they have
endurable.

life

is

un-

only just
In Kwantung, Fukien and
elsewhere, the peasants and laborers have expressed their grievWe must not wait
ances in numerous letters and telegrams.

made

a start and yet

until the

sword

is

all

are in terror.

placed over our necks before

cry out.
not such that

the present international situation is

can permit China to be the experimental field for
Besides,

it

we

without

Communism

Other
danger of suffering grave consequences.
people do not care whether or not the lives and welfare of our
people are at stake, but we do.
My beloved fellow countrymen,

now

the

the time to wake up.

Suppose that I should let you be oppressed continuously by
the militarists, exploited by the imperialists and disposed of
is

under the reign of terror of the Communists, it would mean that

I had deserted my sacred duty as a revolutionary soldier and
had become the arch criminal of the age.
however, the Kuomintang comrades and soldiers sacrifice
themselves for the national cause and still you render us no aid,
you not only fail to discharge your duty of citizenship but you
If,

also act against your

own

conscience.

To

guarantee our free and proper development, we have our

army, to lead you to organize and to assure you satisfactory conditions for earning a living, we have our party of San-min principles,

and with regard

participation

in

the

to

your ultimate awakening and earnest

national

affairs,

that

is

entirely

up

to

you.

THE DRAGON STIRS

154

has been spreading abroad

The Communist Party

all sorts

of

rumors such as "oppression of the toiling masses by KuominThese are

tang," and "Chiang Kai-shek, the new militarist,"
due to my opposition to its horrible policies. You must not be

we

deceived and

should investigate the

rumors in

detail.

The

temporary surveillance of the Communists was ordered because

they were hampering military operations, this fact being exposed
central censor

by the "Kuomintang
of our soldiers and

the people

For the

was imperative

it

that

safety
their

should be somewhat restricted during the time of war.

activities

This

of

committee."

We

a military necessity.
operations are completed, but
is

This

rise

them only until military

we have no wish to endanger their

the

to

detain

so-called

"Party

Imprisonment."
With regard to reorganizing the peasant and labor unions controlled by the Communists, this is based on the same idea, and
lives.

at the

gave

same time we should give the

real peasants

the opportunity for free organization.

disarmed the Shanghai Labor

We

and laborers

Union Corps because

it

and machine guns.

On April 13,
1927, the Labor Corps surrounded and attacked the headquarters
of the 2nd Division of the 26th Army but they were repulsed, and

attacked our

army with

rifles

we

captured 90 captives, of which 40 were proved to

be soldiers of Chang Chung-chang under the orders of the Com-

as a result

This proves that the Communists will do anything possible to ruin the cause of the revolution, even though
they conspire with the northern militarists.

munist Party.

It

was from documents

the Shanghai Labor

dangerous
the

plots.

Kuomintang

Union

The

is entirely

Communism

ers.

Now

arise

and organize.

is

must not be
will

do

it

all

that

sorts

we

discovered

in

searching

ascertained their secret and

talk of oppression of the toiling

willing to be beheaded.

position to

of

It
is

false.
is

If that

is

masses by
true of us we are

a fact that the Kuomintang's op-

not opposition to peasants and labor-

the best opportunity for the real

toiling masses to

For your own

interests

your organization

neglected.
you do not organize yourselves others
Free from the Comby assuming falsely your name.
If

munist Party's monopolized control all of you have the

opporof
own
Within the
tunity
making your
organizations.

jurisdic-

"NEW DEAL" FOR CHINA

155

Government the emergency measures

taken against the Communist Party would do you, the real peasants and laborers, no harm.
tion

As
it

our

of

Nationalist

to their malicious charge against

is

ridiculous.

quite

world who
territorial

fights

personal
care for

wealth
is

their

From

lives.

expedition

personal

What

Wherever

own

people have had their

as a ''new militarist"

a militarist anywhere in the

there

for principles?

acquisition.

desire is wealth.

Is

me

our

the

militarists

army has

self-government.

What

want

reached,

there

own

nothing

skin and

the time
led the

is

when

army

saved.

What

what they spare

is

the

the militarists

have fought devotedly for years and of

is

the

my

militarists

their

soldiers'

personally undertook the northern

at the front and took no thought of
I

danger.

The Chinese

militarists

get their material and

financial

supnot.
while
I
do
The
devoted
imperialistic powers,
of
our
men over thousands of miles of territory has been
fighting
a sacrifice for principle, but not a sacrifice for me personally.
In

port from the

encouraged my officers and men; in such

a way have they stimulated me.
So the defamation maligns not
If I am
only me but also the 30,000 heroic dead of our army.
guilty of any misconduct I am ready to submit myself for trial
such

way have

and severe punishment by our Kuomintang and by our people.

leave the judgment of my character to the future.
The Kuomintang is a responsible political party and we canbelieve sincerely that
not allow the Communists to wreck it.
I

We

The governChina ought to be ruled by "Party Government."

mental system should not be subjected to such rapid changes of
In order to achieve a good result politically
there must be a class of wise and upright men with definite adpolitical

thoughts.

who

uphold a sound and suitable prinThe representative form of government has been tried in
ciple.
China and has failed because our people lacked political consciousness, and there is no use to try it again.

ministrative ability,

will

We

propose to rule China through the Party and then we

shall have the system of check and balance in the government by
the Party and the people.
Being suited to Chinese conditions,
the San-min principles of the party

constitute

the

only channel

THE DRAGON STIRS

156
of national

salvation.

are unitary and organic and should

They

Imported theories cannot

be put into operation simultaneously.

Moreover, they are favorably accepted

be compared with them.

by the far-sighted

At

the

present

thinkers.

political

is

Kuomintang

It

was organized long before the

It

has

1,000,000 members,

well trained.

has

If

led the people

the

China's

Party.

birth of the Republic of China,

and comparatively

determined,

able,

heroic

Sun Yat-sen, who

Dr.

leader,

Nationalist cause

in the

only political

for years.

Party does not mean that all

governmental affairs must be handled by the Kuomintang, but
only that they must be handled in accordance with its principles,

To

and

policies

are

selfish

with those
is

mintang
all

China

rule

the

through

We

discipline.

not like the

are

We

and narrow-minded.

who

are

a public

not

to

Kuomintang members.

political

Party,

Those who take

times free.

desire

Communists who
also

cooperate
Besides,

admission into which

Kuois

at

interest in national party affairs,

with the exception of the opportunists, will be welcomed everywhere.

With

the removal of the Communists, the Kuomintang's

true face is clear to

united battle

Come and

everyone.

join

us and form a

front.

Only three paths are now open for the Chinese people.
is

to

One

return to the rule of militarism as the tool of foreign im-

perialistic

The

powers and to

other

is

fight

year after year for

to follow the footsteps of the

selfish

ends.

Communists under

the direction of a special foreign organization with the object of

creating a reign of

"Red"

terror

and wholesale destruction, with-

out consideration of circumstances.

Another way

is

to follow the

San-win principles whereby the

people liberate themselves through deliberate process

self-determination
to subject

reign

of

and

self-support.

China to military

"Red"

terror,

let

rule,

If the

of politics,

people are not willing

an imperialistic regime or the

them now join the

Kuomintang

in

order to accomplish the Nationalist Revolution, to

emancipate the
Chinese people and to participate in the world revolution.

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

THE

1^

steady stream of men with missions urging Chiang Kai-shek

to return to his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Kuomin-

tang struggle resulted in his

return to the

revolution

with en-

The

opposition faded and the General reassumed

He pushed his plan
complete control at Nanking in the fall of 1927.
for taking the ancient capital at Peking, avoiding trouble as far as

hanced prestige.

possible with Japan but going forward through

as well as via the Kin-han Railway to the west.

Shantung Province,

He

paused early that winter for a touch of romance when he marShe was educated in a religious school in
ried Miss Mei-ling Soong.
the United States and is a devoted member of the old Methodist
She is a sister of Mme. Sun Yat-sen and
Episcopal Church (South).
of Mme. H. H. Kung, wife of the Finance Minister of China.
Her
brother is T. V. Soong, a Harvard graduate and himself long Finance
Minister

in

the

National

Government

Nanking in earlier years.

This bloc forms what is known in China as the "Soong Dynasty," an
The marriage took
unusually influential family group in the Far East.
place in Shanghai on December 1, 1927.
The Christian ceremony was held at the Soong residence in the
French Concession, but in deference to Chinese custom, a native cere-

mony took place in the

The General himself has

ornate

at

ballroom of the

old

Majestic

Hotel.

embraced Christianity through the

has
learned quite a bit of the English
Methodist Episcopal Church and
has
torn down, but that marriage
Hotel
been
The Majestic
language.
ceremony is one which I recall as a welcome romantic interlude in
recently

China's wars.

Early in
leading

General Chiang returned to his thankless task of

He issued a sharp message to the Third National

1928

China.

He exCongress, pleading for political unity within the revolution.

pressed his belief that a Party Dictatorship is the best form of govern157

THE DRAGON STIRS

158

ment

for

Chinese peoples

the

under present conditions

and sternly

rebuked younger, more radical members of the People's Party who,

he feared, might cause a new split in the Nanking National Government.

"Our Government

is

not like the political organization of any other

country in the world/' Chiang Kai-shek's message

much

as

it

"A

political

any other country does not mean

would to the Kuomintang of China. If our Party failed

defeat suffered by the

as

said.

Government

of

program the whole continent would again be plunged

War might again repolitical chaos and uncertainty.

to carry out its

into

state of

This must not occur.

sult.

politically

The

foundations of a

and every other way, have been

laid.

It

new development,
therefore now be-

comes the principal object of the Third National Congress to devise

means whereby the political organization of our Party may be placed
on an even firmer foundation."
two years and more the chief
tasks before the Revolutionary Party had been the successful conclusion of the expedition against the North and the suppression of bandiGeneral Chiang

recalled

and Communistic

try

for

that

uprisings.

He

said that the first of these tasks

had been accomplished and that progress was being made on the second.
The Reds were evicted in December, 1927, and while radical
uprisings

still

continued they were not as important as in the troubled

past.

"The period

of political tutelage

now

has begun," the General de-

"We

have organized a new National Government.

not turn Back nor can we see our labors go for naught.
have unity and the support of the Kuomintang/'
clared,

About the manifestations by younger members

in

the

We canWe must
Party

of

assume leadership, the General became caustic.

"The younger members/' he said, "should be satisfied with activities
of a subordinate nature.
They should wait until they have
their patent desire to

acquired

more experience and have become

is

better trained in

It
Party affairs.
deplorable to hear that small cliques have been formed within our

Party.

who

Such personal organizations are but

are unduly

tools

of

lesser

leaders

ambitious."

A
had

strong tendency toward moderation in regard to labor problems

long been noticeable in General Chiang Kai-shek's attitude to-

ward workers and

fanners.

This attitude was one of the reasons for

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

159

In
open break with the Soviet Advisorate under Mikal Borodin.
his message on Government policy Chiang came out in opposition to
his

class

and workers

farmers

the

aiding

while

asserting that

warfare,

Government was desirous

the

would not allow

it

their

of

uprisings

against employers.
"The aim of the

Kuomintang," his message explained, "is to increase the material comfort and prosperity of the peasants and
Not only must we protect their interests but
workers of our country.

we must

also direct

and guide them

in their activities so that they

We

not fall victims to the sinister schemes of the Communists.

their

advancement to be

we

reason

exercise for

The Kuomintang's
what

period of
of

moment

the

and for

nature;

their

political

theory at least,

in

policy,

termed

is

a permanent

of

"political tutelage"

is to

the

that

is

in

of

critics

tongued

In

democracy.
the

the

Party

meantime,

present

aver),

the

of citizen-

the

forever,

(and

dictatorship

very
them."

end when the people

China have been educated up to the privileges and duties

ship

wish

this

for

power

may

sharp-

Kuomintang

leaders intend to keep control of the country as long as they possibly

can.

Chiang referred

to

Kuomintang encouraged

that

fact

the

earlier

in

the revolution

the

the workers and peasants "in their opposition

against the oppression of their employers and landlords."

"But," he continued, "times have changed.

Although we have declared against oppression of workers and peasants, we must at the

and peasants themselves do not

become the oppressors that they do not take advantage of their emIt must
ployers and landlords as they are inclined to do at present.
be made clear to the laborers and farmers that any loss sustained by

same time

see to

their employers

it

that the workers

and landlords means

loss to themselves.

ment cannot discriminate against one

class in favor of

The Govern-

any other

class,

or classes.

"The Communists preach

Feng Yu-hsiang,

class

warfare.

the "Christian General,"

We
felt

do not."

He was

otherwise.

the champion of Asia's "forgotten man," and remained convinced that

any

government
its

thesis

of

farmer and

His

lot

government

practical

coolie,

political

for

the

Chinese

economy

on

peoples

immediate

should
aid

for

base
the

or laborer, classes in society.

in latter years

has been the sad one of a

man

professing

sentiments actuated possibly by sincere motives but thwarted on every

THE DRAGON STIRS

160

hand by conditions beyond his control. Feng remains the victim of a

of
capricious fate, a dreamer unable to put his visions for the welfare
One result has been the development in him
humanity into practice.
of a crafty nature which he uses as a sort of "defense mechanism"
against the defeat of his aims, ideals and ambitions for an emancipated

China
to

without

spread

plicable,

Few

in

he fears oblivion as a leader, failure in his mission

Hence his methods have become inexover Asia.

this,

light

large

really

measure.

know

his devious actions

the

man who

is

remain obscure.

His critics are legion and

Feng.
He embraces whatever comes to

the betterment of all

hand, provided it will aid him toward his goal
Chinese peoples.
Feng thus is known popularly as a traitor, a doublecrosser, because, to him, the end for so long has had to justify the

means.

Although
called

shal

personally

from

absent

instructed

his

in

ment's policies en bloc, in

ful march on Peking.
Some months

name changed
Nanking, the new
the

wanted another

to

Third

National

Congress

March, 1928, Mardelegates to support the National GovernChiang's strategy for the rapid and success-

by General Chiang Kai-shek

Feng

the

Nanking

later after

in

Peking was taken and

Feng took up temporary residence at

He was Minister of War for a time, and

Peiping,

Capital.

interview

with

this

astute

politico-military

Our second meeting was at Nanking, where he told

of how men and women and their children might

man

of his philosophy

find

less

harsh

existence in the Orient than the one they had.

He

Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang said that he preferred not to talk politics.

was, however, quite ready to talk about what he thought was

wrong with China and

to

best improve their state.

room

expound

So

his ideas of

how

the Chinese could

for nearly an hour I sat in the reception

of his foreign-style residence in a hospital

compound

in

Nanking
and with only occasional interjections to the interpreter listened to
Marshal Feng's program for the economic rehabilitation of the Chinese
peoples.

There were six men present

and three Chinese.

at

that

interview,

three

Americans

Of

the Americans, two were correspondents for

the other a business man from Shanghai who

American papers and

wanted to go along and meet the man who, many
the greatest single influence in

all

the new,

believed,

semi-united

wielded

China.

The

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

161

Chinese present were our two interpreters and Marshal Feng himself.
The latter sat on a wicker lounge, his huge frame slouching at ease,
cool that hot

morning

in the

pa jama-like white costume

his feet encased in a crude pair of

no

hose.

common

of the Chinese,

infantry boots.

He

wore

His genial round face was grizzled, the fat jowls, strangely
complexion for a Chinese, partially hidden beneath a stubbly

pink in
beard of several days' growth.
The Marshal lived a simple
in

remarked,

"Jeffersonian

He

life.

still

and

simplicity,"

believes,

he

it

practises

has been

what

he

He wears the uniform which his commonest

preaches in that regard.
soldiers wear.
By no insignia may one know him as the man whose
personal leadership built up an

made him probably one

of the

army

that

was

most important

loyal

to

him and

that

single figures in China.

be noted in passing that, believing the leaders of the Kuomintang Revolution should not squander the people's money, Marshal
Feng sponsored a policy of strict economy wherever he went in 1928.

may

It

In Nanking, which he visited to attend the Fifth Plenary Session of the

Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang early in August, the

General" discovered

"Christian

the

politicians

leading

lives

of

ease.

He

found them and, as it appeared to him, everybody else gambling

and giving banquets and entertaining in a fashion that, he declared,

was only a few days later that the Minister for

the Interior, a Feng appointee, issued an order prohibiting all gambling and decreeing that no longer could China's traditional "sing-

was

traitorous.

It

song" girls entertain

about Nanking.

The populace was

irate

and the Chamber

petitions to force a repeal of the

said,

threw

at

least

and

at feasts along the canals

tiny streams in

and

Commerce got up
Government's order. The order, they

10,000 persons

out

of

of

work.

Restaurants

lan-

guished and the picturesque canal boats lay idle for want of customers.
"They will soon find work elsewhere," said Marshal Feng. "They

can put their hands to something more profitable to the community."

But the girls and the boatmen said, "We shall bide our time.

This

silly

order cannot prevail.

home country
cannot

last,

in

this

Honan

When

man

goes back into his

you will see that things will be as before. It
this

order against our traditions."

They were right. Even while Marshal Feng remained in power

Here and
there was a bit of sing-song girl "bootlegging" noticeable.

THE DRAGON STIRS

162

there the shrill voice of one of these doll-like

in

the sibilant,

some

nights

learned,

at

monotonous wail

of

the

entertainers raised

Chinese might be

along the tiny streams

sympathetic than vigilant.

places

were more

little

where the

heard on

police,

one

was not easy to see the Marshal. However, through the secrewas
tary to Dr. H. H. Kung, Minister of Finance, our appointment
The Marshal would be "glad to see you at seven o'clock tomade.
It

He

morrow morning/'

had not been

feeling

well,

otherwise the ap-

Marshal Feng's calling

pointment would have been an hour earlier.
hours were ordinarily from 5 to 7 a.m. His idea was that in this way
he could get callers out of the way and then get
uninterrupted work.

"Are you going

sion?"

down

to a

full

day's

Kuomintang's Fifth Plenary Sesit invariasked when we were seated, tea had been served
to

attend

the

and that day, getting an early start, we were served tea exand the usual salutations passed.
actly twenty-seven times
No unnecessary words. Just a nod
"Yes/' Marshal Feng replied.
ably

is,

to the interpreter

The Marshal was not a

sidi.

tive

and the Chinese word for

regular

member of

all

which sounds

like

the Central Execu-

on the meetings that

His
powers held by regular members.

Committee but he had been invited to

summer and was given

yes,

sit

in

presence then, as a matter of fact, brought considerable relief to many.

"What do you think are the chief problems facing the new Govern-

ment?" somebody asked.

"Demobilization of our huge armies I think certainly comes first,
at home/' Marshal Feng said.
"This will take some time.
But al-

ready plans are under way. Final action is up to the military council."
"What do you think of Japan's attitude in Manchuria and what

would you recommend that the Nationalist Government do about

was my next query.
"I can't answer that/' Marshal

Feng

said.

it?"

"I prefer, rather, not

answer the question.

I have my own ideas, to be sure, but
you
must take that up with the Foreign Office.
I am just a soldier and
to

not supposed to talk about foreign diplomatic affairs."

Then came the subject which drew him into an

animated discussion of China's domestic

ills

extensive

and

and how he would solve

His program as outlined below was submitted in a

comprehensive memorandum placed before the Government at its Fifth Plen-

them.

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

163

ary Session, and since has been considered by experts for years in the
various

Ministries

which

it

affects.

Marshal

based on education and economic reform.

were due

ills

chiefly to ignorance

and

its

He

program was

Feng's
believed

that

China's

inevitable coordinates, revolv-

ing around inequality of economic opportunity.

Briefly,

major projects:
A Government program of immediate action
1.
practical moves to aid the farmers of China.

he had four

with

numerous

2.

Better housing

3.

Government support

4.

Construction of at least 100,000 miles of railways and a com-

facilities.

for "infant industries."

highway system through China.

"I am convinced," Marshal Feng said emphatically, "that the Government should appropriate at least $50,000,000 at once for farm
plete

relief.

"Farm relief is
The people
China.

particularly

needed

in

and

Central

Northwest

Kiangsu Province (in which Shanghai

cated), owing to better means of communication and marketing
ties,

are

of

immensely wealthy as

compared with

the

is

lo-

facili-

poverty-stricken

These
people of interior China, especially Honan, Shensi and Kansu."
provinces constituted the area in which the Marshal had been most in

"We must

improve the lot of the farmers

who form the basis of our nation.
China is essentially a farming
Hence, prosperous farmers mean a happy, prosperous nacountry.
control in

recent years.

tion."

Marshal Feng said much of the money to be appropriated could be

used in irrigation projects in Central and Northwest China and in
providing communications so that, once a farmer raises his crop, he
can sell it at a profit.

Other phases of

farm

relief

which he

touched

on included

establishment of schools and farm banks which could lend

money

the
to

the fanners at low rates of interest to enable them to modernize their

equipment.

In the schools, he said, he would teach modern farming

methods adapted to conditions

in

the particular

districts.

He

urged
the use of disbanded troops in irrigation and reclamation projects.
In
Honan Province, it is significant to note that Marshal Feng in 1927-28

did

much

in the

way

of putting these ideas into effect.

He

has been

praised for the construction of roads and houses in that province even

THE DRAGON STIRS

164

a time when he was busily engaged in pushing the northern campaign toward Peking.
at

"We
shal

must see

that our people have better houses to live in," Mar"There are tens of thousands of people in the

Feng proceeded.

interior of

place to

China

Some who

live.

who- have no
everywhere in our country
have exist in the meanest of mud hovels that

in fact,

For

melt in any kind of a rain storm.

this

reason, I have suggested

Government appropriate another $50,000,000 for public wel-

that the

Part of this money could be a direct appropriation, the

In the past year
rest could be raised through a domestic bond issue.
in Honan I have built 1,800 houses and turned them over to needy
fare work.

This, of course,

families.

ample

of

hardly a

But

start.

it

is

a practical ex-

hope to do and what I think the Government should

have been preaching the benefits of our revolution to the

what

We

do.

is

downtrodden masses.

It

is,

I think, time to give

example of what the State can do

"These houses of the type that

to help
I

its

them some concrete

citizens.

have in mind can be built with

demobilized troop labor for as low as $70 to $100 a house.

small, but they are well built and serviceable.
They are
better than the

home.

call

mud and mat

hovels that the masses are

would rent them out

at ten cents

now

They are
infinitely

forced to

on the dollar of present

I would turn the house

a family cannot afford even that,

over to them without charge until such time as they could begin to
If

rentals.

pay.

"And another

thing:

these houses, thousands

of

them,

would be

produced in China.
They would be 'madein-China houses.
We would buy
Thus, we would aid all classes.
material from the merchants, the lumbermen and so on, and hire men
built entirely

of material

just out of the

do the work, thus, in part, solving our unemAnd the finished product would raise the standard

army

to

ployment problem.
of living of our people."
I

remarked that

place a

this

was an

ideal plan

but that

it

was

likely

to

The thought suggested itself that there

percentage of people who would occupy a house free

premium on

would be a large
and would never try
day for food.

It

laziness.

to earn any

might tend

to

money aside from a few coppers a

make the State paternal and sap the

initiative of the people.

"Not

at

all,"

said

Marshal

Feng.

"The Chinese are not

lazy.

CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S RETURN

Given

chance

better

to

themselves,

they

will

165

progress.

Once a

family sees other families waxing prosperous and living on a higher

There may
scale, the tone of the whole community will be raised.

we

be a few slackers but

will devise

them when the

to deal with

ways

time comes."

sounded strangely

It

"communal

ginia to establish a

of English colonists in Vir-

like the attempts

village" where, history relates, all

had

town products and each was supposed to produce someThat early attempt at a communistic
thing for the good of the whole.

access to the

failed.

state

Feng added that at least 100,000 such houses were needed in

Honan Province alone. "This doesn't mean that I think the Government should become paternal/' he said. "The people, after all, are the
real

masters of a country.

assert

But the masters haven't had a chance

themselves, and their servants,

houses

masters'

We

State.

off

must reverse

may be

It
all

may

the

masters

real

of

the

this."

There are some who

munism.

our leaders, have lived in the

money taken from

the

to

will

see

in

this

a tendency

toward

Com-

be, but as a matter of fact while Feng's economics

wrong according

to

theory,

it

cannot be denied

that

he

wanted to help the people in a practical way.

He is a good disciplinarian and a good administrator, as his otherwise dubious record will
show.

Government support

He

to "infant industries"

drew

his attention next.

said:

"The Government should

raise $60,000,000 to help

our industries

We

and those not yet under way, which we need.

should have more and bigger and better cotton mills, tanneries

and

factories of all sorts.

now

just getting started

China has the raw materials.

There

is

no

If we aid our farmers we can keep

need for us to export them all.
our exports up almost to their present level and still produce enough

supply our mills, tanneries, and factories with

Chinese mined, Chinese produced raw materials.

to

sources are immense.

We

must make use

Marshal Feng's ambitious program

total

of

Chinese

Our

economic reform called for a

expenditure of $300,000,000, Chinese currency.

for

Nanking

to

re-

of them."

It

spend that much money on his

But a start was made.
development program.
sible

grown,

natural

was not posor any

other

THE DRAGON STIRS

166

About

and a highway system, Feng said:

"China should have at least 100,000 miles of railroads as soon as
We have less than 10,000 miles now. An appropriation of
possible.
railroads

made

$10,000,000 should be

on certain

lines

now

b* obtained, abroad

if

at once so that construction

can continue

Then another $100,000,000 should

incomplete.

We

should
necessary, for railway construction.
with the completion of the Canton-Hankow line,

go ahead right away

I think.
That would connect Canton with Peking by rail.
(This has
been done.)
Then the east- west Lunghai line should be completed,
also.
This railway should be extended west through Shensi, Kansu

and

Chinese

Turkestan,

connecting

ultimately

with

the

railways

of

Asia Minor.

we

Marshal Feng concluded, "I

will show the people of Shanghai how to travel to Europe by a much
We do not intend to
shorter route than the trans-Siberian railway.
"If

can complete

connect with that

south.

the

this

We

line.

railway,"

will parallel

The National Government,

original

cost

it

more or

think,

of starting construction.

less,

but far to the

should bear the brunt of

Eventually,

the

provinces

can be made to contribute their share."

Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang had arrived in Nanking accompanied by

a personal bodyguard of 100 men.
They patrolled the hospital com-

pound where he

marching about the grounds with beheading

swords slung over their backs and Mauser automatic pistols at their
The Marshal was not popular with the people. They hoped he
hips.

would soon

lived,

leave,

and he

did.

generals and minor officers rode swiftly

about Nanking's streets in limousines with armed guards standing on
the runningboards, Marshal Feng rode with his chauffeur on an army

While

truck.

arrived.

his

subordinate

That was the way he made

his

official

Ministers in various departments at

to see this great hulk of

and weigh

at least

a man

230 pounds

quickly into their

calls

the day after he

Nanking were amazed

he must be six feet three inches

tall

lunge out of the cab of a truck and

Foreigners distrusted Feng, from the

safety of Shanghai and the other well-patrolled "treaty ports."
They
step

still

do.

offices.

RED REBELLION

12

moved with amazing swiftness the week end of December 10-12, 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek returned to the Kuo-

EVENTS
mintang

He was

revolution.

on a Friday;
what should be done next

officially

reinstated

on Saturday he gave his public views of

and under cover the Communists to the South were active
on Sunday, the eleventh, all Canton was openly
at Canton
;

in rebellion
in the grip

a Red Rebellion, 800 miles or more south of Nanking; and on

Monday, the Chinese National Government, led by General Chiang,
decided formally to break off relations with Moscow within all their
of

revolutionary Nationalist-controlled territory, and to

Russia's diplomatic service men out of the country.

order

Soviet

The Red
even

to

Rebellion in the deep south of China broke unexpectedly,

Their hand had been
the Communist leaders themselves.

they struck abruptly and with rare brutality even for

The Chinese looted, raped, murdered, burned and sacked their
China.
own city even more ruthlessly than they committed similar atrocities

forced,

and

on foreign lives and property.

In
Their sway was brief.

turn,

when they were overthrown by

Chinese soldiery, the days of horror were also brief but even
more lurid, if possible. Photographs I saw of that wreckage, human
loyal

as well as material, told the nauseating, sordid tale more graphically

than could a word picture.
Many of the pictures could not be publengths in torture to which the Chinese go are unbelievable but terribly true, be the victim a Chinese man or woman or a
lished.

lost

The

soul with white skin

from foreign shores.

the centuries have achieved,

among

The Chinese through

other things, an apogee in

ways

of

torture.

Canton was in the grip of the Reds on Sunday, December 12,

1927.
Shanghai was under special patrol, with American marines
The British and Japanese defense
doing "night instruction duty."

THE DRAGON STIRS

168

forces assisted the municipal police in maintaining order as the rising

The fate of Ameritide of peasant-labor unrest swept South China.

cans in the Canton area was uncertain for days

American naval

said that the

authorities

Wireless dispatches

were seeking

to establish con-

with the refugees on land.

tact

While the Red

Canton resulted in setting the

revolt in

afire

city

many places as well as in looting, the mob was not anti-foreign

These men were seeking rather to overthrow China's military regime
in

and

establish

Communist

rule.

Striking during the dark hours prior to that Sunday's dawn the
Red uprising succeeded during the day in disarming the police, rout-

General Chang Fa-kwei's meager garrison and gaining

ing

control
fires

the

of

resulted

Canton was

city,

at

the

which
fancy

rabble

the

of

the

to

proceeded

loot.

power-mad peasantry.

complete
Sporadic

Not only

in the control of the rabble but at least seven other cities

The American gunboats Sacramento and

Kwantung area.
Pampanga stood by at Canton. The U. S. S. Asheville joined them
in

the

there.

The

victorious

mob's

leaders

forces of peasants

over control of Canton.

revolt are troops in the

following

and workmen have

The majority

Home

statement

the

declaring in part:

restoration of comparative quiet,

"The combined

issued

of

these

taken

finally

in

participating

Defense Service at Canton.

the

Our work-

men's Red Corps under the direction of Red troops have captured the
Peace Bureau and disarmed the guards."
Peasants circulated handbills bearing such

inscriptions

as:

DOWN

WITH CHIANG KAI-SHEK, GENERAL CHANG FA-KWEI, WANG CHINGRED

WEI, WHO ARE THE ENEMY OF PEASANTS AND WORKMEN!
PEASANTS AND SOLDIERS ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN PROTECT THE
MASSES!

The

All shops were closed.

outskirts

of

Canton swarmed

with armed peasants and workmen wearing red brassards and apparMass meetings were held, to
ently with little or no leadership.
choose leaders for the formation of a Red Government.

The

ease with which Canton

fell

is

explained by the fact that most

of the regular troops there had been called for duty in Honan.
the capture was easy, many of the remaining troops going Red.
ever, the Chinese

escaped with his

Navy remained
life

loyal to

aboard a gunboat.

Chang Fa-kwei.
The gates to the

He
city

Hence

Howbarely

were

RED REBELLION
closed,

but

efforts

to

retake

the

169

soon made progress,

city

although

navigation between Canton and Hongkong was impossible.

Information as to

was

how

the uprising started

is

still

but

vague,

on the previous Saturday General Wang Chi-hsing's

troops suddenly attempted to disarm the 4th regiment of the new
2nd Division, numbering 1,000 men.
Fighting ensued, peasants and
told that late

workmen taking their cue from the soldiers and joining in the riots.
The Red Rebellion followed.
One result was Nanking's definite decision to break with Soviet
General Chiang Kai-shek announced that the Kuomintang
leaders had instructed Dr. C. C. Wu, then Nanking's foreign minister,
Russia.

to proceed

consulates

with the necessary steps for the withdrawal of

in

Nationalist

leader declared that

the

territories.

party's

(Dr.

Wu

instructions

is

now

Soviet

all

The

dead.)

were "in the form

of

peremptory order," precluding the possibility of the Minister's failure

forthwith demanded the withdrawal of all the Soviet
Dr.
to act.

Wu

Union's

consulates

in

The

China.

Soviet

Consul-General

was

B.

He told me at first that he had "not been

Koslovsky in Shanghai.
He added that he "must await Dr. Wu's formal action
informed."
as well as Moscow's reply."

Chiang Kai-shek said

He

"The

got them and

party's action

left.

was kept

pending the Foreign Minister's formal action.

the announcement is justified now in view of the

However, I feel
Canton outburst,

fore,

which undoubtedly was the

doubt but that Dr.

Wu

will

result

of

act very

Soviet agitation.
quickly.

secret hereto-

He

There

is

no

has not yet had

time to take the usual formal steps following this important decision
as far as a formal note to Moscow is concerned but I am sure he will

proceed forthwith.
troubles in this

Soviet agitators

Canton

area, as

are responsible for most of our

well as

Hankow, Nanking and

break immediately
restoration of peace within our territories."
The latest anti-Red announcement clarified
where,

Hence an

absolute

was declared

is

the

necessary

Canton

for

else-

the

develop-

that the peasantry's

coup d'etat Sunday resulted from the Kuomintang's sending a telegram to Canton ordering
General Chang Fa-kwei to raid Canton's Soviet Consulate and seize

ments.

It

documents

showing that Moscow was

behind

the

peasant-labor

up-

General Chiang Kai-shek, as well

as T. V. Soong and Dr. H, H. Kung, were convinced that these in-

risings in various sections of China.

THE DRAGON STIRS

170

structions leaked out at Canton, resulting in the

mobs

Red

revolt

and plac-

This explained the outburst at that

time, although for a fortnight there had been signs that trouble was
ing

in control of the city.

brewing.

Canton continued

in

turmoil.

Loyal Kuomintang troops sought to overpower the armed peasanFifteen Americans and two British evacutry, with swift success.
ated Canton, while armored launches from the U.
well as the

S.

S.

Pampanga

Installation assisted in bringing out refugees

Socony

as

from

ShaRefugees concentrated on the island of Shameen.

Further precaubut a jew yards off shore, in Pearl River.

the suburbs.

meen

is

were taken on shore, the U. S. S. Sacramento landing field-pieces

and installing them on the United States Consulate grounds, which is
tions

on Shameen Island.

The

Red

short-lived

revolt in

Canton ended on December

The
The

14.

was routed, and loyal Kuomintang troops regained control.

Canton outbreak caused the more moderate revolutionaries to inveigh
rabble

more than ever

rorists'

against Moscow's interference.

was

activities

to

turn

the

The

effect of the ter-

Nanking leaders more than ever

against radicalism.

by Mr. Quo Tai-chi, then Vice-Minister for Foreign

Nanking, at an American University Club dinner in Shang-

Utterances
Affairs at

an abrupt turn toward the Right.

Quo Taichi, later China's Ambassador in London, told a large gathering of
4<
The Kuomintang is thoroughly
prominent Chinese and Americans:
fed up with the activities of all Communists."
He added
hai,

were

indicative

of

"China

is

We

at the crossroads.

Soviet and what

may be termed

the

are facing a decision between the

Anglo-Saxon form

of government.

Bitter experience has proved that the Soviets are false gods.

Hence,

But
Kuomintang are now ready to change.
we need your support, and the support of all the Western Powers

thoughtful leaders in the

other than Soviet Russia

if

our change

is

to prove practical.

We

are

decidedly not anti-foreign, although certain of our policies have been

so described.

"The Chinese

of the early days considered

barians and beneath them.

ern

mechanical

civilization

Then

the foreigners

developed,

and

all

had

foreigners as bartheir day.

foreigners

China considered the Chinese backward and uncivilized.

West-

coming
It

is

to

now

RED REBELLION

171

high time that both Chinese and foreigners discard these ancient prejudices and seek to cooperate toward the best interests of the world/'

General Chiang Kai-shek made further attacks on Moscow and all

the Soviets in the Chinese press.
He declared: "The Soviet con-

everywhere in China are serving as centers for the propagation of Communism.

I favor breaking off our relations: otherwise,
sulates

Communism may handicap our

the spread of

revolution.

If this

had

been done some time ago it is possible that the Canton trouble might
have been avoided.
are definitely against continuing diplomatic
relations with Soviet Russia, and cannot further cooperate with Russia

We

as in the past.

we should cooperate with

Communism."

I also believe

in preventing the spread of

The Nanking Note ordered

The text
China in seven days.

The

all

Soviet

of the

diplomatic

other nations

officials

out

of

Note follows:

National Government has for some time been informed

by various reports

that

the

Soviet

consulates

and

the

Soviet

commercial agencies in areas within the jurisdiction of

the National Government have been used as headquarters of Red
State's

propaganda and an asylum for all Communists.

Exposure of
these facts has been withheld, in view of international relations
between China and Russia.

On

the eleventh of the present month an uprising occurred

in the city of Canton culminating in the forcible occupation of

by Communists who cut communications, burned, plundered and massacred throughout the city.
This startling event

that city

be attributed mainly to
the fact that the Chinese Communists availed themselves of the

with

all

its

disastrous consequences

may

Soviet consulate and Soviet State commercial agencies as a base

Fears were entertained that occurrences
for direct operations.
of a like nature

With a view
ing the further

may

occur elsewhere.

to maintaining peace

spread

of

such

and order and

disasters

our

to prevent-

Government

feels

such a state of things is fraught with incalculable dangers

It can no longer be tolerated.
our Party and the State.

that

to

hereby ordered that our recognition accorded to

consuls of the U. S. S. R. stationed in the various Provinces
Therefore,

shall

it

is

be suspended in order that the root of this

evil

influence

THE DRAGON STIRS

172

shall be eradicated

istry for

and a thorough inquiry

Foreign Affairs

now

is

The Min-

instituted.

instructed to superintend

its

sub-

ordinate organs and act in conjunction with the other Government authorities concerned to put into execution this mandate

with

The

all

due care, and report thereon.

diplomatic, consular

and

all

trade and other Russian officials

Before the coming of the New Year of 1928 not

a recognized Russian official remained in all China.
China was comparatively quiescent before the start of the storm
left

within a week.

Col Henry L. Stimson, now

toward the North again that spring.
Secretary of War, was named Governor-General of the now semiindependent Philippine Islands.

The

Colonel passed through Shanghai

post at Manila, and I got on the

February on his way to his

steamer and went to the Philippines with him.
On that excursion to view our problems and progress in those
islands at the inception of the Stimson rule, I also got a view of the
in

effect of the

Red turmoil

at Canton.

It

South China and found that Canton,

provinces in

tury

all

China, the base of

was April, 1928, when

in the heart of

civil

I visited

one of the richest

wars for a quarter of a cen-

and more, was rapidly going about the business

of

rebuilding

wide areas destroyed during the Red Rebellion the previous December.
The winter weeks and early spring had not seen an appreciable
change in the devastated area, it was true; yet plans were under way
for reconstruction.
In the meantime, the thrifty Chinese built themshops in the gaunt brick walls of burned buildings and were
going about life much as usual.
Blocks and blocks were gutted by the flames that had torn at the
selves

Southern capital when the Reds, infuriated at the discovery of their plot to overthrow the Canton government, were forced
heart of the

The damage ran

to attack prematurely.
lars.

figure

The

of millions

estimates varied from $15,000,000 to $40,000,000,

taking

struction.

into tens

into

The

is

dol-

this

last

would appear, the cost of reconbased, as usual, on China's silver currency.

consideration,

estimate

of

it

Replacement of burned or bombed buildings cost as much or more

than the original structure
and that, it was figured, must be considered in the estimates of the total
It

was depressing

loss.

to walk along the broad streets of Canton, built

RED REBELLION
according to modern plans
C.

Wu, who

also long

usual in a Chinese
ings
for

whose

walls,

made under

was Mayor

173

the regime of the late Dr.

of Canton.

The broad

streets,

C.

un-

went through block after block of barren buildscarred and blackened, were torn down to make way

reconstruction.

city,

They

testified

to

the fury

of

the

mob

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD"

13

a profitable "business" which thousands of roving nomads continue to pursue, but while the devil
reigns over wide areas, let us pause here to look at the work
in

Asia

is

still

BANDITRY

which the Christian missionaries are doing

in a valiant

if

so far futile

show the Chinese peoples "the light."

Some years ago my
mother gave me a little book entitled, CHRIST OF THE INDIAN ROAD.
It was by a missionary who had spent most of his adult life among
the peoples of India, seeking to show them "the Way."
It seems to
effort to

me

that I might

do worse

in selecting a title for this interesting

phase
than
of man's struggle for existence in the Orient
by choosing CHRIST

OF THE "CHINA ROAD."

The men and women

have had anything

to convert "the heathen Chinese."

in our Christian missions

but an easy time of it in their efforts

The Chinese accept the gifts of the missionaries, especially those of a
material nature.
They allow these men and women from foreign
lands to

come

into their land

more than a century

the

and

true

But in
try to spread their gospel.
converts to Christianity among the

For centuries they have had their own way

thinking about infinity and the way of this life and how best to live
They retain their ancient faith in Buddhism, which is the main

Chinese have been few.

of
ir.

religion

of Asia.

There are tens

of thousands,

as their own, and follow

Him

though they number some

who have embraced

Christ's teachings

through His missionaries.

three million souls, are

still

But

these,

but a drop in

nearly 400,000,000 other Chinese, who remain unmoved by these teachings. The same is true in Japan where
Shintoism, a version of Buddhism, is the State religion.

the bucket.

There are

The work

still

of the missionaries, therefore, is hard in the East.

they persist, and where they can they do a good work,

174

it

Yet

must be

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD*'

admitted even by the Chinese.

Most of the converts

for the ride/' out, in other words, for

known to the hard-bitten

"the damned rice-Christians."

are

is

exactly what

Mission School
offered to

many
in

There

them

of

China

is

who

is

in

are merely "out

These

for them.

it

inhabit the coastal cities as

truth in that epithet for that

is

Their only reason for attending a

are.

so that they

may

by the instruction

benefit

an excellent chance to learn a foreign language,

which they may use later when they enter trade,

students,

English,

usually

traders

what

175

banking, a profession or government service.

Knowledge such as that is very useful, the Chinese know, and they

can get
is

minimum

at a

it

Most

conjectural.

vow

them

of

What

they do after graduation

return to their old faith, take a new

of expense.

formula of ancestor worship and the faith of their

forebears, and go about their business contented.
They think they
have "slipped one over" on "these foreign barbarians," again.
their

in

It

true,

is

and

tianity

set

of course, that

live

some

up to the teachings

really

to

become converted

to

Chris-

which they have been subjected.

However, they are few.

The

confined to

with the

tation,

The

work of
two fields

the Christian missionaries in China therefore

chief

of

human

latter field

evangelical

work

is

is

endeavor, namely, education and sanicovering medical missions generally in Asia.

important, of course

but the Chinese are a

and actions speak louder than words.

preacher can stand up and "speech" at them

practical lot

all

day every day

he does something which can prove beyond

the shadow of a doubt that the way of the foreign, white-skinned Chrisin

the week, but unless

make this life more liveable, he might just as well save his
For this reason the Christian workers are earnestly trying to

tians will

breath.

prove to the Chinese that a Christian community

habitants

actually

live

in

nicer

homes on

nicer

is

cleaner,

streets

and

the inin

nicer

towns, they are therefore happier and also more prosperous, and the
Christians are better educated because they have more and better
schools in their towns.

The

childlike

masses

of

Chinese

(or

any

other

people,

for

that

matter) can understand a way of life like that, and they are embracing
Christianity for that reason in larger numbers than heretofore, to the
pleasant surprise of the Christian workers.
Naturally, material benefits here and now

come

first

to

primitive

THE DRAGON STIRS

176

souls existing in a cruel, barren world.

They can see only how they

they cannot be
expected to have the broader vision which encompasses the spiritual
or mental glories to follow.
But once aided toward a more pleasant

are to be lifted

up bodily by a new and strange creed

with social security for all, and one in which they can be educated
up to an appreciation of the finer things of existence, the "true conlife

mode

version" to that

The
scattered

medical
all

come

of living will

missions

over China

Canton Christian College

to pass.

and the educational work through schools

from Yenching University at Peiping to the
in the deep

South

are giving this practical

groundwork today in excellent fashion.

Another good thing which the missionaries did out in China at the
start of this decade was to eliminate (so far as the Chinese are concerned) the incomprehensible denominations through which the Occidental world views God.

The simple-minded but

logical

Chinese failed

when we worshipped

but one Heavenly Father, we also

must have Catholics and Protestants. Or why these, too, are divided
to grasp why,

and sub-divided

like

the Methodists

a real estate development

(North
and South), the Baptists, the Christians, the Lutherans, Presbyterians,
and so on.
The denominations of the Protestant Church did away
with creeds and divisional barriers in 1927, about the time that Gen-

Chiang Kai-shek was getting married according to the wedding

ritual of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South) to a devout Methoderal

The

Church (South) Chinese girl in Shanghai.

divided into Greek Orthodox, Roman, etc.

ist

Catholics

a good place to review the missionary

they occurred in China at that time.

This

I think is

At Hankow

in

May

of

ary work there.

sion to China to

take

in

view

of

crisis

are

activities as

Bishop L. H. Roots, head of the

had refused to evacuate despite Con-

1927,

American Church Mission, who

sul-General Frank Lockhart's urgent
one result of the

still

would be the

request, told

me

he believed that

entire reorganization

of mission-

Bishop Roots advised his Church to send a commisinvestigate conditions and decide on the best steps to
the

revolutionary

activities

which

men and women from China.

The Bishop received me in his offices in an

had

temporarily

ousted Christian

old red brick building

near the Bund, and cordially welcomed frank discussion of current

He admitted that adverse condiproblems connected with his work.

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD"

tions

were

the

affecting

talked earnestly

on

this

future

entire

of

Christianity

177
in

and

Asia

subject.

Bishop Roots responded somewhat sharply to my query as to his

reasons for refusing to depart from the dangerous Yangtze River

He

shores.

said:

"I believe that

three score business

matter.

Why

these business

my work

men remaining

should

here

is

now

desert until forced to

as important as that of

or as yours, for that

do

so,

any more than

men

should leave the job or anyone else still here?"

said that only four foreigners then remained in his

The Bishop
mission, doing work formerly done by one hundred

missionaries.

They

were himself, T. J. Hollander, Dr Paul Wakefield and John Littell.

"In this crisis I find we are discovering the true value of our
Chinese Christians," the Bishop said.
"They are carrying on the work
which we have begun. Our hospital, university and middle school are
still running here, under the direction of the Chinese only.
are

We

supporting our institutions the same as before, and they represent

an investment of at least a million dollars, gold, and possibly more.
still

Our annual maintenance

Mex.

cost runs approximately $400,000,

The

Chinese are in complete control.

"I am unable to say yet what our position will be in the future,
but I am inclined to believe that this test of the Chinese Christians is

Whether we

need as many foreigners in the future

remains to be seen.
Personally, I think we will be forced to reorganize our entire mission work on a new basis, leaving the Chinese Chris-

a good thing.

tians essentially in control.

is

will

The

position of the National

Government

They have denied being anti-religious or

but numerous campaigns against Christianity have been

another consideration.

anti-Christian,

held in recent months with their consent.

ernment must be reconsidered.

in force actually are not.

We

The

Our

relations with the gov-

old treaties while nominally

must therefore determine our

still

status with

they are victorious, as seems probable.

"The Chinese today are not like the Chinese of thirty years ago.
They are aroused now. Of course, only a few actually are articulate

the Nationalists

and

it

is

if

these that

we hear and

see the most, but the masses also are

have advised our Mission to wait until these revolutionary

conditions clear up before deciding on a definite policy in China.
They
changed.

are sending a commission to China to assist the missionaries already

In the meantime, we have evacuhere and to agree on future plans.

THE DRAGON STIRS

178
ated

almost

our

all

in

stations

the

Yangtze

Our

Valley.

mission

workers are remaining chiefly at Shanghai temporarily, pending a decision on how to proceed with our work.
"I

believe

that

sentiment

among

freedom in China as a whole.

the

Nationalists

General Tang

favors

religious

Shen-tse in charge here

a Buddhist, others in authority are Confucians, and so on; General

Tang sent a letter to us recently written on paper bearing a watermark
is

showing an old Buddhist saying, Most merciful compassionate one who

I believe that the government
saves individuals and saves the world.

make some

will

way.

provision for religious freedom eventually, in a formal

This present war hysteria cannot last forever."

Bishop Roots said that Hunan Province was the worst spot in
China as far as missionary work was concerned and that all the for-

Hankow had been evacuated. He said that the

who were left then were unable to continue with

eigners there south of

Chinese Christians
their religious

mission there
confiscated

work and no services of any kind were being held. His

was closed as were many of the others.
Several were

by the Chinese Communists.

"The Unions

of the peasants are chiefly responsible for these acts/'

4f

Roots

said.

The

situation

there

is

on

anarchy.
in
term
exists
a
for
it.
Mob
rule
Hunan,
good
All missions are closed
where they now have a rule of the unruly.
and, as I say, church services are not possible at the moment."

Bishop

Communism

is

bordering

too

Bishop Roots intimated that he and the other missionaries would

take

up

the entire question eventually with the

authorities,

if

Nanking revolutionary

and when the government was able to give attention to

problems concerning internal organization of the continent.

Dissension in the harried ranks of American missionaries broke out

Shanghai that summer.

Shanghai was the religious capital for a
time, where workers from scattered interior posts were congregated
in

awaiting the doubtful future of Christianity in that land.

group of
Fundamentalists held a meeting and after bitterly denouncing the

Modernists in the mission

was sent

field set their signatures to

a message which

to various church organizations and newspapers in America.

The Fundamentalists
Modernists,

to

the

carried the fight against their bitter foes, the

American

public,

and

their

sought to influence church leaders back home.

message

The message

definitely

asserted

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD*'

179

"The present evacuation of the missionaries has been permitted by God

as a means of purifying the missionary enterprise in China."

The Modernists were dubbed

"ecclesiastical Bolshevists," the attack

The
being particularly bitter against the National Christian Council.
Rev. Dr. Hugh W. White of the Southern Presbyterian Mission, who
presided, belabored his Modernist colleagues in the following vitriolic
fashion in his address:

"Satan's adaptation of Jerusalem Christianity

has put into the lead of the Modernist movement a band of ecclesiasBolshevists

tical

who work on

the principle

feeding on Christianity to destroy

and

is

aimed

it.

'boring

Modernism

is

from within/

primarily political

works government, as well as the

at our Christian

on which the Christian

tution of marriage

of

insti-

system is based."
The message to America denounced the National Christian Council
as a destructive agency and demanded that when missionaries again
social

returned to China they be sent to conduct what the Fundamentalists

termed "orthodox work."

The Rev. E. E.
Union, said:
chine which

"We
is

Strother,

Secretary

of

the

Christian

Endeavor

are facing a thoroughly organized Modernists'

like

a great

army run by

well

trained officers

ma-

and a

marvelous intelligence department with secret codes, wireless commuThis army has a vast
nications and well equipped training camps.

number

of soldiers

even to death.
allied

willing to follow blindly their

This powerful army

is

liberally

own

trusted leaders,

financed and secretly

with other great subversive organizations with abundant funds.

Their propagandists are some of the most clever men in the world,
and by their strategy they have succeeded in pulling the wool over
the eyes of a

number

Strother gave a
ist

of people in large countries."

summary

and Fundamentalist

of the differences

beliefs,

attacking

between the Modern-

and quoting the

bitter fight reached a

evolution

William Jennings Bryan. Feelings in this

climax in Shanghai, which is the nerve center of

late

all

China for the

missionaries.

These squabbles

during

a time

when missionary problems were

occupying a prominent place in the activities of foreigners generally

caused no little adverse comment there.
Among the significant public

remarks was a leading article printed in the Shanghai Times, a liberal

The article gave figures
British-owned daily edited by an American.
showing there were only about five hundred missionaries remaining in

THE DRAGON STIRS

180

the interior stations as compared with eight thousand in normal times.

homelands either on furlough

hundred were in Shanghai, and

Five thousand had been returned

to their

or on special leaves of absence fifteen

another thousand were temporarily transferred
;

to

stations

in

Japan

and Korea.

The

commented

editorial

"It

is

not too

much

to say that the clock

of missionary progress in China has been set back many generations."

It added, however, "Conditions are bound to improve, at least as far

China

as the missionaries are concerned, insofar as

continue to

will

need for many years to come their healing institutions such as hospitals, schools, and other such organizations which go toward building
a more sane and lasting state of society."

The
through
welfare

editorial,

Christian

after

the

outlining

practical

which

Institutions

are

benefits

essential

being

to

the

gained

material

Chinese peoples
appealed for the return of the missionaries in greater numbers.
However, while praising the welfare work
of the

hoped that when foreign missionaries did

return they would be those "whose eyes have not been dimmed by
political considerations or by the gravity of their own dilemmas."
of the various missions,

it

*
If

the

you were

Nanking

to take a train

line

and

travel

picturesque old walled city of

far

on

the

outskirts,

*
at the

the

North Station

fifty-three

miles

Soochow from the

in

that

sea,

Shanghai on
separate

you might

approached through the narrowest

the
find

of

winding
a
modern
American
You
would need
shop-packed lanes,
university.
a guide to find it the first time unless you could explain to a rickshaw

where you wanted to go

school and "the Nances/'

for

coolie

The Nances have been

tury or

living in

more and everybody

hospitable folk

from the south

most

of

them know

Soochow

this

missionary

for the past quarter cen-

knows who they are.

They are
America and they were sent out to
teach in Soochow University.
Dr.

there
in

China when they were young to

Walter Buckner Nance, a native of Marshall County, Tenn., became
President of the school in 1922.
The university is a monument to
his

work.

It

copal Church

was founded and

is

supported by the Methodist Epis-

(South).

Dr, Nance invited you to spend a week end with them and had
rickshaws awaiting at the station you would not need to
worry about
If

"

CHRIST OF THE

CHINA

ROAD*'

181

a "Soochow man," as he puts it.

You would probably learn more about Soochow's strange history in a week end than
most people would in a much longer time.
Furthermore, you would
anything, for he

is

discover that Mrs.

Nance

is

of the old south into the heart of

taught everything he knows,

is

China

who

has brought a bit

and that her cook, whom she

a charming hostess

a composer of symphonies in Southern

delicacies.

One week end

in the late

summer

of

1927, Dr.

Nance showed

Soochow's temples, a famous garden and the Soochow pagoda.

was a youngish little man despite his years and his silvery white

and

He

me
He

hair,

with perpetual humor behind rimless glasses.

was tireless in conducting our tour of Soochow, and he was first
his

sparkled

eyes

when we

to the top

scaled the pagoda's dizzy height.

Standing on

its

narrow topmost balcony we gazed out over Soochow babbling in the

dusk at our feet, its tiled roofs and little whitewashed buildings, typically Chinese,

splotching the scraggly landscape for miles around.

In

meandered protectingly around the houses.

about a million, lies chiefly within this wall, which

the distance, the black wall

Soochow, a city of
is

more than ten miles

in circumference.

temple adjacent the old Soochow pagoda, destroyed at some

time or other during the wars that sweep over this area all too freWithin, one found gods in the making,
quently, was under construction.

workmen

sturdy

and artisans
and

energetically

skilled

in

hewing great Buddhas from long logs

their labor

stern, pensive faces

busily

of these idols to

fashioning the arms, bodies

whom

they and others soon

would pray.
Soochow has changed little since the Middle Ages. It is, in this,
like most of China's cities.
Destroyed from time to time by war or
fire or famine or some other natural disaster, the city is rebuilt and
the survivors carry on.

curious

mounds overgrown with

were the heaps

by the survivors
of the

From our

last

into

grass

we

which

could see on

Some

of

was

laid

these

all

sides

Nance explained
Soochow were raked

Dr.

which the charred ashes of

after the city

century.

pagoda,

waste in the Taiping Rebellion

mounds are

thirty

or forty feet

up above the houses round about. Little if anything of

Nothing but bricks and stones,
they say, buried within.

high, looming

value

is,

charred rafters and the

enterprise

and

curiosity

like

have ever been discovered by those with

enough to dig into them.

THE DRAGON STIRS

182

With Mrs. Nance, we

of ivory and fans.

ancient

scrolls,

And

and bought curios

pieces
monks
in a temple we found young
tracing
visited the shops

the

reproducing

striking

when China was creating art. The

tance, and we added several to our
At

pictures

drawn

by

for a pit-

may be bought

tracings

priests

collection of things Chinese.

night after dinner our party strolled about the

in the

campus

moonlight and Mrs. Nance showed us her garden of many flowers,

The campus quadincluding a remarkable display of chrysanthemums.
rangle

is

American campus as one might

as typical an

town anywhere

college

The

the United States,

in

own

its

find in a small

buildings thoroughly

Tall
and power system.
shade trees form an archway along the broad walk that bounds the
campus. Everything about the university recalls its American counterpart.
Along the campus edge the Soochow moat runs, bounded on its

modern.

by the

far side

university has

city's

wall.

its

The

light

contrast

is

powerful.

Dr. Nance told of the changes that were taking place in the univerThe Nationalsity under new regulations governing such institutions.

Nanking Government had ordered

be registered with the Government and
ist

be the head of a school in China.

bers, eight of

whom

that

all

of control of fifteen

are Chinese, was named.

mem-

Chinese was chosen

The new head

as President to succeed Dr. Nance.

must

schools

none but a Chinese may

that

board

foreign

of the school

was

an alumnus of the university, Prof. Y.

Yang. Dr. Nance continued
in his new capacity as the so-called "American Adviser."

With

these

changes,

subject

to

the

permanent

of

approval

the

Board of Missions, Soochow University continued to operate, and already had opened its fall semester that August with an enrollment
approaching normal, there being 181 college students and 243 in the
The changes were not revolutionary, because Dr.
preparatory school.

Nance

as adviser continued as virtual head of the school.

movement seeking to abolish all

mission work in China resulted, in Shanghai

Inception of a

sectarian

lines

in

October 1927,
in a conference among ninety-four Chinese delegates from all parts of
These delegates, representing sixteen denominations,
the continent.
foreign

in

voted to dissolve their old status and organize the Church of Christ in
China.

Their decision wrote

finis

to

the

work

of the

Presbyterian,

Congregational and other denominational institutions as such,

all

losing

CHRIST OF THE "CHINA ROAD"

their

identity

had the

believe,

the

in

full

new

non-sectarian

The move,

organization.

home

support of the

offices

183

of those missions

in

the United States and Great Britain.

Lobenstme, Presbyterian leader who had just

returned from the United States, told me that his organization was

The Rev. Dr. E.

C.

sponsoring such a

This action, long anticipated, crystallized efforts to establish an entirely Chinese Christian Church with

virtually

step.

abroad but not controlled in future by any one not Chinese.

Nevertheless, the movement continued to receive foreign support

affiliations

financially as well as the assistance of foreign missionary advisers.

The

foreigners

then declared

that

who had been conducting

elimination

their

as

the

the missionary

work

heads

controlling

until

of

the

various missions had long been expected and favored.

Many of these
said that they favored having the Chinese administer their own Christian institutions,

and the sooner the

The

better.

Baptists and the few

who

attended the conference insisted that they were present

merely as observers, and that their denominations were not yet fully
prepared to merge with the others into the new and unified associa-

Methodists

tion in the

Orient.

pointed out that advantages of the

non-sectarian organization included the removal of the varied denominational teachings which had always been mystifying to the Chinese

Many

missionaries,

however,

whom

The conferences involved more than

they sought to convert.
1,000 churches in 16 provinces in China, representing approximately
These became "adone-third of the Protestant missionaries there.

visers," but the coalition

in their

was

titles.

elected

by the

The conference
at present

the

and

still

sphere
politics,

no
of

limits

human

little

drastic

change immediately except

Chinese Moderator, the Rev.

Mr. Chang Cheng-yi,

delegates.

issued a

summary

needs foreign

responsibility
set

meant

of

to

the

but individuals in

denominationalism

activity

activity.
it

It

work, saying

"The church

But the members should undertake

aid*

dismissing

of its

is

of

the

not

spirit

that

the

must face these new

of

and credal

God

church

in

the

strife

wide

should

enter

responsibilities.

For-

urged to be patient and to continue with even greater

energy in their work."
That December another group of foreign mission institutions joined
eigners

the

are

new Church

of Christ in China.

Dr. Lobenstine, Secretary of the

THE DRAGON STIRS

184

National Church Council in China, announced that the English Baptist

Mission in Shantung Province had voted to join the new non-sectarian

Chinese Christian Church.

The announcement

said:

"This

is

the

case

first

in

the history of

the church where a group of Baptist churches has formally united with
the Congregational, Presbyterian and Reform Churches.
few years

ago in Canada the Methodist Church joined with the Congregational,

ists and the Presbyterians, and the United Church of Canada Mission

now

joining with our Church of Christ, thus combining

in this one church the Congregationalists, Presbyterian and those who

China

in

is

were formerly Methodists and Baptists."

The announcement also pointed out

that

the

Shantung Baptists

are a branch of the English Church and should not be confused with

Southern

the

Mission

Baptist

from the United

States.

learned,

however, that the American Northern Baptists had appointed a committee to confer with the Chinese concerning their joining the new
Members said that final action was then largely
and unified church.

The
dependent upon the head offices of their denominations at home.
Canadian Methodists in Szechuan Province were considering a similar
move.

The movement has

aries

on the

the support of the majority of foreign mission-

field of battle in

The Chinese

Asia.

Christian leaders

still

emphasize the fact that they have no desire to split with the western
Christians, but merely desire to combine their many disconcerting
creeds into one Christian church directed by Chinese

who

for the time

being will have numerous western advisers.

The

addition of other foreign missions

tion that the nation-wide

was rapidly

Some

was regarded as an

indica-

campaign for unity among the missionaries

fructifying.

interest

was created by the

of

Archbishop Constantini, representative of Pope Pius XI, who went to China on tour
early in 1929 and was feted by the National Government in Nanking.
Archbishop Constantini called officially on President Chiang Kai-shek
at

little

Nanking and was

He

ernment.
of the

said he

also greeted

visit

by other high members of the Gov-

had come "to convey personally the good wishes

Pope."

Archbishop
Kai-shek
:

Constantini

said

of

his

mission

to

President

Chiang

"

CHRIST OF THE
deem

"I

NA

ROAI>"

185

a great honor to be here as the representative of His

Pope Pius XI, the highest authority of the Catholic Faith

Holiness,

it

in the world.

What hope

the

Pope

entertains

stated clearly in his circular telegram of

August

to convey personally the wishes of the Pope.

"It is a great pleasure to see peace restored
in this country.

It is

my

toward China has been

1,

and

1928.

am

here

unification effected

sincere hope that the National

Government

might head toward the way of reform and reconstruction, thus establishing the

permanent foundation of the nation.

who

now

preaching in China belong

to different nationalities, their aim is one, that is, to convey to the
Chinese masses the Gospel of Christ which is one of fraternal love and
The Catholic religion knows no national or racial discriminaequality.

"Although Catholic

and

priests

are

a religion upholding the equality of mankind.

"We, as priests, have no intention of interfering in the politics and
diplomacy of any nation and our attitude is one of absolute impar-

tion

is

it

We

are ready to offer our every assistance to newborn China

in her numerous reforms and tasks of reconstruction.
pray for

tiality.

We

God's blessing upon the Chinese people in order to enable them to

We also pray that China may be
enjoy permanent peace and order.

on an equal footing with other Powers, thus ensuring peace

the whole world."

established
in

scene has changed with the times, of course.

One
of the induction of Chinese Christians into service for the

The missionary
evidence

saw a brief item about

Florida.
The dispatch was from
it in a daily newspaper in Miami,
Vatican City and related how Pope Pius XI had set a new precedent
for the Holy See with the formal appointment of a Chinese Catholic to
The man was Mr. Lo Pa Hong, a
an office high in Papal circles.
citizen of some wealth in Shanghai.
He was created "the Pope's Private Valet of the Sword and Cape."
The account indicated that this was the "first time that a non-white
"faith of our fathers" occurred not long ago.

It seems that "Mr.

has ever been accorded that honor by a Pope."
Hong," as the report called him, was President of the Catholic Action

and a frequent and large contributor "to the finanSociety of China

cial support of the Catholic missions in China."
Both Catholic and Protestant Chinese are slowly moving more and

more

but even so, their religious fervor is not yet

what the missionaries could wish it. That will require much time,
into

prominence

THE MARINES GET GOING

14

Kuomintang Revolution engulfed Peking early in June,

The ancient capital fell on June 8 of that momentous year.

THE

1928.

The

They entered the picture on

Japanese at once became serious.
the Asiatic mainland in a determined way, especially around Peking
and Tientsin and north of the Great Wall in the Three Eastern Prov,nces known as Manchuria.
They have since, as all know, annexed
this particular
sphere of influence" and renamed it Manchukuo.
The weeks of June were crammed with excitement and events of
historic significance.
Old Peking fell, though not without a noble
replenished from provinces all along
struggle, and the Southern forces
the long trek from the Pearl River at Canton
joyously marched by
fct

the thousands through those stern old gates, swarming everywhere in

profuse enjoyment of their hard fought victory.

The men were happy

property

damage there

gaining their goal, and of looting or of

was little in those winding old avenues so
at

strange to the new battalions literally from another country in the deep
south of China.
Some were slightly disForeigners were unharmed.

commoded

day or two but none, as far as I know, was injured

or lost an appreciable amount of property, if any.
And that, in time
of war, is not usual.
But the troops, victorious and inclined to be
Harm to those who had remained was far from
rampant, were gay.
for a

their thoughts

in

the

week

that

Peking

fell.

Old Marshal Chang Tso-lin, the defeated war lord from ManHe fled back toward his own capital
churia, saw the fight was vain.
of Mukden, above the Great Wall of that China which the old brigand
had hoped to rule as yet another Manchu emperor on the Dragon
Throne in Peking.
But Marshal Chang never lived to see his own
capital again, and there are many who still say it was "bad joss" (ill
luck) for him ever to have left the peaceful plains of Manchuria where
he was dictator.
1S6

THE MARINES GET GOING

The coach on which

Marshal was

the

fleeing

on the outskirts of

mysteriously blasted to bits

187

toward home was

Mukden

the

as

just

Marshal Chang Tso-lin was killed,

as dramatically and mysteriously as he had lived to rise from bandit
in Manchuria to the man who would be
king over the Chinese, their
train

was about

ruler

and emperor

The

he died.

The

to enter the city.

in

a modern

Peking

explosion was at

dawn on

4f

Son

of Heaven.'*

Instead,

the morning of June 4.

foreign troops in China became interested in the rapid devel-

When word came

opments around Peking that week; and so did I.
that old Marshal Chang had taken a private train and fled, we realized
that

were decidedly picking up in the north.

And when we
Shanghai, nearly 1000 miles to the south, that in his flight

things

heard in

from

Peking the old soldier-brigand-dictator had been assassinated,

there was but one thing for me to do.
Like the Marines and the Navy,
I

to

went to the scene

first

Manchuria, landing

to

in the

Tientsin and then across

Japanese-owned port

Peichihli

Bay

Dairen near Port

of

Arthur.
I

away on a crowded steamer and

got

deck chairs.
Just before

It

we

slept

in the

library

or on

weather in early June along the China Coast.

may explain the northern drive by the Kuomin-

fine

is
left,

along two major salients was resumed toward Peking.

also want to stress here the attitude of our own, the British and the

tang armies
I

Japanese forces out there at that important juncture in the revolution

The possibility of America's joining with the British in sending
at least part of the troops defending Shanghai northward was increasing daily, and the United States Marines were soon ordered to Tientsin.
The theater of the Kuomintang Revolution rapidly shifted north-

ward and both the

ities

were inclined

and the American naval and military authorview the situation in the Peking-Tientsin area

British
to

with heightened interest if not actual apprehension for the safety of

the many foreigners concentrated there.

The

British

sent

two

their northern base at the

to Tientsin.

battalions

town

of

chief-of-staff,

the north

was

in

command

officer.

believed to be similar to that which had

when

of their

accompanied by Viscount Gort, his

and an aviation reconnaisance

hai a year or so before,

to

Wei-Hai-Wei, and the second went

Major-General John Duncan, chief

forces in China, sailed for Tientsin

One proceeded

northward.

The danger

in

menaced Shang-

the revolution swept over the Yangtze

THE DRAGON STIRS

188

Valley and engulfed that

city.

the Peking-Tientsin area.

therefore,

large force,

was

sent

to

Great Britain, and United States, France

and Japan cooperated in this movement of troops and marines.

In these movements the U. S. Marines sent one regiment to Tientsin.

It

was

the 6th regiment, the

men

sailing

on board the transport

Smedley Butler, in command of the U. S.

Marines in China, returned from the north and arranged details of the
shift.
Acting Consul-General Clarence Gauss was transferred to TienHenderson.

tsin in

had

General

Cunningham, who
returning from a leave of

mid-June, former Consul-General Edwin

held

the

Shanghai

post

for

years,

S.

absence.

United States destroyers were concentrated at Chefoo,

These included the U. S.
their northern summer base below Tientsin.
six

Also,

which was already there, and five others. They were the
famous U. S. S. Noa, which fired during the "Nanking Incident" more
S. Hurlbert,

than a year before; the Paul Jones, the Preble, the Preston and the
Pruitt.

The

entire outlook of the Chinese revolution turned northward, as

Men
a result of optimistic reports from both Nanking and Hankow.
at both revolutionary centers claimed victories all along the lines of
the two routes of attack toward Peking, the goal for so
this surge

toward power over

all

China.

One

line of

many

years in

march was north

from Hankow along the inland railroad to Peking: the other was up
from Nanking, through Shantung Province, along the sea coast into
Tientsin and thence to Peking, less than 100 miles away.
Marshal

Feng Yu-hsiang's drive around Chengchow

was apparently progressing favorably and

in the central-China route,

the

Manchu

troops

forcing the Northerners were bottled up beyond Kung-hsien

rein-

on that

salient.

The Kuomintang men appeared

and

also to

have buried the hatchet at

to be determined to

go ahead with the battle for Peking without further internal squabbles.
Nanking and Hankow seemed to be

last

in accord as far as

the northern expedition

was concerned.

pronouncement was issued by the National Government at Nanking seeking to clear up once and for all the "Nanking outrages" of
the previous year.
The British authorities conducted unofficial conversations with them and a public statement on that troublesome incident in the revolution

was the

result.

settlement, at least as far

THE

MARINES GET GOING

189

were concerned, was finally arranged.

A Settlement
Commission of Chinese and foreigners was eventually appointed to
arrange the cash payments to be made.
as

British

the

It

was generally

believed then in official circles in

China that the

reason for the concentration of a large foreign defense force in or near

Tientsin was the protection of foreign lives and property in the event

The whole move was as much against

danger from Northern Chinese troops who had to flee, as against the
victorious and advancing Southerners in the Kuomintang Army.
of a Northern troop debacle.

was evinced

Shanghai over President Coolidge's

approval of the State Department's plan in 1928 to remove our Legation from Peking to some point on the coast, doubtless Tientsin.
The

High

local

interest

reaction

certain

was varied

in

in

however, and

the extreme,

Americans as well as British were inclined

to

found that

criticize

what

they regarded as a further indication of Washington's refusal to take

a "firm stand" for the protection of American interests in China.
Still

Washington was eminently correct, even

admitting that there seemed to be very little

others tended to the view that

one high British official

use in maintaining the Legations in Peking when there was apparently
no effort made by the Chinese in power there toward the maintenance
of a civil

form

of government.

R. Y. Blakely, in command of our light cruiser

squadron on the China coast, sailed aboard the cruiser Richmond, and
as the ranking naval officer was in command of the naval and marine

Rear-Admiral

J.

Reports persisted that the British would send at

four battalions north.
Their headquarters, however, insisted only

forces at Tientsin.
least

two would be dispatched.

This was done.

Meanwhile, a Japanese force of 2000

Tsingtao in Shantung Province.

men

Reports

arrived at the port of

indicated

that

feeling

was

running high against Japan's returning to Shantung, and demonstrations among the Chinese showed a renewed popular antipathy toward
this

sudden move.

The

interior sectors appeared quiet.

headquarters

One

dispatch from Hankow*,

for that salient, asserted that Marshal

Feng Yu-hsiang

Loyang, which seemed probable in view of

the stiff fighting in that area for days.
Another telegram from there
advised that Chinese Communists in the towns of Changsha, Singtan,

had reported

his capture of

THE DRAGON STIRS

190

Yiyang, Ping-kiang, Changteh and Linyang had been ousted by the

Cantonese troops, who then proceeded to form unions.

Our

coastal

packet

nosed past Tangku

Bar three days

after

we

Shanghai, in early June and we tied up alongside Tangku, port of

There
Tientsin some eighteen miles down the Hai-ho River on the sea

left

considerable fighting going on between the coast and Tientsin

as the Kuomintang forces pushed on after the rapidly fleeing Northern

was

still

who were

As

a result, there was

no apparent way to get up river to Tientsin, and once there, there was
no way to get on over to Peking, about ninety miles further inland in
troops,

leaving in a dispirited rout.

what was then Chihli Province, now called Hopei.

A young Dutchman, Richard Breitenstein, and

went ashore

to

Train service at the stareconnoiter, there being nothing else to do

none knew when or if a train would
tion was dished for the moment

Some United

run.

States Marines were

down

for the mail,

however,
that there was a U. S.

and they heard of our plight.

One told me
Marine aviation base nearby, stationed opposite the

local

Standard Oil

plant on the seacoast.

Without delay we walked over there, a short distance. There were

a dozen or more Marine airplanes at that post then, and they proved
a lifesaver.
We arranged to fly to Tientsin a flight which took about
twenty minutes, directly across the clashing lines firing at one another
below.
We flew in an open ship, some 2,500 feet up, and although we
got a good view of that sector in action, the Marine flier and I were

We

saw
high enough to be out of gunshot range and perfectly safe.
a Japanese destroyer in the Hai-ho replying to shots from the banks

The

plane

made

available

to

me was an amphibian which had

to

We took off from

go up to headquarters anyway, and I was in luck.
the Hai-ho ("ho" means river in North China) at Tangku and less
than a half hour later landed on the Race Course outside Tientsin.
I thanked the Marine flier, a Captain, and
got a taxi in to town.
could not get up to Peking for several days.
So I
registered at the Astor Hotel, bathed and turned in, glad of a bed

There,

after

found

sleeping

Shanghai.

fitfully

and

fully

clothed

on deck chairs since leaving

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIN

15

MY

in

was on June 10 of that strange month

1928, two days after Peking had been taken over by Gen-

arrival in Tientsin

Yen

Northern governor in Shansi

Province nearby, but allied with the Kuomintang.
The ex-coolie who
became Governor of Shantung, Marshal Chang Chung-chang, was still
holding Tientsin, but he, too, had to flee within the week, and his
Some fled, but in the main they
troops went over to the victors.
eral

Hsi-san,

merely recognized a new

The man who

himself

chieftain.

faced but stern military man whose

General
Kuomintang Revolution.

Fu

Tso-yi, a moontroops were loyal to him and the

Fu was named the new Defense

occupied Tientsin was General

went out in the native city around the foreign

concessions of Tientsin to see him the next day.
His aims were not
anti-foreign, he said, and his troops were told to respect foreign property there.
Certainly no one sought to harm me in the trip to the
General's
"yamen," or headquarters, through the narrow native
Commissioner, and

avenues.

The Commissioner

did

not

know whether

the

victorious

march

would continue then to press on past the Great Wall and into ManNone
churia, where old Marshal Chang Tso-lin had just been killed.
in Tientsin then knew or would comment on this part of the revolution; they seemed to feel, however, that holding Peking and Tientsin
would keep their troops occupied for the next few months. There was
still some little fighting going on in the outskirts of Tientsin, and the
sound of shooting could often be heard.
touring the foreign defenses late one night, or just before
dawn, while distant rifle fire was audible but nothing of importance
occurred within the concession area.
Nothing but the usual round of
I

recall

unbridled

French,

gaiety

with

which

Germans, and Russians

the

foreigners

Americans,

British,

sought an outlet from the idleness

191

THE DRAGON STIRS

192

They danced here and there

in the halls
rather tawdry when compared to the more luxurious
and most of them spent
places for which Shanghai has become known
always forced on commerce by warfare.

hours at numerous Chinese gambling houses, or the one run by an

American peroxide blonde of uncertain vintage and virtue in what

had been the old German Concession there. It ran wide open, and I
was led astray one night long enough to try a fling with the always
or
fascinating little ivory ball in roulette, where I won $200 Mex.,
about $95 in U. S. currency at that time.

was

It

week, so

still

impossible to get through to

I left for

York Times

Manchuria.

The

local

Peking

at

the

end of a

correspondent for The

New

on from Tientsin, and his chief, Hallett

Abend, then a part-time man in North China who within a few months

was

to

then

succeed

me

carried

in

Asia with headquarters at

all

Shanghai, was

The strange manner in

Peking angle out from there.
which Marshal Chang Tso-lin had died intrigued me, in any case, so
getting

the

went to Mukden

what was occurring across Peichihli Bay

there.
My companion, Breitenstein, went along and in mid-June we
landed from a Japanese vessel at the Japanese-controlled city of Dairen
I

ar the tip of the

to

see

Manchurian peninsula.

Dairen was a modern

of China.

The Japanese

and peaceful after the chaos

up from little or nothing and have

city, calm,

built

it

quiet

South Manchuria Railway headquarters there.

They
were proud of their work not only in Dairen but in all Southern Manchuria which they then controlled
and in all fairness, I must say here
their

that

powerful

they had, and have,

a right to be proud.

industry and customary peacetime pursuits

was

The atmosphere
all

of

but overwhelming

one just fresh from the wars of China.

To find out what was back of all this and what the Japanese intended to do if the men in the Chinese Kuomintang tried to push on
to

He was Henry W.
Manchuria, I sought out an old friend.
Kinney, an adviser to the South Manchuria Railway, whom I had
into

known

years before in Tokyo.

Kinney, a writer, traveller, editor and
erstwhile associate of the late Jack London when the two were residents of Honolulu earlier in this century, knew all the answers.
But

he knew also that they would sound better in America if they came
from a Japanese. So he introduced me to Mr. Yosuke Matsuoka, then
vice-president of the S.

M. R.

in Dairen,

a Japanese diplomat educated

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIN

United

the

in

Matsuoka-San

States.

subsequently

193

became

world

famous as the head of the Japanese delegation to the League of Nations which walked out of that august assembly some years ago.
In
the

summer

1940 he became Foreign Minister in Tokyo.

of

high degree of interest approaching anxiety marked the Japanese

attitude

as

indications

increased

that

the

victorious

Nationalists

did

not intend to stop with the capture of Peking, but were already laying
plans for an onward push into China's Three Eastern Provinces, or

Manchuria.

Reports published widely in the Japanese press in Dairen

in 1928 outlined the Southerners' contemplated offensive, and I found
apparent that preparations were under way at all strategic points to
meet the crisis which was feared to be imminent.
Of course, it failed
it

to materialize.

Japan had definitely determined not to permit anything to disrupt

the peace and order of Manchuria, determination made clear by a frank
declaration to me by Matsuoka.
The opinion prevailed that Japan was
facing the most critical situation in her occupation of Manchuria since

War

proceeded on what
was generally regarded as a sane program to offset the possibilities of
civil war entering the Three Eastern Provinces.
the Russo-Japanese

"Our

19Q4--05,

policy, frankly, is peace at

but

officials

any price," said Matsuoka.

"We

our declaration not to permit either

or Nanking to carry the fighting into Manchuria,
If they

intend to reiterate,

Mukden

in

if

necessary,

are able to get together and settle their political differences peacefully,
all

if

right

not,

we

door at Shanhaikwan (at the eastand not permit the Southern armies to

shall close the

ern end of the Great Wall)

pass."

Matsuoka had been long

among

in the

Foreign Office in Tokyo and was

those closest to the late Baron Tanaka, the Premier, although

he then held no

a protectorate
I asked Matsuoka.

that

"Isn't

Mukden?"

political post.

virtually

over

whoever

is

in

power

in

"We will not peryou will/' he replied.

mit war to disturb Manchuria, where the people are peaceful and prosWe intend to assure peace at any price in Manchuria, which
perous.
"Call

is

it

a protectorate

if

our old and long established policy.

"I admit that this is liable to put us in an embarrassing position.

THE DRAGON STIRS

194

We

do not

certainly

criticism

to the

to

desire

Chinese

all

politics,

the

contrary notwithstanding."

Matsuoka said he believed

when

in

interfere

he was expressing Tokyo's policy

he declared that no Southern troops would be permitted to pass

Shanhaikwan

there

if

was any

that

fighting in the offing.

Nanking's program then to push on

in

further

conquests beyond

Peking, as published in the Japanese press, was to follow this plan:

In the first line of attack under General Chiang Kai-shek, his troops

would advance to Shanhaikwan along the Peking-Mukden Railway via

Tientsin.
A second group under Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang would
start for the same destination via Tungchow, Yutien and Fengjun,

Feng being

in

men and

the middle sector between Chiang's

those

of

Yen Hsi-san, Governor of Shansi Province and Peking's new

ruler, who was directing the third advance via Jehol Province, north
Another significant feature was seen in the participation
of the Wall
of General Pei Chung-hsi, the man who captured Shanghai, later fell
General

out with Chiang Kai-shek, went to Wuhan and was then in Peking.
This leader of the Kwangsi group had long been a disturbing element
within the Kuomintang.

General Pei was said to be leading a fourth

expeditionary force against the north in the general direction of Chiefenchow, the strategy apparently being to have his army ready to reinforce any others in the event that that should be necessary.
"If they get in the vicinity of
to surrender," said
this

we

Matsuoka,

shall absolutely

There are times when

Shanhaikwan and Mukden refuses

"it will

mean

We

not permit.
a firm attitude

is

civil

shall

war
stop

essential,

in

Manchuria and

them
and

at the door.

this

is

one of

We

do not want to help any faction within China, but we have

got to protect the peace of Manchuria."
Matsuoka was unusually frank and outspoken as he replied to my
them.

queries.

"We

Asked why he was so emphatic, he reiterated:

must protect our interests in Manchuria."

Then he proceeded with

"Naturally
here," he said.

we

this

is

significant statement.

"However, we might as well admit that Manchuria

true.

embarrassment, but
are as they are.

and

consider our interests enough reason for our action

strategically vital to
cally,

his frank

is

it is our first line of defense.

Japan
GeographiThese are the facts which perhaps will cause us

we must

face the situation

and admit that things

be

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LlK

"But let me add that we do not want turmoil. We do
misunderstood.
We want peace in Manchuria. That

195
not want to
is

all."

Another thing which he feared might disturb that peace was the
probability that Chang Tso-lin, warlord of Manchuria and erstwhile
Northern Dictator, was dead.
Absolutely nobody with authority in
Even Matsuoka
Dairen would say yet whether he was dead or alive.
insisted that he could not ascertain the truth.

Hence, the impression was growing hourly as no news came from

Mukden other than rumors one way and the other concerning the warlord's

when

condition,
his train

that he

had succumbed to the wounds he suffered

was bombed

several days earlier as he

was

fleeing

from

Peking to Mukden. The whole bombing affair was surrounded by the

Those who should have known all about it professed
deepest mystery.
the most

complete ignorance, the Chinese blaming the Japanese and

the Japanese being inclined to intimate that Chinese blew up Chang

But nobody was making any definite statement. The

new alignment in Manchurian political affairs had a significant effect
Hence the tenseness surrounding the
on the Japanese position there.
Tso-lin's train.

bombing

of the old Marshal,

international

which contained the seeds of far-reaching

developments.

went on up

Mukden, where

found that young General Chang

Hsueh-liang, a capable youth then still in his twenties, had succeeded
his picturesque father as Governor of Fengtien and Dictator of ManI

churia.

Mukden

blems of China's
of

those

to

that mid-June
first

republic

was bright with

by that time

Three Eastern Provinces

ment of the advent

of

a new

There was a somber note

certainty that the old

five-barred flags,

em-

flying only in the capitals

celebrating

the

formal announce-

ruler.

in the

surface gaiety, however, born of

Marshal was dead despite the

official

pronounce-

was assuming the dictatorship because of his father's

critical condition.
There was a further reason for the strain of anxiety
beneath the populace's police-adjured jollity.
The political plots and

ment

that his son

counterplots pervading Manchuria's peaceful plains threatened

to

up-

root authority, and Chinese and Japanese alike regarded the situation

with concern.

Two

vital

Mystery enveloped Mukden.

questions that officially remained unanswered were

who

wrecked Chang Tso-lin's train and how? and was the Marshal dead?
Chang Tso-lin's death had not been officially announced by June 19.

THE DRAGON STIRS

196

However,

the son

had

tiffin

industrial Chinese, including persons closest

it

was understood

that

a group of
to the young General, and

in the native city that day with

a statement of

his

father's

death was

issued

shortly thereafter.

The Chinese were always thoroughly convinced that Japan was

The usual motive advanced was that Japan wanted to
responsible.
cause trouble in Manchuria so that

it

would be possible

annex the country without too much opposition abroad.

four years

This she did

later.

The Japanese
terior motives

in

authorities,

on the other hand, stanchly denied

Manchuria, the consular as well as military

persisting in the contention that the sole interest of

tain peace

her to

for

and

to assist the Chinese to

Japan was

become prosperous.

ul-

officers

to

main-

The Japa-

nese Consul-General, Mr. Hayashi, sought to get the Chinese to agree

to issue a joint statement on the bombing, but the Chinese refused.

The

indication

was

a joint inquiry
anyway, they would reject

that they did not desire

vinced that the Japanese did

it

for,

con-

efforts

to

prove otherwise.

The Chinese took no

action,

their

leaders

pointing

out

that

the

Japanese wanted them to start something to enable Japan to go ahead

and take Manchuria. Hence they shook puzzled heads, admitted strong
anti- Japanese feeling

was

increasing,

bide their time and handle the affair

at

and yet declared that they must

when times were less troublous

home.

Japan had a garrison of nearly 10,000 men in Mukden then, and

her total force in Manchuria was estimated at nearly 25,000, which
was enough to "enforce peace." Chinese Northern troops continued
to arrive

from the south on the Peking-Mukden Railway

line,

jammed

with troop trains.

Chang Tso-lin left little rolling stock behind him.
Scores of the famous "Blue Express" cars of the Tientsin-Pukow line

were on the sidings at Mukden, as well as cars marked Peking, Hankow, etc. His denuding the railways of all cars hampered communications throughout China for months.
The whereabouts of Marshals Sun
Chuan-fang and Chang Chung-chang, Mukden's allied commanders,

was causing
of

speculation.

It

was believed

that they

were in the

vicinity

Shanhaikwan, and they were expected to retire safely to Dairen.

Chang Hsueh-liang had not formally assumed the mantle in suc-

ceeding his father as Governor of Fengtien Province, although in effect

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIN

his position

was the same

197

Japan was apparently

as that of his father.

content to permit the young General to assume his father's post,

al-

seemed quite patent that the Japanese, thoroughly incensed

over Chang Tso-lin's attitude in recent months, wanted a new line-up.
it

though

was among the reasons

This, incidentally,

the Japanese were behind

Chang

that

evict the

to

its

Japan long sought

make

to

certain concessions

for the Chinese belief that

Tso-lin's

old

assassination.

who was

Marshal,

Japan was said to

They

said

unwilling

desire.

Foreign experts who visited the scene of the disaster soon after
occurrence agreed that there must have been at least ISO pounds

mine

in the

of explosive

Manchuria Railway, and

laid

that

of the bridge of the South

must have taken several hours to lay

in the pier
it

Hence, the Japanese soldiers who were guarding the site were
deemed to have been at least "strangely negligent." The Japanese reit.

guarded their own line below the bridge, where

the Japanese were stationed.
But the Chinese asserted that they were
not permitted to send guards within the Japanese railway zone and
plied that the Chinese

had none

there.

man on

the train

guards and that the Japanese

minutes after the explosion.

On

June 20,

its

chief

goals

not

that

appear

he saw no
until

Chinese

about

twenty

with young Marshal Chang

said he intended to pursue a policy having among

I talked for the first time

He

Hsueh-liang.

did

said

the

eradication

of

the

scourge of war in these three

troubled eastern provinces of China.

Following the early institution of an era of economic development,

he hoped to encourage the investment of American capital in Manchuria.

would welcome

"I
ity/'

said the

capital

financial aid

in

basis of equal-

"I would be best pleased

young Marshal.

were invested

from abroad on the

Manchuria.

However,

if

American

do not intend to

Foreign corporations coming into our

grant further special privileges.
that is, half
country must be willing to agree to equality of control
Chinese

and

half

nationals

of

whatever

foreign

countries

organize

companies here."
This was similar to the old arrangement for the Chinese Eastern
Railway, which was essentially Russian until bought by Japan.

The
on June

youthful successor to
4,

1928,

Chang

Tso-lin,

the day his father's train

twenty-seven years old

was dynamited, issued a

THEDRAGONSTIRS

198

formal proclamation the next day giving the details of his policies, but
in this first interview he outlined in advance to The New York Times
correspondent the chief policies of his Government.
declined to discuss the attitude of Japan but felt Tokyo's show
He believed it
of force did not represent the attitude of the people.

He

was

the result of the temporary ascendency of a certain clique in the

Government, which he hoped was a passing phase, and that eventually

he would be able to treat with Japan on a basis of equality unhampered

He was evicted by Japan in 1931, however, fleeing
by special rights.
to Nanking.

The "}oung Marshal

He

was slender and

11

received

his

at

and serious mien added dignity

headquarters.
black mustache

military

His

energetic.

yet

pale,

me

thick,

to his frail youth.

"I shall issue a proclamation giving my aspirations for government

in detail," he said.
"They, briefly, are this I shall seek to end war.
:

have been ten years

to

all,

lift

my

China.

war and know

from our people.

this scourge

to act otherwise in
for

in

foreign policy.

Eventually,

we must

horrors.

its

hope

want,

not be forced

shall

demand equal treatment

I shall

outlook.

want our people

concentrate on the development of Manchuria and look

outward,

expand now
from within.
fct

which

am
is

of

abolish the unequal treaties.

"At home, we must reorganize our

not

first

to

to

ourselves,

There is no need of our seeking to

development.
or encroach on other parts of China.
must build
for

We

particularly

interested

another vital point.

My

in

the

development

father left

me

of

education,

In

$10,000,000.

my

me

donate every cent to an educational

proclamation you
bureau to be administered wisely, the beginning of universal education
This is highly essential to the future peacethroughout our provinces.
will

ful

see

development of our country.

"Regarding the Nationalists, we are ready to

treat

with them on

In fact, we are already

a basis of equality.
conducting negotiations,
but they are at a standstill for the present, due to the lack of

unity
are
to
discuss a
they
ready
shall do so, but talk peace only as
equals.

within the National Government.

new alignment with

If they

rally

we

us,

we

seek to exclude us and

will not

When

make peace on

their

have anything to do with them.

own terms
hope that

natu-

will not

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIN

199

occur and that the Nationalists will establish unity and enable us to
make terms.
ki

For example, General Yen HsiMeantime, they are unreliable.

san came to Peking and told us how he would guarantee the safe
our garrison.
The Commander left in charge a small
When our
army to maintain peace in Peking until the turn-over.
General departed, his men met Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang's troops between Peking and Tientsin and were disarmed.
This disgraceful
of

departure

breach of faith leaves us doubting that they trust each other.

'These things
is

program

will

only tentative and

nothing obstructs
unforeseen occurs

its
I

to

strive

to

subject

achievement,

You must

accomplish.

but

subsequent events.

in

the

do not want yon to think

only strive for these goals.

The main

realize

object

is

event

me

that

the

hope

something
I can

not frank.

to establish faith in

my

regime.
"I

frankly

The

admit the problem.

Marshal said that

But

Marshals

this

outlines

my

aim."

life's

Sun
given him

Chang Chung-chang and

with him, Sun commanding the troops

by young Chang; and Chang Chung-chang with the remnants of his

Chuan-fang were

still

Shantung army.

A
was

few days

later

went north to Harbin.

Northern Manchuria

with anxiety as the people in the Three Eastern Provinces

awaited the solution of the shifting political situation caused by the
astir

capture of Peking by the Nationalists and the dramatic death of Marshal

Chang

Tso-lin.

Conversations

with

well-informed

persons

indicated

at

least

two

namely, that the provinces of Kirin and Hailunkiang were

determined to end control by a dictatorship in Mukden no matter
things,

under whom, but particularly under young Marshal Chang Hsuehliang; and that it was believed that Manchuria soon would join a
National Federation of China under a Manchurian Central Executive

Committee form

The

of

attitude

government with the

of

Kirin

was

capital

particularly

remaining at Mukden.

adamant

against

con-

tinuation of the old order of things as far as maintenance of a dictator-

un g Marshal" was concerned, the position

Chang Hsueh-liang were a suitable ruler for

ship under the "y

of

being that

his

if

people of Fengtien Province

it

was

satisfactory

to

Kirin

own

Kirin that he rule

THE DRAGON STIRS

200
there, but they

would not admit

his right to dictate affairs

outside of

Fengtien.

Observers in close touch with

were

watching the
conversations with the National Government at Nanking, and the imaffairs

intently

was growing that a tentative agreement had already been

reached under which Manchuria would retain much of its old autonomy
but would join the Nationalists as part of a federation agreement.
pression

While public opinion

This they did, under the "young Marshal."
regarded a change to this system with doubt, its adoption was generally seen as a progressive move toward eventual unity and the ending
of internal political strife which otherwise,

it

was

might con-

feared,

tinue indefinitely.

The

attitude of

Japan toward such agreements was regarded as a

probable obstruction, however.

intended to interfere as long
affairs

was

The Japanese

peacefully.

still

Japanese in authority denied that they

as the Chinese settled their political

unanimous

in

military high
it

declaring

did not

command

intend

Mukden

at

exceed treaty

to

hence the opinion was gaining ground that Japan was willing
to permit Manchuria to try the Nationalist experiment as long as her
rights,

rights

were unimpaired and peace was preserved.

In

fact,

just

before leaving

Mukden,

received

a communication

from Yosuke Matsuoka, saying that he desired to clear up his attitude

on a ''protectorate" there. He considered the use of the word unforwish to emphasize that neither I nor any other
responsible Japanese desires nor contemplates a Japanese protectorate
over Manchuria."
Matsuoka's idea was to maintain peace in Mantunate,

adding:

"I

churia by preventing the armies of either side from fighting and if this
were construed as protecting any interests it could not be helped but
as far as the Tokyo Government formally announcing any intention
;

of setting
it

up a protectorate

in the

League of Nations

he said

sense,

was simply untrue.

The
hension.

Chinese,

nevertheless,

Authorities in

approaching

all

submissiveness

regarded

quarters
until

Japan's

counselled

domestic

moves
a policy

political

with
of

affairs

appre-

calmness
subsided.

There had been what was regarded as a strange anti-Soviet campaign in the native city in Harbin. Students were circulating pamphlets
in

which two theories were advanced

the Chinese were

all

one,

that

the Japanese,

whom

ready to blame for anything, were trying to arouse

THE END OF CHANG TSO-LIK

trouble,

and the

other, that the National

backing the movement.

Soviet

Government

adherents

in

201

Nanking was
North Manchuria were
at

keeping quiet and not entering the political field on one side or the
other, although I found them keeping in particularly close touch with
a Japanese Manchurian colonization plan.

TOKYO'S DILEMMA

16

again in Mukden toward the end of that June, I came to

the conclusion that Japan was fighting with her back to the

BACK

Great Wall of China.

While on the surface all was calm and the Chinese

officially

ex-

pressed their appreciation of the manner in which Japan's firm policy

in Manchuria had maintained peace while the rest of China suffered

seemingly interminable civil war, it was increasingly

apparent to me even then that great forces were moving which eventually would tend to force the Japanese either to occupy Manchuria
the agonies

of

and put an end

doubt, or withdraw her claims to control and

It was doubtful in the extreme that Tokyo would

to

special privileges.

Therefore, the natural tendency

on the part of the Chinese was to anticipate that Japan intended to do
everything in her power more firmly to implant her control there.
listen at all to this

latter alternative.

Whether that attempt was to take the form of a protectorate or

whether it was the intention of the War Office cabinet in Tokyo to
proceed with a bold program of annexation were among the continThe
gencies secretly discussed in the Manchurian capital in 1928.
Japanese in positions of authority were frankly ready to admit, doubtless with the approval of their Premier, Baron Tanaka, that Japan
intended to protect these provinces from attack.
The Japanese slogan

remained "Peace at any price," in Manchuria, and they were ready to

stand behind that policy to the limit.

Whether

that constituted establishing a protectorate in effect over

whoever happened to be in power in Mukden was not, the Japanese
It was their avowed intention to
explained to me, their business.
in
order
maintain peace and
Even the
Manchuria, come what might.

Chinese could not but see the wisdom of such a policy, although in
Mukden I heard now and then some Chinese remark that this public
expression on the part

of

Japan was an insult to the integrity and

202

TOKYO'S DILEMMA
ability

of

the

Chinese

to

handle

203

own affairsa

their

"breach

of

sovereignty," to use an overworked term.

Japan had a number of strong reasons for her stand in Manchuria,

based fundamentally on these three first, she had gained special rights,
at least in South Manchuria, by right of conquest from the Russians,
:

and the economic development of the country; second, Manchuria was

her first line of defense in case of war; and third, Japan, with a
and forcing the
Empire to become an industrial nation, needed not only a sure market
for her manufactures but a place to which her nationals could easily
rapidly

increasing

population

into

moving

her

cities

migrate.

Considerable criticism has been

at

leveled

the Japanese for their

attempts to keep Manchuria separate from the rest of China and their

Three Eastern Provinces, or at least South

Manchuria (including Fengtien and most of Kirin province) as a
special preserve for Japanese interests.
Again, it must be remembered

alleged desire to keep the

that

the

human manner, and

Japanese acted in a highly

that

many

another nation in similar circumstances might be expected to do likewise.

Naturally, that does not prevent the Chinese since the advent

Manchukuo

from feeling that the time has come for them

to regain control of their own country and to throw off what they
of

in 1931-32

Thus, the natural

regard as shackles imposed by a foreign nation.
ambitions of two peoples directly opposed to each other, met first on
The death struggle soon
the fertile, peaceful acres of Manchuria.
spread.

The road from

was now open at last, and the

Kuomintang chieftains was about to reach

Tientsin to Peking

"Big Four" conference of

a climax there.
It behooved

we

me

departed from Manchuria.

He
to our little touring band.

by the authorities

in

Mukden and

the

day

go

there,

to the

he belonged, in Tientsin.

This

we were

to

there to take a steamship across Peichihli

States Consul at the old

Manchu

at the

him back

I agreed to

Sixth Regiment headquarters where

is the way it occurred:

The morning of

and

end of June
Not, however, without adding another
was a U. S. Marine deserter nabbed
to

escort

leave

Bay

capital paid

The day previous I had had lunch with him

compound and bade him farewell

Mukden

for

to Tientsin, the

me

Dairen,

United

an unexpected

call.

in the pleasant consulate

THE DRAGON STIRS

204

But our Consul had had a shock

since then.

young chap

scarcely

within

out of his teens had been seized by the Japanese authorities

Railway Zone

their

The

Mukden.

at

youth, dressed in tramp-like civilian clothes, had no passport

His
or other identifying papers but claimed that he was an American.
first story was that he was off a freighter then in Dairen and, given

He said
overnight "shore-leave," had taken a train ride to Mukden.
he would be on his way back then but for the fact that he was abruptly
I never did disarrested.
Eventually, the Japanese or our Consul
wormed

out of the frightened youngster his true identity.

then quickly told his story, of how he had come to desert the IL S.

cover which

He

Marine Corps

at Tientsin, in time of a

war

in

North China

in

which

they might have been involved.

The

we came

"kid," as

over eighteen years old,

He

know our Marine

to

that

if

said he

he was not much

-for

was from the Middle West.

joined the Marines to see the world, but had found

at Tientsin pretty dull after so long

a time.

camp

Then he met

routine

a Russian,

he related, who told him he should not obey orders of "all those guys,"
the officers.
They had a few drinks, it seems, and the Marine "quit'

the service, joined with his pal, grabbed a train, and landed in jail at
Mukden a short time later. What happened to his Russian friend, I

never learned.

"But
tsin,"

will

problem

said the

Fm

So

my

how

to get

"We

Consul.

him back

to his

regiment in Tien-

have no funds for returning deserters.

you you are leaving for Tientsin

Dairen tonight, and sail back to China tomorrow.
it

putting

go to

is

to

up

at
I

noon,
can't

pay you now, but if you will advance this deserter's fare and meals,
you'll get some kind of a reward or pay from the Corps in Tientsin.

How

about it?"

There was no point in refusing, so I said: "Okay, but one thing

must be understood now. I'll pay his way and chaperone this lad, but
I

won't sleep with him handcuffed to

again tonight
of

my

let's

when

affair.

go.

If

How

The Consul

me

if

get

he really

him a room
is

my arm!
in

If

he wants to duck

Dairen that

is

strictly

none

ready to face the music and wants to go,

about that?"
agreed.

He

said there

would be no blame attached to

the Marine fled again after being placed in

my

custody.

TOKYO'S DILEMMA
"Have him here

"And by

at

noon for the Express down

to Dairen,"

name?"
Consul replied, and laughed.

said.

the way, what's this deserter's

"Budzinski/' our affable

an

He's

205

American,

all

but

right

that's

his

right

"It really

is.

name, believe

it

or not/'
'

With an unusual name of my own I had no trouble in believing it,

or that the lad was an American.
We already had picked up another
lad just out of Yale

whom we met
when

at

and making a world tour as a graduation present,

His name was Hermann.
Harbin.
The next day,

bought the four steamship tickets for our squadron trooping

across China even the Japanese man at the counter had to smile.
Who
I

chaps travelling together and named Hermann,

And we were all Gentiles,
Breitenstein, Misselwitz and Budzinski!
except Hermann, who was a Jew from New York.
at

wouldn't,

On

four

the train

we had no

down

to Dairen I talked with the boyish

Marine and

trouble in that quarter.

okay with me," I told him, "if you desert again when we hit
I'm going to give you five yen (about $2.50 then)
Dairen tonight.
for a meal or two and a room for the night, and it's up to you to be
"It's

on the boat when we

If you're not, I

sail.

won't

like

it,

but what do

you care?

And you

may

some one

You'll be free, free as any hunted man can be.

be free, so to speak, for five, ten or twenty years
but

arm

Uncle Sam's law will grab you again.

You don't want to go through life as a deserter, a hunted man, do

of these days the long

of

Make up your mind. Here's the money

when we sail for China tomorrow."
And he was there, glad to be sailing back to his
you?

no harm

and

I'll

look

outfit

for

you

There was

hope he got off light at headquarters.

All we could get on the Japanese vessel back was deck space again.
I had had my fill of deck space travel, but I had to get to Peking, so
we went. Although it was nearly July, that night at sea off North
China was one of the most chilling I ever spent anywhere. The next
in that Marine,

day on shore at Tientsin it was stifling, but we all nearly froze to

scant shelter from those icy blasts toward the
death on that tiny ship
Manchuria plains which we were leaving.

A DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KHAN

17

OWN

expedition" into the wild pastures of

Manchuria ended on a Sunday, when our steamer docked at

MY

I had
again sought out the Astor House Hotel.
The others
to "deliver" the Marine to the base then at Tientsin.

Tientsin.

first

"northern
I

went along
poor

to the hotel while I sought out the

devil, over to the Marine authorities

GHQ

to turn Budzinski,

day of July in North China,

Budzinski was
not too far from the oven known as the Gobi Desert.
willing enough to go along, as he had been ever since he was turned
over to me, and for a black sheep, or deserter, I must give him credit
In fact, he was glad to be back
for making no disturbance whatever.
where he could see his former "buddies," who at least talked his language, and he was quite prepared to take his medicine
But the United States Marine Corps gave us our difficulties on
That was just the trouble
that hot Sabbath.
No one
it was Sunday.
of authority was around.
The enlisted man on duty at the desk had
never heard of Budzinski, and could not be bothered.
Eventually a
non-commissioned officer heard the "walla- walla," or talk, in the outer
He had heard of a deserter some
office and put in an appearance.
weeks ago but never had heard of Budzinski, and was stumped for a
moment.
Then the brilliant non-com had an inspiration.
He said:
"Wait a minute," and called a Captain on the regimental telephone.
The Captain was not in. It was Sunday.
Idea number two: The
It

was

sergeant
right,"

hot, unbearably hot, that first

be there,
"Last night was Saturday night, you know."

telephoned the

he

said.

The Captain was

officer

there

at

his

in bed.

quarters.

"He'll

all

"Send them over, Sergeant," his

The Captain
Well, we went over.

voice sounded through the receiver.

said he didn't know, but he supposed he could put Budzinski in the
guardhouse until Monday when the Corps would start functioning
again.

That seemed

fair

enough.

It

206

was

all

we

could do, in any case,

DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KHAN

A
and

207

thanked the Captain, a likable young chap, and went on to the

hotel.

When
to

the next day I got our tickets for the haphazard train ride

Peking a Marine told

me

at the station that I

Mukden and

Budzinski's fare to Tientsin from

Dairen, by the "reward" due

to

his

way

regiment here."

to

Peking

owe

that

Eventually another

the cost

of

his night's lodging in

for "safely conducting a deserter back

solely to deliver this

more than double

feel I

me

would be repaid for

Marine was sent

"reward" to me.

found

it

was

and

still

Private Budzinski's return

young man some

the

all

of the

$50 I got.
In Peking, the heat of early July was even worse than in Tientsin.
It reminded me of Hankow far to the south, where one might expect
heat.
Even so, the ancient capital, visited for the first time, was really
a

treat.

For one
that

There was enough going on

make us

to

forget the

climate.

Kuomintang Revolution gathered there

"Big Four" Conference. They were Generalissimo

thing, the leaders of the

summer

for the

Chiang Kai-shek, Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, General Yen Hsi-san,

Governor of Shansi Province, and General Li Chung-jen, a southerner
from Kwangsi Province who had been one of the foremost Generals in
the field during the capture of Peking.

Peking

fell

to the

Kuomintang Revolution on June

troops loyal to General

was

peaceful, for the

The conference
demobilize

Yen Hsi-san

occupied the

Northern troops had

did

little

but

China's vast armed

agree

forces.

city.

8,

1928,

when

Their entrance

fled.

that

the

next

move was

to

The leaders decided that a

The "young Marshal," son

Manchurian expedition was unnecessary.

of the late Marshal Chang Tso-lin, was all for the Kuomintang Revolution and the Three People's Principles, and the red emblem of the

Kuomintang with its white sun on a field of light blue in the

upper left hand corner flew all over Manchuria before the year ended.
All

was

well with the world, as these "Big

they conferred for awhile and went home.

Four" saw

it

then

and

Demobilization and the work

were the things to achieve next, they decided.

They
but those two things have yet to be accomplished.
Neither

of reconstruction

were right
was possible then or now for many reasons, including incessant
within the Kuomintang

The embalmed body

first,

strife

followed by the invasion of warring Japan.

of the late

Dr. Sun Yat-sen was entombed at

that time in a temple shrine outside Peking, awaiting the day

when

it

THE DRAGON STIRS

208

should be buried permanently by his beloved Kuomintang followers in

a Mausoleum which they had constructed on Purple Mountain outside
At
the capital of the "new China" which he envisaged, at Nanking.

Peking that
110 degrees

fetid

at

the daily temperature at the hotel

July

noon

was around

took a rickshaw out to the temporary resting

It was a
where the Northerners kept Dr. Sun's body.
beautiful spot.
The shrine was high up at the top of an old temple.
Soldiers of the Kuomintang were on guard there.
However, troops

place to

see

paid no appreciable attention to me as I walked alone across the flagged

courtyards to the long flight of stone steps leading upward to the vault.

Sun was visible within the dimly lighted vault, above

the great man's casket.
The casket was of metal, sent as a gift by the
Moscow Government; Dr. Sun was their friend and associate. The
portrait of Dr.

two

on guard would not permit me to enter the "holy of

but they were good-natured and had no objections to my

soldiers

holies/'

peering into the gloom within, dark as a cavern after the sunlight outside.
The next time, and the last, that I was to see Dr. Sun's casket

was when

saw the dark, embalmed body of the Tsung-li, or leader,

the day before the State funeral and entombment in a final restingI

place outside

Nanking a year

later.

That Fourth of July the United

MacMurray, gave
Like

tail party.

guests of

all

States

the customary Independence

all

Peking

social affairs,

Day

John

all

remember

in

American

and the party was as gay

history), milled about in genial camaraderie

as the Chinese revolutionary victors

(at

The
whom we

function.

nations, including our cousins the British

to

Van A.

reception and cock-

was a gala

it

were angry when that day became a day

In

Minister,

around the Legation Compound.

was

celebrating another revolution for freedom.

party was but one of the sidelights of the revolution in China.

fact, it

The
The whirl

of

Peking

went

on

apace.

The

night

clubs,

somewhat

tawdry affairs at best, and the hotel roof dances went on and on and
on.
Within a week I had seen enough of this, of temples, of quaint old
Peking-style homes with "moon-gate" apertures in every garden wall,
of the *'Big Four" Conference
of it all.
I left.
train to Hankow

was a

possibility for a while,

coastal steamer back to

The summer
their

of

but that idea

fell

through and I took a

Shanghai.

1928 found the

men

at

Nanking

Kuomintang Revolution and of plans

for

full of victory in

a yet greater China.

DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KHAN

209

They had got used to traveling at revolutionary speed and dreamed of

a unity that would encompass all Asia.
The dreams were fine and the
conception remains a grand idea, but the Nanking victors forgot the
apathy with which the mass of humanity views a new thought.
It was a dream, however, that rivaled the deeds of Genghis Khan.
The dream was of a great nation that, stretching far across almost all
counts

Asia,

within

borders

its

not

only

what

is

known

as

China

Proper (a vast area in itself) but the provinces in Manchuria, Inner

In the National Government there
and Outer Mongolia, and Tibet.
was formed a Committee on Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs.
It included

men who

are

well

acquainted

with

the

countries

bordering

China

Proper and who have visited these wild hinterlands of Asia, even some
who have lived among the nomadic peoples who populate the plains
and plateaux beyond the Great Wall and out to the West where the

Yangtze River begins.

Of

course these

men have made

progress in the realization of

their dream.
Communications into these backlands are as primitive
today, in the main, as in the time seven centuries ago when Genghis
little

Khan's hordes swept across Asia and started the first "pony express."
There isn't even a vestige of that "pony express" in existence.
Occasionally caravans draw out of Peking, through the mountain passes and

up

into the plateaux beyond, taking

live as

their ancestors

lived.

goods to the aboriginal tribes that

Occasionally horse traders go back into

and bring out droves of Mongolian ponies or horses from

But commerce is lax, and the task of uniting these far places

these places
Tibet.

under one government remains extremely

The

obstacles are not

all

natural.

It

difficult.

may be

recalled that

Mongolia was for a time a member of the Soviet Union.

The

Outer

influence

of Russia has long been strong in this country, adjacent to Siberia

forming a second

if

not

first line of

defense in case of another

and

war with

Hence, the Nationalists' plans in this direction will have to

recognize the Russian problems before much progress can be expected.

Japan.

The Mongols

strong Chinese government.

their

coming into a federation with a

But they are under strong pressure from

are not entirely averse to

Russian neighbors.

Several years ago the Mongols staged an uprising and declared

themselves a democratic state, and the "government" at once declared
the Mongolian princes'

titles

void.

delegation from Charhar, north-

THE DRAGON STIRS

210

west of Peking, was sent to Nanking and the question of uniting with
the Nationalists was discussed.
The Mongolians presented a lengthy

development of their obsolete but apparently still

effective form of government.
In it, they appealed for autonomous rule
The appeal was
under a Branch Political Council from Nanking.
petition tracing the

Committee on Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs. But the

point is that the Mongols, to all intents and purposes, have

referred to the
significant

been ready to unite with Nanking.

How practical such a union might
prove is a question, but it is a move toward the goal of which the men

under Chiang Kai-shek once dreamed

Here are
gation

the

essential

proposals

suggested

by the

Mongol

dele-

1.

The

Mongol

clans

pledge

allegiance

Government and place themselves under the

to

the

Nationalist

jurisdiction

of

the

Kuomintang.
2.

In

of the present tittung and hsien

lieu

government the clans

of

shall

(district)

system

become the administrative

unit,

each clan electing its own representative to a Branch Political

The Council shall be under the direct control of the
Council.
Central Political Council in Nanking but shall not be responsible
to

any intermediary organ.

3.

Lands

illegally

seized from the clans

by the military

shall

be granted the right to police their

own

be returned to the original owners.

4.

The

clans

shall

territory.

These proposals sounded, in a way, like a suit for peace rather

than an offer then to join Nanking.
However, either way, once
accepted and working, Inner Mongolia would at least acknowledge the

The leaders of China still plan to bring

government.
Tibet and Mongolia under their flag, possibly as states adhering to the
rule

of

that

National Government, but at least part of a United China.

The Mongolian

delegation

declared

they

were

ready

to

fly

the

and participate in the National Government then at

As a result of this and of the program in the minds of the

Nationalist flag

Nanking.

nen
:>n

Nanking an effort was made to make some sort of formal start

The Nanking Governbringing Tibet and the Mongolians into line.
in

ment announced a series of regulations governing the organization and

DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KUAN

Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs

regime.
(The "Nanking Government"
of

functions

National

the

Chungking.)
This committee,

am

211

Committee

now

in

functions

the
at

something akin to the Indian Affairs

There is a difference, to be sure, at the
Committee in Washington.
very start, for Tibet and Inner and Outer Mongolia are far from
But the duties of the new combeing under the control of Nanking.
I

told, is

mittee have to do with the formation of a system whereby the com-

under and with the approval of the National Government,

can set up a civil administration throughout Tibet and

mittee, acting

eventually

Mongolia, subordinate to Nanking yet functioning with a large degree

of autonomy as far as "state rights" are concerned.
The regulations

extend over Mongolia

provide that, aside from a

set forth that the committee's jurisdiction ''shall

and Tibet only," and in the second article

chairman and vice-chairman, the committee

shall

include

"from nine

members, appointed by the National Government

recommendation of the Chairman of the Executive Yuan."
to

eleven

The Executive Yuan was one

on

of the five "yuan," or Councils,

the

which

handled the business of Government at Nanking.

The Committee, in
the Government's announcement of its formation, was admonished to
begin at

once on steady work looking to the fulfilment of the vast

expansion the leaders in Nanking hoped to see realized.

The body met at least once a week in formal session and in the meantime the sub-divisions, such as the Secretariat of the Committee, the

program

of

Mongolian Affairs Office and the Tibetan Affairs Office, carried on

the daily routine of carrying out the ideas and projects of the committee as a whole.

Until

emblem

1931
despite

Manchuria flew the Kuomintang, or National Party,

opposition

result in the execution of

Chang Hseuh-liang,

in

there

two

among

the

leaders

so

severe

as

to

The young governor, Marshal

statement explaining their summary

of them.

a public

There were
execution, declared they opposed joining with Nanking.
other considerations, including the intimation they had plotted to overthrow the Mukden regime and extend greater privileges to Japan in
Manchuria, and the allegation that one of them misappropriated money
in connection with his duties as

head of the Mukden arsenal.

Provinces in interior China also are yet to be brought into line

These include Yunnan on the border of Burma, Szechuan
definitely.

THE DRAGON STIRS

212

There
west of Hankow, Kansu and Sinkiang in the northwest.
will doubtless be long years of border warfare, during which unsubjust

jected bands of jobless men, erstwhile soldiers perhaps

in

the armies

There will,
prey on the countryside.
it is
admitted, be years of guerrilla fighting of a desultory but irritating
sort, which lack of railways and motor roads and communications

North or South,

of China,

generally will

make

will

difficult

Jameses and the Cole Youngers

China for many a tedious year

of

had

was

charge of

this

for them, perhaps,

The

in

mind

There

of suppression.

first

will

West
What the men

the border lands

that

is

granted.

be the Jesse

to

the

of

in

getting a start on their long and,

never-ending plan.

criticism that this is hardly the time to think of seeking further

is

expansion

But

perhaps well grounded.

Nanking Chinese, now

it

is

difficult to

convince the

They saw the

Chungking of that fact.
ten years from a tiny uprising around Canton to a

revolution

grow in
nationwide movement

in

The armies from Canton, Russian

guided, with

propaganda and a sick North as their allies, marched with comparative

ease across the entire face of China in less than two years and, in a
measure, unified the nation.

It is not difficult, then, for

them

to

dream

of accomplishing something similar in their lifetime for almost all Asia.

There
it

is

no

telling the

outcome of

must be admitted that the scope

to

to

admire,

pique

the

that

their labors,

of their scheme alone

imagination.

It

is

an

But

certain.

is

is

interesting

something
if

not

currently important phase of the activities of the Chungking Govern-

ment,

Divergence in the spoken language

is

one of the biggest obstacles

The Ministry of
Europe.
Education in the National Government has a program to popularize

to

unity

in

the use of
of

all

Asiatic

countries,

Mandarin as the

China.

Mandarin

the

in

official

as

in

and, eventually, the only language

The word "mandarin" means

the old

days was a magistrate.

official,

in

Chinese.

Hence, the Mandarin

language was the official court language.

Whenever a man of prominence in China makes an address he
Otherwise his audience might think
prefers to speak in Mandarin
him uneducated and unworthy of his high office.
Even students in
high schools and colleges in Shanghai and the south of China do not

speak Mandarin, although the majority of them

understand in a general way when spoken to in the
all

doubtless
official

can

tongue.

DREAM THAT RIVALS GENGHIS KHAN

A
It is also

a fact that

when speaking

universities

of

China

many

talk

in

students returning to China from American

other students from a different section

to

Now

English.

own tongue

or speak Mandarin

to note that

when

they do

213

and then they may lapse

if

they are able, but

it

is

into their

interesting

they almost invariably accompany their

words with a drawing of the Chinese character in the air or on some
convenient surface.

The written
The characters,
meaning

language,
that

various

in

is,

this

of

are the same.

sections

of

is

For example, many

the

country that differ from

the

but these are comparatively few.

The use of "pidgin English"

lower classes.

same throughout China.

There may be some shades of

is

course,

well

nigh

universal

of the servants

others,

the

among

on board the trans-

These Chinese "boys" may come from any

when, as often occurs, a Shanghai "boy" wants

Pacific liners are Chinese.

And

section of China.
to

in

go on an errand while his ship is in port in Hongkong, he speaks

This peculiar and picturesque jargon has grown
"pidgin English."

up along the China coast

in the past century.

a result only of the Chinese

efforts to learn a useful brand of English.
It has grown out of efforts
It

is

as

not,

is

generally

supposed,

on each side to reach some spoken method of expression readily comto

prehensible

the

other.

The

expressions

are

made by

the

use

of

But the form

English words or perversions of English words, true.
in the main is a direct translation of the Chinese expression for the

For example,

same meaning.

if

one wants a rickshaw he

tells

the

Chinese boy something like this: "My wantchee one piecie rickshaw."
Now that is not as far from what the Chinese would say in his own
This "language" has used English as
language as one might think.
its

on a substructure of Chinese grammatical construction.

The problem of teaching the Chinese masses to speak a new lan-

basis

guage

and that

are probably as

languages

in

woman and
language.
cation there
in

By

is

what Mandarin

many

Europe.
child

in

to

is

speak English, or any other one

even be easier because the standard of edu-

Europe

That might
is

them

a big one.
There
languages, or "dialects," in China as there are
It is almost like trying to teach every man,
is

to

infinitely higher, there are public school

systems already

operation and the public generally has learned to read and

write.

far the greater part of the Chinese people cannot even read

and

THE DRAGON STIRS

214

start

Education

felt.

write.

must be made, however, authorities in the Ministry of

Hence, a National Language Unification Preparatory

Committee has been appointed.

SOME AMERICANS

18

RECORD

WHO WERE

THERE

which we are discussing

would be complete without a chapter devoted to the story of
of the Americans and Englishmen who were then in positions

NO

of these

stirring

years

of authority in China.

This

resume of the

of

activities

those leaders

of

men

carries

us

back for a brief moment to the somber passing of a Marine officer,

who died by his own hand. The tragic death in Shanghai of Colonel
Charles Sanderson Hill, commanding officer of the 4th Regiment of
the United States Marines, removed one of the most brilliant figures

branch of the American

in this

service.

Colonel Hill was found dead

Regimental Headquarters Mess in the French ConIn

cession, at 8:28 on the morning of Monday, September 5, 1927.
his right hand was an automatic pistol
bullet through the brain
in his

bedroom

at

had caused death.

Apparently the barrel of the service weapon had
been placed in his mouth and the pistol discharged.
Colonel Hill had not been in good health since his arrival the
preceding February in command of the first contingent of American
Marines to come out to China in the emergency.
Despondency borhis
constant
indisposition, was, the
dering on melancholia, induced by
the
motive
for
his
suicide.
official report said,
apparent
His death was a distinct shock to Shanghai, where the commander
had become most popular during his comparatively short residence.
He had been active in the life of the foreign community and his jovial
good nature at the clubs and elsewhere had won him a host of real
Colonel Hill refused to cease work, and
he appeared through the heat of August at his office at Marine head-

friends.

Despite his

illness,

quarters every day up to the

The Monday morning

last.

of his death Colonel Hill arose as usual,

had

breakfast with the American naval medical officer attached to the 4th

Regiment, and went back upstairs.

his

bed, he placed

his pistol in his

In

full

mouth and

215

uniform,
fired.

standing beside

The doctor heard

THE DRAGON STIRS

216
his

body

on

the

fall

floor

and rushed
dead.

room

into the

Lieut.-Colonel

find the

to

D.

F.

commander

who

Kilgore,

lying

succeeded

Colonel Hill as commanding officer, telephoned me shortly after eleven

o'clock that morning.
"I wish you would come out to Headquarters
as soon as possible," he said.

"Colonel Hill died this morning/'

Colonel Charles Sanderson Hill was a graduate both of Annapolis

and West Point, and was regarded as one of the best schooled officers
in the service.
His career was outstanding in many ways, and it was

rumored

that

he was

Brigadier-General
Colonel Hill took

shortly

to

been

have

During his long

an active part in

raised

service

various

in

to

the

rank

the

Marine

campaigns,

of

Corps,

including

Boxer Rebellion, in the Philippines, in the

Spanish-American War, and overseas duty during the World War.
Prior to the Spanish- American War, he had served as a naval cadet.

service in China during the

In April, 1899, he accepted a commission in the United States Marine

Corps.

During the Boxer Rebellion, Colonel

Chinese waters

After service in the

Hill

served

Philippines

aboard

he became

ship

in

Marine

Fleet Officer in the Pacific Fleet, taking an active part in the campaign
in Nicaragua in 1912.
During the World War Colonel Hill was

attached to the Allied armies as an observer in France, a post at which

After the war, he was Commanding Officer of the
he won praise.

Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, from 1923 to 1926.

He
was transferred to San Diego as Commander of the 4th Regiment, and
came to China with them.
*
*
*

With

the appointment early in 1929 of

Mr. F.

W.

Maze, formerly
at
of
as
Commissioner
Customs
Shanghai,
Inspector-General of Customs, the Inspectorate-General was removed from Peking to Nanking.

The

Salt

Gabelle offices were closed

in

Peking some months before

and naturally the Chinese Government administrative offices in Peking

under the old regimes were closed when Peking fell.
The Nanking

Government determined
well as in

name with

The appointment

to

make

the

new

capital the capital in fact as

the shortest possible delay.

of Mr.
Maze, who is British

and

now

Sir

Maze, did not come as a surprise, although it was not

generally known that his succession to Mr. A, H. F, Edwardes, also
There had been something of a fight
British, would come so quickly,
Frederick

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

217

on between what became known as the Maze and the Edwardes

Edwardes was appointed Acting

Customs Administration.

tions in the

fac-

Inspector-General in February of 1927, succeeding Sir Francis Aglen

who was ousted by the late Marshal Chang Tso-lin, then in power in

His appointment was for one year.

Peking.

continued because of the continuance of the

had expired, but he

war and its attendant

It

civil

disturbed conditions throughout the country.

Following the
attention to

fall

of

Peking, the National Government turned

of state.

affairs

One

of the problems

was the

status

its

of

Mr. Edwardes and the possible appointment of a successor. Mr. Maze,

it was known, was friendly toward the new
Government while there

some who

were

felt,

perhaps,

that

Mr.

might not work so well with the

efficient,

while

Edwardes,
Ministry

of

doubtless

Finance

in

Nanking.

Whatever

more or

the

opinions

less acute, the fact

were that caused the problem to become

remains that Mr. Edwardes' re-appointment

or dismissal was held up for months pending a definite decision. Then

in the autumn of 1928 came announcement of the Ministry of Finance

Mr. Maze was

appointment as "officiating" Inspector-General.
given an associate position in the Customs at the same time, while
It was bruited about then
continuing as Commissioner in Shanghai.
of his

that

this

and that

was merely a "face-saving" proposition for Mr. Edwardes,

he would soon have to resign.
He did, and in his note of

resignation issued just before the end of the year, he deplored the dual
control.

Mr. Maze was appointed almost at once, as had been expected, and,
probably acting on instructions from Finance Minister T. V. Soong,
ordered the removal of the Administration
functioned

in

Shanghai

buildings in the

new

Inspectorate-General

circles.

like

Office space

many

other

was

at

divisions

of

Nanking.
adequate

They
office

a premium and the

of the Government

it

appointment was regarded with satisfaction in

There was some indication at the time of his elevation

of a century and

most

capital

construction

could there and in Nanking.

had been in the Customs service for more than a quarter

functioned as best

Mr. Maze

pending

the

offices to

his

to chief of the service that, inasmuch as he might be expected to retire

in two years or so, he was given the office as a temporary compromise.

This was

officially

denied.

THE DRAGON STIRS

218

was known, however,

It

regain complete control

rumor

would be forthcoming

The Administration was

date.

Hence, the

Customs Administration.

of the

persisted that efforts to this end

distant

sixty

National Government aspired to

that the

established

originally

at

no

some

ago as a means of safeguarding the great foreign debts

on the Customs.
The Powers interested, chiefly Britain,

years

secured

Japan and France, can hardly be expected to give up

as

supervision

long as

However,

tariffs.

it

are

there

would not

outstanding

be

loans

surprising

to

form of

this

on

secured
see

the

the

Customs

Inspectorate-Generalship go to a Chinese in the next few years

*
*
*

new

era

was launched

in

February,

1929,

in

China's

long dis-

turbed financial situation with the arrival of a commission of sixteen

American economic experts headed by

Prof.

Edwin Walter Kemmerer,

"money-doctor," to seek to stabilize the varied currency of the

The comnation and possibly to change the silver standard to gold.
the

mission included numerous prominent Americans noted for their knowl-

edge of banking, budgeting,

currency,

The group was among many

with

similar

and financing problems.

commissions which were then
fiscal

American energy aiding the National

sanely with

its

to

proceed
ambitious schemes to renovate the war-torn and back-

ward country on modern

Professor

Government

lines.

Kemmerer had

not

much

upon landing other than

to remark, "A doctor is unable to diagnose the patient prior to an
examination," but he added that he intended to get to work immediately.

of that

He

to say

conferred with the Finance Minister, T. V.

day and also with the Railways Minister, Sun-Fo.

Soong, most

The

mild-

mannered but energetic professor in his early fifties, who has revived
the dying finances of numerous nations during his remarkable career,
was noncommittal concerning the aims of the commission but he
seemed most eager to start work on the task for which Princeton
University allowed him to be absent for a year from the chair of
economics.

The

assignment was the centralizing of Federal control of

China's revenues, to be followed by establishing a uniform currency
of the same exchange value throughout the country.
The third task

was

chief

to abolish the tael system,

of pure silver,

known

which

the custom of using one ounce

as the tael, as the basis of
exchange, causing a
is

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

219

when changing foreign currency into any Chinese

versa.
The Commission outlined a budget on the prac-

double transaction

money or

vice

revenues which covered construction projects of

scope and which was designed to repay the numerous foreign
of current

basis

tical

vast
loans

China

to

in

the

shortest

Prominent members

Young, expert
the

in

of

Dr.

finance;
to

the

who

City

W. B

resigned as economic adviser to

States

West

Poland,

Benjamin B.

United

Boston

Cleveland,

National

were Dr. Arthur Nichols

the commission

public credit,

Universities, tax expert;

expert

period.

Department; Dr. Oliver C. Lockhart,

State

railway

possible

Wallace,

Tariff

and Buffalo

Cornell

Point, N. Y., expert in

for

Commission;

some years
Dr.

Frederick

Richard

Bank,

W.

A.

budget expert; F. B. Lynch of the

on banking methods; William Watson,

University,

expert

formerly of the faculty of Syracuse University, specialist in

trol;

special

Bonneville,

the

of

formerly

United

fiscal

States

con-

Com-

merce Department, expert in fiscal control; Edward F. Feely of New

York, consultant on export trade financing general secretary of the
3

commission,

and Dr.

and

Harvard

W.

Frank
of

professor

Other members included the

Fetter,

economics
staff

and

graduate

at

of

Princeton,

their families,

Princeton

and

undersecretary.

and some remained

longer than a year.

The

American

or experts, impressed foreigners

as well as the Chinese with the determination of Nanking to proceed

on

influx of

what,

visions

less

of

year

dreamers and

played in the

Kemmerer

than

rebuilding

advisers,

China caused

stressed the fact that

considered

The predominant

idealists.

of

were

earlier,

all

increasing

members

of the

the

impractical

part

Americans

comment.

Dr.

commission for-

merly connected with the Washington Government had severed their

official connections prior to coming to China; hence, the commission

was

unofficial.

There was no semblance

support whatsoever.

of

American governmental

Henry L

Stimson and John Van A. MacMurray, then

American Minister, were guests of Dr. C. T. Wang, former Foreign
Minister of the National Government, and Dr. H. H. Kung, later
Colonel

Minister of Finance, at an informal private dinner in Shanghai in the

spring of 1929.
Among the other guests, aside from American officials,

were other Cabinet members and some

Chinese friends in high

official

positions.

of

Colonel

Stimson's

THE DRAGON STIRS

220

The

function

of the others

was

Mrs. Stimson and the wives

entirely unofficial.

were present and there were no speeches, the Governor-

General of the Philippines declining

officially

to discuss his future or

somewhat hurried journey to WashingHe conferred with Mr. MacMurray

State.
before the dinner, but both officials insisted that their meeting was
purely personal and was not related to Colonel Stimson's probable
any other problems during
ton to become Secretary of

his

America's policy toward China from Washington, the

Colonel explaining that he was naturally interested in Chinese affairs
of

direction

but, for the present at least, purely as Governor-General of the Philip-

pines and an American citizen.

"You

are meeting

me

as the Governor-General of the Philippines,"

Colonel Stimson told me.

"I

am

positively unable to affirm the

rumors

So far as the
appointment to the Cabinet in any post whatever.
Philippines are concerned, the past year is generally considered to have

of

my

made

history in our relations with the islands, which

me and

fying to

to

in

others

my

administration.

is

highly grati-

believe

the

that

expressed attitude of the Filipino leaders, the desire to cooperate with

the American administration of the islands is entirely sincere.
During

we have

the year

long

built the

remain and grow.

framework

of this policy

That the old opposition

which
is

hope

will

fading away

is

reasonably clear in the great developments along these lines."

Mr. MacMurray
no

said that his visit to

Nanking and Shanghai had

political importance.

"Its

only

possible

inquiry into

certain phases

law, which

wish to

to

relation
of

public

affairs,"

he

Nanking's new trademark

I did not discuss politics

clarify.

said,

my

visit

was primarily

with Dr.

Nanking recently, and

some time but was unable

for

When

the late

Most

have

forces

*
Bristol,

commander-in-chief of the

Far East for two years,

summer of 1929, he left behind

in

the

remarkably large and strikingly sincere

among

of the other Ministers

had been planning a similar journey

to leave Peking until now."

departed for Washington at the end of

a

The

to.

Admiral Mark L.

American Naval and Marine

Wang

to acquaint myself personally with

the progress of affairs at Nanking.

visited

my

registration

or any one else yesterday at Nanking, and did not intend

purpose of

"was

circle

of

friends

the foreigners throughout the Orient, but Chinese of

not
all

only

walks

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

of

The naval

life.

came

officer-diplomat

to

arriving late in August, 1927, and taking over

China

command

221

from

Turkey,

of the Asiatic

Station on September 9 of that year from Admiral C. S. Williams.

to be sure, been

There have,

no unpopular men who have held

this

high post in the American Navy, but it is perhaps not incorrect to say
that with the advent of Admiral Bristol's assumption of command a
still

more

cordial relationship

between the head

existed

our pro-

of

and the business men, American missionaries and

others who went out to the east to broaden the scope of our commerce

tective forces there

and

made

Bristol

know

who were

Chinese

the

very

Admiral

beginning,

apparent he wanted to meet the business men, to get

it

their views, to

From

world.

the

in

civilization

He

their problems.

likewise wanted to meet the

directing the destinies

of their

He met

country.

men

conducting the Nationalist revolution in Shanghai, and later

he went north and in Peking and elsewhere met the men who were
the

then combating the Southern forces.

He wanted
to

go about

his

first.

and

later

to get at

The sojourn

it.

He

sides of the situation.

all

Admiral

of the

And

he knew

in Asiatic waters

how

was not

China as an ensign nearly fifty years ago

served on the Yangtze Patrol and was in China at the out-

break of the

went out

to

revolution in

first

overthrown and the

when

1911,

the

Manchu Dynasty was

attempts at a Republic were ineffectively but

first

Furthermore, his experience as the American High

Commissioner in Turkey, during a strikingly similar period when that

persistently

made.

bilitation

War

went through a period of national rehaand governmental reform, stood the Admiral in good stead

country after the Great

in China.

Guided by
study

of

Bristol

affairs

experiences

formed the conviction

would emerge

word or

Near East following a careful

as they were when he arrived in China, Admiral

his

act,

victorious.

He

in

the

that

the

Nationalist

forces

in

China

naturally could take no sides either in

but there was a tendency in his attitude to lean toward

the Nationalists as the better force toward progress for the people of
He made it a point never to prophesy. Nevertheless,
the country.
his

sensing

of

the

trend

of

events

was

as

accurate

a barometer

as

And he was able to judge

could be desired, as things turned out.
rather better than other observers because of his cordial attitude
toward the Chinese who could give him information concerning what

THE DRAGON STIRS

222

was happening in this or that faction in the revolution or in the North.

Admiral Bristol served in the Asiatic Station at a time when it
So among the first things he
was highly important to keep posted.
did was to get acquainted personally with such men as the late Dr.
Foreign Minister in the Nanking Government, Dr.
C. T. Wang, then not officially in politics but later Foreign Minister
at Nanking and once Ambassador in Washington, General Chiang
C.

C.

Wu,

then

Kai-shek, and

others.

met these men, talked with them, and learned much from this
The meetings always were purely unofficial, to be
personal contact.

He

The land was

Washington had not then recognized Nanking.
divided by civil war.
It was a time requiring diplomatic procedure
indeed to meet the men on both sides with equal tact and interested
sure.

There was never then nor has there ever been any reason
to think Admiral Bristol, by meeting men in the first Nanking Govern-

friendship.

Nor by discussing affairs

ment, lent even moral aid to that cause.
with the men in Peking did he have any notion of influencing them
one way or the other.
got

He was

merely seeking information, and he

it.

And

There was for a while somehe got some criticism, as well.

thing of a feeling that the Admiral was not entirely discreet in meeting
It was said in various circles
the men leading a revolutionary cause.

would cause trouble by such actions

that perhaps he

His friendship

toward the Chinese, whatever their politics, aroused a certain antipathy

among those foreigners who were not able to see the slightest change

His advice

never given as advice but merely as opinion

in friendly conversations with American residents
that the foreigners
should get better acquainted with the Chinese, accepting them socially
in

China.

to a greater degree

and treating them as

equals, brought heated argu-

a changed attitude now, and those who criticized

came to admit the Admiral's foresighted policy was correct.
ments.

But there

The Admiral

is

sat in the

American Club

in

Shanghai one evening

and discussed things with a group of American observers well

Now it was very bad form to quote the
versed in Chinese affairs.
recall

Admiral.

He

declared

the

day he

arrived

that

he

would

not

be

quoted then or any other time on any subject, and he also said if he
were quoted he would deny anything in print as coming from him.
He would discuss any subject at length, get the views of those he was

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

own

223

and then, if a newspaperman be

present, he would say in parting: "Use anything you've got from me
These talks
as a background if you want, but you can't quote me.
talking with, give his

are just for our

own

opinions

They work both ways.

information.

something from you and you may get something from me, and
But don't quote me."
both understand the situation better.

So no one ever

may get
we may

But now perhaps a word or two the Admiral

did.

The "observers"
might not be considered lese majeste.
referred to above included two war correspondents, one man travelling
then

said

China gathering material for a book, the American publisher of one

of the largest Chinese newspapers in the nation, the Admiral's Chiefin

Kenneth Castleman, a banker, and two or three men

directing large American commercial interests, who kept up on political
events more than was customary.
of-Staff,

Capt.

The conversation was

up the military phase of the revolution; the

mentioned, and the effect of this strategic

Hankow.

One man,

Someone brought
capture of Shanghai was
move on the regime at

general for the most part.

the

writer

of

books,

related

his

experiences

few weeks previously with bandits on the Yangtze River. He lost his
wallet and all his ready cash, and his wife lost her jewelry, but the

who boarded

bandits, or pirates,

harm.

killed

They

the river steamer, did

them no bodily

one or two Chinese in their excitement, however,

and shot an American from Hankow through the

leg for

no apparent

reason.

The

relations of foreigners with the Chinese

one wondered whether

been done

now

all

we

was mentioned.

should admit them to our clubs.

over China, a revolutionary change.

Some-

This has

The Admiral

said:

"I think

by

all

it

means.

a splendid
If

we

idea.

We

should admit them to the clubs,

treat these people as equals, they will not fail to

react to our friendship.

be dispelled.
nation today
that

The

we

This conception of our superiority has got to

There are Chinese gentlemen in the Government of this

who

are by no

means our

inferiors.

It is

true,

grant,

see countless thousands of inferior Chinese in our daily lives.

coolies,

has produced

the lower classes,

some great

are our

scholars

inferiors.

and statesmen.

The Chinese
There

is

race

a great

change going on in China today, and the wave of nationalism sweeping

the country is going to result in even greater changes.

THE DRAGON STIRS

224
"It

cannot

may

take

even

some

time,

appreciate

Chinese people.

We

it

facing

all

There are problems that we

the leaders who want to unify the

is

realize

true.

the

language

difficulty,

the

lack

of

the mass of Chinese, the lack of ready communications

which keep the Chinese apart not only from the world but from themselves.
These are vast obstacles, but it is possible for the leaders of

education

among

the Chinese eventually to overcome them.

"I think a great step has been taken in this country in the past

two years toward awakening a

great nation.

It is

wrong

to

deny that

If we understand that and admit the Chinese

change is occurring.
those who are educated
to our clubs and treat them socially as equals

Chinese gentlemen and gentlewomen

now

that

"This

we must
spirit

phenomenon.

It

experience with

swept Europe after

in

by no means a new
the war and I had a personal

consciousness

national

is

Turkey before coming

China are very, very similar

The

here.

all

in

special rights of foreigners,

the rising influence of a race consciousness are

in

The changes

to the changes that took place in Turkey.

abolition of consular jurisdiction, of

and sentiment

have learned a lesson

will

learn sooner or later.

of

it

we

all

China and among the Chinese.

similar to the events

We

much
Great War.

could learn

by studying the history of Turkey's development since the

It is futile to deny similar changes are occurring in this

country

today."

That, briefly,

was Admiral

Bristol's

credo

on China.

It

was,

might add, the opinion of most well informed persons living in the east
then.
Neither he nor they denied that the change to real unity will
still require time.
Perhaps this unity will eventually be in the form
each even more nearly autonomous than at
similar in a way to the Federation of German States

of a federation of states
first

planned

welded into a nation

than a century ago by Bismarck.

The Chinese that live in the hinterlands of Asia and millions
less

the illiterate living along the Pacific coast

meaning of the programs of their leaders.

know

all

They

are content to con-

too

sider their family as the unit, their village as their home,

ince as their universe.

They

will

little

of

the

their prov-

be loyal to their family and patriotic

in a varying degree to their native place

idea of a nation will take time to sink

Admiral Bristol had gained on

of

in.

and
It

their province.

was

But the

this conception that

his last sojourn in the east.

His judg-

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

ment,

is

it

now

agreed,

generally

was

correct.

He

225

understood

the

problems but firmly believed the traditional American policy of altruism

and friendship would continue to prove best and that the Chinese

would eventually prove themselves not unworthy of that policy.

The social affairs on board the flagship U. S. S. Pittsburgh given
by the Admiral and Mrs. Bristol, who is an entirely charming hostess,
stand out as particularly memorable

Commander-in-Chief s residence

features

of

another

side

of

the

Chinese as well as Americans

there.

and many

persons of other nationalities in that cosmopolitan port

the tea dances under the vari-colored awning aft on the

attended

and the occasional formal evening balls on the spacious flagafter deck.
His cordial geniality and Mrs. Bristol's graciousness

cruiser
ship's

widened their

Admiral

circle of friends

each

visit.

Bristol's close touch with the Chinese

commanders

of other defense forces in Shanghai.

was extended

He was

to the

particularly

friendly with

Major-General Sir John Duncan, formerly head of the

The General was a frequent visitor
British Shanghai Defense Force.

at

the

Bristol

in

residence

Shanghai

and

this

close

contact

social

understanding that made the solution of

defense problems easier than any formal discussion of similar questions
*
*
*
could have done.

brought

about

mutual

Julean Arnold, the American commercial attache in Peiping, who

returned in May 1929 from an extensive tour through Kwangsi Province

and south into Yunnan, said upon

his

arrival

in

Shanghai that

war with Kwangtung Province around Canton, the people

Kwangsi were not suffering appreciably and that good roads were

despite a
of

being built in
"I

many

travelled

sections of the province.

more than a thousand miles by motor

Kwangsi," Mr. Arnold

new highways

all

said,

the time,

"over excellent roads.

and while

it

car

through

are building

They
may be some years before

up this province, the highways and

carry an increasing amount of the farmers' goods to the
railroads have opened

rivers will
east

coast

markets."

Mr. Arnold said he

travelled virtually

alone,

without a guard of

any kind, and had no trouble anywhere along the route.

"foreign food" along nor any water bags or bottles of
to drink.

He

he got "a

bit fed

it,*'

carried

distilled

no

water

whole time, and while he admitted

he said he had not worried about his

ate Chinese food the

up with

He

THE DRAGON STIRS

226
on

health

this

Few

account.

if

any foreigners

the

in

Pacific

coast

China eat Chinese food unless they know where

is prepared and how.
it
Typhoid fever and dysentery are all too
prevalent to take many chances on the sanitation of a Chinese rescities

and elsewhere

in

It is particularly dantaurant even in the foreign concession areas.

gerous at certain seasons of the year to eat green vegetables grown

in

China because the Chinese

fertilize their

truck gardens with

human

"I ate anything and

a custom throughout the Far East.
"Get tough, I
everything as we went along," Mr. Arnold admitted.
I've had no ill effects
guess, after thirty years out in this country.

"night

soil/'

jet"
Mr. Arnold said he noticed
"It

was

as

peaceful

mile

for

little

after

trouble throughout the province.

mile

of

fertile

farm land as the

middle west at home/' he said.

"One gets the feeling of being terribly
No news of the
out of touch back in the hinterlands of China.
developments in Nanking or abroad reached us for days at a time.
Rather a good thing, at that, to get away from the news of turmoil
for awhile, I think.

The people down

there didn't seem to

happened in Nanking or Shanghai or anywhere

had good crops and were not molested."
Bandits in Kwangsi were few, Mr. Arnold

were not unknown, but added

heard

He

of.

that section of

of

politicians

Canton

else

said.

that only occasionally

mind what

as long as they

He
were

said
their

they
raids

most optimistic picture of affairs in

China, from which had arisen in recent months a group
known as the "Kwangsi clique" who were menacing
painted

and were

all

in all a

planning to overthrow the Nanking

Government, forming a combine with the "Christian General."
said

"The roads system

"They have highways

to

be

nothing short of excellent," Mr. Arnold added.

crossing the province that intersect with high-

is

ways running north and

south,

and one can drive

to almost

any im-

portant spot in the province by motor.

"Another feature of the new transportation system is the organization of numerous bus lines that run every direction.
They are
buying more buses all the time, most of them from the United States.
This is true in other provinces, to be sure, but the
development in

Kwangsi

is

particularly

significant

at this

time.

One may

ride

one end to the other of the province on these lines in

safety."
Telephone lines have been laid out and put into operation,

from

Mr.

SOME AMERICANS WHO WERE THERE

Arnold

"The long

said.

distance

"You can

truly remarkable/' he commented.

service

telephone

of

Central

strange

is

stop

an

at

inn.

find

to

what has been considered a warlike, backward

back from

Kwangsi

anywhere along the

a town two or three hundred

main highway and telephone ahead to

miles away and reserve a room for the night
is perfect.
I was most pleasantly surprised

Safely

in

227

this

district

The

service

progress

in

of China/'

among

experiences

the

nomadic

tribes

Kermit Roosevelt passed through Shanghai late in

Success crowned what for a time seemed to be a futile

Asia,

May, 1929.

panda, under the auspices of the Field

Museum in Chicago, undertaken by Kermit and his brother Theodore
in another chapter of their explorations of little-visited corners of the

hunting trip

for

the

giant

earth.

Journeying overland from Rangoon through Burma and thence

across the southwestern top of China into Tibet, scouring mountains,
valleys and snow-clad highlands in quest of the beast which lured them

on

their

dangerous sporting mission, the Roosevelt party

much

after

weeks

a giant
They turned toward China once more from Tibet and in what
panda.
is known as the Independent Lola country, a tiny state bordering on
of fruitless tracking despaired of sighting,

Tibet

and

China

adjacent

to

Szechuan

less shooting,

Province,

they

found

their

quarry.

Nearly six months from the time they departed with Kashmir
guides and carriers from the familiar hill country, Kermit, with the
spoils of the chase,

remained at

was en route

Saigon for

several

to America, while

weeks

to

Colonel Roosevelt

continue

the

hunting

ex-

pedition in less sequestered tracts.

partner had not got hold of me

back to work/' Kermit told me at tiffin. "My brother

"I would be with

and dragged

me

him

yet

if

my

The other foreign memremaining at Saigon with Suydam Cutting.

ber of the party, Herbert Stevens, a bird specialist, is coming out via
is

Szechuan and the Yangtze River.

should reach here in a few weeks."

He

is

now

about at Chengtu and

Discussing his trip, Mr. Roosevelt said: "We

Burma, on the border of China on December 20.

left

My

Shamo

Village,

brother, Cutting

and myself, together with the Kashmir carriers, went by mule train
overland to Yunnan, thence into Tibet, where for weeks we wandered

THE DRAGON STIRS

228

But we were unsuccessful, days of

panda.
Finally we turned west and southward
tracking getting us nowhere.
and thence
again, reaching the border of China in Szechuan Province,
in

search of

the

giant

went south through the Independent Lola country. Here, one morning
following a rather heavy snowfall, we found panda tracks.
"We were extremely lucky, as a matter of fact, for after only four
hours of tracking we discovered the beast taking its noonday siesta.
My brother and I approached carefully, fired simultaneously and got
him.
The Lola runners with us refused to bring the animal into their
It

village.

them.

seems the giant panda

was amusing

It

conducted

is

find they

later to

Lola people never harm the panda.

seen one.

"The

beast

was a

beautiful

Most

minor deity among

had called in a priest who

and drive

rites to purify the tribe

of

sort

off

avenging

The

we met had never

of those

specimen,

spirits.

weighing

more than 200

pounds and measuring nearly seven feet in length. It had a thick coat
of fur with black and white splotches and a white head with black
a black

eyeglasses,

fringe

of

around the

hair

eyes.

The animal

is

believed to belong to the bear family, but, unlike bears, never hibernate and, furthermore, has forty-two teeth instead of forty.
Otherwise,
it

is

similar to the bear species.

'The panda
provided in

its

exclusively on

lives

native

haunts,

bamboo

shoots,

which are the high

which are amply

altitudes,

ranging

from 8,000 to 14,000 feet. It always stays among thick bamboo forests
Its habits are bearlike, but scientists can
and is very fond of honey.
determine from this specimen that

He

it

has a definite classification."

described the Lolas as amiable people, similar to the

American

Although the country through which the party

walked for hundreds of miles is one of the wildest parts of Asia and
Indians in

is

many ways.

infested with bandits,

any kind and that

the

Mr. Roosevelt
people

said he

everywhere

had not met trouble of

were

most friendly

and

cordial.

"When we

entered the Lola country," he said,

entertained us, and

when we

"the chief of the

he sent his son along to

assure us safe conduct as far as the next village.
In this manner we
first village

were carried through

ot the

Chinese

this tiny friendly

when we

to this country."

left

state,

much

to the

told the tale of our experiences

amazement

on returning

THE DRAGON LEARNS TO FLY

19

* THE dragon of China, slowly awakening from a long slumber

so long that it makes Rip van Winkle's sleep seem like a nap1^

shook himself and tried his wings.

In the past few years the
He had earlier made divers vain attempts
dragon has learned to fly.
but now the beast took to the air with a great whirring and roar.
The Chinese people, in other words, given a breathing spell for peacetime pursuits in 1928-29 learned the Occident's use of the air as a

medium

This was one of the most revolutionary peacetime

strike Asia, and the Chinese took to the air with

for travel.

reforms

yet

to

amazing avidity. There had been flights by Chinese pilots in the past,
to be sure; but it was not until the Kuomintang Revolution swept
north on Peiping that it became anything like the vital factor in Chinese
daily

life

that

it

has since become.

American aviation

interests

were

in the

van

of the "foreign devils"

who

taught the Chinese the use of the airplane in recent years.

They
were the pioneers in a practical way, and the American-owned Clipper
flying boats led the

way

in blazing this

Their
great trail for China.
route
on
the
intervals
regular

1935-36 at
great airships
across the broad Pacific to Manila, and they got permission from the
Portuguese Government at Lisbon to alight in waters off the Porfirst

flew in

The British in the

tuguese concession of Macao, in south China.
beginning refused permission to alight off their Crown Colony of HongConnections are made from Macao
kong, but that also was granted.
and Hongkong with air lines now criss-crossing China. Trans-Pacific
passengers land there and can

take

a Chinese-controlled commercial

passenger plane north.

This air service between California and China is one of the most
inspiring aerial steps to annihilate space and time in the history of
carrying only air mail and crew, was made
from Alameda, California, to Manila on November 22, 1935, the Clipper

mankind.

The

first flight,

229

THE DRAGON STIRS

230

returning December 2 of that year to her home base at the end of an

awe inspiring round trip across the vast stretches of open water. There

Hawaii, Midway, Wake Island and Guam, where modern

It is only
hotels have been completed for the tourist's overnight stop.

were stops

at

700 miles farther

a short

China from Manila

to

flight,

compared

to

the distance already covered.

In China
the

itself

are no

coolies

now

is

it

longer

possible to

surprised

at

fly

the

almost anywhere.
Even
sight or the sound of a

an indication of the great revolutionary strides which the peoples of the Dragon have made in recent
Until very recently a Chinese "junk*' or sailboat was the
years.

and

plane overhead

ordinary

mode

connecting

all

to Peiping in

Today there are regular air lines

One can fly from Shanghai
the major cities of China.
six hours
Formerly it took two days in good times on
of travel in Asia.

an express

the

Or one

fly

can

that, in itself, is

famed Blue Express, then the crack railway train.

whereas it took me five
to Hankow in four hours

days by steamer up-river and three days

down

in

1927.

Cheng-tu was formerly an outpost in Szechuan Province almost unreachable over the gorges of the Yangtze, rapid and dangerous at any
time above Hankow.
Now the flight from Shanghai is made in eight
hours.

It

is

made

several

times

a week

now

as

often

as

the

in-

The coolie still has to use the old style

creasing traffic will allow.
or at rare intervals, he takes a
"junk" on the rivers of his ancestors
The

train.

themselves.

At

prices

for

But there

flying

are above

his

reach,

in this

is

like

the

great progress
this point, I want to sketch the early days of aviation,

Chinese

first

started to

when

the

anything like a practical, serious way.

to do with aviation in China from the start.

fly

The Americans had much

airplanes

field.

in

Popular interest was piqued early by a flight nearly around the world
by two extraordinarily daring and capable fliers from Michigan in their
plane, the Pride oj Detroit.
They were Messrs. Brock and Schlee,
never forget the September evening in 1928 when they
appeared out of the south from Hongkong, and landed outside Shanghai.
All was prepared for a reception at the Race Course in the center

and

shall

Shanghai on Bubbling Well Road but they thought the oval too
small for a take-off and landed at Hunjao Airport at the city limits
instead, keeping us running back and forth like water-bugs for an hour.
of

Shanghai,

a city of

thrills

inured to war's

hysteria,

tingled

with

THE DRAGON LEARNS

excitement at the brief

visit

FLY

TO

231

whose world

of America's daring aviators

took them there for a single night's way-station pause early in

Word of the safe arrival of Schlee and Brock at
September 1928.

flight

Omura

near

Nagasaki, reached Shanghai

September 11, and was received with a real sense of
Village,

the

late
relief.

night

of

Telephones

newspapers and news agencies rang constantly late that afternoon

and evening, with thousands inquiring after the safety of the aviators
of all

whose

efficiency

arrival in

and daring captured popular imagination.

Japan despite

their failure to

Their safe

reach Tokyo, their goal, was

widely applauded.
An aftermath of enthusiasm followed Schlee and Brock as the public
awakened to the significance of the unusual flight.
While popular

was

acclaim

interested chiefly

in their

heroics,

a significant phase of

the universal plaudits was the hearty praise from aviation officers in
The British Royal Air
the Shanghai defense force of many nations.

Force

were deeply impressed and did not

officers

the achievement.

in

their pride

daring and

skill

unstintingly praised

declare

the

fliers'

from a professional viewpoint as indicating the progress

The

of aviation.

They

hesitate to

British airplane carrier officers sent congratulations,

asking the U. S. S. Pittsburgh: "Please convey to the pilots of the

Pride of Detroit the congratulations of the Argus on their very fine

performance."
Popular sentiment was

summed up in press comment which lauded

The Shanghai Times, a British-owned daily,

the Americans highly.

printed

an

editorial

acclaiming

ment/' and characterizing

it

as

the flight

as

"magnificent achieve-

"the most successful yet undertaken,"

The North China Daily News,

progress of aviation.
British, pointed to the importance of their non-stop flight from Hongkong to Shanghai, stating: "The Pride of Detroit has shown that it
indicating

tfie

of one day.
What all realize
possible to accomplish this in the space
in this performance is the great progress which airplanes and engines
is

have

made

in

recent

splendid calibre of the

years.

men who

One

appreciates

carry out these

more and more

flights.

We

may

the

well

our congratulations to the Pride of Detroit and her navigators

on their performance in reaching Shanghai, for it not only creates a
offer

record from
lishes

new

New York
local

to China, but

if

we

are not mistaken

long distance achievement."

the non-stop flight from Hongkong.

The

last

it

estab-

referred to

THE DRAGON STIRS

232

that Schlee and

(then American) pointed out
Brock flew virtually without assistance, remarking: "Mountains, forests
and oceans were found to be no bar to this flight around the world,"

The China

Press,

they have had no governmental aid either

continuing that "thus far,

But the most difficult

from our Army or Navy.
Prayers of
they must cross the Pacific Ocean.

millions

come

to

all

over the

off

portion of their flight.

This paper pointed out that

is

from Japan on this last and most

We wish them Godspeed."

world go with them as they take

awesome

stretch

it

had no desire to discourage Schlee

and Brock, but added that in the event that they returned safely to
Detroit, "judging from the many disasters, ocean flying might well be
curtailed for a while except when some great scientific object may be
attained.

Every

aviators to carry

them

the glory of being the

The

article

has

country

nor

ambitions

does

any

do

added a suggestion

or that stunt, what

this

for

scientific

research

brave

than merely

out, but unless the stake is higher

first to

lack

is

into

gained?"
aviation

problems of the upper air, ending: 'Then try for world records, but
The roads are too few and the milestones too many,
not just yet.

most of them yet unmarked graves."

By November

1928, popular interest in aviation in

creased by leaps and bounds.

One

the unprecedented flight of the

similar

to

that

in

which

of the

in-

most powerful influences was

Canton, a

Lindbergh

China had

flew

Ryan-Mahoney monoplane
the

Atlantic.

Piloted

by

Captain Chang Hui-chang of the Chinese Air Force, the Canton left
Canton early that fall and made a non-stop flight to Hankow, nearly
a thousand miles.

Captain Chang

left

there

and hopped

off

to

Nan-

At
king, varying his original intention to proceed directly to Peking.
the capital he was given a tremendous ovation.
The foreign as well as
the

Chinese press gave his

flight

wide

Captain "Chang next flew to Peking

publicity.

Again he was given a great

and dinners and receptions similar to those of air heroes in

the Occident were tendered him and his two companions
by the Chinese

ovation,

General

Yen

Hsi-san, governor of Shansi then in charge

of the Peking-Tientsin area, gave him a dinner
The aviators
party.
dignitaries.

were feted by the populace, and General Pei Chung-hsi also

gave Chang
a dinner.
He was the hero of the hour in Peking. Captain Chang
flew to Mukden, then capital of
Manchuria, prior to returning down

THE DRAGON LEARNS

FLY

TO

233

All along the way he

Shanghai and thence to Canton.
was heralded with enthusiasm and high acclaim.
The flight itself would not have been so extraordinary anywhere
the coast to

but in the Orient.

But

it

was an achievement

in China,

where aviation

then played so small a part in war or peace.

It is true there
was even then a Flying Corps under the War Office. But there were
still few planes in use and aside from rare occasions when they were
used to observe enemy positions, neither force in the Kuomintang

had

until

Revolution resorted to any sort of aerial warfare.

had the best aviation department then in China.

Mukden

possibly

There were more

100 airships at the Mukden airdrome and I saw their arsenal

branch there, constantly turning out new machines for which engines
than

Airplanes could be seen flying over Mukden

almost any day in summer; but even there they had been used but

were purchased abroad.

seldom in war, and no commercial lines had yet been attempted.

it is
vastly changed and modernized.

One
that

Today

of the aerial developments at Nanking was the announcement

Government was considering organization

the

aviation corporation.

Officials in the Ministries

dustry,

Commerce and Labor, and Finance

China.

The Government was

of a

of

Sino-German

War,

Interior,

In-

conferred on the subject.

Air lines to Europe were discussed as well as commercial routes in
also desirous of inaugurating a line con-

There was some question whether,

necting the capital and Kalgan.
under the agreement prohibiting the sale of arms and ammunition by
Americans to China, airplanes could be sold in that country.
result, most of the planes first in use were purchased in Europe.
ever,

the Canton was a

As a
How-

Ryan-Mahoney brougham monoplane with a

Wright whirlwind motor.

"It

is

opinion that American airplane motors are far superior

my
1

to all others/

Captain Chang

toric cross-country flight.

said,

just prior to

"They are

starting on his his-

'fool-proof for one thing.

And

I would like to see an assembly

they stand up better in a long run.
There will be
plant started in Canton, backed by American capital.

an increasing demand for airplanes in the near future as we establish

air mail and passenger services between our larger cities, and it costs

much

to ship a plane

An

assembly plant will be needed,

and I would like to see an American aviation company back of it."
too

American aviation

all set

interests

up.

hopped across the

Pacific,

and a new

THE DRAGON STIRS

234

was inaugurated in China's communications on April

when Minister Sun Fo, acting in his capacity as president of
era

19,

1929,

the China

National Aviation Corporation, signed a contract with Aviation ExThe latter under the
ploration, Inc., a subsidiary of the Curtiss group.
on three
agreed to carry mail for the National Government

agreement
trunk lines.

Experts said that the signing

one of the greatest

signing

took

this

important agreement opened

The
of commercial flying in the world.

fields

in

place

of

Nanking,

following

State

Council

meeting

during the afternoon to consider the proposals submitted some weeks

earlier.
Some objections were encountered at the outset of the negotiations against permitting foreign interests to handle a Government

These were overcome, however, by Nanking's somewhat naive organization of the corporation which ostensibly handled
mail contract.

the

mail

itself

which

but

sublet

the

ploration people, so that the effect

contract

was

to

the

precisely the

Ex-

Aviation

same.

were proposed immediately, one connecting Nanking and Peiping, the second linking Canton to Hankow, and the third
thus all interlocking.
It
linking Shanghai and Hankow via Nanking

Three trunk

was announced
Americans

lines

that

to train

would be established immediately by the

Chinese pilots and other personnel, the idea being
schools

employ Chinese wherever possible as soon as they were capable of

The American pilots were to be kept only as long as they
flying.

to

were

essential.

Major William B. Robertson

this formal

representing the American firm,

made

announcement:

This

will

be a Chinese service under control of the National

Government but with American management and operation for

the time being.
the

name

of

The

the

airplanes will display Chinese characters for

Chinese

Corporation

and the insignia of the

National Government

Aviation Exploration further receives the

privilege of engaging
in

the air

transportation

of

passengers and freight

on

its

own

account, and to manufacture planes and equipment in China.

It
is planned to form a new American
company with a capitalization
of several million

dollars

invited to participate.

(gold),

in

which the Chinese

will

be

Rapid communications are the urgent need

THE DRAGON LEARNS

of the
rail

moment

here.

or motor roads

It will

TO

FLY

235

take years to meet this

but by aviation

it is

demand by

hoped that China within

a few months will be on a parity with the other nations in air

communications.
competition was met during the weeks of strenuous
negotiations, as well as that from other American interests in China.
Shanghai was alive with aviators from abroad seeking to establish

European

lines in all directions.

while trying to "sell"

Major Robertson brought four

Nanking his mail contract idea.

planes to China

Their demon-

impressed the Chinese officials, particularly Mr. Sun Fo.

The Minister of Railways was enthusiastic after flying in one of these
strations

Nanking from Shanghai. He said many

commute to Nanking by air from Shanghai.

planes to

officials

might soon

In financing trie new lines, it was explained that the American

company had a guarantee from the Chinese government under the con-

pay to them of $1.50 (gold) a

pound to $4.50 (gold) a pound, depending on the size of the load
carried.
The Chinese also agreed to buy all aerial equipment from the
tract

stipulating

scale

sliding

of

Two American pilots, E. L. Sloniger

Aviation Exploration group.
and Al Caperton, were with Major Robertson and aided in training
Widespread opposition developed among Chinese aviaHowever, officials
organizations against the American contract.

Chinese
tion

of the

pilots.

American group

in Shanghai

were optimistic about the eventual

carrying out of the terms of their agreement.

It

provided that the service was to begin in six months, that the

provide the airplanes, pilots, and all other equipment and personnel, and that the Chinese were to provide hangars

Americans were

and

to

suitable landing fields along the routes proposed.

It

was further

provided that in the event the revenues from air mail on the lines was
insufficient to

meet the

rates agreed on, the

American company would

operate at a loss and take the Chinese company's promissory notes up

to $2,000,000.
It was agreed there was to be a minimum of 3,000
flying miles a

day when the

The Robertson group

lines

also

commenced.

offered to lend the

Chinese

Company

another $1,000,000 gold in cash for use in the securing of air fields,
construction of hangars and other expenses incidental to getting started.

Major Robertson returned

to

New York

to

arrange further

details.

THE DRAGON STIRS

236

The

contract

the

opposition to

real

propaganda spread by the Ministry

young
the

did

of

all

in its

power

Communications through the

of

to

sought

establish

its

lines

to obstruct the Railways Ministry's

memorandum was

result,

Railways,

so-called patriotic

This Ministry, through rivalry with

aviation groups in China.

Ministry

came from

and

first

program.

As

Nanking Government

submitted to the

Government Air Force demanding that the

This
contract be cancelled, causing no little furore but not much action.
memorandum, because it indicates the length to which this interby the members

of

the

Ministry fight was carried and because it indicates also the attitude
of the nationalistic young Chinese interested in developing their own
air lines,

given in brief below, the chief points being summarized.

is

are:

They

To

1.

country

allow foreign pilots to

is

fly

over important centers of the

a serious encroachment upon China's air defense.

With

the Corporation's branch offices scattered throughout

the country, America may send troops to various places on the
2.

pretense they are sent to those places for the protection of those
interests.
3.

want to open up new

Other countries

may

The American

Corporation's

also

air lines in

China.
4.

shipped

China

to

will

be

machines

exempted

from

which

payment

are
of

to

be

import

duties.
5.

The

Corporation

should

be

organized

and

financed

by

Chinese interests.
6.

The American

firms will receive

from $12,000

daily for their services, which compensation

7.

The Government should

is

to

$18,000

considered too high.

help develop local talent and not

which employs foreign pilots.

8. Secret contracts may have been signed by the
Corporation
with the American firm.
finance a corporation

These objections, while absurd

in

many

respects, represented never-

a formidable part of the opposition mentioned.

National Aviation Corporation answered them, pointing

theless

ample that
improper

flying

or

The Chinese

above foreign countries has never been

breach

of

sovereignty.

The

American

out

for

ex-

considered
pilots,

they

THE DRAGON LEARNS

pointed out, were in no
ington, in

any

case.

way connected with

It

was added

FLY

TO

237

Government

the

at

Wash-

that certain privileges were given

company because it was a Chinese Government outfit and for no

other reason, and it should prosper and be aided in every way because
the

Chinese
began as a Chinese project.
possible from the start, and eventually
it

demand no

To

others will be used.

pilots

were used as much as

when

the

meets

supply

get something

the

however,

started,

foreign pilots were hired by the Government's company.

Minister of Railways Sun Fo on June 19, 1929, formally declared

that the National Government's recent decision to place the airways

under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Communications would not

affect the contract with American interests.
Uncertainty, however,

marked

the

with the

situation

intimation

that

would be retarded further by a

This was a result

airways.

current

the

program

of the
sudden change
the
of the long and constant rivalry between
in

status

the Communications and the Railways ministries at Nanking,

Their

fight

further

affected

growing

radio

communications,

Railways Ministry seeking to control these as well as

taining to communications in any branch of government
tKe

inally

right

created

specially

handle radio,

to

Bureau

particularly

of

all

things per-

service.

Reconstruction was

abroad, and

the

Orig-

given the

signed an

agreement
was to furnish a

with the Radio Corporation of America.

The latter
new station under this understanding, meantime cooperating with the
Chinese

office in

Shanghai on dispatches through Manila

United

to the

States or elsewhere.

These

"growing

ascertained.

pains"

have

now

subsided,

as

far

The Chinese National Aviation Corporation

and so does the R.

A. in China, and dissension in

as

still

can

be

functions

latter years

seems

to have disappeared.

an old story
"see China first."

Aviation

coming
in

to

efforts

own

is

to teach

continent.

It

to the Chinese,

The

and as one

result they are

airplane will prove an undoubted aid

Chinese people to know themselves and their

also is a vast unifying force in Asia, where roads
the

are few and waterways are too slow for the pace of

life

in the

awak-

The expense is still prohibitive but in time the very

ening Orient.
bulk of the masses will conquer that financial obstacle, and prices will
be lowered so that thousands may fly where tens or hundreds do so
now.

THE DRAGON STIRS

238

The Chinese
at

are rapidly becoming "air minded."

bottom and gamblers

in

any

case.

So they

They are
fly

with

fatalists

unbridled

enthusiasm.
airship too has not only brought China into a more compact
in Asia, but has brought Asia and the Orient closer to America

The

mass
and Europe*
United

States

Clipper ships bring

will

week end.

we

in

the

know and understand the "inscrutable

Our grandchildren, if not we ourselves, will
over to Shanghai from New York for the

come

Oriental" before long.

think nothing of flying

China closer to home

to

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

20

ever

if

in

devout homage
RARELY
dawn
June

to

the

of

her

any
1,

man

1929.

Sun Yat-sen was the

mintang The People's Party
Dr.

history has China paid more

than she did to Dr. Sun Yat-sen

hectic

visionary man who founded the Kuoin China.

He grew up in Hawaii,

where his brushing against the Occidental conceptions of democracy

and equality gave birth to his revolutionary ideals for the peoples of
China, long oppressed not only by foreigners but by their own rapacious
governing class and by the war lords. These ideas in a monarchy such
as China at the start of this century, under a decadent and thoroughly

iManchu dynasty then ruling from the Dragon Throne at

No one had heard of such a thing
Peking were revolutionary indeed.
in the hinterland of China
no one wanted to hear of such a concept
at the Manchu Court in the days before the first revolution,
But Dr.
corrupt

Sun Yat-sen

heard.

He

returned to Canton and slowly began to teach this "insidious"

doctrine in his native land of South China.
The idea spread very
gradually, but it was one of the underlying causes of the overthrow
of the Manchu Dynasty in the original revolution against the Peking
throne in 1911.
These men fighting for freedom and democratic rule

succeeded, and the revolt was officially proclaimed to have overthrown

the Dragon Throne on February 7, 1912.

The

despised Manchu "Boy Emperor," whose name was then

Hsuan-T'ing, abdicated his right to power as the "Son of Heaven"
on that date, or rather, the old Dowager Empress did it for him, for
the

"ruler"

was but

seven

old

years

For he

and

even

more impotent as

again on the throne of his

ancestors in Hsinking (formerly Chang-chung) or "New Capital," in
This youth is the last of
Japan's "independent State" of Manchukuo.

"emperor" then than now.

"rules'*

the old

Manchu

the Great

Wall

up when the Manchu hordes swarmed over

1644 and conquered the Chinese peoples.

line,

in

set

239

THE DRAGON STIRS

240

The original revolution was a

The revolutionaries had a vast

military success but a political failure.

land

they had no idea what to do with

mitted to

live,

temporary power

but

The "Boy Emperor'* was

per-

in

it.

which some say was a

their

tactical

error.

Still,

even the

Chinese had qualms about murdering a child of seven years, especially

a boy-child, whom they all revere, and even more especially when that
boy-child might, on an off chance, really be the "Son of Heaven" and
inflict terrible catastrophes on the man who slew him.

So the "Boy Emperor" stayed put for a while in the heart of what
It now is about as "forwas then the Forbidden City at Peking.
bidden" as Coney Island and nearly as popular with tourists.
(I recall
Like the youth at the
going through it once in less than an hour.

Louvre,

think that with roller skates I could have cut the time in

In 1917, he was restored for three days in an abortive putsch,

was overthrown again, finally fled to the asylum of the Japanese Conhalf.)

cession in Tientsin, and

now

has been "restored" again by Japan in

Manchukuo.

War

up all over China as soon as the watchdogs of

the Dragon Throne were gone.
This gave Dr. Sun an entirely new
problem in his beloved but bemuddled China. The Flowery Kingdom
lords sprang

went haywire before he knew it.

The World War kept Europe and
most of America busy, and it was not until early in the 1920's that
nations began to bestir themselves about getting "back to

normalcy."

Dr. Sun was more than interested in that idea, so back to Canton he
went to begin anew his idea of a government "of the people, by the
people

and

for

the

people."

It

was

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address which Dr.

now
his

this

started

Abraham

Sun used as the germ

almost equally famous "Three People's Principles."

People's Party and

in

expression

new machinery

for

He

the

of his

organized

Kuomintang

Revolution against a newly despotic and corrupt "government" set up

at Peking.
The other Powers turned a deaf ear to his pleas for
assistance

including the very busy

men

at

Washington under the

President Harding's administration.

Dr. Sun found open arms at Moscow.

He

needed

help.

late

The

Russians offered men, money, and munitions 'of war, and Dr. Sun
.jumped at the chance to embrace their offer, even though it included

communal conception of the way toward a

common man. The Russian Advisorate, under our

ostensibly accepting their

better life for the

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

friend Mikal Borodin, flourished for a time.

old

resulted

pedition"

Revolution

and

left

with

revolutionary

rapidity.

241

The "northern exThe Kuomintang

the Pearl River at Canton in the late spring of 1926,

moving to the Yangtze Valley in 1927, captured Peking in

That is a record, in a
1928, two years after its inception.

after

June,

revolution of such magnitude.

The founder of the Revolution was only

sixty years old, but a very tired man when he went to Peking in a
last effort to prevent the necessity of a war to achieve his ends.
There,
But Dr. Sun had

died.

which was the cradle of the corrupt power

which he despised, he died, on March 12, 1925.
His embalmed body lay entombed for a time in a shrine atop an
in the citadel of the north

old temple outside Peiping.

body, and I saw

special process

frail

after his

death, in the casket in which

Nanking.

The

to

embalm the

in the State funeral rites four years

Doctor's

it

was used

it

now

lies

entombed, outside

State funeral rites began in the darkness before

dawn

The city of Nanking, ill-equipped to

June 1929.
shelter so many visitors, was crammed with humanity.
Many foreigners were there, and press 'correspondents flocked to the capital on
of the

first

day

of

that historic day.

Few

The
got any sleep the night of that May 31 in Nanking.
ritual began at three o'clock in the morning.
Lady Hay Drummond
Hay, an English woman writing her impressions of the event, Karl von
Wiegand, veteran American correspondent, and I stood around in a
barracks-like building

most

of the night after twelve o'clock waiting for

Then we went over to the place where the

were beginning.
Only Party members were allowed inside.

something to happen.
services

The

us stood outside waiting for the long procession to start to

the newly completed mausoleum on Purple Mountain, past the ancient
rest of

Ming tombs, ten miles outside the

The funeral procession started

city walls.

just as light

began

to

show

in the

was deadly slow and took hours to reach the shrine, where
entombment took place at high noon. Dr. Sun's body was placed in a
east.

It

hearse at the end of the long line of devout followers.

Along a new
highway especially constructed for the purpose, the cortege moved
through the valley of the Yangtze,

The

funeral proceeded at so slow a pace that I decided to go back

to the hotel

and write a cable

to the

Times about

its

start,

then pick

THE DRAGON STIRS

242
it

up again by motor car

and

early

am

mausoleum.

at the base of the

This

did,

going to give you those paragraphs as written there in the

morning hush

of

High on the

June

1929.

1,

side of Purple Mountain, far

from the busy rush

a new nation or the sound of guns in recurrent revolution, the

body of Dr. Sun Yat-sen lies enshrined tonight in its final restof

ing place at the spot where the dead Leader often, in

pressed his cherished desire to be buried.

life,

ex-

began in solemn ceremony before dawn in the

Central Party Headquarters auditorium where the body has lain

The

final rites

in state for the past three days.

noon with the formal lowering

The

funeral closed shortly after

of the great bronze casket into its

sunken crypt.
Outside, the sun made bright the blue and white
granite and marble mausoleum which stood splendid above the

Yangtze

lowlands.

fertile

beyond the high-roofed Memorial Hall and past the

bronze doors the Tsitng-li's body lies peacefully below

Inside,

huge

domed

walls in a soft twilight which in daytime filters gently in

Here only a chosen few

through tiny stained glass windows.
gathered with bowed heads at the entombment of the Leader's
These were
passed forever from human sight.
the members of Dr. Sun's immediate family and his closest followers, who had been allowed to be near him during the memoframe as

frail

rial

it

Mme.
aide

the

dim-lit

auditorium

They included the widow,

day broke over the capital.
Sun Yat-sen the only son of the founder of the Kuomin-

before

tang,

dawn within

at

mourning ceremony

Mr. Sun Fo; Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, his erstwhile

and a comparatively few others close through blood relation-

ships or political association.

few moments

down

later

this

little

group slowly retraced their

sweeping granite staircase and departed

along the broad highway which like a ribbon, when viewed from
the heights of the mountainside tomb, connects the shrine through
steps

the old
All

the

long,

Nanking

city walls

through

the

night

truly striking program.

The whole

of

It

Nationalist

with the distant new capital of China.

preparations

had

was the climax

China had

continued

for

the

of years of planning.

spent

week

in

official

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

The wars

moment were

243

and the
continent has been at peace since the funeral train departed from
Peking last Monday carrying the body of Dr. Sun Yat-sen from

mourning.

for

the

forgotten

temporary tomb outside the ancient capital southward half

way across China to Nanking. For days, all Nanking incoming
trains and river steamers have been crowded with persons from
its

all

corners of the land.

the

State entombment.

Diplomatic missions of virtually every

nation on friendly relations with the new China arrived to attend

Long

before dawn, soldiers, sailors,

Boy

Scouts, Girl Guides,

gendarmes and regular police joined in seeking

the great throngs which filled the capital for

to handle quietly
this

event.

The

people in a great, long procession marched afoot the miles between the auditorium in the heart of Nanking and the mauso-

leum along the new Chungshan highway over which the cortege
moved at a snail-like pace. This procession began just at dawn
as the hearse moved into place toward the end of the line of the
living stretching nearly two miles ahead,

Madame Sun

(the second), just back from Europe

to attend the funeral services for her dead husband, stood alone

Yat-sen

Dressed in austere black, she walked by the

himself about her own
side of her husband's son, Mr. Sun Fo
and was seen to be weeping silently at this renewal of faith
age

and unsupported.

were her two sisters, Mme.

These and other
Chiang Kai-shek and Mme. H. H. Rung.
members of the immediate family were hidden behind a blacksheeted shield while they walked from the auditorium in a place
set aside for them just back of the hearse in which the casket
in

her

husband.

With her

also

was draped in a flag of the new republic under the

Kuomintang.
Through the warm spring sunshine of the early June morning,
members of the Cabinet, high Chinese officials, foreign envoys,
soldiers and others marched in the long trek toward the mausoGuns in forts atop Lion
leum
Chinese bands played the dirge.
Hill outside the walls boomed one hundred and one times in a
rested.

It

national salute of farewell.

the

funeral

Like a giant dragon at

wound through

procession
throngs into the open countryside.

the

city's

last

silent

awake,

massed

THE DRAGON STIRS

244

The

procession

reached the base of

o'clock in the morning, at the

end

of

mausoleum at ten
hour march. Here the

the

a six

casket was unloaded and placed on a bright blue catafalque which

many silent coolies carried upward to the shrine within the

devout

rites,

the tomb, following elaborate and

At

enormous building above.

those persons especially invited to attend the funeral

past the crypt.

The city of Nanking observed three minutes of silence exactly
at high noon, and the rites were ended.

ceremony

filed

Immediately after Dr. Sun's funeral, the men at Nanking turned

toward beautifying their new capital. It needed it. Plans were drawn

up by Henry K. Murphy and Ernest

making Nanking one
old wall running
to be turned

At

first

even

felt

its

the

New

York, for

The
Yangtze was

beautiful capitals in the world.

way across the hills along the

modern boulevard encircling the city.

was supposed

it

most

Goodrich of

zigzag

into a

by

of the

P.

Chinese

that the wall

that

its

would have to

presence

would

It

go.

retard

the

was

city's

Hence it was proposed then that the wall be razed and

development.
the bricks used to pave new streets.
When Mr. Murphy, the architect
in the city planning program,

China early that February,

One of the first things he did was to

arrived in

he went at once to Nanking.

announce that he thought purely Chinese architecture should be used
throughout in designing the Capital's new public buildings and that
the battered old gray wall should be maintained at all costs.

Mr. Murphy
Leave it and we

"It is typical of China/'

mistake to tear

on

its

top, a

it

down.

most valuable asset

in every

said.

"It

would be a great

make a broad boulevard

way to the new city. The

will

wall will thus be useful and at the same time most attractive.

By no

means disturb

street,

If

it.

necessary,

put gates through

it

at every

but keep the wall."

So they kept the old wall at Nanking.

The capital, situated on the south bank of
a typical old Chinese
all

the

Yangtze River, was

a million population.
It rambled
along the countryside for miles, with vast open spaces within the

wall.

Elsewhere,

where the
fashion.

its

city of less than

narrow

citizens live
It

is

still

streets traverse thickly

packed and jammed together

not

pretty

city

today,

but

populated sections
in typical

the

Chinese

location

for

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

beautiful

modern metropolis

is

The low

ideal.

245

hills

behind the

city

roundly against the sky, and from the vantage of the Yangtze as
one glides past on a steamer the city is not without charm.
Mr. Goodrich, the engineer, originally went to China to work on

rise

three

in

tasks

struction

with

connection

Nanking city planning project,

and
the development of a port at
Nanking's port

Canton for ocean-going liners.

"I came out to China to assist

Mr. Goodrich

them a

recon-

These were the

program

the construction of

king/'

Government's

National

the

said

in

in talking

the planning

of

his

work

new Nan-

of the

there,

"and to give

practical plan for the construction of ports for ocean liners at

Mr. Murphy and myself are going

Canton and possibly at Nanking.
We are making
ahead first on the Nanking city planning program.
He knows more about that end of it
headway, as he will tell you.
than I do.

"As to
much they

Canton and Nanking, I cannot say yet how

but possibly it will run into millions of dollars.

the ports at
will

cost,

We

How

are
they intend to finance this work is none of our concern.
interested, to be sure, in the success of the enterprise, but I understand
at Tientsin they are

still

working on harbor improvements suggested

a plan laid down ten or twenty years ago.

"Our idea is to survey the situation as

we have

once

when

practical

down

the survey completed to lay

engineers,

in

and

work which

a line of

carried out, give Canton and

Nanking the most up-to-date

We will, I presume, proceed with this work of preports possible.
senting the Chinese Government with a practical engineering program
will,

these ports as

for

satisfactorily
will

be

done,

soon as the city planning program at Nanking

drawn
I

up.

believe,

The
by

actual

construction

construction

work

engineering

the

of

firms

is

ports

who

are

asked to bid on the projects as specified in the port plans I submit

to the
It

Government."

was estimated the construction

of the port at

Canton would cost

The port at Nanking would cost that much and

Minister Sun Fo, who was first in charge of this work
possibly more.
and who retained Mr. Murphy and Mr. Goodrich in America, said the
at least $10,000,000.

financing

schemes

covering

National Government revenues.

was strongly

in

would be backed by the

Mr. Murphy, an old visitor to China,

these

projects

favor of adhering as closely

as

possible

to

the

old

THE DRAGON STIRS

246
Chinese

style of architecture.

new western

with the

He

combine the old

criticized efforts to

combination was

ideas, not because that sort of

not a good idea but because, he said to me on this subject, the architects had gone about the combination in the wrong way.
"I became convinced," Mr. Murphy said, "that the chief difficulty

with the adaptations already made lay in the fact that their designers
had started out with foreign exteriors into which they had introduced
to a greater or less extent Chinese features, with the inevitable result

that the completed buildings remained essentially foreign.

"I decided we must start out with Chinese exteriors into which

we

would introduce only such foreign features as were needed to meet

Of the buildings now completed in the
some definite requirements.

Nanking and

at

group

Ginling College

occupied by Yenching University (at Peiping)

they are really Chinese.

"In

its

now

twenty or more

the

of

my

Chinese friends say

and surroundings Nanking has advantages

"In what other
in the world/' he added.

natural features

enjoyed by few capitals

capital can we find parallels for the Yangtze River on one side bearing
the commerce of two hundred million people, for the Lotus Lake on
other

the
as

the

with

picturesquely

center

park

terrain

rolling

its

of

wooded

suburban

residential

which adds so much

to

and

islands

the

its

possibilities

for

development,

architectural

the

possibilities

of the future thickly built portions of the city proper, for the

low

hills

bordering Nanking on the north and south, and for the culmination
of these hills at the west in Purple Mountain, rising 1400 feet in a
silhouette

of

individuality

over half

that

walls

of

of

Nanking

the

And when you

and character?

seventeen to eighteen

consists

of fields

nearly empty of buildings

was

And he

planning.

to adapt the best features

found in the

city

any

Siberia, visiting
their

of each to

wall

of

here afforded to

is

Mr. Murphy came out to China across Europe and

some twenty cities en route to Nanking. He studied

how

within the

square miles

kind you will realize how unusual an opportunity

achieve a city plan laid out almost on ideal lines."

with an eye to

consider

a great

city plans

the city he

traffic

artery

already to hand.

"Of

the

features

of

Nanking,"

he

said,

"the

most

the wonderful encircling city wall

rambling for twenty-two
undulating gently across the foothills of Purple Mountain,

striking
miles,

man-made

is

BURIAL OF SUN YAT-SEN

247

averaging forty or
more, and for long stretches rising to a majestic height of over sixty
occasionally

dropping

Many

hundreds

feet.

solid

granite

walls of

base,

to

twenty

feet

of years old,

the

Nanking are a

scene

of

in

height,

sturdily built of high bricks

countless

priceless heritage of

battles

for

the

above

city,

majesty and beauty

the

and

strong feeling when I arrived was the conviction that these

walls must not be lost as the price to be paid by Nanking for its

my

first

modernization.

"When

found the wall was nowhere

less

than ten feet wide at

top and measured over twenty-five feet wide for all but a short
stretch, with several miles of wall over forty feet wide and already
paved with stone, I clinched matters by proposing the use of the entire
the

an

elevated

motor

boulevard

twenty-two miles long with

ramps leading up at frequent intervals and with parking spaces and
refreshment stations where the wall widens out at each gate into a

wall

for

The accomplishment of this project will give

spacious plateau.
king one of the finest panoramic drives in the world."
Following the original

work on

the city plan

"fact-finding

itself,

survey,"

and Nanking slowly

Mr.
is

Nan-

Murphy began

becoming modern.

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

21

AT

the end of that

It

summer

Far East and came home.

already had "missed too many

I left the

was about time, for perhaps

foreigners along the China

Coast.
After more than five years spent in Japan, China, the Philipor
pines and Manchuria I left the Orient on September 1, 1929
rather, it was on that Sabbath day that I started to leave.
boats," as the old saying

It

is

among

But before leaving China let us look once more at the scene there.
was a hodge-podge of politico-military purposes and cross-purposes.

The

period of transition in so large a land peopled by so

That is
scattered races must last a generation or more.

many
why

widely
have

The dragon of China is not

volume The Dragon Stirs.
He is partly
but he is stirring in his sleep.
fully awake even now
awake and when his entire sinuous body comes to life, dawn will be

named

this

over.

That June,
pressing

Hsiang,

the

in

1929,

irrepressible

again.

He and

men

Nanking were engaged in sup"Christian General," Marshal Feng Yu-

the

the

at

younger

Generals

in

the

troublesome

Kwangsi Province clique were raising a rumpus up-country at Hankow. The newest breach within the Kuomintang had started in May,
before Dr. Sun Yat-sen's entombment at Nanking.
In looking through

The New York Times, I find this headline

on May 25: NANKING LINKS FENG TO RED PLOT.
Others during
those otherwise pleasant spring days related how Generalissimo Chiang

my

files

of dispatches

to

Nanking pleaded with Marshal Feng to "abide by peace"

how the fate of China hung on Feng's next step, and so on. This
rebellion was smothered, and by July, all seemed quiet on the Chinese
front.
But trouble with Soviet Russia was to occur again shortly,
This was not apparent at
marring my journey back to the States.
that time, so I went down to the Philippines.
There were several reasons for this.
One was that I had been
Kai-shek

at

248

PERSONAL PUBLICITY
my

filing

cabled dispatches to

there

copy"

to

Filipino

(chiefly

in

Manila,

The New

since

syndicate

of

via Manila, giving a "drop-

native

we began

newspapers

They were to pay the cable costs as far as

York Times to pay them from there on to New

Filipino

papers

did

not pay their

arrangement months before.

so I went to Manila
and did.

collect,

language

Tagalog).

But the

York.

New York

this

Another reason for going

Dwight F. Davis,
succeed Colonel

of

St.

Henry

just at

Louis,

that time

who had

It

was

share,

never had

was up

my

to

me

to

meeting with

recently been appointed to

L. Stimson as Governor-General of the Philip-

Mr. Davis was passing through Shanghai on his way

to Manila, so I got on the same ship and went along.
The genial
a splendid
donor of the Davis Cup for international tennis competition

pine Islands.

was a jovial ship's comsymbol of good will induced through sports

panion and we became rather well acquainted for such a short meeting
as that four-day boat ride.

due

paper in Manila, bade Governor

Davis and Senator Manuel Quezon (now President Quezon) farewell
at Malacanan Palace and went back to Shanghai, arriving in mid-July's
I collected the $2,000 or so

heat.

my

determined then to return to America.

In the few days which

packing my things preparatory to

the "big push/' trouble was brewing between Moscow and Nanking.
The Chinese raided the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin, in North
I spent in

The Russians controlled that line, which

Manchuria, about that time.
was connected with their trans-Siberian railroad from Vladivostok to
Moscow, and they didn't like this raid a bit.
They threatened to
invade Manchuria (as the Japanese did later) and there grew up a
warlike tension between the two nations.

My

troubles had just begun.

end of

had not been back

in

Shanghai a

which delayed my departure.

By the
got out of the hospital and on my feet again, it was nearly the
August, 1929. I cancelled a tentative passage on the O. S. K.

week when
time I

got dysentery,

Line via South Africa, and sought instead to get to Europe across
But a state approaching war existed in Manchuria by then.
Siberia.

go via Vladivostok and there were no Russian

consular officials in all China, not even in Manchuria, to provide me
I determined, nevertheless,
with the very much needed passport visa.
It

was necessary

to

go on up to Vladivostok, thence through the

to

Amur

Valley over the

THE DRAGON STIRS

250

Manchuria and down again, joining the trans-Siberian line

It was this route I took, without a
proper at the town of Chita.
Russian visa.
None could be obtained in China, but I relied on the
lop

of

was a good thing

It

so

many

years

filled

to be getting

with

so

to be a mistake,

That turned out

advice of a Soviet press colleague.

but he could not help it.

away

many

at last, after

away

really

occurring

rapidly

experiences.

These just happened, and they occurred to anyone who was in the Far
East then; but I must say events seemed to crowd on each other's
heels in those years.

had to go was that before I went to the

hospital one local Shanghai paper ran an item that I was leaving on
I went to the hospital instead
a boat via South Africa the next day.

One

other reason that

When

got out almost a

month

later,

at the

American Club and the

Columbia Country Club where I went with friends again to say fareOne paper ran a
well someone invariably said: "You still here?"
picture

of a

missionary

bespectacled

about that

time

with

my name

You may
and the caption that I was leaving the Orient.
and
imagine the comment, which included: "My, my, such a change
Of course there were many other sides
ill
less than a month, too!'*
under

it,

departure, but things like that bordering on the ridiculous

the lighter side left me with relish for the new adventure.
to

my

My

diary of the

way

in

you the complete picture

SUNDAY,
.

after

two

China

left

the best

is

of the "return of the native"

September

ABOARD THE
today

which

S.

S.

1,

to give

way

to

and

New

York.

left

China

1929:

MODESTA,

years, seven months.

from Tokyo on Sunday, Feb.

At Sea:
.

Arrived in Shang-

U. P. Today,
in a "Walla-walla" launch with Carolyn Converse and Victor
Keen of the New York Herald-Tribune, I came aboard the S. S.
Modesta, an Anglo-Danish steamer bound for Vladivostok- and
hai

across

Siberia

years here and

Had

6,

1927, for the

and Europe, and the Atlantic

home

Five

I'm glad to be on my way.

a farewell dinner at the Majestic Hotel last night, Vic
being
in

Japan

is

enough.

a quiet little affair Vic and Miss Chaplin, 'Gina

and Bruno Schwartz and Carolyn and myself.
Home at dawn
host

just

PERSONAL PUBLICITY
.

and so

hurried final packing

came

(A.P.)

to the

to the ship

Customs Jetty with

251
.

Morris Harris

us.

One

There are six other passengers, all Russians.

himself as a man who, Rover of Tass agency

introduced

would help
me get a visa at Vladivostok. Took a chance and came on this
Our
trip without a visa, wiring Walter Duranty at Moscow.
Captain is a Norwegian just out from Europe with an arms
shipment
long in South America, and sings the praises of
Rio de Janeiro. ... To bed early and very tired, after talking
.

with the Captain about the unfair

sidy, the beauties of Rio, etc.

Sunday.

said,

...

new U.

A/s

shipping subI arrived and left China on a

S.

MONDAY,

September 2:
at noon and after tea and toast in

Up

my

on deck to

cabin,

and read.
Ship's virtually deserted. The Modesto,
is a far cry from the Pres. Pierce which I came out on in 1924.
Tea at four and feeling a bit ill ... rolling quite a bit, but so
far not so bad.
My Russian shipmates assure me I'll have no
walk a

bit

trouble

landing at Vladivostok.

dinner

tonight

and

we

later

They played

sat

Ma

Jongg

after

and had a gay time in the

To bed rather late after much "Walla-walla,"

smoking room.
including an argument with our Captain as to the merits of the
He insisted it was the best, most expressive
English language
speech in the world, while I said it was one of the worst, lacking
the exactness of the French or even some Chinese languages.
.

TUESDAY,

We
their

prints

September 3:

are halfway to V., steaming peacefully across the Japan

Korea

Sea with
misty.

tiny

visible

off

our

port bow, low, gray,

Little fishing boats dot the flat surface of our ocean,
sails bellied to the slight breeze
appearing like the
plainly

by Japanese

artists.

The water

is

a gray-green again after

yesterday's peculiarly deep blue characteristic of the tropics.

And strangely enough, we ran into countless schools of tiny flying
.

fish

Never saw those but

after tiffin in

my

in the tropics before.

cabin, to read

Modern Chinese

On

deck today

Civilisation,

by

Dr. A. F. Legendre, translated by Elsie Martin Jones in Tokyo.

It is a very general plea for intervention in China by the Powers

THE DRAGON STIRS

252

but he, like others who're supposed to

no program.
Music on the Victrola
offers

this,

He

know and have suggested

the

in

provided also H. G. Wells

Mr.

me

On

deck for a breath of

night.

To my bunk

sea.

which

read until

off

at

ten

o'clock.

but a very cool, black

stars,

our port bow, very low in the

Sept. 4:

and

Britling

Through,

very lonely, somehow.

WEDNESDAY,
Mr.

Many

air.

dinner.

It

from the dining room

The Big Dipper

War

after

Sees

Britling

a book on Britain's going into the Great

the China-boy evicted

cabin

Captain's

had a

cool,

day of

pleasant

it.

like

Heavier clothing was comfortable on

monotdeck.
Getting rather restless and eager to get ashore,
onous trip, this.
Well, Vladivostok early tomorrow is one con-

Wells most of the time.

wondering about my visa. My Russian shipmates

are confident.
"sure no trouble," they say.
solation.

Still

THURSDAY,

We
my

it's

now

are
last,

Just as soon

in Vladivostok for the first time.

What

too.

beautiful

truly

Sept. 5:

natural

But a

a ramshackle town!

harbor,

landlocked,

hills

its

beautiful, a

rising

light

It has marvelous possibilities, but

green above the placid water.
The harbor
nothing's been done to beautify it or the town.

November and

freezes solid in
spring.

Hard

Rome!

And

case.

this

said

again
it's

to

Vlad.

we have no

is

you

like.

ice-free,

they say, until late

the

same

latitude

as

And

that's

no joke

in

about

visa today!

Because the authorities

"You must
if

realize

isn't

civilly

but just as

not come ashore without a visa.

We've heard

the Modesto, for you."

nothing.

So here

But

I sit alone

Cable

in

definitely

Moscow

the meantime,

with

my

thoughts,

a virtual prisoner on what is now my private yacht.

I should
have an answer one way or the other by Saturday to a cable I
sent

Moscow

again today through the

the Russian Dalbank,

Mr. Volchek

capable

who accompanied me

to the

of

Foreign Agent's

Or rather, I
Department of Passports.
He told my tale of woe and negotiated and
accompanied him.
He certainly was obliging, but I can't
finally told me the result
office

and the

Police

help feeling that

I'd

have done far better on

my

own, with a

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

253

pure but simple interpreter rather than a guardian.

drove to the F. A.'s
very kind of him.
.

We

was

it

Still,

office

in

an

ancient droshky over a rough, cobblestoned avenue badly in need

of repair and up a suburban-like lane down which small freshets

ran digging treacherous holes in the dirt road which caused us

to pitch about like a ship in a gale, and most perilously too.
damned clever, these
Made it and back without a mishap
.

And

so back to the ship for a late tiffin alone.

I got up early to go ashore, and the jolly old
Customs johnnies appeared at 10 a.m., instead of the advertised
five o'clock on the bulletin board!
They always do. ...

Ruskies, driving.
And a nap, for

They okayed my luggage without difficulty, but insisted on

God
locking up my files in one of my small travelling bags
knows where they've got it now; somewhere in Vlad. ... I
They may be reading all my cables, mail
hope it comes back.
.

stories,

et

al,

My

years to the Times.

state tonight; then he and the

for

Captain and

Mr.
Irwin Hansen, quite a remarkable fellow, went ashore for what
turned out to be a bit of a night out, rolling in with the dawn.
had dinner

And

in

so to bed.

first

officer,

FRIDAY,

Sept.
ever, as

6:

on Wednesday, thought Vladivostok

It's beastly, and if I
would be a consolation God only knows.

Why

did

don't get off this

ship before long I'll go mad.
Loading
and unloading interminable great boxes of tea all day and night!
For less than that I'd chuck this
No sleep ... no

NOTHING.

European tour and go right home, very angry.

Funny to
but these unending days and nights are
look back on, okay
the worst I've known.
.

SATURDAY,

7:

Sept.

Ashore today. Looks as though something has happened. A

flunky came aboard about four p.m. and after some trouble getting
an interpreter said that he had a pass permitting me to land at
Fine.
once and go anywhere I liked.
Also, he had a message
requiring

that

call

Passport Division,
they got

word

at

at

the

so-called

on Monday.
okay and that I get

nine a.m.

the visa

is

"Central

Control

My
it

Point/'

guess

Monday.

is

that

Fine

THE DRAGON STIRS

254
with one

fly in

the ointment

on the trans-Siberian

would a

rather

lot

line

The ten-day

week

insist I take the

may

they

Monday
a

wait

night

dead

here,

Express

Moscow, while

for

as

it

is,

for

the

be mighty dull,
from all accounts.
Rained all day but let up a bit about five
p.m., and with Captain Jorgensen, our skipper, and one bag, went
ashore.
Registered at the Versailles Hotel on the main

Bristols.

may

Not too

street.

trip across otherwise

bad, but no Ritz at that.

Room

at

rubles

five

We

a day, with a bath of sorts down the corridor.

ordered
and while a
dinner in the room
only way, no dining room
Chinese boy got me some rubles for my Mex. dollars and fixed
the chow,

we took a

Met

stroll.

Capt.

C.

the

of

S.

S.

Arica,

another Norwegian skipper, on the corner, with his "little wife,"

a rather sweet though sad Russian girl, and the four of us back

This came slowly, but in immense

the boy had put a whole chicken in for chicken soup
for

to the Versailles

quantities

Talked

until

midnight.

SUNDAY,

chow.

Sept.

8:

week yesterday

getically

me

told

this

had a proper bath

since I

Sabbath

bright

morn,

the boy apolo-

"Velly

sorry,

no

bath today
tomorrow can do." And so another
holiday
of these towel and "sponge baths."
Even when I get to it, from
what I've seen, this hotel tub is no dream. Even so, I feel better
.

today than in

weeks.

great blue sky.

Cool,

tiffin-tea

sparkling
of

the inevitable

brown bread

my

Decided to leave

sorts,

day,

not

cloud

in

with soft-boiled eggs and

heavy stuff, all that's available here now) and with Mrs. M., a Russian woman among our
Modesta passengers en route to Moscow, to the ship to see about
luggage.

(horrible,

it

aboard until

I see

what happens

Ashore and a decision to go

Passport Office tomorrow.
excursion train into the country for the afternoon.
After

at the

by

forty minutes

by

train in a

crowded wooden-benched car crammed

with holiday crusaders along the coast of Amur Bay, off and into
the arms almost of Mr. Babinstov ( ?) , also a co-passenger, and
his brother

and wife who own a cottage

They asked us

to tea

at this

sea-side

through the green-wooded

cottage, and as pleasant a tea as could be imagined
-so

resort.

hills to their

"tea" being

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

255

and otherwise, and vodka, with steaming hot

which I'm getting to like imRussian tea in tall glasses after
It was chilly when we left to catch the 7:36 p.m.
mensely.
train back to Vladivostok.
We went to a Russian movie tonight
and had more tea and meat balls and
all Soviet propaganda
a sweet for dinner later.
So back to the hotel, and to bed which
cold meats, tinned

had to make.

It

MONDAY,

had not been touched since

my

having
cancel
.

to

bath.
his

got
it

He came

for

ticket

and he went on

train.

too

And

Moscow.

the Passport Division chap.

I did,
out an application blank.

when anything happens.

in

again to the hotel about six p.m.,

tonight's

to

town today on a
missed him at first

Got

Saw

fill

morning.

Sept. 9:

Judge Allman has come and gone.

Japanese steamer from Tsuruga and
taking

I left that

late

now

have no

still

visa.

No

word, but wanted

and

he'll

This uncertainty

is

phone

me

to

if

me
and

getting mighty old.

TUESDAY, Sept. 10:

My interpreter, a young
Russian parents,

and we went

American chap, strange to say, of

stranded alone here, came along about three

then
Gatesman, the Foreign Agent
to the Japanese Consulate to see about going to Japan tomorrow
to get a visa at Tsuruga, and return here with the Bristols and
in searcji of

take the same train.

No

can do. ... Got Gatesman on the

phone and finally made an appointment for ten a.m. tomorrow.

Sent Duranty another urgent cable.
Hope something happens
soon!
War rumors thick as flies at the coffee shops and elsewhere in town today.
Chinese may fight.
Battle going
.

on along the Manchurian border since the eighth, they say

also around Habarovsk.
Feel out of touch with everything
.

in

this

place,

idleness of

service

Soldiers

Looks

streets.

right now.

everywhere
ominous.
Hope

Got action today!

Sept.

Odd

feeling,

this

Recruiting hurriedly going on

singing, marching through the
it

not before I get across

WEDNESDAY,

for the first time in years.

mine

here now.

doesn't
if

hold

up

the

train

ever do get that visa.

11:

Met Gatesman

at

the office at

ten

a.m.

with Christensen of the Great Northern, and Gatesman had got

THE DRAGON STIRS

256

Moscow telling him to fix me up. He did a

and we went to the Passport Office and all was

a telegram from
lot of

telephoning

Filed another application, which Mr. C. wrote

apparently okay.
out in Russian, and paid twenty rubles and gave them a photo.
Get my passport back with the visa on Friday.
Tongue in

With

cheek until then, but believe it's finally fixed.

Paul to The Red Banner, a Communist sheet

Never walked so much or so

the Modesta.

my

all

life

...

To

She

at half-time.

Czar's

War.

far

then over to

in

one day

told

a cinema with

me

tonight she

M.

Mrs.

was a

in

No

...

tonight

in the

soldier

wounded nineteen times during the World

Remarkable woman. To bed early, very tired.
in 1915

army
.

Interpreter

over town on multifarious errands.

all

word from Duranty.

left

THURSDAY,

Sept.

12:

from Duranty in Moscow

on what grounds
intimating F. O. there refuses passport visa
God only knows.
After Gatesman's attitude yesterday and

More bad news.

doleful cable

urgent insistence at the Passport Office here that they give

me one at once, else he gets into trouble in Moscow, entirely inChristensen's for dinner tonight, and he and
explicable.
his

Horrdon were

still

noon tomorrow.

optimistic.

On

the

Am

strength

trunks in from the Modesta today.

supposed to get
of

all

May

my

visa at

moved
move them right

these

have to

things,

Splendid chow at C's, and later bridge for a

hours.
Everyone is certainly amiable and accom-

back tomorrow!
couple

of

modating.

FRIDAY

the 13th!;

Got the visa today!

With Mr. C. to the Passport Office at
noon and everything was okay. Got my U. S. currency changed
into rubles at the

To

Chosen Bank.

the

German Consulate where

I got a visa for

Germany good for one year. I'm

bound on Monday what a load off my mind.

TUESDAY,

Sept.

We're on the way

at a

little

place called

trans-Siberia

17:
to

Moscow, and

Red River

Habarovsk, after midnight on a

Sunday with Admiral and Mrs.

at the

moment are

Station, just a
cold,

few miles from

moonlit plain.

Bristol, just in

stalled

Had

from Japan

tiffin
.

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

257

Met Captain J. on
dinner and to the train at eleven p.m.
the way there.
Found two trunks cost me 166.50 rubles baggage
also

To Moscow,

fare!

alone

almost as

much

my own

as

rail-

That was a
road ticket and sleeping car, combined, to Berlin!
blow.
Finally all aboard at twelve midnight and ready to
go ... Christensen and Horrdon also down to see us off, and
.

two or three more.

Get
compartment so far.
a partner at Habarovsk.
Hope he's not got much baggage these
One likable chap on board is a
compartments are small.
Swedish engineer, long a resident of China, going home.
I'm alone in

my

FRIDAY,
Ought

to

20:

this

keep

Hour

terest.

Sept.

up every day

walking,

station

stops,

but not

much

of

in-

routine of eating,
hour of rolling prairie
exercise at the various
etc., getting a bit of

after

resting,

and

chats

with

the

other

restless

passengers.

Passed Chita today ... ran into "Nick," chap who barbered at
the American Club in Shanghai.
Stranded up here and can't get
back now, due to the war.
We're in
Country is different now.

More villages than through the

Siberia proper.
the rich yellow land cultivated, and fences all along.

Amur

Valley,

Before there

was nothing, hundreds of miles of hills, forests, no cultivation.

Trees turning
Dreary and cold. Had our first snow yesterday.
yellow and red in a profusion of fall colors along the Siberian
The moonlit
countryside; much like the middlewest at home.
up here are wonderful, clear. A full yellow harvest moon
comes up at dark, as we chase the reddening, setting sun into
the West toward Europe, and fills our yellow world with a soft
nights

light.

single,

The

forest

so

far,

trees

across

Six more

shadows.
we're there.

We

nearby along the tracks, or track

most
days

to

set the clock

of

Siberia

march

Moscow, and
back an hour a

by

like

it

is

black

when
day now, Moscow

I'll

be

glad

being six hours behind Chita.

MONDAY,
Uneventful

Improving

my

Sept. 23:

weekend, with our trip more than half over.

Russian the while, if any, with an ex-Colonel of

army, a somewhat attractive and very blonde ballet

dancer from Leningrad, and a Russian- Jew who speaks German

the Czar's

THE DRAGON STIRS

258

and

acts as interpreter for

which

is

no small

feat,

and some

of villages

ROM

Learned

me.

Marie

We

everything considered.

in Russian,

pass a

number

Take exercise
sour cream and butter; some roast

now and

sizeable cities

then.

and buy cheese,

The Admiral is an indefatiguable investigator of
chickens, too.
the station restaurants and invariably comes back laden with loot
We get to Moscow on Thursday.
the produce of the hamlet.
at every stop,

Happy

thought: a bath!

WEDNESDAY,

Sept. 25:

Through the Urals last night and into Europe today. Moscow
tomorrow morning.
Sent Duranty a wire asking him to get
reservations for me and the Bristols at the Grand Hotel there in

Moscow

there's

always

a Grand

Hotel

Bought a couple of trinkets

and the like, at a town called Sverdlovsk
seems!

every

town,

semi-precious

in

stones

Today

last night.

it

got

a wooden cigarette case at another station in a district famous

for

its

The

woodwork.

countryside

cultivated

millions

The

of

fir

Can't

now

is

realize

really

beautiful

night on train.
well kept up and

last

tonight's
.

not like the wild steppes of Siberia's plains

trees.

The world

is

still

safe

Santa Claus!

for

... got into

a routine, with tiffin daily at three p.m.
The nights came on
the days fled by in no time.
Moscow
amazingly fast
has been delightful

trip across

the ten days

in the morning, with pleasure

but

Europe from the Far

able trip to

all

it's

East.

been a quick and enjoy 1

In a way, I'm sorry it's

ending.

THURSDAY,

Sept.

26:

We

got to Moscow about ten thirty this morning and if it

hadn't been for Eugene Lyons of the U. P. we'd be at the station
He was there and fixed everything about luggage, etc.
yet!
Left

trunks at the station, and with Mrs. B. and lots of bags

(they were wise and took no trunks) took a taxi to the hotel.
I've not too bad a room, though with no bath attached, for ten

my

rubles a day.
at

Paris, en

ahead as

my room

we

Mrs. Buergin, wife

of

the

General Motors chief

route there, couldn't get a room, not

having wired
did, and as she wanted to take a bath I let her use

while I bathed in the rooms of Carroll Binder, of the

PERSONAL PUBLICITY

259

Chicago Daily News, who combines his office and rooms at the
hotel in one suite.
And while the trip was not bad, after that
bath I

felt

like

as hell, at least

Had

new man

after

again!

The day was

clear,

but cold

Shanghai's mild climate near the tropics.

with Binder, Deuss of I. N. S., and others.

Planned
to tour about town with the B's after tiffin, but missed them
tiffin

while trying to help Mrs. Buergin buy a ticket from the border
to Paris.
Tonight to the Moscow opera with the Bristols and
Binder.
Began at seven thirty and lasted until twelve thirty a.m.
!

Got our money's worth

there.

Opera House

is

a massive build-

Saw
opera singing excellent, especially choruses.
"Boris Godunov," Moussorgsky's opera of old Russian court ining

The B's and I had supper at one a.m., and after a dance
with "Ma" Bristol, to bed late and very tired.
Duranty was
in Berlin, returning from Paris.
Back on Sunday. The B's go
trigue.

to

Leningrad Saturday p.m.

I've

decided to go on to

Germany

on Sunday evening.

SATURDAY,
This

end we

Sept.

28:

a fascinating but fearfully depressing spot.

This week
have been seeing the sights in more or less tourist fashion,
is

we have

not had time to go into the museums, churches,

We've driven
factories, and the rest on the beaten tourist track.
about town, however, and seen these places at, so to speak, arm's
except

length.

The Kremlin

off the

Red Square we

"did" in about two

This is far from the record, which the

hours, or a little under
tourists are cutting down all the time.
Soon they'll be running
One must have a
sight-seeing buses through it in ten minutes
f

pass to get in here for the Kremlin is the seat of government.

In here one may view the windows of Lenin's study in the

Government building on the left, while "on your right, ladies

and gentlemen, is an old cannon," the chill voice of the professional guide drones on while an all-American party of at least
rather bored

gazes about the campus-like square

formed by ancient buildings, churches, Peter the Great's playand yawns.
The Kremlin, while not so hot, must
house, etc.,
thirty

citizens

have been really magnificent in its day: it still is a massively

with its gold-covered, mosque-like
church
place,
impressive

THE DRAGON STIRS

260

the square where

towers,

when Moscow was

emperors of

the

now guarded by Red

and lay buried

troops and machine guns.
ruled

crowned,

MONDAY,
Out
Poland

Soviet

30:

Sept.

Russia at

Soviet

of

where the Czars were

the place

the capital,

were christened

old

We

last.

crossed

the

border into

at Stolpce at ten a.m.

Met Duranty a moment on

his

return from "outside," as the

Moscow terms a visit

Then I had to dash for

correspondents or anyone else stationed in

to any country in the rest of Europe.

my

train

Berlin, going via

to

trains there,

tomb with

where
its

had a glimpse

perennial

My

wreath of honor.

Warsaw

for

of

a brief halt between

Unknown

their

and

flame

unquenched

train companions,

the

Soldier's

inevitable

one an Englishman and

the other a young American engineer, agreed that

it

was

great

now that we were out

men and women with smiling faces

not to have to talk in whispers any more,

of Russia.

and

silk

Russian

Here

It

Berlin and

the

cotton-clothed,

cheerless

appearing

girls so drear in their native setting.

my

stay longer in

Orient and

to see

after

stockings

shall

And

is.

skip

my

diary's

unexpected trip

down

to Paris

Germany and perhaps

its

affairs.

account

lengthy

planned to

when

of
I

my

doings

in

had planned to

write something then about the

sail

from Bremerhaven on the

North German Lloyd liner Stuttgart for a leisurely crossing to New

York, but events which I did not controlnor cared to particularly
after a five-year sojourn out East away from life as we know it in the
caused

Occident

me

to

weeks, but I

three

spend

sailed

at

FRIDAY, November

8:

delightful

last

weeks
from

in

Paris.

They were

Boulogne for home, and

wrote:

ABOARD THE
days from

New

S.S.

STUTTGART, At

Sea:

We're two

York, being due on Sunday, the 10th,

Saw all
I care to of Europe for now in the
past three weeks in Paris,
and after a week on board this slow packet I shall be ready to
Met an interesting German- American chap on
get back home.
board named H. P. ("Heinie") Lohmann, formerly with the

PERSONAL PUBLICITY
Standard

Knew many
out East.

in

Oil
of

Shanghai,

my

stock

261

broker

San Francisco.

in

and we talked of old times

excellent on the North Atlantic for

friends in China,

Weather so

far

Not a day of sea-sickness for me ...

time of year.
but we've rolled quite a bit several times
must be a better
this

or wiser sailor.

On

board the S. S. Stuttgart are a Mr. Lukes and his two

These
young daughters, Sarah and Susan, of Quincy, 111.
girls were at Christian College in Missouri when I went to the
.

Columbia there years ago

they knew
"Tige" Brown, "Unc" Benson, etc., very well. ... We also
had considerable to chat about from those days very distant to
State

University

at

us

... funny

coincidence.

My

We

all

diary

docked in

ends

abruptly

New York

with

that

remark,

"funny

coincidence."

a day or so later on November 10, 1929.

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

22

*HE

Japanese seized Manchuria's peaceful Three Eastern Provinces of China in the fall and winter of 1931-32 and restored the
"Boy Emperor" to the throne of his Manchu ancestors on March
an historical date in marking the Manchu invasion of China below

|
I

was on this date in 1644 that they began their

"Ching Dynasty" or "Pure" rule in Peking.
The "Boy Emperor" had been living in peaceful seclusion as a

the Great Wall.

"guest"

of

It

the Japanese

in

their

Concession at

Tientsin

several

for

He

years, since his precipitous flight from Peking's uncertainties.

in bodily danger there even before the Kuomintang Revolution,

with the aid of the Japanese he got away.

a case of out of the frying-pan and into the

been free

it

Still,

fire

was
and

was something
for he

has

of

never

since.

He was

a virtual prisoner at Tientsin.

Then when Japan

"pacified"

really became deadly serious in her plan there, he was

Chang-chung, now called Hsinking, the new capital in

Manchuria and
enthroned

at

northeastern Asia.

The "Boy Emperor" had no more to say about his being whisked
away from the calm of Tientsin to the maelstrom of Manchuria in
1932 than you

did.

It

was

for "the state," an

pure patriotism, that the youth, who had been

his overthrow in the original revolt against

Oriental conception of
for a time before

known

Dragon Throne as
Emperor Hsuan T'ing, became Emperor Kang-Teh.
Himself, he
preferred to be known as plain Mr Henry Pu-yi, and during his
"retirement" in Peking and later in Tientsin that was the cognomen
But one born as the "Son of Heaven," cannot be plain Mr.
he used.
anything for very long.

The

his

Orientals are funny that way.

If

you

are the Son of Heaven, you've got to be the Son of Heaven so that
the common people may have something to kow-tow to down here on
earth.

262

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

263

was no major complaint voiced by

the Manchus or the Chinese peoples when "Henry" became their new
That

the chief reason there

is

"ruler."

liked

They

The Emperor

it.

the

in

Orient

is

worshipped

The Japanese have the same conception in their

the Emperor Hirohito, whom they believe a direct
The Occidental races have an afSun Goddess.

as well as revered.

devout bowing to
descendant of the
filiated

religious

belief

often expressed in the "divine right

In the "restoration"

in

Manchuria March

1,

of kings."

1932, Japan grabbed

Manchuria as she had so long carefully planned

time, I was just getting settled in Washington.

to

do.

About

that

The

trouble

had

Japan reported the now historic "Mukden

Incident," when her South Manchuria Railway track on the border
of that city was said to have been torn up by Chinese.
Troops were
started before I got there.

rushed to the spot from

reaching there in a surprisingly

short time from the chief Manchurian base at Dairen.

The

all

quarters,

"incident" occurred on September

Mukden

the Japanese seized control of

tioned there and

reinforcements.

18,

In a few hours

1931.

with her railway guards

There was heavy

all

fighting

sta-

that

and far into the winter, but by spring the Japanese had everything
Their Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Kenunder control.
fall

kichi

Debuchi,

intention

daily

assured

our

Secretary

annexing Manchuria."

of

Colonel

of

State

they

Henry L

had

"no

Stimson pro-

fessed to believe his bland, ever-smiling assurances

In a way, the Honorable Mr. Debuchi

was right.
The men
"good scout"

Manchuria

in

so

many words.

They

short, rotund, smiling,

at

Tokyo
simply saw

Manchuria "wanted independence"

even the average American could understand.
people

in

pendence once not so long ago, too, and got

4

'the

people"
claimed their

ascended
with

it

his

from

We
it.

not

did
to

it

China

and

annex

that

the

phrase
wanted our inde-

Thus we

find

that

changed the name to Manchukuo and themselves pro-

new "independent State" the day that the "Boy Emperor"

new throne in Hsinking.
Tokyo had nothing to do

officially.

But

"unofficially"

well,

what do you think?

That day they (the people) with Japanese "advisers," gave young
Mr. Henry Pu-yi an Imperial announcement, or "Rescript," to read
while he prepared to sit down on his new throne.
It read that he
,

("we") was ascending the throne "in conformity with the wishes of
the people, and complying with the will of Heaven."
And the new

THE DRAGON STIRS

264

was born, Japan extended de jure recognition officially several

months later, in the Protocol of September 15, 1932, just a year after
the "Mukden incident"
which was rather fast moving in such a
State

game

of politics.

Early in January of 1932, the Japanese got into trouble down in

This first "Shanghai War" caused weeks of startling
Shanghai.
news again and it took Japan's troops rather longer than they had
anticipated to

quell

the

stubborn Chinese resistance led

famous Nineteenth Route

near

That

Shanghai.

outbreak

mouth

the

at

Army

began

by

the

now

Yangtze River
Chinese mob on

of the

when

January 18, 1932, attacked five Japanese in Shanghai, including two

Buddhist priests.
The Japanese sent a Marine patrol ashore to
"pacify" the situation, and the "war" was on.
all

Correspondents from
over the world flocked there again, including Will Rogers, Floyd

And

from Washington
to handle the tremendous volume of cabled dispatches pouring in from
Gibbons and scores of others.

the correspondents out there for

They kept me swamped day

was

recalled

The United Press

in,

Associations.

day out during that

"show"

in

The news poured in at all hours of

January and February of 1932.
the day and night.
On January 20, the Shanghai Municipal Council
Settlement proclaimed a "state of emergency"

in the International

Most

the foreign area.

in

of the fighting occurred in Chapei, the native

The League of NaChinese city toward Woosung and the Pacific.

tions was informed of the "virtual state of war" then existing.
There
was nothing "virtual" about it to the men in the firing lines!
The
Woosung-Chapei battle outside the Settlement lasted from February
20 to March 1, but the armistice ending that bloody affair was not
signed until

The

May

5,

1932.

had long been over by that time, however, and I

the White House in Washington, D. g, the March

fighting

went back

to

previous to the Shanghai armistice.

on

my

House
drama
it

return
to

to

America, and in

"cover"

the

had joined the United Press

1931 was assigned to the White
(I

Hoover Administration.)

The

"restoration"

Manchuria intrigued me, and what

meant to China and the future of the Orient.
It still is a strange
of the

"Boy Emperor"

in

piece in the tangled pattern of our times, and I

life

story here of this hapless

pawn

in

the

want

shifting

to

go into the

panorama

of the

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

Far East ... the unbelievable
if

he could help
This slender,

spectacles,

history of the

man who'd

265

not be king,

it.

stood

frail

in

his

youth,

the

Throne

face

yellow

Room

of

and pale behind

thin

Manchu

his

ancestors

at

Chang-chung, ancient capital of Manchuria, that spring day in

1932, and took the oath of office as nominal ruler of another shadowy
This was the new and synthetic Manchurian-Mongolian state
realm.
historic

Ankuo, "Land of Peace"

sponsored by Japan, vigorously rejected by China, and not recognized
of

what was

first

called for a brief time

diplomatically by the rest of the world.

of

Gongs sounded through the palace at one time gay with pageantry
Their sonorous, deep booming
another and more colorful day.

welled through

the

wintry streets

Manchuria, calling on

The

claimed.

all

9,

in

Chang-chung

to witness that a

was March

date

of

1932.

new

ruler

heart

the

of

had been pro-

This youth, the

last

to

sit

on the Dragon Throne of China in Peking, was recently returned

under Japanese guard to the fertile provinces of Manchuria and inaugurated by the Japanese as ruler of that land of his fathers.
Prisoner to all intents and purposes these past two decades in the
hands of the Japanese, Henry is now their unwilling puppet in Manforced

churia,

to

of

position

nominal power,

to

which

he

never

aspired.

The Japanese by a

man

bold military adventure had ejected one young

as a ruler of Manchuria and placed another in his stead.

By

paradox of fortune, the youth who was eliminated

is

man who,

major role
was poetic

at the beginning of this century, played a

overthrow of the Manchus who

that

the Japanese

Thus,

fantastically,

returned
at

now

It

reign again.

Henry Pu-yi

to

the son

semblance

of

the

in the

justice

of

power.
turn of the wheel which put them there,
Elizabeth (bizarre names which the Son of
the

Henry arid his wife,

Heaven chose for himself and

his

bride)

now

play at

ruling in

Manchurian provinces, much, be it repeated, against their

real names are Hsuan T'ing, the "Boy Emperor," and
One wife, the former Princess Kuo Chia Si, daughter

will.

Their

Number

his

of

the

a major-

under the old regime in Peiping.

He selected her, oddly
enough and little in his life is not odd through a beauty contest.
But more of that later.

general

Both Henry and

his

pretty

wife

would far

rather

go

abroad,

THE DRAGON STIRS

266

preferably to the United States, to live quietly as students than rule

the Manchus under the thumb of the Japanese.
Henry is thirty-seven
his tiny, beautifully aristocratic consort is hardly more than thirty.
;

modernized

are

They

movies, and have as their

the

speak English, go to
wish in life a desire to be left

the

of

rulers

first

Orient,

They have found once more, however,

alone.

that

life

for

man

unfortunate enough to have been ruler of the ancient Celestial Empire

of China

the presidential abode of

new

And

not that simple.

is

state,

Henry and

however unstable.

Elizabeth

courtyards are unkempt compared

Its

pomp and ceremony

with their

over

the

Great

There

of yesterday.

Wall

and

their

new

is

little

to

recall

Manchus marched southward,

the splendor of brighter days before the

swarmed

Chang-chung is now
the White House of

the palace at

conquered

China

to

only

be

absorbed themselves.

The

"throne room"

inauguration.
seal

of

Two

of

residence

was the scene

great golden seals were presented to

State and the Regent's seal.

small group

of

of

Henry

the

the

Chinese and

These
a few Mongolian princes gathered for the unreal ceremonies.
men, with the "aid" of Japanese advisers, also present, were responThe ceremony was brief.
show.
The youth
sible for the whole

He
greeted the audience and spoke a few words prepared for him.
The Son of Heaven had become
swore to uphold the new State.
(again oddly enough to stir his honorable ancestors in their ancient
a dictatorship, actually, held
tombs) head of a democracy of sorts
together by bayonets but based on the theory of eventually making

Ankuo

a democracy.

Henry Pu-yi has been flitting from throne to solitude

and back again.
Events of great moment occurred to him when he
All his

life,

was too young

three years old

to

understand what

when he ascended

it

was

all

Dragon Throne

the

He was

about.
in

only

He

Peking.
principalities but

was

chosen by the old Dowager Empress to succeed her nephew, the

Em-

was born merely the

peror

Kuang Hsu.

heir

The

to

one

three-year

of

China's

knew nothing of the

was accorded him and little of

old

infant

pageants and the acclaim that

the rest of the ceremony which was a picturesque part
nation as an Oriental potentate.
great

He was

of

his

coro-

a very small boy when he was first removed from the

The revolt against the Manchus succeeded
tottering Dragon Throne.
still

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

267

and only four years after his enthronement the "Boy EmHis abdication meant nothing to him at the time,
peror" resigned.
and he could have known nothing at the age of seven of the significance
in

1911,

away an empire had

Upon abdication, Hsuan T'mg became
that

his

signing

moated Forbidden

into

the

City

of

old

terraces

and

in

plain

There

City,

march

the

in

world

of

affairs.

Henry Pu-yi and

the

heart

Tartar

the

of

retired

gleaming yellow roofs, marble

palaces with their solemn Ming dynasty masonry,
surrounded

Peking,
stately

by

he studied and carried on.

Meanwhile the wife of Kuang Hsu, the uncle whom Henry succeeded as emperor, had come into the title of Dowager Empress.
She
held

this

At her

died.

was

post

left

at

time

the

of

abdication,

death, crafty Chin Fei,

head

as

the

of

women

the

but

thereafter

shortly

Kuang Hsu's

"golden concubine/'
in the Imperial household.
She was

supreme in deciding the life of the youth during the years

he lived in the Forbidden City, where even his own father and mother,

virtually

the Prince and Princess Chun, were not permitted.

The

influence of

concubine colored his early days and formed another part of the
weird pattern of his life.
this

The terms

He

of

Henry's

abdication

were

not

entirely

unpleasant.

Emperor and was guaranteed by the Republic

the same respect as was due a foreign sovereign.
He was to receive
$4,000,000 (silver) a year, which at the time was approximately
retained his

title

of

$2,000,000 in United States currency, as

public

for

confiscating his

rights

compensation from the Re-

and crown.

But he

rarely

got anything from the shifting cabinets at Peking, and had a

if

ever

difficult

time financially.

Henry
terms.
sell

The

also

retained

his

This kept his court

private

in the

property

under

the

Forbidden City going.

abdication

He

had to

a great deal of the timber and other valuable things to continue.

throne also received gifts from loyalists, and he managed to sub-

sist.

There was even a somewhat pathetic attempt

splendor of the old court

and went

life

at recapturing the

but the lamp of his fortunes

flickered

out.

The boy

lived

quietly

in

the

Forbidden

City

for

some

years,

knowing nothing whatever of the sinister intrigue going on all about

It
him after the revolution.
approached the surface innumerable
times,

and the outbreak

in

1917 which restored him to the throne on

THE DRAGON STIRS

268
the

brief

crest

of

its

was

tide

inevitable

but,

to

him,

complete

surprise.

The monarchy was reestablished for a fleeting moment, and President Feng Kuo-chang had to run for his life.
He chose the Dutch
The troops of the
His insecurity was short.
Legation as a refuge.
new Republic routed the Imperial forces three days later and the "Boy
Emperor" was again
Forbidden

City.

was some day

relegated forthwith to the inner confines

he think, perhaps,

Little did

He was

to be to him.

how

of the

forbidden that city

only thirteen years old then, and

doubtless unfettered by fancies of grandeur.

From

1917 until the

fall

of high intrigue, yet all about

seven years he never

left

of

1924,

Henry

in

lived

an atmosphere

him was apparently calm.

the Forbidden City so far as

During these

known, but

is

spent his days in study and in exercise of the sort possible inside the
The pretense of his court was maintained and he
palace grounds.

was fawned upon by the

back, reports from within

Now

courtiers.

and again he rode horse-

Other reports said the extent of this

exercise consisted of the boy's being set on a small Mongolian pony
which was then led slowly through the stone-flagged grounds by two
said.

careful attendants.

With

modern

Henry must have become more than

But it was essential and part of
"fed up" with his sequestered life.
his fate, for it must be remembered that within the ornate walls of
his

tendencies,

the Forbidden City he was

still

to

all

intents

and purposes the occu-

The

pant of the Dragon Throne and ruler of the Celestial Empire.

loyal

attendants,

the ladies

and gentlemen

of the

phantom

court,

the

eunuchs and the maidens could not bring themselves to think of him
otherwise.
Intrigue,

was,

for

some petty and some

example,

sincere,

tremendous

was

their

life

blood.

There

argument over whether the youth

should wear spectacles.

One faction in his court held that spectacles
had never been worn by any other emperor of the dynasty and that
the device certainly could not be necessary at this late date.
The

former Dowager Empress was most strenuous in her opposition to

the innovation.
But Henry, never strong, had become a constant
student.

ruled

He

that

spectacles

if

used his eyes day and night, reading.

court physician
the boy's sight were to be saved Henry had to use

whenever reading.

The

physician

settled

the

controversy,

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

269

hard feeling in the Imperial household.

It was their biggest problem in months.
Thus, drama, tragedy and tragic-comedy filled the life of Henry

but his decision caused no

Pu-yi,

without the

all

little

volition

slightest

on

his

He

part.

never

has

a dramatic, tragic or comic situation.

He would
run far from one or all three.
Yet always this youth has paid the
willed himself into

penalty of being the

One touch

An

1921.

last

of

tragedy
court
official

Son

of

which

Heaven.

remembers occurred

he

statement

reported

the

October

in

sudden

death

of

Princess Chun, his young and still pretty mother.

She died of opium
The Princess, the brief report set forth, had committed
poisoning.
suicide.
However that may be, her death came as a result of a quarrel

with Chin Fei, the "golden concubine" and,

as

have

said,

virtual

Empress Dowager. The reports of the quarrel were not clear as they
seeped from the jealously masked lives of the "court" in the heart of
Forbidden City.

the

The

it

trouble,

Fei looked with favor upon a matrimonial alliance between

a daughter of the
bination

to

The boy

son to

himself,

wanted to wed
aunt.

Still,

new

most ways

her

preferred

Chin

appeared, was over the selection of a bride.

it

his

being

President of China, certainly a strange

of

wed

The

thinking.

the

Yun

youth,

mother,

Liang,

com-

however,

her

nephew.

ideas about his marriage.

mother's younger

patient

youth's

daughter of

appears, also had

own

Henry and

he

sister,

said

he

in

He

other words, his

would abide by

his

mother's choice.

Chin Fei was not a

little

the end upset her schemes.

incensed at the turn of events which in

Bitter

words followed.

Prince and Prin-

Chun stood by their son. The quarrel continued for three livid
Then Princess Chun died suddenly. They said she had comdays.
The "Boy Emperor" left his seclusion for the first
mitted suicide.
cess

time to attend his mother's funeral

very pale that day and seemed

of sixteen.

As

frail

on October 31, 1921.

He was
and scarcely ten years old instead

the catafalque of his mother

was

rug of lambskin and bowed thrice toward the

ened, but maintained an air of utmost dignity.

Time passed and

lifted,

coffin.

he knelt on a

He was

fright-

Henry Pu-yi was again searching for

a wife.
He had his way this time. There was no meeting with the
But a
girl, no courtship such as is known in the Western World.
before long

THE DRAGON STIRS

270

made

departure that was even more startling was

in

his

selection

of

a bride.

Henry held a beauty contest! He ordered the twelve most beautiful Manchu princesses in China to have their photographs taken and
sent to him.
The youth, Imperial judge of this remarkable array of
Oriental pulchritude, at last ended the suspense by choosing Princess
Kuo Chia-si. Her family was obscure but of princely Manchu blood.
The match was regarded as a love affair. Descriptions of the Princess

She is
Manchu girl in the world.
small and slender.
Being a Manchu she does not bind her feet which,
The "Girl Empress," is quite modern
however, are naturally small.
said

in

she was the most beautiful

one respect for

uses

(and

this

also because

is

cosmetics, including rouge,

The law

of

Manchu)

she

only

Manchu may

freely.

the

Ching dynasty
become the wife of an Emperor.

The Empress has

is

she

rules

that

hair of the jet-black sort so prized in the Orient.

It is doubtful that
long and luxuriant, reaching to her knees.
she would bob it even were she to come to America some day, as she

It

is

wants to do.

Her

aquiline.

Her

features

eyes

sheltering heavy

are

lashes.

exaggerated angle

are

large

They

common

well formed,

the

nose

and brown, gazing out

are not

to Orientals.

slanting,

Her

at

face

is

She would be charming anywhere,

Oriental standards is more than beautiful.
rounded

chin.

being almost
from beneath

least

not

on the

oval, with softly

and

judged

by

In the early hours before dawn of December 1, 1922, they were

married.
Such pomp and splendor are seldom seen anywhere.
The
princess came to her lover carried over the yellow-sanded, narrow

Peking through the Great East Gate into the Forbidden

Yellow lanterns flickered in the darkness and a yellow moon
City.
on the wane peered down with half an eye at the exotic proceedings.
streets

From

of

atop the dragon chair of yellow

silk in

which she rode a Golden

symbol of the Empress of China, spread its great wings.

She sat behind drawn curtains that her face might be veiled demurely
Phoenix,

from the public gaze.

Thirty-two sturdy

men

carried her from her father's house to the

Golden sand along the way, yellow silk everywhere

the "royal purple" of China
an event of such magnificence

Imperial palace.

yellow is
could take place

only

in

ancient

Peking.

few blocks away, the

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

in observance of the

The marriage
"Boy Emperor"
and she on the
and pieces

sat

Andrew's

St.

ball.

The

themselves were simple.

rites

Princess and her

by side on the Dragon Bed, he on the left

They exchanged golden cups containing wine

side

right.

of soft

modern dance orchestra

reveled to the strains of a

still

foreign colony

271

The

wheat bread.

symbolic of long

ritual is

life

and

a blessing on posterity.
Their honeymoon was spent in the confines
of the Forbidden City, the extent then of his lost empire.

Henry Pu-yi
English

He

history.

name he took

had a British

as

result

of

his

study

of

and one day on impulse

tutor,

name should no longer be Hsuan T'ing. He

of Henry after one of his favorite English kings.
He
and Henry and Elizabeth,
wife the name of Elizabeth

Henry decreed
took the name
his

gave

the

is

that his

strangely enough, ruled in the Forbidden

of the Republic

City as long as the leaders

permitted.

"Henry" seems
Imperial name and

to

suit

title,

this

He

diffident
is

youth much better

serious

than his

young man, rather

nice

looking, always shy with strangers; he has his hair cut western style,

brushed back
to

in

stiff

pompadour, and has an

Henry and

be extremely friendly with everyone

happily for nearly two years before the

air of always

skein

tangled

his

of

striving

bride
their

lived

queer

lives caught them up again and whisked them off on new adveniures.
It was in the autumn o
1924 that Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, the
so-called "Christian General," turned on his own chieftain and with

characteristic

was no

there

up by

his

gesture
place for

own

Emperor" and
into

captured

emperors of

bootstraps, Marshal
his

bride once

the Japanese Legation.

The

Japanese,

In

Peking.

any

Feng

and for

Even

however, by

sort.

philosophy
Himself a peasant pulled
rigorous

set out to eliminate the

"Boy

Henry and Elizabeth fled

asylum was none too secure.

all

this

that

his

time

saw

in

Henry a

valuable

pawn for their own maneuverings in the political intrigue in the East.
They decided to get him out of Peking,
The shifting of the pawn began when the Japanese spirited Henry
Quarter in Peking on February 24, 1925, and
hurried him before dawn on the road to Tientsin,
It was dark when
out

of

the

Legation

they started.

Peking

slept.

light flickered

and was gone as a man

uniform snuffed his tiny lantern and slipped cautiously across the
terrace to a waiting motor car.
"All ready," he whispered in Japain

THE DRAGON STIRS

272

The man

nese.

and,

someone

The

other

retraced

his

steps

door whence he had come, spoke in low tones to

the

opening

wheel nodded.

at the

inside.

a group of three or four filed silently out and

followed their guide to the machine.
Through the gateway and down

moment

later

the street, the car proceeded slowly through the Legation Quarter, on
They
through the black night which seems blacker just before dawn.

gathered speed as they fled in that early morning solitude, hurtling on

through the Tartar City and, more slowly now, on until the gates of

Peking were reached.

They had no trouble

The

there.

gates opened

for the day

they

fled past and on

are locked every night, even now
An uneventful trip over some eighty miles of
to the open highway.

and the machine

wretched roads, and the "Boy Emperor" had arrived

at

Tientsin and

safety.

The "Boy Emperor" was guarded closely and his life kept a deep
It was even somewhat presumptuous to insist that
secret at Tientsin.
he actually was there.
Some doubted it, and he was a phantom figure
Even persons who
after his mysterious flight from the old capital
were

seemed not to have any clear notion as

American army captain, now back in the

living in Tientsin then

to just

where he was.

United

States,

An

who had

been on duty in Tientsin with the

15th

In-

toward Henry Pu-yi.

the Oriental service had just reached

fantry, represented the typical foreigners' attitude

An

American transport

in

Nagasaki, in southern Japan, and the officer was one of two in charge
of the shore-leave watch.
Some of the men might get lost in Nagasaki.
It is a beguiling city, although nearly deserted now as far as

was there on a holiday at the time.

At the Nagasaki Club, essentially British, we were guests

foreigners are concerned.

United States army quartermaster stationed there.

using thd Club as their headquarters.

"How
The
was

in

good

not

British

the

Boy Emperor?"

captain had heard

about the
did

is

health.

city,

know

that
just

Concession,

attention to

Henry.

But
is

of

then,

officers

Henry.

He was

quite

thought.

of

were

sure the youth

He

drove

officer

really

nobody ever saw him much.

what part

the

asked.

in the foreign concessions,

he

The

of

but the

town the deposed ruler lived in.

But after all, nobody paid much

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

"He

amount

doesn't

much," the

to

Captain

273

commented, and he

appeared bored with the subject.

was

say further about that.

Henry at the
time, at least on the ominously calm surface of things, did not appear
"
The king was dead, it seemed. Yet very much
to "amount to much
Well,

there

little

to

The Japanese wanted him for high

developments showed.
schemes and he was swept along toward his strange destiny.
It was about this time that leaders in the new regime at Peking

alive,

as

demanded Henry's execution

strange

that

they

as a

menace

to the

new

It

State.

should fear this studious youth and

see

in

seemed

him a

powerful enemy; yet they may have had inklings of the dreams of the
The Republic's
monarchists which centered around his frail figure.
orators

denounced Henry as a schemer and a

traitor

and demanded

Henry, for his small part, reiterated that he never

wanted to be emperor again. But the radicals declared that he was an
his

surrender.

ingrate

and

seemed

plausible,

had attempted to assume the throne.

It hardly
this avowed fear of his potential power.
Yet here is

that he

the telegram circulated by the Peking government at the time, in the

spring of

1926:

"WHEREAS

WITH THE ESPECIALLY LENIENT

TREATMENT METED OUT TO HIM BY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT, DID
ONCE ATTEMPT TO RESTORE THE IMPERIAL REGIME AND IS NOW TRYING
TO ATTAIN HIS AIM AS IS SHOWN BY HIS SECRET DEPARTURE FROM
PEKING AND BY nis ASSUMPTION OF THE TITLE OF 'EMPEROR/ AND
"IN VIEW OF ALL THE EVIDENCE THAT HE IS CONSPIRING AGAINST
THE EXISTING REGIME,
"THEREFORE, THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE STEPS FOR THE
IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION OF HIS ESPECIALLY FAVORABLE TREATMENT
AND, IN ORDER TO NIP IMPERIALISTIC INTRIGUE IN THE BUD, DEMAND
THE SURRENDER OF THE 'EMPEROR' WITH A VIEW TO HIS EXECUTION,
TOGETHER WITH THAT OF HIS FOLLOWING, ON THE CHARGE OF HIGH
PU-YI,

DISSATISFIED

TREASON."

There was some truth

Emperor," as

have

said,

in

the charges in the telegram.

was

is

is

Dragon Throne
And he had nothing to do with that

actually returned to the

in 1917, but only for three days.

Furthermore, he actually

The "Boy

called

"Emperor," as

in

this

doubtful, however, that he thinks of himself in that way.

article.

It

It

merely

THE DRAGON STIRS

274

a term, rather than a

is

which presents

title,

describing him, but otherwise

is

most readily when

itself

meaningless.

Meanwhile, the Japanese held him practically incommunicado.

tried to see

red

old

him

brick,

politely but

in Tientsin in the

it

was not

protected jealously from

life,

The
the

by

secretary at the

was

he

Henry
new
his
by

possible.

outsiders

all

of 1928.

which

house in

western-style

firmly that

summer

living

lived

insisted

a secluded

masters.

years dragged on while Henry and Elizabeth built air-castles

Their money
sea and hoped for a chance to go abroad.

dwindled.

Gifts

from

Manchus and

loyal

others once affluent at the

Cathay were far smaller and less frequent.

The courtiers themselves found the new order hard and faced personal

pompous court

In the end, these

privation.
all

of ancient

but dependent on an alien host when

wore

gilt

off his

prisoner.

The

rapidly.

moved

Manchuria.

to

The

cage with the passing years.

The Japanese bided their

coming too much of a burden.
him

and Henry was

practically ceased

gifts

They

treated

Some

time.

They

him

felt

Henry was

that

continued, nevertheless, to hold

well, but their respect for

Oriental spits on a

be-

fallen idol.

him ebbed

They remained

cordial

but not too polite to their fallen Imperial hostage.

few years ago, for example, Henry let it be known that he intended to visit Japan.
Notice was promptly given that he would be
received only as an ordinary citizen, and that he would have to stop at
hotels wherever he went.
at least

Or
to

if

some pretense

in

Henry had expected better treatment with

Japan that he was a person of royal lineage.

he personally did not

him

did.

Tokyo,

feel so strongly

however,

was

and Henry cancelled the

regime
Civil

at

on the point, persons close

peace

with

the

new

Peiping

trip.

war swirled around about him

in the last

few years while he

men of the race he

looked on, helpless, as usual.

Chinese war lords,
and his Manchu ancestors had ruled, tore at each

other's

throats.

Their armies battled up and down China.

These men, some of them
patriotic in a sense but the majority of them out for loot and glory,
are the sanguine aftermath of the generation that overthrew the

Throne.

They disrupted a form

1 '

Emperor
a

man

scuttling for cover.

Dragon

government and sent the "Boy

They came into power before they had
of

or a system sufficiently strong to replace the

Son of Heaven

THE "BOY EMPEROR" RULES AGAIN

an

infant,

yet a symbol,

Henry

fled

275

even a religion
that held the vast, loosely
knit Celestial Empire together with some semblance of unity.
for his

they were ready, and

The Japanese saved

life.

now have

him, held him until

Manchuria which Tokyo controls.

And not once
amazing years has Henry had a word to say about it.
in

state

What

The

into decay.

China

war.

future?

the

of

is

halted in their

The

ancient

glory

of

Peiping

bustling commercial port of Shanghai

clutching for

power long enough

in

falls

lies

a bankrupt nation in more ways than one.

mad

new

placed him at the head of the

these

rapidly

wasted by

The

factions

to present a semi-

united front toward the Japanese at Shanghai but their bitter enmities

smoulder, ready as this

still

is

written to burst again into flame and

Chinese armies once more on the march.

set

The Chinese

peoples are tiring of the ineffectual attempts year after

year to be ruled by Western civilization's conception of equality and a

republican form of government.

many

like

They

are beginning to feel that

it

is

other novelties invented by the "foreign barbarians" outside

None can

the Great Wall.

Nevertheless,

it

is

what they will do, these Chinese.

as Kismet that they are going to settle

foretell

as certain

one way or another one day.

The Chinese wait a long time. They suffer untold miseries.

this business

But

end they usually separate the wheat from the chaff rather well.
The Chinese, pacific peoples really, want peace.
They had centuries

in the

of peace

until

the

revolution of

1911

overthrew the Manchus.

And

a thought which comes to the countless millions now crushed

under the painful and costly heel of militarism.

that

the

is

The Japanese
war lord type

seized

advantage of

of ruler of China.

this

rising

The move

in

tide

of

hatred

for

Manchuria was but

Japan has puppets in erstwhile popular factions among the Chinese to build a stable government once more
below the Great Wall of China. The monarchists also are active again.
the forerunner of a greater plan.

They and the Japanese, vague rumors of intrigue relate, may join
forces to place Henry Pu-yi once more on the Dragon Throne in
beat the drums of his
Tum-ta-ta-tum-tum, tum-ta-ta-tum
Peiping.
curious destiny.

Yet none now can answer the query

Will the twisted impulses of the East restore the "Boy Emperor"
to his Peking throne as a man?

THE ROAD AHEAD

23

men

of

since

their

comparatively easy
seizure of Manchuria in 1931-32, proceeded with ever increasing

THE

sturdy

little

Japan,

speed and amazing success toward achieving their age-old amThe

bition
to conquer and maintain complete control over all China.

campaign was planned in Tokyo for years.

There was nothing new, then, when the second "undeclared war"
in the Shanghai area broke out in the summer of 1937, and Japan
moved in.
The only thing really unexpected was the actual date
for the Chinese leaders at Nanking and elsewhere had long expected
the Japanese to attack in their next move of aggression on the continent of Asia.
None, of course, knew just when or where the attack
would occur.
Nor did the Japanese themselves know these specific
details while they

were playing

their wily waiting

game.

I must,

how-

grant in all fairness, that the ambition of the Japanese is only

human too human. Admitted, the details of their armed action are
ever,

more inhuman and horrible than otherwise

but armed men
commit excesses on any part of this globe's surface, and the Japanese
are no exception.
A man in battle is literally mad regardless of race.
Naturally, I do not contend that the "undeclared war" is fair to
China.
In fact, ever since I first set foot on Chinese soil more than
too often

a decade ago I have been considered pro-Chinese.

either.

am

"pro-" nothing.

am

hardly that,

plead guilty only to being a

realist.

From

this purely objective point of view, I must admit that the

themselves
Chinese
are largely to blame for their own plight.
They

become united and stay that way.

At the
are
united.
But
moment, yes, they
only against a common foe, Japan,
the despised little island neighbor off their long and rich coastline
simply

cannot

seem

to

there in the Pacific.

They fight shoulder-to-shoulder against this inwho mows down the stubborn soldiers of "Free China" and

vader,
has set up a puppet regime controlled from Tokyo.

276

This regime would,

THE ROAD AHEAD

277

the Japanese insist, enforce peace in the Orient, with Japan as chiefof-police.

But

Japan be defeated, let Japan for any reason on earth withdraw her persistent and fanatic soldiery from China, and the Chinese
let

in less time than

throats

takes to get this into print, will be at each other's

it

an

with

again

even

fought the troops from Dai

are legion here and abroad

more

the

he

My

Nippon,

vengeance than they have

and they
Chinese friends

say that

will

biased, possibly even pro-Japanese.

or

bitter

When

in

this

one

view

am

unfair,

not entirely on one

is

himself

suddenly regarded as
"pro-" the other side in any cause, politics or war, love or hate
you
name it
I simply state again that I am a friend of China, seeing her
faults as well as her virtues.
side

other,

is

likely

to

find

I want, for that matter, the

myself want China to be united.
whole of our unsettled world to be united
but as long as human
nature is constituted as it is, heaven help us if we don't have police in
I

our

cities

check crime, and

to

soldiers

on

all

frontiers

to

avert

in-

vasion.

The second "undeclared war" on the Shanghai front began August

The Japanese were not looking for it at that moment, but
9, 1937.
What Japan wanted most at that time was peace
they were ready.
below the Yellow River, in North-Central China, to permit her to get
on with her program of setting up yet another "independent" and

"autonomous"

state

in

provinces extending below the Great

But another
Shansi, Suiyuan and Chahar.

the

Wall

five

Shantung, Hopei,
"incident" occurred in the

Shanghai area and the second battle of

The first Shanghai war was
Shanghai, the showdown, was under way.
won by Japan and settled by a truce in 1932, when the Nineteenth

Route

Army was

finally

routed by the Japanese and fled south.

cidentally, these brave Chinese fighters

the "saviors

of

to start a civil

who were

Shanghai," a year later were

war

against the Central

In-

hailed for a time as

themselves

Government

at

threatening

Nanking.

Only

hurried conferences and probably the use of "silver bullets"

as

is

customary there, prevented that

coming

critical

(money),
brotherly quarrel from be-

little

within China's vast domain.

Japan seems now to have gone far toward permanently achieving

her goal

the control of

all

Chiang Kai-shek, founder

China, with the destruction of Generalissimo

of

the

Central

Government

at

Nanking

in

THE DRAGON STIRS

278

General Chiang was all along for conciliation, no matter how

far Tokyo went in her demands, and therefore was denounced as a
spineless puppet of Tokyo, a traitor to his trust as leader of the New
1927.

China.

General Chiang merely knew that China could not fight a winning

equipped and better trained Japanese troops on

land and sea and in the air.
The General favored letting them take
fight against the better

Nanking and Shanghai untouched.

the five northern provinces, leaving

a comparatively few years there might be a

chance to start a revolution in the north against the Japanese and win
back China's lost territories.
But his hotheaded underlings wanted to
believe he felt that

in

fight.

The Japanese accommodated them

General

losses

heavy

predicted,

for

and
China.

foreign interests in Shanghai and elsewhere.

are not popular now.

me make

Let
or
in

the

as

crossed

Japan

As

was

result

the

many

a result, the Japanese

are the bete noir of the present.

one prediction: I do not think the United

They

any other power on earth

her march on the Chinese,

is

at

going to go

home

to

war

or

to

else.

States,

Japan
There will

stop

anywhere
There will be high indignation,
be boycotts and more boycotts, yes.
ill-feeling, sentimental uprisings of an outraged Western world here

and

there.

Far

East

interests

Of
the

to

die

for

the

not going to send young

is

temporary

protection

of

men

our

into

the

commercial

out there.

course,

beginning

stronghold

in

Rome and
in

the

the

Communism

Berlin were in sympathy with

War.

Second

Far East

of

Tokyo from

Japan as the
Fascism
a bulwark

They regarded

the

of

tenets

the Orient, as they themselves are in Europe.

Chinese, then, had a lost cause as far as world action was con-

against

The

But Uncle Sam

cerned.

in

The League

of

Nations

was impotent.

It

lost

prestige

in

conquest of Ethiopia, before that, when Japan annexed

In fact, it was the League's failure to back up China
Manchuria.
then that gave Premier Mussolini much of his feeling of security when
the

Italian

he decided to acquire Ethiopia.

World sentiment is another story.
ample, sentiment was

for

the

ordinarily for the under-dog,

and

the Japan-China war.

all

In the United States, for ex-

Sentiment in America

is

was even more so than usual

in

Chinese.
it

But world action

nil.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Japan was "very sorry" for
Uncle Sam's, around Shanghai.

279

on foreign toes, including

But nothing was done, aside from

stepping

Japan's paying a small indemnity for foreigners killed in the war zone.
Japan began her long-conceived program of aggression at the
The first war
expense of China toward the end of the last century.
between Japan and China occurred in 1894-95.
Japan took over the

Formosa

It is a semiTaiwan, in Japanese, now).

tropical isle below Japan, toward the Philippines and was inhabited
Then Tokyo forced
largely by savage headhunters in the interior.

island of

(called

Chinese to make Korea a temporarily autonomous nation which

Japan took over ten years or so later, naming a Japanese governorthe

The next step was the Russo1904-05, which Japan also won
again probably by
"silver bullets" among the Russian troops of the old

general at the Korean capital of Seoul.

Japanese

War

of

the lavish use of

Czarist regime, fighting on the

home.

Japan seized control

Zone north

of

Manchurian plains far from Olga and

South Manchuria and took its Railway

as far as the halfway

as Hsinking, and

made

capital of

mark at Chang-chung, now known

Manchukuo in 1932.

Ten years after that Russo-Japanese War ended, while the world
was busy with the Great War in Europe, Tokyo made her now
notorious Twenty-one Demands on a supine China, powerless to resist.
The "demands'' were discovered by an alert United States press service

He gave their text to the

correspondent in Peking, Frederick Moore.
astounded world. The uproar was so terrific even during the European
war that Japan backed down and bided her time.
She even signed the Nine-Power Treaty in 1921-22 at the Washington Conference called by Charles Evans Hughes, then Secretary of
State.

The

the famous

pact "guaranteed"

"Open Door"

the

territorial

integrity

policy of equal economic

of

China and

opportunity there.

Japan withdrew her forces from Shantung Province, occupied as her

war when she stepped into the German-controlled port of

But not for long.
Japan went back into Shantung again
Tsingtao.
when the Kuomintang Revolution led by Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek and inspired by the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen, swept north across
spoils

of

China from Canton

in

1927-28.

General

Chiang once told

me

that

Japan's occupation in 1927 of Tsinan-fu, capital of Shantung Province,

had held back the Chinese revolutionary armies and delayed their
The Japanese subsequently withdrew
capture of Peking for a year.

THE DRAGON STIRS

280

but in the present

again

war

to

finish she

renewed her campaign

in

Shantung, especially at Tsingtao and Tsinan-fu.

But China herself, after the Kuomintang (People's Party) Revolution had captured Peking from the northern war lords, was soon
divided

among her own

current

insurrections

factions

within

the

as

again,

Party,

revolt

was

only

quelled,

for

Nanking

fall of

to

re-

the

Wuhan

Peking

in 1928.

with

beginning

Rebellion up the Yangtze River shortly after the

The

There were

always.

other

find

factions

up and taking arms against the newly formed Central

Government there.
The Chinese Communists continued a thorn in
the side of Chiang Kai-shek, as well, even to the present.
Unity was
springing

far

from achieved.

The Japanese took cognizance of this and of

depression spreading among the western nations
1931 began the seizure of Manchuria.

world economic

the

and

in

the

fall

She "restored" the "Boy

peror" to the throne of his ancestors at Hsinking in the

of

Em-

Spring of

and crowned him Emperor Kang-Teh there on March 1, 1934.

Then, on one pretext or another, she moved into Jehol Province, north
The conquest there was equally simple, with little
of the Great Wall.
1932,

or no opposition by the Chinese.

Jehol was added to
another province in that new buffer State.

Japan's next

regime in these

move was to
two provinces

Manchukuo

as

up the Hopei-Chahar autonomous

overlapping the Great Wall into Inner
set

This area was demilitarized, China keeping a soMongolia, in 1935.

called Peace Preservation Corps of soldier-police in the vicinity; and

Japan had the makings of yet another "independent" State in North

China adjacent to her puppet state of Manchukuo, a buffer against
possible attack from Soviet Russia.
Japan feared Moscow more than
the Chinese, and does now.

The Tokyo campaign

Peiping-

to use the

1935 and until the start of fighting near

in

revised spelling of the ancient capital

was made

an "autonomous State" composed of the five provinces

the Yellow River.
An "incident" was the immediate cause

to get control of

down
of

to

the

outbreak

of

fighting.

Causing

"incidents"

has

been one

of

Japan's most frequent methods of providing a pretext for warfare in

Asia.
The "incident" occurred on July 7, 1937, during and after night

maneuvers by Japanese troops

They

clashed

with

Chinese

in

in

the

the

demilitarized

zone

Peace Preservation

in

Corps

Hopei.
in

the

THE ROAD AHEAD

281

Marco Polo Bridge about nine miles outside

and the war was on, though not "declared."

vicinity of the

of Peiping

Japan wanted to keep the fighting

achieve her
believe

new "independent

later,

there

and the second Battle

of

walls

North China and

but another

occurred in the

"incident"

unexpected

a month

State"

in

localized

the

this

time I

zone about

Shanghai

Shanghai began August

9,

Japanese naval officer in their Yangtze Patrol led a landing

near the International Settlement, ostensibly searching for a

1937.

party

The

landing party tried to force an entrance into

clash occurred with
Hungjao Military Airdrome outside Shanghai.
Chinese defense troops there, the officer of Japan was killed, and other

missing Japanese.

And

troops wounded.

The

fighting in

the

second Shanghai war began.

North China

in the Peiping-Tientsin area

was soon

overshadowed by the Shanghai warfare.

Foreigners, including hundreds of American women and children, were evacuated from Shanghai.

Some were

killed,

many

ments by both sides

suffered

wounds

in the air raids

at the start of the clash.

President

Hoover was

fighting.

(She

and bombard-

The American steamship

bombarded, but not badly damaged, in the

went on the rocks off Formosa, when American

later

mercantile shipping began a voluntary boycott of Shanghai as a port

of call during the height of the fighting, and was pounded to pieces.

The Japanese rushed reinHer passengers and crew were saved.)

After
forcements to their naval and army forces already at Shanghai.
weeks

of

severe

artillery

bombardment and

air

attacks

on the

city,

including the International Settlement and the French Concession, the

Chinese troops withdrew.
Shanghai was a prize of war for the Japa-

nese

her greatest victory in

the

generation-old

campaign

The Japanese immediately marched westward up

toward Nanking and,

after

little

in

China.

the Yangtze River

or no opposition at Soochow on the

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek fled in an

way, captured the Capital.
beautiful and most
airplane with his wife, the former Mei-ling Soong
The Government which Chiang had
influential woman in China.

formed

1927 had already evacuated Nanking, scattering to

field-headquarters type of wartime Government was set

in April of

the west.

up temporarily at Hankow, 600 miles up the Yangtze in the interior of

China with the more permanent capital established at Chungking,
in Szechuan Province, on the border of Tibet.
Japan continued

her

ruthless

campaign

to

subjugate

all

China.

THE DRAGON STIRS

282

Troops seized Canton

far to the

In

south.

Shantung, they captured

Tsingtao, chief port of their old stronghold there, and Tsinan-fu, the

"mopping-up" drive followed, with Hankow one major

The United States Embassy at Nanking, headed by Ambasobjective.
sador Nelson T. Johnson, moved to Hankow and then to Chungking

capital.

with the Central Government,

In Shanghai, fighting ceased and the city began to look to repairing

the incredible damage done by weeks of artillery and aerial bombard-

The loss
The doom of
was sounded by

ments.

of lives and property was tremendous.

man

the white

as a

little

the Japanese action in

tin

god

in

The

China.

the Far East

prestige of the

The victory of
the Occidental world had long been fading.
a new mileJapan in and around Shanghai was the finishing touch
stone in their advance upon the long-sought objective: "Asia for the

men from

Asiatics!"

At

member

Tokyo voiced

Nippon.

He

in

He

the height

was the

the

of

the

Home

Shanghai

general

Minister,

conflict

Government

one

among leaders of Dai

Admiral Nobumasa Suyetsugu.
feeling

frankly asserted in a public statement in the press of Japan that

the "white races should not carry on trade in the Orient based solely

on

their

own

He

self-interest."

upon what he called "the

from white supremacy.

insisted

that

world peace depended

liberation" of the colored races

of the earth

In Shanghai, one of the first practical applications of this attempt

to eradicate the white man's influence in the Orient was the immediate

demand

that Japan be granted control of the Municipal Council ruling

the International Settlement there.

since

its

inception in the past century, by the British

and Japanese members; and,

admitted to

sit

maintained,

in

either

The Council had been

in the last decade, with

as regular voting

pressing

was not

serious

these
in

its

members

of this body.

demands, that
desire

to

with American

Chinese at

last

The Japanese

apparently

protect

controlled

the

Japanese

Council

lives

and

property within the International Settlement from "acts of outrage"

by the Chinese, was unable to give adequate protection to the Japanese
residents, numbering thousands there.
Cornell

S.

Franklin,

an American, was Chairman

of

the

Council

He sought to mediate, taking

during the troubled years of 1937-38.
the Japanese demands for control under consideration.
The peace terms which Tokyo

will lay

down

after the

"undeclared

THEROADAHEAD
war"

China are

in

One

enough.
as

still

nebulous.

They

will doubtless be

the

Japanese
ambitions in China."

violating

territorial

of the fighting
1

bloc

known soon

widely circulated report said the terms would be "such

would make China completely subservient

nically

283

official

to

assertion

Japan without techthat

Japan

has

NO

Another current report at the height

said the Japanese "extremists" demanded:

Manchukuo and formation

among China, Japan and Manchukuo.
Recognition of

of

an economic

Formation of autonomous, anti-Communist administrations

in North China and Inner Mongolia, both under Japanese "protection" but controlling all their own taxes and customs revenues.

Appointment of a Japanese Inspector-General of Customs

China, and of Japanese advisers in all national and provincial
3

in

departments; and revision of Chinese tariffs to promote an exchange of Japanese manfactures against Chinese raw materials,
4

Generalissimo

Japanese

President

Communist
5

Chiang Kai-shek to step aside for a proof

China, and China to join the anti-

Germany and
from possessing an army

bloc comprising Japan,

China

to

refrain

Italy.

or air force of

warplanes; a special Peace Preservation Corps to be formed for

internal police functions; and all commercial air services to be

managed by Japan,

the Chinese airlines to get their planes from

Japanese plants.

Some

sound strangely like those included in the

original Twenty-one Demands mentioned above.
Aquiescence by China
certainly would give Tokyo complete control of that country, as the
of these five points

And the Open Door of equal economic

Japanese have long desired.
opportunity, long a major plank in the United States policy toward the
would swing shut with a bang.
The United States became involved in the Shanghai warfare when
the Japanese sunk the U. S. S. Panay, a gunboat on our Yangtze River
She was evacuating men, women and children from Nanking
patrol.
Orient,

on

Sunday,

December

12,

1937.

Japanese

warplanes

repeatedly

dropped aerial bombs on the doomed warship, and she went to the
At least three people were killed in that "incident" two
bottom.

Americans and one

wise

were bombed

Three Standard Oil tankers nearby likethe air raid and sunk in the deep Yangtze.

Italian.

in

THE DRAGON STIRS

284

The Japanese planes attacked while the Panay and the oil tankers
All were plainly
were sailing away from the war zone at Nanking.
marked with American flags. The Panay of course flew her United
In addition, she had others stretched on
her deck awnings plainly visible to the Japanese military airmen.
President Roosevelt, through Secretary of State Hull at WashStates flag from her mast.

on a

ington, insisted
of

tition

this

British

assurances have proved

tragedy. Japan's

gunboats likewise

These included the

British

On

were bombarded by

of

the

What happens

patriotic,

He

hour

the

twentieth

if

at

you

time

next

is

insist,

for

just

Certainly,

man

of

to
I

peace,

and,

Japanese
the

raids.

of

Bee,

S.

and

in

killed

the

others

the

Battle

International

the

nice

value.

little

killed

in

repe-

funerals.

now, even probably to the

pleasant

think

Hirohito

Emperor

but

his

ambitious,

or

leaders in the military clique see in the present

to

Japan
not

if

century,

They got

unknown

is

were

sector

their

in

was

least

soldiers

British

landing

command.

high

Tokyo.

sailor

But nothing happened

Settlement.

Japanese

shore,

M.

Ladybird and H.

S.

British

shells

by

Shanghai

M.

One

patrol.

were wounded.

in

explanation and assurances against a

the ill-fated Panay, subjected to machine-gun fire after

like

of

full

all

emerge as
history.

the

And

greatest

they

are

out

the

of

power

see

to

it

through to the bitter end, regardless of cost in money, men or friendOne

ship in the once feared and long admired Western world.
omnipresent enemy to Japan is Soviet Russia.
Japan wanted Manchuria in 1931-32 almost as much for a buffer state against Russia
as

for

the

natural

resources

million potential purchasers

wants

another

and

the

controlled

market

of

thirty

which that swift conquest offered

And

puppet State surrounding or

bordering on Manchukuo, one which she can control and which will
be another buffer against the Soviet Union, if and when the clash

Tokyo

"independent*

comes.

There also remains Outer Mongolia.

adjacent to China, Inner Mongolia and

This

sparsely

Siberia,

has

settled
long-

area

been

The Mongol
Republic virtually under Moscow's control
leaders from time to time avow their independence and even their
Soviet

occasional adherence to China

but the influence of

Moscow

remains

strong.

The Japanese

military

leaders

would

like

to

stop

Communism

THE ROAD AHEAD

from

filtering

into

and thence across the bay to their island

For there
by the Sun Goddess herself.

China,

empire founded, they say,

has long been unrest within the
as

movement,

dustrial revolution in

and internal revolution,

the

fight

addled

world

down
is

seek to penetrate

Whether

the

Throne

naturally

is

whether
that

the

show

It is

who

my

section

their

date

traced

is

still

and

for supremacy on the mainland of Asia

and

first,

volume,

at

have tried

And

perspective.

happened out

Emperor"
little
1

men

second

to present

them

in

there,

completing
I

believe

we

It

writing.

the

doubtful

is

puppet-strings

know.

themselves

surface

behind

in

the political

the pattern
desire

Japan's

inevitably at China's expense

are
in

this
shall

In this
comprehended.
clear focus with an unbiased
of

intimately

told

tale

here

now

that

say

how

the

it

"Boy

"going to town" on the backs of the sturdy, implacable

from Dai Nippon and the town to which he is going is
is

The date?

Some March 1 before too long an historic day

the lives of the Manchu emperors, as we now know.
There are Chinese also who feel that their land could do worse

'eking.

in

Russia's

Soviet

if

in

be restored to his Dragon

motives

the

come

particularly

move is not far down

The move appears logical when

accurately

to

devoted to things of the

pulling

world's

the

of

this

best,

conviction that such a

horizon in North China.

to

are

is

will

at

conjectural

Japanese

at

which

"Boy Emperor"

home

China.

of

business

lane

along that

at

principles

twisting avenue of the years

the

an awak-

doctrines
its

in-

to get well

such

Union and

labor

The

there,

just

Communist

Soviet

Wall

dangerous

Orient.

fearing

chieftains,

with their backs to the Great

an

The

Nippon.

nonetheless

is

ening and possible eventual spread of

Crystal-gazing

of

Japan has been too recent for labor

But the military

organized.

boundaries

almost inarticulate,

yet

285

than return to the ways of their ancestors and try again to rule

China from a strong central government

way

of

before
'Jhis

life
its

so far has

the Orient.

in

of

is

inevitable.

mankind.

It

Peking.
It

will

and everywhere
is
an immutable

ultimate victory there,

victory

progress

failed

at

The democratic
need more time

else
fact

all

in
in

our
the

world.
painful

INDEX

BEND,

Bolshevik

192

Hallett

92
Richard
W.
Bonneyille,

55
dams, John Quincy
217
glen, Sir Francis
125
Vgrarian Revolution"
Hied Army of Defense
21,23
20,
22,
23,
25,
35, 37-47, 49-52, 54-59,
68-70, 72-75, 79, 80, 84,
88-91,94-96, 98-101, 104-107, 109, 110,
113, 118, 121, 127-130, 135, 138, 141,
145, 160, 167, 168, 170, 178-180, 182,
184, 187, 189, 191, 192, 197, 204, 205,
208, 213, 215, 218-223, 225, 227, 228238, 240, 241, 245, 249, 255, 259, 260,
263, 264, 270, 272, 278, 281-284
merican Church Mission 176, 177
merican Club
18, 19, 22, 61, 121, 222,
250, 257

28-30,
61-64,

34,
66,

merican Northern Preshylerian Mis36

sion
170
merican University Club
moy 56
nhwei
147
216
nnapolis
16
rabs
rizona
82
-104-106, 225, 226
14, 15, 33, 52, 54, 67, 96,
144, 159, 160, 166, 174, 175, 177, 184,
192,
209, 212, 221, 222, 224,
186,
227-230, 237, 238, 262, 276, 280, 282,

mold, Julean
sia

12,

285
ssociated
tlantic

Press

251
250, 261

Ocean

uslraha, Australian

ALTIMORE
aptist

Church
136,

inder,

Carroll

27, 28

135, 136, 176, 183, 184

259, 260,
258, 259

Rear-Adm

J.

90, 96-100,
144, 150, 151,

-209
45,

58,

46
216

20, 239, 240, 262-265,

267, 268, 271-275, 280, 285
Breitenstein, Richard
190, 192, 205
Mark L. 62, 220-225,
Bristol, Aclm

254-256, 258, 259

Mark L

Mrs

Bristol,

225, 256,

258,

259
Britain, British

21, 22, 26, 28, 29, 31,

33, 38, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 56, 58,
59, 61-63, 66, 68, 69, 72, 73, 75-81,
84, 88, 94, 96, 99-101, 128, 145, 167,
170, 179, 183, 187-189, 191, 208, 216,
218, 225, 229, 231, 252, 271, 272,

282, 284
British and

American Tobacco Company 76, 136

Brooklyn Eagle >134
179
Bryan, William Jennings
Buddhism
Buddha,
112, 134, 174, 178,
181, 264
Buffalo University

Burma

219
227

129, 211,

84,

CALIFORNIA
97

J.

Canada
Canton,

Smedley D.

63, 64,

140,

229

79
184

Cantonese

13, 17-26, 32, 47,

52, 54, 57-59, 67, 69, 70, 77, 78,
116,
135,
82, 84, 96,
98,
125,
166-173, 186, 190, 212; 225, 226, 232234, 239-241, 245, 279, 282

278

ingham, Senator Hiram

104,
127, 128
104, 106
ingham, Woodbridge
Y.
72
inghampton,
lakely,

131,

"Boy Emperor"

Camm,

66,

19,

Boston University
Bowen, Dr. A. J.
"Boxer" Rebellion

75

188

55

257,

Mikal

115, 119, 122-129,

159, 241
Boston 54, 77

Butler, Brig.-Gcn.

erg (see also Borodin, Mikal)

erlm

219

Madame M.

Borodin,
Borodin,

American

merica,

22, 79,

49,
80,
106,

Canton Christian College 176

223
Castleman, Capt. Kenneth

Y.-^63, 189

Catholic

287

176,

185

THE DRAGON STIRS

288
Central America

99

1 14,
Christianity
116,
182-185
174-180,
Christ of the Indian Road
174

157,

Chungking

282

Christian,

Chang Cheng-yi, Rev

183

Chang-chung
239, 262, 265, 266, 279
Chang Chung-chang, Marshal 71, 83,

211,

33,

14,

109
Cleveland, Dr. Frederick

Chang Hsueh-hang, Gen

Chang Hui-chang, Capt
Chang sha 189
85
Chang Shen-tse, Gen
Chang Tso-lm 59, 83, 84,

Communist,

132,
199,

143, 186,
207, 217

187,

195-199, 211
232,

233

93, 98,

192,

191,

111,

195-197,

129,

145

127-129,

Cheng Chien, Gen -41-43, 48, 85

Chengchow-27, 28, 123-125, 129-131,

33,

144,

125,

158,

159, 165,

189,

256, 278, 280, 283-285

170,

167, 168,

Confucius, Confucianism

34,

116,

146,

123,

77,

119,

148-156,
171,

178,

114, 174, 178

Church

Congregational

109,

219

111,

100,

131,

281,

Communism

81-85, 91, 95, 98,

Chapei 264
thekiang Provmc<^-83, 131, 132, 147
Chen, Eugene-30, 31, 35, 42, 49, 85,
90, 92-96,

212,

Chu, Paul

147, 154, 191, 196, 199

Chang Fa-kwei, Gen. 168, 169

182,

184

184

Archbishop
250
Converse, Carolyn
Constantini,

189
Coolidgc, Calvin
Cornell University
219

Cunningham, Edwin S
Cutting,

188

227

Suydam

188

Chengtu 227, 230

141
Chiang Chmg-pang
14, 23,
Chiang Kai-shek
48,
98,

59,

65,

103,

79,

78,

DAIREN

187, 192, 193, 195, 196, 203205, 207, 263

28,

81-85, 93,

30,

94,

106-108,

110-119, 123,
144-146, 152, 154,

33,

96,

125157-

128,

131-141,

160,

167-169, 171, 176, 184, 194, 207,

222, 242, 248, 277-281, 283

210,

Chicago 97, 130

Chicago Daily News
Chicago Tribunc-~23,

259
104,

Chicago, University of
Chief enchow

39,

41,

46,

47,

103-107,

122-127, 129-139,
155-189, 192-198, 200,
119,

255,

36,

42

18-22,
49,

24-35,

52-72, 74,
116-

109-114,

144-153,
202-213, 215,
,142,

218-240, 242-246, 248-252,

261-266, 270, 273-285

255,

62,

256,

China Press 232

Chinese Central Government

113,

136,

85,

141, 166, 212, 213, 224,

246, 249-251,
253, 257, 258, 260, 278, 279

233, 235, 238, 240, 243,

Doctrine of

Extra-Tcrritoriality,
58, 96, 145

FASCISM

56,

278

Edward F. 219
Fenghwa 133, 134
Fenghwa River 136
Feely,

14,

59,

280, 282

Chinese Eastern Railway

187, 249
Chinese National Aviaton Corporation
234-237
Chinese Republic
156, 267,
58,
147,
268, 271, 273
166
Chinese Turkestan
268
Chin Fei
267,
72-75

104,

254,

257,

Chmkiang

251,

66,

61,

122
William
216, 217
Edwardes, A H.
278
Ethiopia
Europe, European
54, 55, 59-61,

EDDY,

85

42,

77-88, 91-101,

216,

Duranty, Walter
258-360

121

130

190

Chihli-Shantung Army
Chi-ko
132-134, 138
Chinese-11-16,
China,
37,

194

Chien Tsu-min
Chihli

249
Davis, Dwight F
H.
Col
60, 61
Davis,
Davis, JohnK
34, 35, 51
Kenkichi
263
Debuchi,
Detroit
230-232
90,
Disraeli
16
Duncan, Maj.-Gen. Sir John
187, 225

194
Fengjun
Feng Kuo-chang

268

Fengtien Province

131,

195,

196,

199,

200, 203

Feng Yu-hsiang
107,

111,

128-130,

28,

114-117,

159-166,

207, 248, 271

93,

103,

123,

125,

126,

189,

194,

199,

59,

119,
188,

83,

INDEX

Dr Frank
Museum 227

Fetter,

Field

"Forbidden City"

219

11, 240, 267-271

128,

20, 22, 23, 30, 40, 58,

Li Chi

112

Gen

GAUSS,

Clarence

97,

90,

282

233, 256, 259,

H&uchow-fu
58,

260, 279,

78,

69,

191,

135,

192,

283

for

Women

-36,

43,

194, 202, 209, 239, 262, 266,

193,

275,

277, 280,

Guam

64, 230

285

255-257

Hang chow 153

Hankow-12, 23,
104,

116,

145,

150,

166, 169,

207,

87-97,

119-131,

103,

196,

208,

176,

211,

99-101,

141,

144,

178, 188,

189,

138,

223,

230,

232,

234, 248, 281, 282

Hankow Club 90, 100

Hankow Uerdd-W, 100
Hankow Race Club 90, 100
Han River 87
253
Hansen, Irwm
Hanyang

88

Harbin 22, 199, 200, 205, 249

240
Harding, Warren G.
251
Harris, Morris
Harvard University 219
Hawaii 230, 239
Hay, Lady Hay Drummond 241

Henry Pu-yi (see also Hsuan-Ting

and the "Boy Emperor")
20, 262,
263, 265-275

Hupeh

Hu

96,

147,

109-113,

107,

140

279

114,

148,

147,

153,

41

1NJDIA-46,

21,

Indiana

153

148,

Yao-tau

174

97

International News Service

259
International Settlement
20, 22, 23, 25,

44,

85,

271

284

95,

85,

JAPAN,

28, 31, 33, 35, 65, 66,

77-83,

75,

267,

Hughes, Charles Evans

Hull, Cordell

284

26, 30, 263, 281, 282,

Hai-ho River
190
199
Hailunkiang

69,

280

Italy, Italian-40, 63, 278,

HABAROVSK

68,

103,

28,

279,

265,

178

44, 105, 246

16
Gladstone
P 244, 245
Ernest
Goodrich,
187
Viscount
Gort,
Great Wall of Chma-11, 27, 52, 186,

191,

124,

85

118, 123-125,

117,

Hunan

264

Gibbons, Floyd
Ginling College

Hongkong

Hsu-chien, George

28,

123,

168
169, 213, 229-231

Honolulu 97, 122, 192

Hoover, Herbert^264
Hopei
190, 277, 280
H -48; 89
Hough, Rear-Adm.

115,
22,

93,

83,

163-165,

161,

129,

188

115,

100,

215, 216

177

J.

Hsiakwan 38, 48, 74

Hsmking 239, 262, 263,
Hsuan T'mg 239, 262,

191

Genghis Khan 209

Germany, German
224,

135,

188, 191, 215, 216, 218, 251, 281

Tso-yi,

88,

115,

101,

100,

Franklin, Cornell S
Fuad Bey 119
Fukien
82, 147, 153

Fu
Fu

Hollander,

Honan Province-^,

63, 66, 88, 90, 94,

157,

Col

Charles Sanderson
Hirohito-16, 263, 284
Hobart, E. T -34, 37, 44, 49
Hill,

Fong Sec, Dr. 135

Formosa 279, 281
Foochow 56
France, French

289

Japanese
60,

48,

62,

11,

75,

104,

111,

113,

157,

162,

167, 174,

118,

283
16-23,

13,

80,

84,

132, 133,

88,

40,
100,

136, 140,

180, 186-190,

192-

198, 200-205, 207, 209, 211, 218, 231,

232, 239, 240, 248-251, 255, 256, 262-

266, 271-285
194, 280
179
Jerusalem
Johnson, Ambassador Nelson T,
251
Jones, Elsie Martin
Jones, Lieut. Stanley A.
53, 60

Jehol

KALTENBORN,
Kang-Teh

H. V.-134, 137-139

262, 280

112
Kansas
Kansu-163, 166,
Kashmir 227

Keen, Victor

197,

212

250

Kemmerer, Prof. Edwin Walter

219

Kiangkow

137,

141

Kiangsi-49, 147
Kiangsu
103, 107, 163
Kilgore,

282

Lieut-Col.

F.

D.

215

218,

THE DRAGON STIRS

290

Km-han Railway

132, 157

33,

MACAO

Kuo Chia

Si

157,

Ma

265,

221,

263, 279,

Manchuria

243

20, 30-33, 52, 53,

144-159, 161, 162, 167, 169, 170,

186-192, 194, 203, 207, 208, 210, 211,
229, 233, 239-243, 248, 262, 279, 280
Kuo Sung-lin 111

Kwangsi-132, 194, 207,

Kwangtung-^1, 82, 225
Kwantung 153, 168
Kweichow 82, 85, 147

225, 226,

248

Merle 112, 113

of Nations
129, 193, 200, 264,

LAVOY,
278

251
Legendre, Dr. A. F.
Lenin
259
Leningrad 259
Li Chung-jen, Gen
112, 207
Z
85
-80-83,
Lieu,
240
Lincoln, Abraham
Charles
232
Lindbergh,

Lin Sen~-33
Linyang 190
Lisbon 229
177
Littell, John

265,

266,

270,

20,

280,

186,

203,

239,

240,

283,

284

20, 22, 59, 93, 111, 131, 162,

187,

Mandarin 12, 49, 67, 144, 212, 213

Manila-64, 172, 229, 230, 237, 249
Marco Polo 132
Matsuoka, Yosuke
192-195, 200
Maze, Sir Frederick 216, 217
79
Mecklenburgh, H. L
Methodist Episcopal Church
157, 176,
180,

183,

184

Mexico, Mexican 90-92, 99, 192, 254

185
Miami, Fla.
Michigan-<82, 122, 230
"Middle Kingdom"-! 1, 27
Midway Island 230
Mississippi River
66, 70, 87, 88
Missouri
261
261
Missouri, University of
Modern Chinese Civilization 251

Mongolia

96, 123, 209-211,

268, 280, 283, 284

265,

266,

Moore, Frederick F.-66, 279

Moscow
99,

103,

20,

28, 33, 66, 91, 92, 96, 97,

119,

111,

123,

125,

144,

145,

169-171, 208, 240, 249-252, 254260, 280, 284

167,

259

Moussorgsky

P.
Lockhart, Col
86, 89, 129, 176
219
Lockhart, Dr. 0.
116, 117
Loh, Maj.-Gen David

Lola

263,

191-203, 205-207, 209, 211,

232, 248-250, 255, 262-265, 274-276,
278-280, 284

140,

Lohmann, H. P.

186, 188, 203,

145,

58,

262,

Manchukuo

66, 79-82, 90, 92, 95, 96, 99, 101, 103,

110, 114-116, 119, 124, 130, 132, 133,

League

11, 20,

239,

274, 275, 285

270

18,

219,

112

Ho-chow, Maj.-Gen

Manchu

186,

Kuominchun 145
Kuormntang17,

208,

220

Kirin-199, 203
59
Koo, Dr. Wellington
Korea 180, 251, 279
169
Koslovsky, B.
Kremlin 259
Kuang Hsu 266, 267
162, 169, 219
Kung, Dr. H. H.

Kung, Mme H
Kung-hsien 188

229

MacMurray, John Van A.

17

Rudyard

Kipling,

258

Lyons, Eugene

Kinkiang 80, 81
192
Kinney, H. W.

260

Br. BritUng Sees It

Through

Mukden

186,

83,

111,

187,

2$2
192-196,

199, 200, 202-204, 207, 211, 232, 233,

263, 264

Mussolini

278

227, 228

London

NANCE,

170
192
London, Jack
70,

London Times
Lo Pa Hong
Loyang 189

185

Lukes, Sarah
Lukes, Susan

261
261

28,

Lunghai Railway
Lutheran Church
219
Lynch, F. B.

Walter Buckner

Dr.

180-

182

Nance, Mrs. Walter Buckner

121

Nanking-14,

23, 25, 29, 30,

.181,

182

32-35, 42,

45, 46, 48-50, 62, 65, 68, 71-76, 78, 79,

83, 85, 93-96, 98, 101, 103-107, 110,

116-119, 123,
111,

122,

166
176

124,

126-129,

134,

144-

147,

151, 157, 158, 160, 161, 165-167,

169-171, 178, 180, 182, 184, 188, 193,

194,

198, 200, 201, 208-212, 216, 217,

INDEX
241220,
222, 226,
232-237,
276-278, 280-284
"Nanking Incident" 29, 31-35, 42, 51,
219,
249,

62, 63, 92, 95, 105, 127, 129, 188

38

Nanking Theological Seminary

Nanking, Treaty

32, 35, 36, 45, 47,

49, 105, 106
219
National City Bank
179
National Christian Council
Nationalist
20, 23, 24, 27, 30, 34-50,
71-73,

75,

79-81, 83,

77,

117,

116,

124,

140,

135,

90,

87,

107,

92-94, 96, 98, 100, 104, 106,

114,

113,
146,

151, 155, 156, 162, 167, 169, 177, 178,

182,

News Agency

Nationalist

New York-19,
95,

260,

21,

29,

97
68, 90,

54, 66,

219, 231, 235, 238, 244, 249, 250,

Nicaragua -99, 216

Dr. Aage Kaarup
Nine-Power Treaty 279

135,

134-139,

132,

Army

107

104,

43, 44,

113, 114,

117, 125, 147, 188-190, 196, 207

OLONGAPO-64
Outer Mongolia

279, 283

123, 209, 211,

Paris
Pearl

Gen

Tsien-tsai,
136,

258-260

River

170,

Peichihli

Bay

276

112-114

Gen.

225,

113,

112,

Peiping (see also Peking)

176,

216,

186, 241
187, 192, 203

Pei Chung-hsi,
232
160,

284

213,

104,

224, 225, 229, 232, 233, 264,

Pang

194,

11, 20, 144,

230,

229,

234, 241,
246, 265, 274, 275, 280, 281, 285
Peking (see also Peiping)
11, 32, 33,

57-59,

66,

83,

93,

94,

107,

113,

123,

125-128, 132, 133,

150,

157,

160,

164,

166,

275,

279,

280,

Pukow

218, 219

130

123,

97
183,

185
110,

112,

RADIO Corporation of America

27
Rangoon
Red Banner, The -256
Red Swastika Society-41, 48
106
Reisner, John

237

43,

38,

Manuel

QUEZON,

249

261

Tai-chi

170

Richardson, Dr. Donald

Frank-28,

W.

45

122,

121,

129,

251
Rio de Janeiro
Roberts, Rev. W. P.-47
Robertson, Maj. William B.
Rocky Mountains 82
264
Rogers, Will
Rome 252, 278
284
Roosevelt, Franklin D
228
Kermit
227,
Roosevelt,
227
Roosevelt, Theodore

Roots, Bishop L.
Rowe, Dr. Harry
Russia, Russian
58-60, 66, 69,

144,

145,

96-98,

186-196, 199,

108,

75,

72,

196

127,

119,

111,

285

Peking-Mukden Railway
Felling, H. C.-70-72, 77
Pengpu 68, 72

176, 182-184

97,

176,

109,

203, 205, 207-210, 216, 217, 220-222,

232, 239-241, 243, 262, 265-267, 270273,

Prohme, Rayna
Prohme, William

Riley,

Ocean-i54,

104, 105, 107, 110,

121

Powell, J. B.-23
Presbyterian Church
Princeton University

Quo

142

19, 21, 24-26,

Open Door Policy

220,

190
Ping-kiang
Poland 260
Poland, W. B-219
Pope Pius XI
184, 185
Port Arthur
187
229
Portugal

Quincy, III

66, 71, 72, 75-77, 93, 96, 98,

PACIFIC

113, 118, 119,

118,

Nielsen,

Ningpo-56,

216,

172,

Puchen-43

198, 241, 248, 249, 253

Northern

Pickens, Robert S.

Protestant

261

New York Herald Tribune--250

New York 7w~66, 74, 105,
192,

242

198-200, 209, 210, 221,

193,

Islands-3,

248, 249, 279

Nanking University

63,

119
Pennsylvania, University of
People's Tribune, T/t<?
97, 100, 123
Peter the Great
259
216
Philadelphia
Philippine

56

of

291

119,

130

234, 235

176-178

45

19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 47,

70,

123,

75,

125,

81,
126,

84, 88, 91,

128,

131,

169-172, 191,
197, 203, 204, 209, 212, 240, 248-252,
254-260, 279, 280, 284, 285
193
Russo-Japanese War
135,

144,

145,

151, 167,

111, 194, 196

SAIGON
St.

Louis

227
87,

249

THE DRAGON STIRS

292
San Diego 63,
San Francisco

Stownw

216
261

64,

146-153, 155, 156

Schwartz, Bruno

Shanghai

90,

17-26, 29-33, 48, 53, 56,

12,

57,

59-64,

66-68,

85,

93-95,

97,

109,

72,

71,

119,

132,

134,

135,

157,

160,

163, 166,

77,

100-102,

98,

116,

112,

Strother, Rev. E.

250

126,

140,

139,

82,

83,

104-106,
128,

142-147,

167, 169,

170,

131,
153,

172,

196,

Sun Fo-218,

Shanhaikwan
Shansi
277

194,

191,

207,

Sun Yat-sen, Dr

189,

191,

199,

137
Vincent
130
Sheean,
Shensi 83, 123, 147, 163, 166
174
Shintoism
Siam 16
Siberia
22, 66, 96, 110, 123, 129, 166,
209, 246, 249, 250, 254, 256-258, 284
189
Singtan
212
Sinkiang

Smith,
62

Lieut-Comm. Roy C

Smith,
Smith,

B M. 72,
Mrs B, M.

110,

150-152,

29,

30,

73

208,

239-244, 248,

Vat-sen,

Mmc

157,

Nobumasa

Rebellion
279

Taiwan

Tanaka, Baron

194,

Speers, Dr. James M.

Standard Oil Company

221

90,

45,

Ben

Stevens, Herbert

29,

227

46

29, 34, 38, 44,

105,

283
Staude, Lieut

242, 243

230,

181

202

193,

82,

125,

30

190,

261

178

174

Taoist

Tartar
11, 267, 272
Tass Agency
251
A
38
A.
Taylor,
Gen.
82, 85
Tcng Yen-tah,
Tennessee
180
55, 56
Terranova, Francis
136
Thomas, Dr
135,
Tibet
16, 66, 123, 209-211, 227, 281
Tientsin
43, 64, 68, 72, 186-192, 194,
245, 202,

111
119,

118,

132,

192-

198, 200, 202, 231, 250, 251, 263,

274-276,

263, 279

79,

147,

282
257

57,

Tangku
Tang Shen-tse, Gen

194,

179
Southern Presbyterian Mission
South Manchuria Railway
192, 197,

73,

97,

156, 207,

Trinidad
94
Tsinan
140

72,

82,

279

Soong, Mei-lmg
136, 157, 243, 281
T.
Soong,
V.-138, 139, 141, 157, 169,
217, 218
Southern Army
19, 21, 27, 29, 49, 72,

49,

79,

196, 199, 203-207, 232, 240,

271, 272, 274, 281

72

193,

58,

140, 145,

Ting Tuan-saio
Tokyo
14,
111,

46,

57,

133,

111,

"Socony House" 75
Soochow 180-182, 281
Soochow University 180, 182
157
"Soong Dynasty"

189,

243,

190

Shaowangmiao

186,

242,

124, 125,

TAIPING
132, 157, 184, 188,

237,

232,

277, 279, 280, 282

75,

235,

281

27, 28, 71, 83, 103, 107, 111-

Shantung
113,

111,

107,

234,

Sweden, Swedish
122,
219
Syracuse University
Szechuan
147, 184, 211, 227, 228,

154

196

194,

193,

147,

245

Sun

Shanghai Club 22
Shanghai Labor Union Corps
Shanghai Times
179, 231

73, 83,

199

Suyetsugu,

185,

219

179

Sun Chuan-fang, Marshal

281-284

182,

277

Suiyuan

187-190, 192,
194, 208, 212, 213, 215-217, 219-223,
225-227, 230, 231, 233-235, 237, 238,
249, 250, 257, 259, 261, 264, 275-279,
178-180,

176,

172, 219, 220,

Henry L

Mrs

Stimson,
100,

91,

L.

Henry

Stimson, Col.
249, 263

135,

Tsingtao

278-280, 282-285

189, 279, 280,

282

194

Tungcbow

Turkey
16, 62, 220, 221, 224
"Twenty-one Demands"- 279, 283

UNITED

Press-18,

264
United States

19,

66, 250, 258,

13, 19, 21, 22, 25, 27, 29,

33,

34,

52,

53,

55-60, 63,

87, 90,

94,

96,

98,

99,

30,

127,

146,

157,

170,

101,

75,

104,

86,

121,

182-184, 187, 188,

190, 192, 193, 203, 204, 206, 208, 215,

INDEX
216, 219, 226, 237, 238, 251, 266, 267,
272, 278, 279, 282-284

VATICAN

City

Vautrin, Minnie

36, 43,

Woosung

44
29

WAKEFIELD,

Dr. Paul
230

219,

220,

222,

240,

264, 279, 284

263,

Wuhu

Wu

68,

Pei-fu,

47

76-80,

169,

151, 194, 280

122

Marshal

59,

83,

YANG,

Prof. Y.

221

179

147

115,

Yangtze-kiang-^20,

182

27-32, 34, 57,

76-80,
62, 65-68, 70-72, 74,
83, 87-89,
23,

119,

121,

178,

187,

209, 221, 223, 227, 230, 241,

244-246, 264, 280, 281, 283

242,

92,

98,

122,

100-102,

131,

135,

105,

199,

108,

177,

149,

176,

246

107,

111,

191,

207, 232

190
Yiyang
Dr
Arthur Nichols
Young,

River
20, 22, 60
Rev.
Dr.
White,
Hugh
White Russian 26, 47, 70

222

173,

194,

Wei-Hai-Wei 187
252
Wells, H. G.
West Point 216, 219

Williams, Admiral C. S

45,

264

Yenching University
Yen Hsi-san, Marshal

Watson, William 219

von Weigand, Karl 241

Whangpoo

Walter

Wu, Dr. C C. 104, 119,

Wuchang 87
Wuhan-87, 122, 125, 126,

177

237,

143,

33, 35, 36, 43,

96, 99, 113, 216, 221, 224,

240, 252, 256, 279
79
Wortley, C, B,

219
Wallace, Dr. Benjamin B
Wan Chi-hsing 169
Wang Ching-wei 123, 168
Wang, Dr. C. T
219, 220, 222
of
Wanghai, Treaty
56, 57
Gen.
114-116
Wang Tien-pei,
Commander
69
Ward,
Warsaw 260
Washington, D. C. 99, 127, 128, 189,
211,

E-32,

J.

World War

165
Virginia
Vladivostok
110, 249-253, 255

Island

Williams, Dr.
106
Williams, Rev

185

Vernou, Capt. Wallace

Wake

293

Yuan Shi-kai 58
Yun Liang 269
Yunnan~S4, 129,

147, 211, 225,

Yutien

194
Yu-yao River

219

136, 137

227

A STUDY"

HISTORY

The Royal Institute* of IrftSr national si fain is

an t4tioftiHa& and non-potitical body, founded in
rp^o./x? tf&epterage and facilitate the scientific
study of international questions*
The Institute, us such, ts precluded by */
rules from eseprcssitqr fin opinion on
<my aspect of
international affairs; opinion? expressed in this
hook are, therefore, purely

A STUDf 6F

HIST OR Y
BY

ARNOLD

TOYNBEE

J.

Director of Studies in the Royal Institute

of International Affairs
Research Professor of International History
in the University of London
(both on the Sir Daniel Stevenson Foundation)

'Work
*

Nox

ruit,

while

Aenca

day
JOHN

it is

ix.

'
.

AENEID
*

.'

VI,

539

Thought shall be the harder,

Heart the keener,
Mood shall be the more,
As our might lessens.'
THE LAY OF THE BATTLE OF MALDON

VOLUME

II

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD
:

Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute

of International Affairs

*934

"

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS
AMKN HOUSE,

K.C T 4
Kdmburtfh Glasgow
Leipzig New York Toronto
Melbourne Capetown liombay
Calcutta Madras Shanghai
I-oncion

HUMPHREY MILKOKD
PUDLISXIFU TO THK
UNIVJ KSITY

CONTENTS
VOLUME
II.

....
....

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

D.

I.

II

KoAa
The Return of Nature
In Central America
In Ceylon
In the North Arabian Desert
Xa\errd rd

On
In

On

Easter Island

New

England

the Roman
Perfida Capua

.....
.....

Campagna
.

The Temptations of Odysseus

The Flesh Pots of Egypt
The Doasyoulikes

12
15

24

.25

Plan of Operations
The Yellow River and the Yangtse
.

Chimu and Valparaiso

Lowlands and Highlands in Guatemala
The Aegean Coasts and their Continental Hinterlands
Attica and Boeotia
ChalcidicS and Boeotia
Byzantium and Calchedon
Aegina and Argos
Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines
Lebanon and Jabal Ansariyah
Brandenburg and the Rhineland
Austria and Lombardy
*The Black Country' and 'The Home Counties'
The Struggle for North America
.

31
31
31

-33
34
-36
-37
.42
-43
.48
49
-55
-57

.16
.18
.22

WIE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

II.

...-9

...
.

58

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

The Testimony of Philosophy, Mythology, and
The Testimony of the 'Related* Civilizations
The Special Stimulus of Migration Overseas

IH.

IV.

V.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

'Marches' and 'Interiors
In the Egyptiac World
In the Sinic World
In the Far Eastern World
In the Hindu World
In the Sumeric and Babylonic Worlds
In the Syriac World

Religion

-65
-73
73

-74
.84
.

IOO

.112
.-112

60

'.

.112
"S
.119
x7
*33
-

*37

CONTENTS

vi

In the Iranic World over against Eurasia

In the Iranic World over against Orthodox Christendom
.
In Russian Orthodox Christendom
In Japan
In the Minoan and Hellenic Worlds
In the Western World over against the Continental European
Barbarians
In the Western World over against Muscovy
In the Western World over against the Ottoman Empire
In the Western World over against the Far Western Christendom
In the Western World over against Scandinavia
In the Western World over against the Syriae World in the Ihcnan
Peninsula
In the Andean and Central American Worlds
.

....

.....
.....
......
........
......
.

VI.

THE STIMULUS OF PENALIZATIONS

The Nature
Migration
Slavery
Caste

of the Stimulus

TheQazfinlis
The Levantines

.......
......
.....
,

The Jews, Parsees, Nestonans, Monophysites, and Monoihelctes

The Ashkenazim, Scphardim, Dtfnme, and Mnrranos

Fossils in Fastnesses
VII. TIIE

GOLDEN MEAN

The Law

How

of Compensations

a Challenge proved Excessive

Comparisons in Three Terms
is

Greenland
Massachusetts
Maine

Norway
Dixie
Brazil

The

Iceland

La

Pacific

Votyaks

Plata

Patagonia

Lapps

.....
.

Achaeans
Teutons
Celts
The Abortive Far Western Christian Civilization
.

The Abortive Scandinavian Civilization

The Impact of Islam upon the Christendoms
The Abortive Far Eastern Christian Civilization
.

Miscarriages and Births of Civilizations in Syria

go

*94

202
206
2o8

213
216
220
222

230
234
240
248
250

259
259
274

.200

Reactions to Changes of Climate

,
Scotland
Ulster
Appalachia
Reactions to the Ravages of War
Chinese Reactions to the Challenge of Emigration
Slavs

177
i

.251
.252
.254
-255

Seaboard of South America

Magyars

174

.228

Nabobs and Sahibs

Emancipated Nonconformists
Emancipated Ra'lyeh
Assimilationists and Zionists
Isma'ilis and Imamls

166

.208
.212
.

Religious Discrimination
The Phanariots

144
1 50
154
158
159

291
293

296
297
300
30*
309
313
3x5
315
322

.340

-3^5

360
369

CONTENTS
II.

Annex:

vii

Ground* less fertile than 'New

Intrinsically or by Accident?
v Annex: Historic Sieges and their After-effects

ill

Is

vi

Annex; Jews

vn Annex

Ground'

'Old

395

400

.....

in Fastnesses

Ellsworth
of his
Huntington's
Application
Chmate-and-Civihzation Theory to the Histories
of the Mayan and Yucatec Civilizations in Central
America, and to the History of the Synac Civilization in the Oases of the North Arabian Steppe
.

Annex

II:

The Three-Cornered

Relation

III:

between the

The

Extinction of the Far

in Ireland

Annex IV: The

.421

Western Christian Culture

Forfeited Birthright of the Abortive Far Western

Christian Civilization

Annex V: The Resemblance between

424
427

the Abortive Scandinavian

Civilization and the Hellenic Civilization

Annex VI: The

413

Roman

......
....

Church, England, and Ireland

Annex

402

I: Dr.

434

Forfeited Birthright of the Abortive Scandinavian

......

Civilization

Annex VII: The Lost Opportunities

'Osmanlis

.438

of the Scandinavians and the

444

Annex VIII: The

Forfeited Birthright of the Abortive Far Eastern

Christian Civilization
*

446

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

D.

XAAEHA TA KAAA

I.

The Return of Nature

WE

have now studied the action of Challenge-and-Response

and have attempted to survey the role which challenges and
responses have played in the geneses of civilizations. In embarking
upon this survey, we have implicitly rejected the view that civilizations are apt to be generated in environments
physical or human
which offer unusually easy conditions of life to Man. This view
or at any rate widely aired, in the modern
Western World, though it is contradicted by the theory of our
modern Western Physical Science as well as by the deeper intuition
of Mankind which has found expression in the Mythology of various

is

popularly held,

In the course of the survey which we

have just concluded, we have ignored this false view; but we may
find that, besides implicitly rejecting it, we have also indirectly
refuted it by exposing the fallacy on which it is founded.
This fallacy springs from a failure to conceive the genesis of a
civilization as 'an act of creation involving a process of change in
1
societies in various ages.

appearance of the scene, as it looks when the

drama of genesis has been played to the finish, is thoughtlessly
equated with the primitive appearance of the same scene in the
prehistoric age before the site was taken in hand by Man to serve
as the stage for a great human action. For example,

Time.

The

final

'we are accustomed to regard Egypt as a paradise, as the most fertile

country in the World, where, if we but scratch the soil and scatter seed,
we have only to await and gather the harvest. The Greeks spoke of

Egypt

most fit place for the first generations of men, for there,
food was always ready at hand, and it took no labour to secure

as the

they said,
an abundant supply. *\

The fallacy of this view is pointed out by the distinguished archaeorefute it.
logist who has formulated it in these sentences in order to
His refutation is presented in the latter part of a passage which has
at
already been quoted, in the preceding chapter of this Study,
greater length.

is

'There can be no doubt', he goes on to say, 'that the Egypt of to-day

a very different place from the Egypt of pre-agricultural times.
.

i,

For

vol.
*

i,

this contrary scientific

passim,

Newberry, op,

II

cit.

in II.

and mythological Weltanschauung^ see above, IL

(ii) (b)

2,

above, vol.

i,

p. 306.

C (u)

(b)

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

The

agricultural
of the Nile.' 1

Egypt of modern times

is

as

much

a gift of

Man

as

it is

In fact, the fallacious popular view entirely overlooks the stupendous

human effort involved, not only in once transforming the prehistoric

jungle-swamp of the Lower Nile Valley into the historical Land of

Egypt, but also in perpetually preventing this magnificent but
precarious work of men's hands from reverting to its primeval
state of Nature,

What

Nature was, we have indicated, in the two

2
instances of the Land of Egypt and the Land of Shinar, by citing
this state of

first-hand descriptions of the present state of certain other sections

of the Nile Valley and the Tigris-Euphrates Valley which have

remained, down to this day, in the primitive condition out of which
Egypt was conjured up in the Lower Nile Valley by the fathers of
the Egyptiac Civilization and Shinar by the fathers of the Sumeric
Civilization in what used to be the Lower Tigris-Euphrates Valley
before the present provinces of Basrah and Arabistan were built
out into the Persian Gulf by the progressive deposit of alluvium
during the last five or six thousand years. The present state of the
3
Bahr-al-Jabal section of the Nile Valley and of the 'Amarah4
Nasiriyah-Basrah triangle in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley testifies
to the feat which was performed by the pioneers who, some five or
six thousand years ago, succeeded in transforming similar tracts of
inhospitable jungle-swamp, out of all recognition, into an ordered
network of dykes and fields, where soil and water arc subject to
human control for the service of human purposes. The view that
civilizations are begotten in environments where the conditions are
unusually easy is clearly shown to be untenable when we compare
those howling wildernesses, which reproduce, in their virgin state
to-day, the primeval state of Egypt and Shinar, with the actual
state of Egypt and Shinar as we see it
to-day side by side with
the Bahr-al-Jabal and with the swamps in which the Tigris and
f

Euphrates lose themselves below 'Amarah and Nasiriyah. At the

same time, just because the works of Man which have effaced the
primeval state of Nature in the Lower Nile Valley and in the Lower
Tigris-Euphrates Valley are still 'going concerns', we cannot
observe the primeval state of Nature here directly. We have to be
content with the reflections of it which we can discern in the
watery mirrors of the Bahr-al-Jabal and the Amarah~Nasiriyah~
Basrah triangle and though the scientific student
may feel morally
c

*
Newberry, op. cit., quoted in vol. i, pp. 306 and 308, above. For the celebrated
aphorism of Herodotus, to which Professor Newberry takes exception in the second
sentence here quoted, see footnote 2 on p. 252 in II. C (ii) (a) 2, in vol. i, above,
z In II. C
(u) (6) 2, vol. i, pp. 309-12 and 316-18, above.
3 See vol.
4 See vol.
j, pp. 309-12, above.
i, pp. 316-18, above.

XAAEHA TA KAAA
certain, in his

own mind,

that these
surviving reflections give a fair
picture of the long-obliterated originals, he must be prepared to
find the layman declaring, like doubting Thomas, that
only direct
observation will convince him.

Are there theatres of civilization, other than Egypt and Shinar,

which can provide the layman with the direct evidence which he
demands and which Egypt and Shinar cannot give him ? Yes, there
are, for the human feat of maintaining Egypt and Shinar as 'going
a feat only less remarkable than the
original feat of
them
is
In
creating
something exceptional.
general it is true that
'naturam expcllas furca, tamen usque recurret'. 1 At various times
and places, recalcitrant Nature, once broken in by human heroism,
has broken loose again because later generations have ceased for
some reason to keep up the constant exertions required of them in
order to maintain the mastery which had been won for them and
transmitted to them by the pioneers. In such cases of reversion,
the primeval state of Nature, as it was before Man ever took it in
not merely in the mirror of some similar
hand, can be seen to-day
of
Nature
which
has
piece
happened to remain in its virgin state
but by direct observation on the very spot which has temporarily
been the scene of a signal human achievement. Such spectacles, in
which the primeval state of Nature and the subsequent works of
Man and the eventual reversion of Nature to her primeval state
are all displayed together on one spot like geological strata, are
certainly more striking, as visual demonstrations, than the spectacle
of the contrast between the present state
striking though this is
of Egypt and the present state of the Bahr-al-Jabal, in which the
two objects that have to be brought into simultaneous focus lie
a thousand miles apart. Where Nature has actually reasserted her
ascendancy over some spot that has once been the birth-place of a
civilization or the scene of some other signal human achievement,
it is
impossible to behold Nature flaunting her ultimate triumph
over these works of Man and still to doubt that here, at any rate,
the conditions in which those human works were performed were
will therefore trynot unusually easy but unusually difficult.
to clinch our argument by passing a few instances of such reversions
concerns'

We

under review.
In Central America

One remarkable instance is the present state of the birth-place of

the Mayan Civilization. Far different from the dykes and fields of
Egypt and Shinar, which are
*

still

being kept in order by

Horace, Epistles, Book

I,

Ep.

x,

1.

24.

Man

and

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

a livelihood, the
duly serving his purpose in yielding him
works of the Mayas are no longer 'going concerns' to-day. Their

still

of the immense and

surviving monuments are the ruins
which now stand, faraway
magnificently decorated public buildings
from any present human habitations, in the depths of the tropical
forest. The forest, like some sylvan boa-constrictor, has literally
sole

swallowed them up, and

now

it

is

dismembering them

at

its

leisure: prising their fine-hewn, close-laid stones apart with its

writhing roots and tendrils. The contrast between the present

have worn when

aspect of the country and the aspect which it must
the Mayan Civilization was in being is so great that it is almost
1
There must have been a time when these
beyond imagination.

immense public buildings stood in the heart of large and populous

cities, and when those cities lay in the midst of vast stretches of
cultivated land which furnished them with their food-supplies.
The masterpieces of Mayan architecture which are now being
strangled by the forest must have been built as works of supererogation with the surplus of an energy which, for leagues around,
had already transformed the forest into fruitful fields. They were
trophies of Man's victory over Nature; and, at the moment when
they were raised, the retreating fringe of the vanquished and routed

sylvan enemy was perhaps barely visible on the horizon, even from
the highest platforms of the palaces or from the summits of the
temple-pyramids. To the human beings who looked out over the
World from those vantage-points then, the victory of Man over

Nature must have seemed utterly secure and the transitorincss of

human achievements and the vanity of human wishes are poignantly
;

exposed by the ultimate return of the forest, engulfing first the

fields and then the houses, and
finally the palaces and the temples
themselves. Yet that is not the most significant or even the most
obvious lesson to be learnt from the present state of
Copan or
Tikal or Palenque. The ruins speak still more
eloquently of the
intensity of the struggle with the physical environment which the
creators of the Mayan Civilization must have
in
waged
victoriously

In her very revenge, which reveals her in all her gruesome power, Tropical Nature testifies unwillingly to the
courage
and the vigour of the men who once, if only for a season, succeeded
in putting her to flight and
keeping her at bay.*
their day.

Mr, Rudyard Kipling in his description of 'the Cold Lairs' : a fictitious Hindu
city which
the Indian Jungle has swallowed up. (Read the
story called 'Kaa's Hunting* in The
Jungle Book.)
*
r - Ellsworth Huntington
suggests that the Nature whom the fathers of the Mayan
,P
Civilization once
put to flight was a different (and less formidable) antagonist from the
Nature who has since got the better of these men's descendants in the selfsame
region,
For Dr. Huntington's hypothesis of a periodic
shifting of climatic zones, see II.
(vii),
Annex i, below*

XAAEIIA TA KAAA
In Ceylon
With the same

dumb

eloquence, the creeper-covered ruins of

Angkor Wat testify to the prowess of the men who once propagated
the Hindu Civilization on soil conquered from the
tropical forest of
and
the
Cambodia;
equally arduous feat of conquering the parched
of
for
plains
Ceylon
agriculture is commemorated in the breached
bunds and overgrown floors of the tanks which were once constructed on the wet side of the hill-country, on a colossal scale,
by
the Sinhalese converts to the Indie religion of the
Hinayana.

*To

how such

came

into being one must know something

of the history of Lanka. The idea underlying the system was
simple but
It
was
intended
the
very great.
by
tank-building kings that none of the
rain which fell in such abundance in the mountains should reach the
sea without paying tribute to Man on the way.
'In the middle of the southern half of Ceylon is a wide mountain
ssone, but to the east and north dry plains cover thousands of square
miles, and at present are very sparsely populated. In the height of the
monsoon, when armies of storm-swept clouds rush on day after day to
match their strength against the hills, there is a line drawn by Nature
that the rains are unable to pass.
There are points where the line of
demarcation of the two zones, the wet and the dry, is so narrow that
within a mile one seems to pass into a new country; for the whole
character of the forest alters, and in size and kind and distribution the
trees differ completely from those one can still see behind one. The wild
flowers take new forms and colours; different birds sing in the bushes;
cultivation changes abruptly; and wealth ends. The line curves from
sea to sea and appears to be stable and unaffected by the operations of
realise

tanks

Man, such
Yet the

as felling forests/ 1

missionaries of the Indie Civilization in Ceylon once

achieved the tour deforce of compelling the monsoon-smitten highwhere 'rain pours down at a higher rate for the month than
lands

whole of a very wet year' 2 to give

water and life and wealth to the plains which Nature had condemned to lie parched and desolate.

the rainfall of

London

for the

streams were tapped and their water guided into the giant
storage-tanks below, some of them four thousand acres in extent and,
from those, channels ran on to other large tanks farther from the hills,
and from them to others still more remote. And below each great tank
and each great channel were hundreds of little tanks, each the nucleus
of a village; all, in the long-run, fed from the wet mountain-zone. So
gradually the ancient Sinhalese conquered all, or nearly all, of the
3
plains that are now so empty of men.'
'Hill

The
*

arduousness of the labour of

first

conquering and then

Still,

John: The Jungle Tide (Edinburgh 1930, Blackwood), pp. 74-$.

Still,

op.

cit.,

p. 74-

Still >

P- clt

PP'

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

holding for a man-made civilization these naturally barren and desolate plains is demonstrated by the two outstanding features in the
landscape of Ceylon at the present day. The first feature is the
relapse of that once irrigated and cultivated and populated countryside into its primeval barrenness and desolation upon the stoppage
of the continuous human exertions which had been required in
order to produce and maintain this miraculous transformation of
the face of Nature. 1 The second feature is the avoidance of these
derelict plains, which were once the seat of a civilization, by our

modern Western coffee and tea and rubber planters who have
come to Ceylon to make their fortunes there in these latter days.

On

the first of these two points, the following testimony is

borne by the modern Western eyewitness whom we have quoted
already:
*The tank age endured for more than fifteen centuries, and then the
jungle tide rose over it and all signs or memory of it became lost. ... In
the forest which covers the ancient kingdom, far from the sounds of men ,
one comes upon the bunds of tanks, now utterly forgotten, where the
banks have given way and the beds become like natural glades for deer
to graze in, ...
'I

know

[a] city

[which]

lies

below the bund of an enormous tank

whose area may well have been thousands of acres, for the bund is miles
long. But now the very name of the tank is lost, for the bund burst
hundreds of years ago and its bed is but a low-lying region in the
unbroken forest, a deeper area amid the sea of trees. The only name it
now bears is a Tamil one meaning Tank of the Great Breach. At a
waterhole in a rock in the bed of that tank I saw a bear
stoop and drink,
and it was curious to think how he sought for that small hole of
stagnant
water, as for a rare treasure, in a place that for many centuries was at
the bottom of an inland sea where waves broke and
pelicans sailed in
fleets.
More than anything else, it brought home to me most vividly
how brief had been the age of tanks in the long history of the jungle.
For a million years animals drank from that narrow
hole; then, for a
thousand years, the rock, hole and all, was underneath the
waves; and
now the jungle drinks again where animals drank when Man used stone
arrowheads, and before he invented them, and before Nature invented

him.' 2

The second

feature in the present

landscape of Ceylon which
demonstrates the arduousness of the feat which the ancient
* The
cause of the breakdown of the ancient Sinhalese
irrigation system was an inceftR18 wa
d
dl n mercenaries from Southern India. These

^JTi -y^T^VT

*?
5
mercenaries deliberately cut the canals
and breached the bunds as a short cut to military
decisions; and eventually this will to destroy overcame the will to repair. Therewith the
plains not only went:out:of
cultivationthroughthestoppageof the water-supply, but hey
became hot-beds of malaria
when the running waters dwindled into stagnant pooln
^so
which were too shallow to harbour the fish that live
by

OP-

cit.,

pp. 77 and 79 and

11-13.

XAAEHA TA KAAA

Sinhalese bund-builders temporarily accomplished is the avoidance

of the derelict plains by our modern Western
planters who have
interested themselves in Ceylon not in order to
propagate a civilization there but in order to get rich quick.
'It is

a curious fact that ... the bulk of the

population

wealth have been found on the wet side of the

centuries of

European

rule* ...

during the four

line

To make money, one

and most of the

stays as a rule

on

the wet side, but to see the ruins of temples or monasteries, of

palaces or
1
one
must
to
the
of
side
the
line.
.
.
. For the
works,
engineering
go
dry
hills where we grow tea and rubber
[the ancient Sinhalese] did not care.
Few ancient remains are to be found among them, and the forests we
found there, and destroyed, were of immense age and probably of true
. Must one be ranked as
virgin growth.
opposed to civilization if one
the
and
prefers
dry
thinly populated side of the monsoon's frontier to
the prosperous and wet one? That is a question I find it impossible to
answer without first settling what the word "civilization" means.' 2
.

The
even

irrefutable testimony of the return of Nature is

repeated
where there are no stupendous ruins to work upon our

We

imagination.
may perceive it in the last agonies of the poor
as witness the following passage from a
village in the jungle
modern Western work of fiction in which the scene of action is
likewise Ceylon:

*Thc years had brought more evil, death and decay upon the village.
Disease and hunger visited it year after year. It seemed, as the
headman said, to have been forgotten by gods and men. Year after year,
the rains from the north-east passed it by; only the sun beat down more
pitilessly, and the wind roared over it across the jungle the little patches
of chena crop which the villagers tried to cultivate withered as soon as
the young shoots showed above the ground. No man, traveller or
headman or trader, ever came to the village now. No one troubled any
longer to clear the track which led to it the jungle covered it and cut the
.

village off.

'They struggled hard against the fate that hung over them, clinging
to the place where they had been born and lived, the compound they
knew, and the sterile chenas which they had sown. No children were
born to them now in their hut, their women were as sterile as the earth ;
the children that had been born to them died of want and fever. At last
This geographical segregation of the fields of the ancient indigenous and the modern
European enterprise in Ceylon has its analogue in Central America, where the modern
Spanish colonists have similarly kept clear of the plains which were once the seat of
the Mayan culture, and have established themselves in the highlands which were left
unoccupied by both the fathers and the children of the Mayan Civilization. (See
IL C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, p. 367, above, and II. D (u), pp. 34-^6, below.) In this connexion,
*

immaterial that, in contrast to the climatic conditions in Ceylon, the Central

relatively wet and the Central American highlands relatively dry;
for whereas, in Ceylon, an abundance of rain affords economic ease while a scarcity
demands economic effort, in Central America the relations of economic effect to climatic
cause are just the inverse, owing to the inverse correlation between climate and
A.I.T.
landscape.
*
Still, op. at., pp. 75-6 and 77 and 92,

it

is

American plains are

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

they yielded to the jungle. They packed up their few possessions and
left the village for ever.
.
induce
Menika to go with them, but she refused.
tried
to
Punchi
'They
The only thing left to her was the compound and the jungle which
.
she knew. She clung to it passionately, blindly. .
'The jungle surged forward over and blotted out the village up to the
very walls of her hut. She no longer cleared the compound or mended
the fence, the jungle closed over them as it had closed over the other
huts and compounds, over the paths and tracks. Its breath was hot and
heavy in the hut itself, which it imprisoned in its wall, stretching away
unbroken for miles. Everything except the little hut with rotting walls
and broken tattered roof had gone down before it. It closed with its
shrubs and bushes and trees, with the impenetrable disorder of its thorns
and creepers, over the rice-fields and the tanks. Only a little hollowing
of the ground where the trees stood in water when rain fell, and a
long
little mound which the rains washed out and the
elephants trampled
down, marked the place where before had lain the tank and its land.
The village was forgotten, it disappeared into the jungle from which it
had sprung, and with it she was cut off, forgotten. It was as if she was
the last person left in the World, a world of
unending trees above which
the wind roared always and the Sun blazed. .
'But life is very short in the jungle. Punchi Menika was a
very old
woman before she was forty. She no longer sowed grain, she lived
only
on the roots and leaves that she gathered. The
wasted
perpetual hunger
her slowly, and when the rains came she
lay shivering with fever in the
hut. At last the time came when her
strength failed her; she lay in the
hut unable to drag herself out to search for food. The fire in the corner
that had smouldered so
long between the three great stones was out.
In the day the hot air eddied
through the hut, hot with the breath of the
wind blowing over the vast parched jungle ; at
night she shivered in the
chill dew. She was
dying, and the jungle knew it; it is always waiting;
can scarcely wait for death. When the end was close
upon her a great
black
into the doorway. Two little
glided
shadow;
eyes twinkled at her
steadily, two immense white tusks curled up gleaming against the darkness. She sat up, fear came
upon her, the fear of the jungle, blind agonisft
fear.
ing
"Appochchi, Appochchi!" she screamed. "He has come, the devil
from the bush. He has come for me as
you said. Aiyo! save me, save me!
.

Appochchi!"
'As she feU back, the
great boar grunted softly, and glided like a
into the hut. ?I

shadow towards her

As the reader

closes the book, he

speculates on the meaning of
the tale which has this
ending. Throughout the story, the writer
has drawn in for us, stroke
by stroke, his picture of the jungle as
a sinister beast of
which
prey
only lives its own life in order to
'

'

The

Villa8e in

**

^ngU (London

'"3. Bdward

XAAEUA TA KAAA

human

life

to

destruction

sylvan counterpart to the

animated skeleton which is our image of Death.
Haud igitur leti praeclusa est iamia caelo
nee soli terraeque neque altis aequoris undis,
sed patet immane et vasto respectat hiatu. 1

bring

Under

shadow of this inhuman monster, ever watching and

waiting with a leer on its obscene countenance till it finds its
opportunity to close in upon its victim, the human life of the poor
villagers seems unbearably wretched. The odds against them are
so heavy the pressure upon them is so grinding would it not have
been better for them never to have been born ? And yet the story of
their lives, as it is told by the author in this painful setting, is
undoubtedly worth the telling. We read the tale to the end and
the

have not been lived for nothing, even though

at last the jungle overwhelms them. What is the
significance and
the interest of them? Perhaps it is that the cruel and unceasing
struggle with the jungle, which at first sight seems almost to divest
feel that these lives

them

of their humanity
to degrade them to the level of the beasts
2
that perish or of the creeping things that creep upon the earth 3
subtly reveals them in another light to the inward eye. If the jungle
is a malevolent beast of prey, then the villagers who have fought it
with their bare hands are heroes whose story is an epic. Without
the jungle the village could hardly have risen to be a theme for
literature. And when the jungle swallows the village up, we realize
in retrospect that we have been reading a tale of human prowess
which surpasses the tale told by the ruins of Angkor Wat.

In the North Arabian Desert

celebrated and indeed almost hackneyed illustration of our

theme is the present state of Petra and Palmyra a spectacle which
has inspired a whole series of modern Western essays in the
philosophy of history, from Les Ruines* onwards. To-day, these
former homes of the Syriac Civilization are in the same state as the
former homes of the Mayan Civilization at Copan and Tikal, and
their monuments astonish and confound the spectator for the same
reason.

The

parallel is

indeed exact, except that hostile Nature

is

* Psalm
xlix, w. 12 and 20.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Book V, 11. 373-5.
Leviticus xi. 29.
4 Volney, C. F., Comte de: Les Ridnes, ou Meditation sur les Revolutions des Empires
(xst edition, Paris 1791). For an attractive general acount of the caravan cities which
is based upon first-hand and recent archaeological research, especially at Dura, see
Rostovtzett, M.: Caravan^Cittes^ (Oxford 1932, Clarendon Press). For^ Petra see also
*

almyre

Vrin) and Partsch, J.: P<

Sitzungsbenchte Ak. Leipzig, bodv (1922).
(Paris

1931,

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

10

represented here by the Afrasian Steppe instead of the tropical

1
forest.
Here, too, we see the ruins of huge and splendid public
buildings which are likewise desolate and likewise isolated from the
nearest present human habitations by many leagues of surrounding
wilderness
the Afrasian wilderness of dry rock and gravel and
sand which is not less forbidding than the tropical wilderness of
sodden and matted vegetation. The desert has swallowed up Petra
and Palmyra, as the forest has swallowed up Tikal and Copan and
here, again, the ruins survive to point a contrast between present
and past which is so great as to be almost unimaginable.
The ruins tell us that these elaborate temples and porticoes and
tombs, at the time when they stood intact, must have been ornaments of cities which rivalled the Mayan cities in wealth and
population and here the deductions from the evidence of Archaeology, which are our sole means of composing a picture of the
Mayan Civilization, are reinforced by the written testimony of
historical records. The economic foundations on which the wealth
and population of Petra and Palmyra were supported arc not
matters of conjecture.
know that the historical pioneers of the
Syriac Civilization who conjured these cities up out of the desert
were masters of the magic which the Syriac Mythology attributes
;

We

to Moses.

These magicians knew how to bring water out of the dry rock and
how to find their way across the untrodden wilderness. In their
prime, Petra and Palmyra stood in the midst of irrigated gardens
like those which still surround Damascus
to-day or those which the
Muhammad
in
the
whenever he wishes to
Qur'an
Prophet
depicts
evoke in the minds of the faithful an
image of Paradise but Petra
and Palmyra did not live then, any more than Damascus lives
to-day, exclusively or even principally on the fruits of their narrow;

verged oases. Their rich men were not their market-gardeners but
their merchants, who
kept oasis in communion with oasis, and
continent with continent, by a busy caravan-traffic from
point to
point across the intervening tracts of steppe and desert gravelly
hamad and sandy nafud. The Nabataeans of Petra,
operating the
trans-desert route from the Mediterranean
ports of Syria to the
Ocean ports of the Yaman, competed with the Greek seamen of
Alexandria for the trade between the Roman
Empire and India; 5
:

55??* ^iS

8*011 seeks to explain the rise and fall of Petra and Palmyra.
Hli 2*
f
*"
7
by ,his ^thesis of a periodic shifting oi'
il^jv
"^r
chmatic zones. i
For ^
his application
of the hypothesis to the case of
Palmyra, sec Palatine
afto " tondon
Constable), ch. xv. For a general disciwuion of
Dr
1
1
/9ii,
n
hyP oth ** *> the histories of civilizations, ace
-

^'

^^^

w
I?So^
Bf'D^S^SS
2 The same
is made

pp> 67~8 '

point

apropos of Jerash (Gerasa) by RostovtzcfF in op. eit on

3 See
Rostovtzeff, op. dt, pp. $6-7.

XAAET1A TA KAAA

the Palmyrcnes, operating the trans-desert route from

Syria to
the
trade
between
the
Roman
'Iraq, virtually monopolized
Empire
and those regions lying east of it which were ruled
successively
1
by the Arsacids and the Sasanids. The economic control of traderoutes brought political power in its train; and the Nabataean
Kingdom, extending from Sinai to Damascus and from Tayma to
Beersheba, ranked as one of the principal client-states of Rome
3
before its annexation by Trajan. 2 As for
Palmyra, during those
decades of the third century of the Christian Era when the Roman
Empire was prostrated by a paralytic stroke premonitory of its
dissolution, Queen Zenobia succeeded momentarily, before
Aurelian carried her captive, in ruling from the Palmyrene oasis
a premature and abortive 'successor-state' which
anticipated, by

coming

4
four centuries, the principality of the Caliph
Mu'awlyah.
Such were the achievements of the Syriac Civilization under the
stimulus of the desert.
And the ruins of Petra and Palmyra, in
as
to
the final victory of the desert over Man,
testifying,
they stand,
also testify, by the selfsame posture, to the
previous victory of
Man over the desert. Since the day when the Syriac Society
overcome by the pressure of the human environment in the shape
of the Roman Empire 5
relaxed its grip upon the physical environment at these two points and allowed the desert to have its way
with Petra and Palmyra again, no other society has ever attempted
to repeat the achievement of the Syriac pioneers by recalling either
of these dead cities to life. The attempt has not even been made up
to the present by Western enterprise, though in our day we dispose

'

Sec RostovtscfF, op.

The Nabataean regime

cit,,

pp. 102-4.

in this region lasted altogether for nearly three centuries,

beginning circa 164 B.C. (Rostoytzeff, op. cit., p. 50).
3
Palmyra is rust heard of in 41 B.C. (RostovtzefT, op. cit., p. 121). The earliest
extant Palmyrcnc inscription was cut in 8 B c. (FeVrier, op. cit., p. 6).
+ Sec vol.
It may be noted that while the Nabataean
i, p. 74, above, footnote 4.
client-slate of the Roman Empire was based on the single oasis of Petra and Zenobia' s
aboitivc 'successor-state' on the single oasis of Palmyra, the successiul 'successor-state'
which was established or usurped by Mu'awiyah was based on a pair of oases: those
of Medina and Mecca. The political union of these two oases was the supreme political
achievement of Muhammad. In achieving it, he laid the foundations of a state which
grew, first into a 'successor-state' of the Roman Empire in its Syriac provinces, and then
mto a reintcgration or resumption of the Syriac universal state which had been built
by the Achaemenids and overthrown by Alexander the Great. (See I. C (i) (6), vol. i,

pp. 73-7, above.)

5
Petra and Palmyra each rose in turn to greatness by finding places for themselves
in the interstices between the dominions of mutually hostile Great Powers whose
hostility was too great to admit of their coming to a direct understanding with each
other, while it was not great enough to drive them into forgoing the advantage of doing
business with one another indirectly through the agency of commercial go-betweens
who would also serve as political buffers. Petra rose in this way in an interstice between
the Selcucid and the Ptolemaic 'successor-state* of the Achaemenian Empire; Palmyra
rose in an interstice between the Roman Empire and the Arsacid Power. Petra was
doomed when the Roman Empire supplanted both the Seleucid and the Ptolemaic Power
alike; Palmyra was doomed when the decay of the Arsacidae left Rome momentarily
without a rival in this quarter likewise
pending the rise of the Sasanidae. (See further
Rostovtzeff, op.

cit.,

pp. 26-35.)

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

12

which the Nabataeans and the Aramaeans

never dreamed of: artesian wells that can tap subterranean waterof divining-rods
supplies quite beyond the reach of picks or the ken
and petrol-driven six-wheeled motor-cars which can traverse in a
1
day a tract of desert which is a week's journey for a camel. Thus
the ruined monuments and the dried-up oases and the abandoned
caravan-routes of Petra and Palmyra declare unmistakably, to the
observer who considers them to-day, a fact which is not revealed in
of technical

facilities

those lovely gardens that are still watered by the rivers of Damascus the fact that the physical environment in which the Syriac
Civilization came to birth was not unusually easy but, on the
contrary, was unusually difficult for Man to master.
:

On

Easter Island

In a different environment again, we may draw a corresponding

conclusion concerning the origins of the Polynesian Civilization 2
from the present state of Easter Island. 3 At the time of its discovery

by modern Western

was inhabited by two

races a race of flesh-and-blood and a race of stone an apparently
primitive human population of Polynesian physique, and a highly
explorers, Easter Island

accomplished population of statues. The living inhabitants in that

generation possessed neither the art of carving statues such as these
nor the science of navigating the thousand miles of open sea that
separate Easter Island from the nearest sister-island of the Polynesian Archipelago. Before its discovery by the seamen of the West,

Easter Island had been isolated from the rest of the World for an
unknown length of time. Yet its dual population of flesh and stone
testifies, just as clearly as the ruins of Palmyra or Copan, to a
vanished past which must have been
different from the
utterly

visible present.

Those human beings must have been begotten, and those figures
must have been carved, by Polynesian
navigators who once found
their

way

across the Pacific to Easter Island in

flimsy

open canoes,

1 In the
year 1930 of the Christian Era, the motor-car and the artcawm well were being
used by one great man who was not a Westerner but an Arab
KinK 'Abd-al-'Azfc AI
ba ud of the Najd-Hijazin order to reassert Man's
ascendancy over Nature in one of
forblddl
toe** of the Afrasian Steppe, namely Central Arabia. With the
A ol
^rr
?S
aid
Western technique, Ibn Sa ud was evoking, in a region which had
previously been
utilized for nothing better than the
ranges of pastoral Nomads, a new world of irrigated
oases, linked together by trans-desert routes which served the dual
purpoac of commerce
and government. The empire ruled by the Wahhabi
King from Riyad promised, if it
to
endured,
reproduce at last, in the twentieth century of the Chmtian Era, an image of
the empures which had once been ruled
by King ftarith from Petra and by Queen
Zenobia from Palmyra. (See Rihani Ameen: Ibn Sa'oud of Arabia: Hit
Peopf* and hit
Land (London 1928
Phllby, H. St. J. B.: Arabia of the Wahhabi* (London
1928, Constable), andConstable);
Arabia (London 1930, Benn).)

T^ ?^
f

$e

*nH Brown,
and

J.

P ol

^
Th M
Macmillan: ^ &^
8ted

86 ' S

,V

e sian Civilization, see further Part III.

A, below.

*f E*t*r Island (London I 9 *9, Sifton Pracd);

The Riddle of the Pacific (London
1924, Fiaher Unwin),

XAAEHA TA KAAA

13

without chart or compass and with no other motor-power than the

wind behind their tiny sails and the human muscular force that
plied their paddles. And this voyage can hardly have been an
isolated adventure which brought one boat-load of
Polynesian
pioneers to Easter Island by a stroke of luck that was not repeated;
for on that supposition it would really be
impossible to account
both for the presence of the population of statues and for the
inability of the latter-day population of human beings to carve
them. The art of sculpture must have been brought to Easter
Jsland by the pioneers, and lost on Easter Island by their descendants, together with the art of navigation. The relapse of these

from the cultural level of the Polynesian Society

elsewhere must have been due to the breaking of their contact with
distant colonists

the rest of Polynesia. On the other hand, the population of statues

is so numerous that it must have taken
many generations to produce; and during those generations the art of sculpture, which has
been lost in this latter-day age of isolation, must have been kept
alive on Easter Island by continual transmarine intercourse. Taken
together, these considerations point to a previous state of affairs in
which the navigation across those thousand miles of open sea was
carried on regularly over a long period of time. Eventually, for
some reason which still remains a mystery to us, the sea, once
traversed victoriously by Man, closed in round Easter Island, as the
desert closed in round Palmyra and the forest round Copan. Yet,
here again, Nature's reassertion of her power bears testimony to the
prowess of Man in once overcoming her and thus indicates that
there were certain features of unusual difficulty in the physical
environment in which the Polynesian Civilization came to birth.
The truth thus proclaimed in unison by Past and Present on
Easter Island is, of course, in flat contradiction to the popular
Western view that the South Sea Islands are an earthly paradise
and their inhabitants children of Nature in the legendary state of
Adam and Eve before the Fall. Perhaps this view arises from a
mistaken assumption that one portion of the Polynesian environment constitutes the whole of it. The physical environment of the
Polynesian Society consists, in reality, of water as well as land:

water which presents a formidable challenge to any human beings

who propose to cross it without possessing any better means of
navigation than those, described above, which were actually the
only means at the Polynesian navigators' command. It was by
responding boldly and successfully to this challenge of the estrangby achieving, with their rudimentary means of navigation,
ing sea
the tour de force of establishing a regular maritime traffic across
that the Polynesian
waters between island and island
the

open

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

their footing on the specks of dry land which are

scattered through the vast watery wilderness of the Pacific Ocean
almost as rarely as the stars are scattered through the depths of
that these beaching-places which constitute
Even

pioneers

won

granting

Space.

such an infinitesimally small fraction of the Polynesian environment do offer an earthly paradise to any human beings who may
succeed in reaching them, it must be borne in mind that the
after hazarding
Polynesians reached them by their own exertions,
their lives upon the waters, whereas the Adam and Eve of the
of Eden by the act
Syriac Mythology were placed in the Garden

of their creator, and did not begin either to exert their minds and
bodies or to hazard their lives until they had been driven out of the
1
Garden, and kept out of it, by the angel with the flaming sword.
It is possible that, in the environment where the Polynesian
Civilization came to birth, there was an untoward degree of sharpness in the contrast between the difficulty of the first ordeal which

had to be passed and the ease of the conditions of life with which the
successful response to this first challenge was rewarded. The toils
and dangers of Polynesian navigation on the Pacific were so formidable and the sweets of repose on the islands were so alluring
that the children may well have been tempted to abandon that
great Oceanic world of land and water which their fathers had
opened up for them, in order to sink back each on the island
into a life
which he had inherited in virtue of his father's efforts
of primitive ease and isolation. That seems to have been the
history of the decline and fall of the Polynesian Civilization on
Easter Island the island which had to be won and held at the price
:

of the longest sea-passage of all. The colonists of Easter Island

must have been the flower of the Polynesian pioneers and the
virtue that was in them not only carried them across a thousand
miles of open sea 2 but availed them
before it went out of them
;

to

commemorate

their achievement for ever

distant journey's end,

some

by

creating, at their

of the finest masterpieces ever pro-

duced by Polynesian art. The history of the Polynesian Civilization

on Easter Island may supply the clue to the history of the Polynesian Civilization as a whole. That is a problem which will
demand our notice again hereafter. 3 In this place we are simply
concerned to point out that the popular Western view of the
PolyFor the significance of this myth of the Garden and the FaM, sec above, II, C (ii) ()
vol.i,pp 290-3.
2
The nearest land to Easter now inhabited, with the exception of Pitcairn Inland,
is in the Gambia Islands, about
1,200 miles to the westward; the little coral patch of
Ducie Island, which lies between the two, is nearly 900 miles from Easter, and hn no
*

i,

dwellers.'
p. 292.)
s It is

(Routledge, S.: The Mystery of Easter Island

touched upon again in Part

III.

A,

vol. iu,

(London 1919,

below.

Sifton Praed),

XAAEIIA TA KAAA
nesian environment is mistaken and to explain how
and the explanation turns out to be very simple.

15
it

has arisen

The Western

observers who have given it currency have only had eyes for the
land and have ignored the sea which covers all but a fraction of the
area over which the Polynesian Civilization once ranged. Pre-

sumably they would not have ignored

they had had to traverse

it themselves in the craft of the Polynesian navigators, instead of
travelling, as they have done, as passengers in modern Western
ocean-going liners, leaving the responsibility of navigation to be
borne by professional Western navigators with the assistance of

compass and
In

New

it if

chart.

England

Before closing this review of reversions to a state of Nature, the

one somewhat
writer may permit himself to cite two instances
which happen
out of the way and the other exceedingly obvious
to have come within his own personal observation.
I was once travelling in a rural part of the State of Connecticut
a not
in New England, when I came across a deserted village
uncommon spectacle, so I was told, in this section of the United
States, yet a spectacle, nevertheless, which is inevitably surprising
and even disconcerting to a European in America. This particular
had evidently been laid out much
it was called Town Hill
village
like other New England villages, still inhabited, in some of the more
of the same state through which I had already passed
on my journey that very day. For some two centuries, perhaps,
Town Hill had stood with its plank-built Georgian Church in the

fertile districts

middle of the village green, and with the houses round the church,
and with the orchards beyond the houses, and with the corn-fields
the church still
stretching away beyond the fruit-trees. In 1925
stood (it was being kept in repair by the State Archaeological
had vanished (though
Society as an ancient monument) the houses
their former positions could still be traced by the remnants of their
had been swallowed
foundations) the fruit-trees had gone wild and
faded
up in the resurgent undergrowth. As for the fields, they had
away altogether into the rocks and scrub of the barren hill-side.
to play about
Lingering on the spot and allowing my thoughts
the strange sights here presented to me, I marvelled first at an
in this year
apparent paradox. Within the hundred years ending
had wrested from Nature the
1925, those vanished New Englanders
whole breadth of a continent. In these few generations they had
on the Atlantic slope,
spread from the spot where I was standing,
to the shores of the Pacific. Yet at the same time they had suffered
;

Nature to recapture from them

this village in the heart

of their

THE RANGE OF "CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

16

a village which their forefathers had founded almost as

soon as they had set foot on American soil a village where, for
'the Winning of the West', the
perhaps two hundred years before
be established as
ascendancy of Man over Nature had seemed to
These were my first thoughts
securely as in any village in Europe.
but on second thoughts I began to understand the significance of
what I was looking at. The rapidity, the thoroughness, the abandon
with which Nature had reasserted her dominion over the site of
Town Hill as soon as Man had relaxed his grip, surely gave the

homeland

measure of the exertions which Man had formerly made, first to

Those
to hold it.
capture this position from Nature and then
exertions must have been extreme ; and, when one came to think of
as the energy which the breaking-in of
it, only an energy as intense
New England had called into play could have been sufficient for
the Herculean labour of breaking-in a whole continent. Thus, so
far from 'the Winning of the West' making the loss of Town Hill
inexplicable, the truth was that, in the loss of Town Hill, the secret
of 'the Winning of the West* was laid bare. The portent of this
of
village in Connecticut, deserted to-day, explained the miracle
those great

cities in

Ohio and

Illinois

and Colorado and California

which had sprung into existence overnight. In this hard environment of New England, an apprenticeship had been served for the
hard task of building the United States. When the apprentice
had felt himself fully trained in nerve and muscle and skill, he had
simply left the place which had been his training-ground and had
gone to the place where he was to do his work in life. The desertion
of Town Hill was not a paradox after all it was of one piece with
the great human enterprise which had founded and peopled Cincinnati and Chicago and Denver and San Francisco.
;

On

the

Roman Campagna

Similar

considerations resolve the apparent paradox in the

present state of the Roman Campagna. It is beside the point to
marvel, with Livy, that an innumerable multitude of yeoman-

warriors should formerly have subsisted in a

region which in his
1
as
in
a
was
of
wilderness
barren gray fell and feverish
ours,
day,
* In
when
the
writer
of
this
revisited
1931,
the Roman Campagna after an
Study
f

interval of

twenty years, he found that this statement required qualification. In xo.

the
student who made the pilgrimage of the Via Appia Antica found himself
walking through
a wilderness almost from the moment when he
passed beyond the City walls through
the Porta San Sebastiano till the moment when he
approached the outflkirta of Albino.
When he repeated the pilgrimage in 1931, he found that, in the interval, Man had bmi
busily reasserting his mastery over the whole stretch of country that lies between Rome
and the CasteUi Romani. The Via Appia Antica itself was
unchanged (being carefully
preserved, like the church at Town Hill, by archaeological piety) ; but there wae now no
point along its course where the wayfarer was out of sight of modern motor-roadH,
aerodromes, wireless-masts and
more impressive than all thesenewly cultivated
nelds. The tension of human energy on the Roman
Campagna is now beginning to n*e

XAAEHA TA KAAA

17

green swamp where the only surviving vestiges of human habita1

tion were the frail straw huts of a few miserable
It is
shepherds.
more apposite to reflect that this latter-day wilderness has reproduced the pristine state of the forbidding
which was once

landscape
transformed by Latin or Volscian pioneers into a cultivated and
populous countryside and that the energy generated in the process
of breaking-in this narrow plot of dour Italian soil was the
energy
which afterwards conquered the World in a radius extending from
the Campagna to Britain and Egypt, and from the Alban Hills to
the Atlas and the Caucasus. 2 If an energy which sufficed, in its
diffusion, to build the Roman Empire was first generated and concentrated within the limits of the Campagna, this indicates the
degree of human effort involved in first conquering the Campagna
from the wilderness and then maintaining it against reversion. Is
it any wonder that the cradle of the Roman Commonwealth did
;

when

the body politic which this cradle

had nurtured eventually turned its energies outwards over all the
kingdoms of the Earth ? Surely it would have been more surprising
if the Campagna had still continued to yield increase to the Roman
husbandman and recruits to the Roman drill-sergeant in those
latter days when the Roman Army was
guarding the frontiers of the
Empire, and tilling theprala legionum, far away on the fringe of the
Afrasian Steppe and on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube ?
have now passed under review a number of sites in the
American and Asiatic Tropics, in the Afrasian Steppe, in the
Pacific Archipelago, in North America, in the Mediterranean
which have reverted to their pristine state of Nature after having
been the scene of signal human achievements that are now commemorated by deserted ruins. In this array, there is the utmost
diversity both in the character of the local physical environment
and in the shape of the yoke which Man has once laid upon it; yet
all these sites agree in bearing unanimous witness to one essential
condition of successful human activity
revert to

its

pristine state

We

Nur
Der

der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben

3
taglich sie erobern muss.

Even when the efforts of the pioneers have succeeded in conquering some position from Nature, the conquered ground has to be
the War of
again for the first time since the end of the third century B.C., when, during
Hannibal, it began its great decline towards the zero point at which it has stood throughout the first nineteen centuries of the Christian Era.
*
'Innumerabilem multitudinem liberorum capitum in eis fuisse locis quae mine, vix
seminario militum exiguo rehcto, servitia Romana ab solitudine vindicant* (Livy,
Book VI, ch. 12). Compare the allusions in Horace, Epistles, Book I, Ep. xi, 11. 7-8 and 30.
a This is the theme of Professor Tenney Frank in The Economic JERstory of the Roman
Republic (and edition, Baltimore 1927, Johns Hopkins University Press).
3
Faust, 11. 11575-6, quoted above in vol. i on p. 277.
II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

on the part of the pioneers' successors,

The fields of Egypt
against Nature's unremitting counter-attacks.
or the gardens of Damascus, which seem at first sight to yield their
1
are really
fruits automatically to any one who scratches the soil,
only maintained as 'going concerns' by constant and strenuous
labour. How much greater, then, must have been the labour which
it cost the fathers of the Egyptiac and the Syriac Civilization
to bring the Land of Egypt and the Ghutah of Damascus into
existence out of the primeval jungle-swamp and the primeval
desert? Perhaps we may now consider that we have proved the
proposition which we first took for granted. It seems evident that
the conditions offered to Man by the environments that have been
the birth-places of civilizations have been not unusually easy but
held,

by unremitting

unusually
Perfida

efforts

difficult.

Capua

Having studied the character of certain environments which have

actually been the scene of the geneses of civilizations or of other
signal human achievements, and having found empirically that the
conditions which they have offered to Man have been not easy but
rather the contrary, let us pass on to a complementary study. Let
us examine certain other environments in which the conditions
offered to Man have in fact been easy, and study the effect on
human life which such environments have produced. Jn attempting this study, we must distinguish between two different situations.
The first is one in which people are introduced into an eafcy
environment after having lived in some difficult environment of one
of the kinds that we have examined above. The second situation is
that of people in an easy environment who have never, so far as
is known, been
exposed to any other environment since their
pre-human ancestors became men. In other words, we have to
distinguish between the respective effects of exposure to an easy
environment upon Mankind in process of civilization and
upon
Primitive Man. Let us deal with the two situations
separately, in
this order, and let us once more follow the
empirical method of
which
we
have
so
far.
inquiry
employed
Let us begin with a classic
example of an easy environment
which is suggested by the last
example of a difficult environment
that has occupied our attention. In Classical
Italy, Rome found her
antithesis in Capua
another great and famous city whose destinies
were as different from those of Rome as her
The
surroundings.

This seems to be the philosophy of Brazil, to

judge by the following amiable saying
which is reported to be current among the Brazilians 'For
twelve hours in the day we do
our worst with the country; but for the other twelve hours we
sleep, and then God and
the country put things right again!'
:

XAAEHA TA KAAA

19

Capuan Campagna was as kindly to Man as the Roman Campagna

was dour x and while the Romans went forth from their forbidding
country to conquer one neighbour after another, the Campanians
sat in their smiling country and allowed one neighbour after
;

another to conquer them. From her last conquerors, the Samnites

of the Abruzzi, Capua was delivered, at her own invitation, by the
intervention of Rome herself; and then, at the most critical moment
of the most critical war in Roman history, on the morrow of the
Battle of Cannae, Capua repaid Rome by opening her gates to
Hannibal, in the hope of recovering her freedom by exchanging one
z As far
as Capua was concerned, the futility of
patron for another,
this hope was written large in her previous history but for Hannibal, in his war against the first city of Italy, the defection of the
second city of Italy from Rome's side to his looked like a gain which
was quite beyond question. In fact, Hannibal and his Roman
;

opponents were of one mind in regarding Capua's change of sides

as being the principal immediate consequence of the Battle of
Cannae and perhaps the decisive event in the war. Hannibal

responded to the Campanians' overtures by repairing to Capua and

taking up his winter-quarters there
whereupon something hapfalsified
which
everybody's expectations. A winter spent in
pened
Capua demoralized the troops who had just annihilated the greatest
Roman army that had ever taken the field.
'The Carthaginian army, which [Hannibal] kept under cover there [in
Capua] for the greater part of the winter, had been long and thoroughly
hardened against all the ills that can afflict Mankind but when it came
to the good things of this life, the troops lacked both familiarity and
experience. Accordingly these heroes who had resisted the utmost
assaults of adversity were undone by an excess of prosperity and enjoyment; and they fell headlong, because their long abstinence made them
plunge in head-over-ears. The round of sleeping, drinking, eating,
whoring, bathing and taking their ease became sweeter to them as each
passing day confirmed the habit, until they became so enervated by it,
body and soul, that their safety came to rest in the prestige of their past
victories rather than in the present strength of their right arms. It was
;

1 The name
Campagna, which clings to-day to the cradle of the Roman Commonwealth in the lowlands between the left bank of the Tiber and the Alban Hills, originally
belonged (in its Latin spelling 'Campania') to the lowlands surrounding Capua, through
which the Volturnus flows on its way from the Abruzzi to the sea, just north of Naples.
The name was extended from the gates of Naples to the gates of Rome by Augustus, to
and the name has
designate one of the 'regions* into which he re-mapped Roman Italy;
persisted in a territory to which it was thus artificially applied, after having died out in
the territory where it was indigenous.
2 It is
noteworthy that while Capua, after Cannae, betrayed Rome who had fought
the Samnites on her account, the Samnites, who had been fought and conquered by
Rome on account of Capua, remained loyal to Rome, with the single exception of the
south-easternmost canton of the former Samnite Confederation, the Hirpini. The
loyalty of the Samnites to the Romans during the Hannibalic War was as remarkable as
that of the Sikhs to the British during the Indian Mutiny.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

20

the opinion of military experts that, in allowing them to come to this

committed a still greater fault than in failing to
pass, their commander
march on Rome immediately after the Battle of Cannae. It might be
Cannae had merely postponed the hour
argued that his dilatoriness after
whereas his error at Capua had deprived him of the
of final
victory,

war

strength to win the

at

all.'

was never committed by the Roman

Government to the end of its days. When Rome gave up the conexercised by the laborious husbandry of her Camscript army
the World, in order to
pagna with which she had conquered
under the guard of an army of professionals,
place her conquests
she did not make the mistake of stationing this new model army in
Hannibal's

fatal

error

Capua or even in any of those delectable places along the Riviera

where the spoilt children of our modern Western Society take up
their winter-quarters nowadays. She took care that the soldiers of
the Empire should be tempered by an environment which was not
less severe than that which had produced the redoubtable soldiers
of the Republic. The legionaries who were no longer to be exercised
as yeomen in the Campagna by keeping its marshes in drainage and
its fells under the plough were now stationed along the Rhine and
the Danube among the Transalpine forests and rains and frosts,
to be exercised by this new challenge from Physical Nature for
North-European barbarians. The
avoidance of Hannibal's error by Augustus prolonged the life of the
Roman Empire by some four hundred years. 3
Augustus clearly divined the incompatibility between military
efficiency and an easy environment, and he set himself to reform
the spoilt and insubordinate soldiery which he inherited from the
civil wars by banishing it to guard the frontiers on the bleaker side
of the Alps. While the great Roman statesman was carrying this
difficult policy through,, was he ever confirmed in his resolution
by
any reminiscences of the Greek literature in which he had been
their border warfare with the

educated?

The

which governed the military policy of Augustus

had been made the subject of a fable by the Greek historian Herodotus four centuries earlier. The fable was celebrated, since the
great Greek writer had given it prominence by telling it as the tail4
piece of his work; and the fable was also apt, since it was told by
i

Livy,

The

principle

Book XXIII,

ch. 18.

Rivieraconstituting, as it did at the time, the principal overland route

between Italy and Transalpine Europe would have offered * convenient station for
the Imperial forces from a purely
geographico-stratcgical point of view.
3 Of course even toe
statesmanship of an Augustus was only able to delay the doom
of Rome without being able permanently to avert it. For the eventual transference
of the
military and political power in the Roman Empire from the hands of the Romans themselves to the hands of the Transalpine
barbarians, see IL
(v), pp. 164-5, below.
4
Herodotus, Book IX, ch. 122.

XAAEIIA TA KAAA

zi

a military people who once upon a time

Herodotus of the Persians
had performed a feat which had afterwards proved to be beyond
the genius of Hannibal and had barely been achieved by the staying-

power of the Romans the

:

universal state.

feat of establishing,

by force of arms, a

As Herodotus

the story, it was a Persian grandee

Artembares, in the generation of the conquest,
c

who

first

tells

named

suggested to his Persian fellow-countrymen the proposition

which they adopted and laid before Cyrus, to the following effect:
"Now that Zeus has put down Astyages from his seat and has given
the dominion to the Persians as a nation and to you, Sire, as an individual,
why should we not emigrate from the confined and rocky territory which
we at present possess, and occupy a better? There are many near at
hand and many more at a distance, of which we have only to take our
choice in order to make a greater impression on the World than we make
as it is. This is a natural policy for an imperial people, and we shall
never have a finer opportunity of realising it than now, when our Empire
is established over vast populations and over the entire continent of
'

Asia/'

who had

and had not been impressed, told his

petitioners to do as they wished, but he qualified his advice by telling
them in the same breath to prepare their minds for exchanging positions
with their present subjects. Soft countries, he informed them, invariably
breed soft men, and it is impossible for one and the same country to
to
produce splendid crops and good soldiers. The Persians capitulated
the superior intelligence of Cyrus, confessed their error, abandoned
their proposition, and elected to live as an imperial people in a rough
nation 's
country rather than to cultivate the lowlands as some other
'Cyrus,

listened

slaves.' 2
universal state had taken the form of a Persian Empire. Whether the
universal state should take the form of a Carthaginian Empire or a
Hellenic
coming
Roman Empire was the real issue of the Hannibalic War,
omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu
horrida contrcmuere sub altis aethens oris,
in dubioque fuere utrorum ad regna cadendum
omnibus humams esset terraque marique.
(Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Book III, 11. 834-7.)
a Whatever the historical value of this fable may be, it is certainly an historical fact
the modern province of Pars and the ancient homeland
that the rough country of Persis
of 'the Persians' in the original narrower sense of a name which was afterwards extended
continued, unlike Latium, to be a breedingto cover all the kindred peoples of Iran
lasted but even after its fall. More than
its
as
so
not
for
soldiers
empire
long
only
ground
the
of
Sve centuries after the overthrow
Empire of the Achaemenidae by Alexander the
the
armies of Cyrus produced, in the Empire ot
bred
had
which
the
Great,
country
contended on equal terms with Rome and
which
the Sasanidae. a new military power
almost anticipated the Arabs in expelling an intrusive Hellenism from its last footholds
Thus.the Persians in
in the Syriac World (see I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 75-6, above).
New
the
Englanders. They managed to
their day, did better than either the Romans or
make use of their high energies in a great feat of expansion without at the same time
whose confines those high energies had
losing their grip upon the rough country within
the
been generated. Though the Persian soldiers of the Great King served their time,
hometheir
and
as
Anatolia,
afield
as
far
Egypt
garrisons of the Achaememan Empire,
or of Latin
steads in the highlands of Pars did not go the way of Town Hill, Connecticut,
His
smirched
Alexander
vain
that
in
was
it
so
And
1.
Ulubrae (Juvenal, Satires, x,
102).
*

The Symc

22

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

The Temptations of Odysseus

This fable of the Persians' Choice,
bal's

Army

at

Capua,

signifies

Hannithat when human beings who have

like the true story of

been living under pressure are set at ease, their energies are not
released but are rather relaxed by this pleasurable change in their
conditions of life. The same conception appears in a work of
classical literature that is older and more famous than the histories
of Herodotus and Livy. It is the theme of those four books of the
1
Odyssey in which the hero tells Alcinous the story of his wanderings
from the day when he sailed with his companions from Troy to
the day when he was washed up, the sole survivor, on the shores of
Calypso's island.

In that long series of adventures, it is not when he is encounterrunning the gauntlet of the
ing his difficulties and dangers
Laestrygons or confronting the Cyclops or making the passage
between Scylla and Charybdis that Odysseus comes nearest to
failure in his struggle to make his way home to Ithaca.
Rather,
these ordeals speed him on his course towards the goal of his
endeavours by calling his faculties of audacity and nimblcncss of
wit and endurance and ingenuity into action. 2 He comes nearest to
failure when the resolution to persevere on the difficult and dangerous course towards the journey's end has to compete with the
attractions of an assured and immediate ease.
Thus, when the three companions whom he sent out on a reconnaissance into the land of the lotus-eaters fell in with the inhabitants,
'the lotus-eaters did not bethink them to do our
companions to death,
but gave them of the lotus to taste. And which soever of them did eat
that honey-sweet fruit, he no longer had the will to bring back tidings
nor in any wise to return; but their will was to remain there with the
lotus-eaters, feeding on lotus, and to think no more of the homeward
voyage. So I took them to the ships weeping, under duress, and in the
hollow ships I dragged them under the benches and bound them there.
And then I bade the rest of my companions come aboard the swift ships
glory by burning the Great King's palace at Persepolis. The atony fields and bleak
pastures amid which the ruined palace stood (and stands to-day) did not eeane to breed
warriors. Alexander himself was so deeply impressed
by the military virtue* of the
Imperial People whom he had just overthrown that he enlisted the defeated I 'cmanii in
his own army on equal terms with his victorious Macedonians, I lad I lorodotiM lived
a century later than he did, and carried his narrative of the secular conflict between the
Synac and Hellenic worlds down to the close of Alexander's dramatic contribution to
the story, he might have capped his fable with a
prophecy (in hia ironic vein) that the
rough country which had bred soldiers for Cyrus and soldiers for Alexander would
continue to bear these formidable crops so
long as the Persian peasant remained on hi*
homestead to sow the dragon's-tooth seed,
*
Odyssey Books IX-XII.
k
3
*EvQa> St Trora) i
,

0awroto,

</>&ovs

oMvavres

ratpov$.
(Odyssey, IX,

11,

62-3 and 565-6.)

XAAEIJA TA KAAA
with

speed, lest any

the lotus.' 1
of
eating
all

Again,

come

to

when

man

23

should lose thought of the voyage

half his ship's

company accepted

home by

Circe's invitation

into her parlour,

them in and gave them benches and chairs to sit on and mixed
them cheese and barley and yellow honey in Pramnean wine; and
among the food she sprinkled baneful drugs, to make them utterly
forget their native land. And then when she had given it to them and
they had drunk it up, straightway she smote them with her staff and
penned them in pig-styes. And, lo, they had the heads of swine and the
voice and the bristles, yea and the body thereof, 2 albeit their under3
standing was steadfast as aforetime.'
'she led

for

needed not only Odysseus's human sword but Hermes' divine

herb to rescue the poor fools from Circe's black magic.
Thereafter, Odysseus himself would have gone deliberately to
his death, in the Sirens' clutches, when the enchantment of their
singing fell upon his ears, had he not beforehand stopped his companions' ears with wax and made them bind him hand and foot to
the mast and enjoined upon them only to multiply his bonds if he
It

4
besought them to release him.
Perhaps the hero is least heroic when, shipwrecked and alone,
he is washed up on Calypso's island and is kindly entreated by the
Goddess 5 a fairer than Penelope 6 who takes him to dwell with
her in her earthly paradise 7 and promises him an immortality of per8 He finds salvation when the
petual youth.
nymph ceases to please
him when he begins to pass his nights as an unwilling lover in her
willing arms and his days sitting on the sea-shore (as he is shown
at his first appearance in the poem) with his eyes never dry of tears
and his life ebbing away in his longing for home. 9 This revolt, in

the eighth year of a passive captivity, 10 against a state of melancholy

ease in which he might have continued for evermore, is the inward
release which has its external counterpart in the intercession of
Athene before the throne of Zeus and in the liberating mission
of Hermes. 11 When Calypso pleads with him, at the last moment,
to remain,
1

"Lady Goddess, be not wroth with me

know
r

Odysseus answers

that the prudent Penelope

Od. IX,

effect

11.

92-102.

An historical

upon the Polynesian

is

for this. I, even I, know it all

not to be compared with thee, in
:

analogue to this legendary incident is the soporific

on the South Sea Islands.

navigators of the sweets of repose

(See pp. 13-15, above)

*
3
*

7
8
10

The Republic, 3693-3720,

Plato's description of 'the City of Swine*
Part II. B, vol. i, p. 193, footnote i.
cited above
<
Od. XII, 11. 39-54 and 153-200.
Od. X. U. 233-40.

Compare

which

is

Od. Vh, 11. 255-7.

See the beautiful description of
Od. V, 1. 209, and VII, 1. 257.
Od. VII, 11. 259-61.

* Od. V,

it,

as

Hermes saw

it,

in Od. V,

11. 211-18.
63-74,
Od. V, 11. 151-8.
Od. V, U. 1-148.
11.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

24

face to face. She is a mortal woman, while thou art

figure nor in stature,
deathless and ageless. Yet none the less I long and pray daily to reach
returning. Yea, and if some God
home and to behold the day of
For I have in
it.
shall wreck me in the wine-faced sea, I will endure

my

my

Already have I
breast a spirit well schooled in enduring sorrows.
wave and war.
of
suffered full many, and have borne the bufferings
>x
I care not if this other blow be added unto those."

my

and
Odysseus speaks these words, he is his clear-sighted
not even Poseidon's final
indomitable self again; and nothing
can prevent him from
stroke of malice, which the hero foresees
knows
as he
already from the
reaching Ithaca now. Moreover,
mouth of Teiresias' ghost, he will not rest on his oars, even when
he has regained his home and slain Penelope's suitors. Another
bear his oar on his shoulder
journey awaits him, in which he must
and exchange the toils and perils of the sea for those of the land. 2

When

The Flesh Pots of Egypt

This motif"in the Hellenic story of Odysseus' return from Troy to
Ithaca appears, in a variant form, in the Syriac story of the Chosen
People's exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. The attraction
which undermines the resolution of the Israelites during their
wanderings in the wilderness is not the present delight of a Lotus
Land or a Calypso's Isle, but a hankering after the flesh pots of

Egypt, which may perhaps be theirs again to-morrow if only they

turn back now. They have no sooner crossed the sea dry-shod, and
seen Pharaoh and his host perish in the returning waters, than they
begin to murmur in the wilderness against Moses and Aaron :
3

God we had died by the hand of the Lord in

when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did cat

'Would

to

the

Land of

bread to the
us
forth
wilderness
to
into
this
kill
this whole
brought
4
.
assembly with hunger.
'Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill
us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 5
,
'Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did
eat in Egypt freely
the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the
onions and the garlic
but now our soul is dried away: there is nothing
at all beside this manna before our eyes.' 6
Egypt,

full; for ye have

Even when they have crossed the wilderness as sSafely as they had
crossed the sea, and stand at last on the threshold of Canaan, their

XAAEHA TA KAAA

25

back to Egypt as they listen to the evil report of their

their sight of the Sons of Anak, the children of the
spies
giants,
in whose presence the spies had seemed and felt like
grasshoppers.
thoughts

'And

fly

the congregation

and cried; and the

the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto
them: "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would
God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord
brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our
children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into
all

people wept that night.

lifted

And

up

their voice

all

And they said one to another: "Let us make a captain and

us return into Egypt." J1

Egypt?"
let

The Chosen People

are unable to enter into their inheritance until

haunting and enervating recollection of the flesh pots has been

effaced; and it is not effaced until forty years of purgatory
spent
in wandering over the face of the wilderness which they have just
put behind them in one straight and rapid trek have brought

this

the older generation to the grave and the younger generation to

manhood. 2
The Doasyoulikes
These passages from myth and history surely demonstrate,
between them, that when people are translated whether in 'real
life* or in imagination
from conditions of pressure into conditions
of ease, the effect upon their behaviour is demoralizing. It may
perhaps be retorted that this is a truism, and that we might have
spared ourselves the trouble of demonstrating the fact and not
have overlooked the obvious explanation. The ill effect, it may
be argued, is a consequence of the process of transition and not a
consequence of the condition in which the transition results, 'You
infer,

from the

illustrations

which you have put before

us, that

conditions of ease are inimical to civilization in themselves.

You

might as well argue that a full stomach is inimical to health on the

ground that a heavy meal has been known to prove fatal to a
starving man. You know very well that the proper treatment for
starvation is neither to fill the patient's empty stomach at one
but to
sitting nor to keep him at starvation point in perpetuity,
of
nourishment
amount
re-accustom him to taking a normal
by
the
of
effect
The
disastrous
his
ration
heavy
gradually.
increasing
meal upon the health of the starving man was due not to any inherent
fault in the quantity of the full ration, but solely to the rash abruptness with which it was administered.' In order to meet this
*

Numbers
Numbers

above.

xvi. 1-4.
xiv. a6-3S-

On

this

point, see also

II.

(ii)

(b) 2, vol.

i,

pp. 334-5i

26

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

turn to the second of the two situations which

we have distinguished above the situation of people in an easy
environment who have never, so far as is known, been exposed to
ancestors became
any other environment since their pre-human
men. In this case, the factor of transition is eliminated and we are
enabled to study the effect of easy conditions in the absolute.
Here is an authentic picture of it from Nyasaland, as seen by a
Western observer, nearly half a century ago, in the early days of
'the opening-up of Africa':
criticism,

we must

'Hidden away in these endless forests, like birds' nests in a wood, in

terror of one another, and of their common foe, the slaver, are small
native villages; and here in his virgin simplicity dwells Primaeval Man,
without clothes, without civilisation, without learning, without religion
the genuine child of Nature, thoughtless, careless, and contented.
This man is apparently quite happy; he has practically no wants. One
stick, pointed, makes him a spear; two sticks rubbed together make him
a fire; fifty sticks tied together make him a house. The bark he peels
from them makes his clothes; the fruits which hang on them form his
food. It is perfectly astonishing, when one thinks of it, what Nature can
do for the animal-man, to see with what small capital after all a human
being can get through the World. I once saw an African buried. Accordand he was
ing to the custom of his tribe, his entire earthly possessions
an average commoner were buried with him. Into the grave, after the
body, was lowered the dead man's pipe, then a rough knife, then a
mud bowl, and last his bow and arrows the bowstring cut through the
middle, a touching symbol that its work was done. That was all. Four
items, as an auctioneer would say, were the whole belongings for half a
century of this human being. No man knows what a man is till he has
seen what a man can be without, and be withal a man. That is to say, no
man knows how great Man is till he has seen how small he has been once.
'The African is often blamed for being lazy, but it is a misuse of words.
He does not need to work; with so bountiful a Nature round him it
would be gratuitous to work. And his indolence, therefore, as it is
called, is just as much a part of himself as his flat nose, and as little
blameworthy as slowness in a tortoise. The fact is, Africa is a nation of
the unemployed.
'This completeness, however, will be a sad drawback to
development.
Already it is found difficult to create new wants and when labour is
required, and you have already paid your man a yard of calico and a
string of beads, you have nothing in your possession to bribe him to
another hand's turn. Nothing almost that you have would be the
slightest use to him.
*A fine-looking people, quiet and domestic, their
life-history from the
cradle to the grave is of the utmost
Too
ill armed to hunt,
simplicity.
they live all but exclusively on a vegetable diet. A small part of the year
they depend, like the monkeys, upon wild fruits and herbs; but the
staple food is a small tasteless millet-seed which they grow in gardens,
;

XAAEHA TA KAAA

27
Twice a

crush in a mortar, and stir with water into a thick porridge.

day, nearly all the year round, each man stuffs himself with this coarse
and tasteless dough, shovelling it into his mouth in handfuls, and consuming at a sitting a pile the size of an ant-heap. His one occupation is to
grow this millet, and his gardening is a curiosity. Selecting a spot in the
forest, he climbs a tree, and with a small home-made axe lops off the
branches one by one. He then wades through the litter to the next tree,
and hacks it to pieces also, leaving the trunk standing erect. Upon all
the trees within a circle of thirty or forty yards' diameter his axe works
similar havoc, till the ground stands breast-high in leaves and branches.
Next, the whole is set on fire and burnt to ashes. Then, when the first
rains moisten the hard ground and wash the fertile chemical constituents
of the ash into the soil, he attacks it with his hoe, drops in a few handfuls of millet, and the year's work is over. But a few weeks off and on
are required for these operations, and he may go to sleep till the rains are
over, assured of a crop which never fails, which is never poor, and which
will last him till the rains return again.
'Between the acts he does nothing but lounge and sleep ; his wife, or
wives, are the millers and bakers; they work hard to prepare his food,
and are rewarded by having to take their own meals apart, for no African
would ever demean himself by eating with a woman. I have tried to
think of something else that these people habitually do, but their

vacuous

life

leaves nothing

more

to

tell.'

This piece of first-hand testimony to the Sthos and behaviour of

Marx in an easy environment has been chosen for quotation here
because of the remarkable sharpness of vision and depth of insight
which the witness displays ; but of course his evidence does not
stand alone. It could be supported, if that were necessary, by other
modern Western evidence, ranging in Time over the four centuries
that have elapsed since Western Man first began to take the whole
World for his field, and ranging in Space over all parts of the
World where he has found primitive societies still surviving. 2
the opposite extremity of Tropical Africa, we could cite
a life
similar descriptions of the life of the Dinka and the Shilluk
which exhibits to-day, like some specimen in 'a living museum', the
circumstances in which the fathers of the Egyptiac Civilization
were living before they responded to the challenge of desiccation
and plunged into the jungle-swamp of the Lower Nile Valley. 3

From

Drummoncl, H.: Tropical Africa (London 1888, Hodder and Stoughton), pp. 55-6
and 58-9.
a jfor a
survey and classification of primitive societies that have come under the direct
observation of our modern Western explorers and anthropologists, see The Material
Culture and Social Institutions of the Simpler Peoples: an essay in correlation, by Hobhouse, L. T., Wheeler, G. C.. and Ginsberg, M. (London 1915, Chapman and Hall,
reprinted in 1930), which has been cited above in I. C (m) (a\ vol. i, p. 147, footnote a
has
3 Sec the
description of the social institutions of the Dinka and the Shilluk which
been quoted above in II. C (ii) (6) 2, vol. i, on p. 313, from Childe, V. G.: The Most
Ancient East (London 1928, Kegan Paul), pp. 10-1 1. For a fuller account, see Seligman,
C. G. and B. Z.: Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London 1932, Routledge).
*

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

28

Again, this Tropical African evidence could be reinforced by

1
records of primitive tropical life in distant longitudes in Amazonia
or in Melanesia. 2 All this modern Western evidence is readily
accessible; and for this reason we will hold it in reserve and will
close our review of the effect of easy conditions in the absolute (as
distinct from the effect of easy conditions succeeding to difficult
:

conditions, which we have examined already) by citing a description of Hellenic authorship, albeit this description is only given at
second hand and has manifestly been enriched by certain legendary

Here is Herodotus's account of a people called the Argipin

paei who were to be found at the farthest extremity, as it stood
his day, of the trade-route leading from the Greek settlements on

touches.

the north coast of the Black Sea north-eastward into the interior of
the great Eurasian Steppe 3
'Up to this point, the whole of the country that I have described is
plain-land with a deep soil, but from this point onwards it is broken
and
country and the soil is stony. If you cross this broken country
of
come
the
foothills
mounthere is a great stretch of it
to
lofty
you
:

and these foothills are inhabited by people who are all bald from
birth, men and women alike. They also have snub noses and bushy
beards, and a language of their own, though they wear Scythian clothes;
and they live off trees. The tree off which they live is called the Ponticum.
It is just about the size of a fig-tree, and it bears a fruit the size of a bean,
with a stone in it. When the fruit ripens, they bag it in cloths, and then
it exudes a thick black substance which is called
aschy. This they either
suck or drink mixed with milk, while from the thick dregs they make
cakes and use these for solid food. They have not much livestock
because there is not any good pastureland there but every man lives
under his tree. In the winter he covers in the tree with a tent of close
white felt; in the summer he lives under the tree in the open. These
people are not ill-treated by anybody. They are left in peace because
they are regarded as holy, and they possess no arms. Their neighbours
bring their disputes to them for arbitration, and anyone who takes
4
asylum with them is safe from injury.'
tains

This Hellenic description of primitive life in Central Asia and

the foregoing Western description of primitive life in Central
Africa give, between them, a clear picture of how Man does live
where he has never been exposed to a challenge either from the
1
For the absence of response to any stimulus from the environment in the Amazon
Basin (except, of course, on its Andean rim), see the allusions in Means, P. A : Ancient
Civilisations of the Andes (New York 1931, Scribner), p. 2$, qualified by Nordenskitfld'a
observations which have been cited in II. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, on p. 259, footnote i, above.
2 See
Malinowski, B.: Argonauts of the Pacific (London 1922, Routledge).
3 The
possibility that, a century or so before Herodotus's day, this trade-route may
have extended right across the Eurasian Steppe, from the north-eastern extremity of the
Hellenic World to the north-western extremity of the Sinic World, is examined
by
Hudson, G. F.,
Europe and China: A Survey of their Relations from the Earliest Times
to 1800 (London 1931, Edward Arnold), ch. i
'Beyond the North Wind'.
*
Herodotus, Book IV, ch. 23. See also chs. 24 and 25.

XAAEHA TA KAAA
human environment.

29

from the
He vegetates, quite
comfortably and happily, in a state of lethargy; and, to all appearance, he might continue to vegetate in perpetuity, were he not on
the point of being exposed to a formidable challenge from the
physical or

human environment

at last.

This imminent challenge is portended in the very fact that his

manner of life has come under the observation of one of those
energetic

societies

that

are

in

of civilization;

process

for

his

encounter with these importunate strangers will not end in a

mere platonic acquaintance. They observe in order to take action;
and, when once the explorer has crossed the primitive's threshold,
the trader and the missionary and the soldier are sure to follow in
quick succession at the explorer's heels. The primitive's isolation
terminated, his peace is broken, his comfort and happiness are
replaced by a consciousness of pressure and a feeling of anxiety.
In fact, he is confronted by a challenge under which it is impossible
is

for his lethargy to persist. The lethargy may pass into death or it
may pass into action, but on either alternative it will pass away.
The possible alternative outcomes of collisions between primitive

and

societies in process of civilization are examined in

later parts of this Study. 1 In this place we are concerned solely with
the state in which the primitive societies are found existing at the

societies

moment when the

contact takes place. This state makes a profound impression upon the intruders because there is an extreme
between the Sthos
contrast between the two colliding ways of life
first

of people who have been sheltered from challenges hitherto by an

easy environment and the fethos of people who have been challenged
and have responded victoriously. This impression works so powerfully upon the intruders' emotions and imagination that it issues in

mythology.

The

the fable of the

have quoted already apropos of the effect

classic Hellenic exposition of

Lotus Eaters, which we

the

myth

is

upon Odysseus' companions. A classic Western

of the
exposition is 'The History of the Great and Famous Nation
Doasyoulikes, who came away from the Country of Hardwork
2

of the lotus fruit

because they wanted to play on the Jews' Harp all day long'. In
Charles Kingsley's fable, an improvident people who persist in

an earthly paradise overshadowed

pay the penalty by degenerating
into Tropical African gorillas. This is the complement to another
Western fable which we have dealt with in an earlier chapter: 3
living a life of primitive ease in
by the eruptive crater of Etna,

*
In a general way they are examined in Part VIII; the special case of the collisions
between primitive societies and our Western Civilization is further examined in
in

j.

VTT

See pp. 22-3, above.

See

II,

(ii)

(a) I, vol.

i,

pp. 216-21, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

30

'The History of that Virtuous and Provident Creature Nordic

Man, who followed the retreating Ice Cap because he wanted to
harden his Moral Fibre.' In the Western version of the myth,
which these two fables convey between them, the clear vision of the
we find in the verse
primitive ethos in an easy environment, which
of Homer and the prose of Herodotus, is obscured by the mists of
self-righteousness and self-interest. Yet these blemishes are irrelevant to our present purpose and, if we consent for the moment to
;

ignore them, we may perceive, underlying them, the philosophic

truth which we have studied in the Syriac fable of the Garden of
The same philosophic truth is mirrored in the fable of the
Eden.
1

the objective view of the primitive ethos in

2
easy circumstances is found, when we abstract it, to be substanand the Hellenic
tially the same in the minds of the Western
observer. Alike, they see that the primitive environment presents
the sharpest contrast to their own; they see that there is a corresponding contrast between the Sthos which has been induced in the

Lotus Eaters.

In

fact,

1
See II. C (li) () i, vol. i, pp. 290-3, above, for a discussion of the fable of the
Garden of Eden and for the relevant quotations from Hesiod, Plato, Virgil, Origen,
Volney, Huntington, and Myres. It will be noticed that the three passages quoted from
the works of Western scholars are simply expurgated versions of the myth which the

Man renders so crudely.

the purely intellectual perception of
versions of the myth, the objective view
the facts
has to be disentangled from certain aesthetic and emotional concomitants.
The difference between the turns which these concomitants take in the Western and
Hellenic versions throws some interesting side-lights upon the difference of outlook
which distinguishes the Hellenic from our Western Civilization. In the fable of the Lotus
Eaters, the innocence and happiness of the primitive fithos in easy circumstances are
appreciated so keenly that the Hellenic observer
appreciated at their full aesthetic value
feels a lively fear of being captivated by this charming way of life and succumbing to its
lethargy and so being beguiled into abandoning those practical ends on the pursuit of
which his own civilization depends. The Hellene does not want to remake the Lotus
his own image. Indeed, the idea never occurs to him. He is content to avoid
Eater
turning into a Lotus Eater himself, and even on this point he is in two minds. As he
sails away, he looks back on Lotus Land with a certain wistful regret.
'Perhaps', he
thinks, *I might have been happier as a Lotus Eater after alll' The Western observer's
attitude is amusingly different. As a rule, he is blind to the beauty of the life which he
is observing.
Malinowski's appreciation of the artistic and ritual and social refinements with which 'the Argonauts of the Pacific' occupy their vast leisure is the exception
which proves the rule. The typical Western observer dismisses such primitive occupations as child's-play and triviality and waste of time. He is quite immune from the
possibility of being captivated by thern himself, and there is no shadow of this fear on
his mind. The emotion which he feels is disgust
disgust that the Doasyoulikes should
have played truant from the Country of Hardwork; disgust that the Shilluk and the
Dinka should have evaded the challenge of desiccation to which the virtuous Egyptian
has responded by becoming a fallah. In the Westerner's view, this weak-minded
malingering is so contemptible that it must bring the wretches who indulge in it to a
bad end.
Doasyoulike, left to himself, is bound to degenerate into a gorilla. It follows
that it is the duty of Nordic Man to intervene,
order to save the Doasyoulike, in spite
of himself, from his natural and well-deserved fate. Fortunately,
and self-interest
duty;
coincide, for the Doasyoulike can only be saved by being remade in Nordic Man's
image, and the first step in this transfiguration is to make him serve an apprenticeship aa
Nordic Man's hewer of wood and drawer of water. Nordic Man can do with any amount
of cheap labour. *And we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to His purpose* (Romans viii. 28). Fortified
in his resolution by this oracle from the Sortes Biblicae, Nordic Man takes the poor
in the various roles of taskmaster, salesman, and
Doasyoulike firmly in hand and
arouses him from his lethargy, with ultimate consequences which are not yet
evangelist
fable of
z

In

Nordic

all

apparent but which

may

prove to be surprising.

XAAEIIA TA KAAA

31

by his easy circumstances and the ethos which has been

induced by a strenuous life in themselves they see that the primitive will not and cannot ever join them in running the race of
primitive

civilization 1 so long as

an easy environment continues to shield

him from the necessity; and finally they see that they themselves,
if they succumb to this insidious environment, will cease to run
with patience the race that is set before them.
II.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

A Plan of Operations
We

have

now

perhaps established decisively the truth that ease

is inimical to civilization.
The results of our investigation up to
this point appear to warrant the proposition that, the greater the
ease of the environment, the weaker the stimulus towards civilization which that environment administers to Man. Can we now
proceed one step farther? Are we warranted in formulating, in
equally simple and abstract terms, the inverse proposition that the
stimulus towards civilization grows stronger in proportion as the

environment grows more difficult? Let us put this second proposition to the test by our now well-tried empirical method. Let us
review first the evidence in favour of the proposition and then the
evidence against it, and see what inference emerges. Evidence
indicating that the difficulty and the stimulus of an environment are
apt to increase^ aripassu is not hard to lay hands upon. Rather, we
are likely to be embarrassed by the wealth of illustrations that leap
to the mind. Most of these illustrations present themselves in the
form of comparisons. Let us begin by sorting out our illustrations
into two groups in which the points of comparison relate to the
physical environment and to the human environment respectively;
and let us first consider the physical group. It subdivides itself into
two categories: comparisons between the respective stimulating
effects of physical environments which present different degrees of
difficulty; and comparisons between the respective stimulating
effects of old ground and new ground, apart from the intrinsic
nature of the terrain.

The Yellow River and

the Yangtse

Let us compare, for example, the different degrees of difficulty

which are presented respectively by the lower valleys of the Yellow
River and the Yangtse
starting in either case from the point
where the river issues from its last gorge in order to flow the rest of
its

way through open country to the

The primeval state of the lower
*

For

this

metaphor, see

II.

(ii)

coast.

section of the Yellow River

(a) r, vol.

i,

pp. 333~4> above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

32

Valley is vividly described in a passage from the work of a dis1

tinguished Sinologist which has been quoted in an earlier chapter.
When Man first took this watery chaos in hand, the river was not
navigable at any season; in the winter it was either frozen or
choked with floating ice ; the melting of this ice in the spring produced devastating annual floods which repeatedly changed the
river's course by carving out new channels, while the old channels
turned into jungle-covered swamps. This was the state of the
river as Man first found it and to-day, when some three or four
thousand years of human effort have drained the swamps and have
confined the main channel of the river between embankments, the
devastating action of the floods has not been eliminated. The
;

have merely been reduced in frequency

only to ravage
the works of Man with greater violence and over a wider range
when they do occur.
The flood-waters of the Yellow River which, in the state of
Nature, used to spread themselves annually over the plains, now in
normal years travel harmlessly between embankments from the
exit of the gorges to the sea but, like Gods restrained by human
visitations

impiety from

lust to
satisfying
passing, prepare for a future revenge.

their

Man

these floods, in
pile up trouble for

destroy,

They

in the literal sense by depositing the silt which they have

brought down from the mountains as they slacken speed and move

on sluggishly over the flat river-bed to which, in their lower course,

the embankments now confine them. Year by year, as the deposits
accumulate, the level of this river-bed rises above the level of the
fields on either side year by year, the people raise the
height of
the embankments, to prevent the flood-waters from spilling over.
Yet at last there comes a point at which the level of the river-bed is
so high above the level of the surrounding country that no heightening or thickening of the embankments avails any longer to lend
them the requisite resisting power; and then, in some year of high
flood, the imprisoned river savagely bursts its banks and engulfs
a whole countryside, obliterating the fields and sweeping away the
buildings and drowning the live stock and the population. Since
the history of the region began to be recorded, these periodic
inundations have occurred innumerable times; and on several
occasions the river has changed its course completely. At the
present moment it debouches into the Gulf of Chihli near the midpoint of its south-western coast, almost opposite the tip of the
Liaotung Peninsula; in the prehistoric age it debouched at the
north-west corner of the Gulf through the bed in which the Paiho
River flows to-day ;* but during the intervening three or four
;

See

II.

(a) (b) 2, vol.

i,

pp. 318-20, above.

Op.

cit, loc. cit.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

33

has played greater vagaries than this. Less than a

century ago it was not debouching into the Gulf of Chihli at all.
It was only the inundation of 1852 that diverted the river back into
the Gulf from a channel debouching, south of the
Shantung
Peninsula, direct into the Yellow Sea; and this was not the first
time on record that the Yellow River had switched its course from
one side of the Shantung Peninsula to the other.
remarkable contrast to this is presented by the lower valley of
the Yangtse. The Lower Yangtse drains a basin where the land is
potentially no less fertile than the northern plains and where
agriculture has not to labour, as it labours there, under the twofold
scourge of flood and drought. The Yangtse sometimes emulates his
northern brother in inundating his human neighbours' fields, 1 but
he never refuses to bear their craft upon his waters. 2
Such are the respective characters of the two great rivers, as they
were in the beginning and as they are to-day. And where did the
Sinic Civilization come to birth ? On the banks of the gracious
Yangtse Kiang or on those of the demonic Hwang Ho ? We know
that it came to birth on the banks of the Hwang Ho, and that the
Lower Yangtse Valley was not brought within the ambit of the
Sinic Society until after the Sinic Civilization had broken down
and had entered upon a Time of Troubles which was the first
millennia

it

phase of

its

decline.

Chimu and Valparaiso

Again, on what section of the Pacific Coast of South America
did the Andean Civilization come to birth ? Not on that Central
I A week after these sentences had been written in the summer of the
year 1931, the
Yangtse produced, in the region of Hankow, a flood which ; in scale and in destructiveness, is perhaps unsurpassed in the annals of the Yellow River itself. Nevertheless, the
writer believes that on a long view, extending back to the local beginnings of recorded
history in the middle of the last millennium B c., the contrast here drawn between the
characters displayed by the Yangtse and the Yellow River in their respective relations to
Man is borne out on the whole by the facts.
* In the
year 1926 of the Christian Era, 'the Yangtse was navigable* in *the summer
months, when the discharge of the river was augmented by the summer rainfall and by
the melting of the snows in Tibet ... as far up as Hankow (about 570 miles from its
mouth) . . for large ocean-going steamers' ; and this point had been known to be reached
.

foreign battleship of as much as 12,000 tons displacement. . . . Under the same

conditions, steamers of ordinary construction, though not of heavy tonnage, could
navigate likewise the next section of 367 nautical miles from Hankow to Ichang. The
section of 400 nautical miles above this, between Ichang and Chungking, had been
opened since 1919 to steam-navigation by specially constructed river-steamers of light
draft and with engines sufficiently powerful to mount the rapids. This achievement had
the most populous Chinese province (with an
brought steam-navigation into Szechuan
estimated population of 50,000,000). For native junks, the passage of the rapids in the
Ichang-Chungking section was a slow, laborious, and dangerous operation. On the
other hand, they were able to ascend the river as far as Suifu, which was about 1,548
nautical miles from the mouth, or even as far as Pingshan, about 33 miles further,
whereas Chungking, the limit of river-steamer navigation, was about 1,337 miles from
the mouth, and Ichang, the limit of navigation for small steamers of ordinary build,
about 037.' (Toynbee, A. J.: Survey of International Affairs, 1926 (London 1928,
Milford), pp. 302-3.)

by

'a

II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

34

Chilean section which enjoys such a generous rainfall that the

in the
Valparaiso
Spanish explorers saluted an earthly paradise
first of these green valleys which rejoiced their eyes after their long
journey down the parched brown coast which they had to traverse
farther north. The Andean Civilization came to birth on the North
described in a passage which has
Peruvian section of the coast
1
where Man has to fight a perpetual battle
been quoted above
with the desert and must water his fields, which the sky will not
water for him, by his own hard labour the spade-work of digging
and maintaining innumerable irrigation-channels. Chile was not
brought within the ambit of the Andean Society until the Andean
Civilization had reached an advanced stage in its decline. Chile
was one of the last conquests of the Empire of the Incas the
Andean universal state and even then the Incas were content to
leave the greater part of fertile Chile beyond their southern frontier, which they drew along the line of the River Maule. The Incas
were at home on the Andean Plateau, to which the coastal civiliza:

tion

had spread

at

an early date in

its

growth.

And on what section

of the plateau did this civilization secure its first foothold ? Neither
on the section which was nearest to its primary home in the coastal
valleys of Chimu, nor yet on the northerly section (in the territory
of the modern Latin Republic of Colombia) where the altitudes arc
comparatively low and the valleys open and the climate genial.
The ruins of Tiahuanaco testify that the first foothold of civilizaa
tion on the plateau was in the upland basin of Lake Titicaca
region which was hardly nearer to the primary home of the Andean
Civilization in one direction than the upper basin of the Magdalena

River was in the other, while in

soil

and climate

it

was manifestly

less inviting. 2

Lowlands and Highlands in Guatemala

Again, which face of Central America was
of the

Not the

it

saw the birth

where a relatively

that

Pacific face,
high altitude co-operates with a relatively low rainfall to liberate
a strip of country from the pall of tropical forest which smothers

Mayan

Civilization?

the Atlantic lowlands. 3

See II. C (ii) (b) 2, vol. i, pp. 322-3, above.
See the description of the Titicaca Basin which has been quoted in vol. i, p. 322,
above. For the birth-places of the Andean Civilization, and the course of its expansion
during its growth, see II. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 120-3, above.
3 For the contrast in climate and
vegetation between the Pacific Highlands and the
Atlantic Lowlands of Central America, see Huntington, E.: The Climatic Factor at
illustrated in And America
(Washington 1914, Carnegie Institution of Washington,
Publication No. 192), chs. xvii and xviii. For the almost exact inversion of the relative
degrees of civilization that have been prevalent respectively in the several different
geographical zones of Central America in post-Columbian times, as contrasted with the
situation
the age in which the Mayan Civilization came to birth and grew to maturity,
see op. cit., pp. 218-19. For Dr. Huntington's hypothesis that this shift of social zones
is to be accounted for by a shift of climatic
zones, see II.
(vii), Annex I, below.
1

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

35

When

the Spaniards arrived, they took to these

open healthy
Central American uplands overlooking the Pacific
an earthly
in
the
as
as
took
to
Chilean
paradise
Tropics
decidedly
they
at
far
the
of
their
in
the
New
World.
Valparaiso
extremity
conquests
was
It
here that they planted their Central American settlements,
working their way up the Pacific coast from the point where they
bestrode the Isthmus of Panama as far as the present frontier
between Guatemala and Mexico. On the other hand, they made no
serious attempt to occupy the Atlantic coast of Central America
between their settlements on the Isthmus and their settlements in
Yucatan. The tropical forest in the hinterland deterred them,
though this coast lay almost within sight of their island possessions
in the Antilles and though the opening up of coast and hinterland
would have shortened appreciably the length of the journey between
the Spanish settlements on the Pacific face of Central America and
the mother country. In spite of that, the Spaniards abandoned
J
this Atlantic coast to indigenous Indians and to English
interlopers,
and were content to leave the communications between Spain and
the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast to follow the roundabout route across the Isthmus. The situation has not changed
substantially since the Spanish Empire in the New World has disappeared. Though five out of the six republics which are its 'successor-states' in Central America possess Atlantic seaboards, the
best-developed districts and the principal centres of population are
still to be found on the uplands overlooking the Pacific where the
Spaniards first made themselves at home. In 1933, there were still
no more than two lines of railway spanning Central America from
coast to coast between the Isthmus of Panama and the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec; and in 1927 the capital city of at least one republic
was still cut off from its Atlantic littoral by a barrier of virgin and
2

virtually impassable jungle.

The contrast between the eagerness and promptness with which
the Spaniards took to the open highlands overlooking the Pacific
coast of Central America and the almost complete failure of the

colonists

and

their successors, over a period of

more than four

1 An
unsuccessful attempt to found a Puritan colony on the islet of Santa Catalina or
Providence, off 'the Mosquito Coast', was made in A.D. 1630 (see Newton, A. P.: The
Colonising Activities of the English Puritans (New Haven 1914, Yale University Press)),
and the British Government continued to claim a protectorate over the Mosquito Indians
After the acquisition of Jamaica, the English secured a footing on another
till 1855.
section of this coast which has now become the Crown Colony of British Honduras.
z The North American
statesman, Mr. Henry cL. Stimson, when he was at Managua,
the capital of Nicaragua, in 1927, found that the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua was
distant from us much less than 200 miles as the crow flies, but it takes longer to get there
than to go from
New" York to* San Francisco, and the only way of going was by sea
_
through the Panama Canal, unless one was villing to travel on foot through the .jungle
a canoe*. (Stimson, H. L.: American Policy in
or to follow down a tropical river
^

Nicaragua (New York 1927, Scribner), p. 47.)

36

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

open up the Atlantic coast with its hinterland of

tropical forest, gives some measure of the difference in the degree
of the difficulty which these two neighbouring but very diverse
centuries,

to

to break
regions oppose respectively to Man when he attempts
them in. Where was it, then, that the oldest indigenous civilization
of the New World came to birth? On the Central American
know that the
uplands or in the Central American forests ?
Mayan Civilization came to birth in the forests and that, even when
it spread, its line of expansion was not southwards into the adjoining uplands but northwards into the Yucatan Peninsula and on to

We

the Mexican Plateau. It was in those quarters, and not on the

southern uplands, that the two later civilizations which were
related to the Mayan Civilization arose in their turn. Apparently
the easily accessible Central American uplands were never occupied
by any civilization until the Spaniards came to take possession of
them from the other side of the Atlantic. The indigenous civilizations were as persistent in shunning the uplands as the intrusive
civilization has been in shunning the forests. Then were the Mayas
blind and the Spaniards sharp-sighted ?
have only to compare
the respective achievements in Central America of the Mayan
Civilization on the one hand and of the Spanish version of our
Western Civilization on the other in order to realize that the forests
in which the Mayan Civilization came to birth surpass in two
respects the uplands on which our Western Civilization has been
propagated. They not only surpass them in the degree of the

We

difficulty which they oppose to human efforts ; they surpass

no less in the degree of the response which they have evoked

human

beings

who have made

them
from

the effort to grapple with them. 1

The Aegean Coasts and their Continental Hinterlands

Again, the unusual difficulty presented by the Aegean area, in
which the Minoan and the Hellenic Civilization successively came
to birth, becomes fully apparent only when the area is viewed in
geographical setting, against the foil provided by the regions
round about. I can testify to this from personal experience. On
my first visit to the Aegean, I came and went by sea; and, as
always, the sea- voyage had the psychological effect of fixing a great

its

mental gulf between its termini. The contrast between the physical
features of Greece and those of England was of course obvious
but on both the journey out and the journey back the abrupt transition from the one country to the other made it
impossible to
;

1 This avoidance of the

former theatre of the Mayan Civilization by the
Spanish
colonists in Central America may be compared with the avoidance of the former theatre
of the Indie Civilization in Ceylon by the Scottish and English planters. (See II.
(i),
pp. 6-7, above.) In both instances, the latter-day Western intruders chose the softer
and less stimulating option.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

37

On my

second
appreciate this obvious matter of fact imaginatively.
visit to the Aegean, I
arrived
this
I
but
time
broke
again
by sea;
stay in Athens by making three reconnaissances into regions
First I went to Smyrna and made
just outside the Aegean area.

my

expeditions from there by rail up country into the interior of

Anatolia ; next I went to Constantinople and made other expedi-

from

and then, before coming

home, I went to Salonica and made an expedition from there into
the interior of Macedonia. Finally, I returned to England by the
overland route, travelling in the same railway-carriage, without a
change, from Constantinople to Calais. Thus, in the course of this
visit, I travelled overland, out of the Aegean area into the regions
round about, in four different directions and each time, in every
direction, I found myself travelling out of country that was bare,
barren, rocky, mountainous, and broken into fragments by the
estranging sea, into country that was greener and richer and
softer
country in which mountain-ranges were replaced by
rolling hills, and sea-filled gulfs and straits by broad cultivable
tions into Anatolia

that quarter;

The

cumulative effect of these contrasts upon the

observer's imagination was very powerful. On this comparative
view, the Aegean area showed itself in its true colours as a region
of unusual difficulty, not only by contrast with England or with the
other Transalpine countries of Europe, but by contrast with every
region adjoining it. In this light, I realized the deep meaning of the
words which Herodotus puts into the mouth of the Spartan exile
DamarStus in a colloquy with the Great King Xerxes 'Hellas has a
foster-sister Poverty who never leaves her; but she has brought in
a guest in the shape of Virtue, the child of Wisdom and Law; and
1
by Virtue's aid Hellas keeps Poverty at bay and Servitude likewise.'
river-valleys.

Attica and Boeotia

Similar contrasts in the physical environment, capped by corresponding contrasts in the local variety of civilization, may be
observed in the interior of the Aegean area itself. For instance, if
one travels by train from Athens along the railway which eventually
leads, through Salonica, out of the Aegean area into the heart of

a
Europe, one passes, on the first stage of the journey, through
stretch of country which gives to Central or Western European
the train has
eyes an anticipatory glimpse of familiar scenery. After
been climbing slowly for hours round the eastern flanks of Mount
Parnes through a typical Aegean landscape of stunted pines and
to find himself
jagged limestone crags, the traveller is astonished
aiei jcore
Herodotus, Book VII, ch. 102. The Greek text is: Tfl 'JEAAaSt Trm'ij /iev
/cat
re
avo
v6pov icrxypov* TTJ
oo</>fys Karepyacrpevrj
<rtivrpo<t>6$ &m, dpen) Be CTra/oro's tori,
re Trevhjv cwra/nWrai
; 1} 'EX\a$ rtfv
i

38

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

being rattled

down

into a lowland country of gently undulating

deep-soiled ploughlands. He might imagine that he had just

crossed the Austro-German frontier on the railway between Innsbruck and Munich; the northern aspect of Parnes and Cithaeron,
which he now views at a distance across this lowland foreground,
might be the northernmost range of the Tyrolese Alps. Of course
this landscape is a 'sport'. He will not see the like again until he

has put Nish behind him some thirty-six hours later and is
descending the Lower Valley of the Morava towards the Middle
Danube; and that makes this anticipatory patch of Bavaria-inGreece so much the more striking.
What was this odd piece of country called during the lifetime of
the Hellenic Civilization? It was called Boeotia; and in Hellenic
minds the word 'Boeotian' had a quite distinctive connotation. It
stood for an fethos which was rustic, stolid, unimaginative, brutal
an ethos out of harmony with the prevailing genius of the Hellenic
culture. This discord between the Boeotian thos and Hellenism
was accentuated by the fact that just behind the range of Cithaeron,
and just round the corner of Parnes where the railway winds its way
nowadays, lay Attica 'the Hellas of Hellas': the country whose
ethos was the quintessence of Hellenism lying cheek by jowl with
the country whose Sthos affected normal Hellenic sensibilities like
a jarring note. The contrast was summed up in piquant phrases :
'Boeotian Swine' and 'Attic Salt'.
The point of interest, for the purpose of our present study, is
that this cultural contrast, which impressed itself so vividly on the
ancient Hellenic consciousness, was geographically coincident with
an equally striking contrast in the physical environment which
already existed then and which still survives to-day to impress
the passing Western railway-traveller. For Attica is 'the Hellas of
Hellas' not only in her soul but in her physique. She stands to
the other countries of the Aegean as those Aegean countries stand
to the regions around. If you approach Greece by sea from the
west and enter through the avenue of the Corinthian Gulf, you may
flatter yourself that your eye has grown accustomed to the Greek
beautiful and forbidding at once
before the view is
landscape
shut out by the banks of the Corinth Canal. Yet when your
steamer emerges from the cutting through the Isthmus to plough
Aegean waters at last, you will still be shocked, in the Saronic Gulf,
by an austerity of landscape for which the scenery on the other
side of the Isthmus has not
fully prepared you; and this austerity
attains its climax when you round the corner of Salamis and see the
land of Attica spread out before your eyes up to the summits of
Pentelicus and Hymettus.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

In Attica, with her abnormally light and stony
called denudation,

was

soil,

39
the process

which Boeotia has escaped down

to this day,
already complete in Plato's time, as witness the Attic philo-

sopher's

own

graphic account of

it.

'Contemporary Attica may accurately be described as a mere relic of

the original country, as I shall proceed to explain. In configuration,
Attica consists entirely of a long peninsula protruding from the mass of
the continent into the sea, and the surrounding marine basin is known
to shelve steeply round the whole coastline. In consequence of the
successive violent deluges which have occurred within the past 9,000
years (the interval which separates our own times from the period with
which we are dealing), there has been a constant movement of soil away
from the high altitudes; and, owing to the shelving relief of the coast,
this soil, instead of laying down alluvium, as it does elsewhere, to any
appreciable extent, has been perpetually deposited in the deep sea
round the periphery of the country or, in other words, lost; so that
Attica has undergone the process observable in small islands, and what
remains of her substance is like the skeleton of a body emaciated by
disease, as compared with her original relief. All the rich, soft soil has
moulted away, leaving a country of skin and bones. At the period,
however, with which we are dealing, when Attica was still intact, what
are now her mountains were lofty, soil-clad hills her so-called shingleplains of the present day were full of rich soil; and her mountains were
a fact of which there are still visible traces. There
heavily afforested
are mountains in Attica which can now keep nothing but bees, but which
were clothed, not so very long ago, with fine trees producing timber
suitable for roofing the largest buildings; the roofs hewn from this
timber are still in existence. There were also many lofty cultivated
trees, while the country produced boundless pasture for cattle. The
annual supply of rainfall was not lost, as it is at present, through being
allowed to flow over the denuded surface into the sea, but was received
by the country, in all its abundance, into her bosom, where she stored it
in her impervious potter's earth and so was able to discharge the drainage
of the heights into the hollows in the form of springs and rivers with an
abundant volume and a wide territorial distribution. The shrines that
;

survive to the present day on the sites of extinct water-supplies are

evidence for the correctness of my present hypothesis.' 1

did the Athenians do with their poor country when she

lost the buxomness of her Boeotian youth ? We know that they did
the things which made Athens 'the education of Hellas'. 2 When
the pastures of Attica dried up and her ploughlands wasted away,
her people turned from the common pursuits of stock-breeding and

What

grain-growing to devices that were

in

all

their

own

olive-cultivation

A-D.
response to the challenge of the Attic environment has been touched
upon, by anticipation, in I. B (u), vol. i, pp. 24-5, above.
*

Plato, Critias,

The Athenian

40

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

The gracious tree of Athena

exploitation of the subsoil.
on the bare rock. Yet
flourishes
not only keeps alive but
cannot live by olive-oil alone. To make a living from his olivefor Scythian grain.
groves, the Athenian must exchange Attic oil
To place his oil on the Scythian market, he must pack it in jars
and ship it overseas necessities which called into existence the
1
Attic potteries and the Attic merchant-marine, and also the Attic
silver-mines, since international trade demands a money economy
and thus stimulates an exploration of the subsoil for precious
and the

Man

metals as well as for potter's earth. Finally, all these things torequired
gether
exports, industries, merchant ships, and money
the protection and defrayed the upkeep of a navy. Thus the
denudation of their soil in Attica stimulated the Athenians to
acquire the command of the sea from one end of the Aegean to the
other, and beyond ; and therewith the riches which they had lost
were recovered a hundredfold. This effect of Athenian sea-power
In the year 1921, the writer of this Study visited a modern Orthodox Christian
community in the Aegean area in whose life the olive was then^playing the same part
as it had once played in Hellenic Attica. This modern Greek city-state of Ayvalyq (a
Turkish word meaning 'Quince Orchard') or Kydhonie's (the equivalent in modern
Greek) was situated on a little peninsula projecting into the Aegean from the west coast
of Anatolia opposite the Greek island of Mitylene (the ancient Lesbos). The soil of this
which was as thin and stony and rock-ribbed as the soil of Attica itself
peninsula
made a striking impression of barrenness upon the traveller who came to Ayvalyq overland from the fertile valley of the Caicus and travelled on to Mitylene with its smiling
gardens and vineyards just across the water. From the citadel of Peigamum, which
commands the Caicus Valley, Macedonian Attalids and Turkish Qara 'Osmanoghlus
had sometimes extended their dominions over half Asia Minor. Yet ban en Ayvalyq had
acquired an empire too an overseas empire extracted from the olive. The Greek settlers
from all parts of the Aegean who had founded Ayvalyq during the last quarter of the
eighteenth century of the Christian Era had turned the barren soil, on which their lot was
cast, into a goodly heritage by planting it with two million phvc tices; and, & century and
a half later, these plantations were supporting a community of thirty or forty thousand
people in a high degree of civilization. At Ayvalyq, the olive was at the bottom of everything. The community purchased its food supplies and other necessities of life by
exporting the produce of the olive in various foims as fruit, as oil, and as soap (which
1

in their own factories). The waste product of the oilskins and stones and dregs
was used as fuel for driving the oil-presses and
presses
the soap-factories in Ayvalyq town, and also for driving the steamers (owned by local
capitalists and manned by local crews) which carried the produce of the olive-groves
from Ayvalycj port as far afield as Russia and America, in order to fetch the community's
foreign requirements as return cargoes. This olive-economy enabled Ayvalyq not only
to live but to live well. This community of fruit-growers and manufacturers and merchants and shippers did not neglect the things of the spirit. Its chief
glory was an
academy which was one of the first places in which the literature of ancient Hellas and
the science of the modern West had been studied and taught together in the modern
Greek tongue.
This remarkable community at Ayvalyq was both brought into existence and wiped
out of existence by the process of Westernization, as this
remorselessly worked itself
out in the Near East. After being twice destroyed and twice refounded in the struggle
for the heritage of the old Ottoman Empire
a struggle which the ferment of Westernization set on foot between the Greeks and the Turks and the other Near Eastern peoples
Greek Ayvalyq was finally evacuated, this time presumably for good, in the great Greek
exodus from Anatolia after the d&dcle of the Greek Army in igzz.
To-day, modern
Greek Ayvalyq belongs to the past no less than ancient Greek Athens. The present
writer's glimpse of the
place in 1921, on the eve of its extinction, has enabled him to
understand by analogy the part played in ancient Attic life by the miraculous tree which
was venerated and loved as the gift of Attica's tutelary Goddess.

they manufactured out of the

oil

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

41

has been vividly painted by an anonymous Athenian writer of the

generation before Plato's
'Bad harvests due to atmospheric conditions fall with crushing weight
upon even the strongest land-powers, while sea-powers surmount them
easily. Bad harvests are never of world-wide incidence, and therefore
the masters of the sea are always able to draw
upon regions in which the
harvest has been abundant. If I may venture to descend to minor details,
I may add that the command of the sea has enabled the Athenians . .
:

to

discover

refinements

of luxury through their extensive foreign

relations.
Every delicacy of Sicily, Italy, Cyprus, Egypt, Lydia, the
Black Sea, the Peloponnese or any other country has been accumulated
on a single spot in virtue of the command of the sea. . . . Moreover, the
Athenians are the only nation, Hellenic or non-Hellenic, that is in a

position to accumulate wealth. If a country happens to be rich in shiptimber, what market is there for it, if it fails to conciliate the masters of
the sea? Similarly, if a country happens to be rich in iron, copper or

what market is there for it, if it fails to find

quarter? But these are precisely the raw materials
struct my ships
timber coming from one source,
from
a
third, hemp from a fourth, flax from
copper

favour in the same

out of which I coniron from a second,
a fifth. In addition,
will
refuse
to
licence
the
of
these
commodities
to other
they
export
markets or
those who choose to oppose our wishes shall be excluded
from the sea! Thus I, who produce not one of these commodities in my
home territory, possess them all by way of the sea, while no other
1
country possesses any two of them simultaneously.'
flax,

beyond the dream of the

Boeotian ploughman whose deep-soiled fields had never failed him
were merely the economic foundation for a political and artistic
and intellectual culture which made Athens 'the education of
Hellas' and 'Attic Salt' the antithesis of Boeotian animality. On
the political plane, the Athenian industrial and sea-faring populaBut these

riches of the sea

riches

tion constituted the electorate of the Athenian democracy, while

Attic trade and sea-power provided the framework for that inter-

national association of

Aegean

city-states

which took shape in the

Delian League under Athenian auspices. On the artistic plane,

the prosperity of the Attic potteries gave the Attic vase-painter the
opportunity which he used for creating a new form of beauty; and
the extinction of the Attic forests compelled Athenian architects to
translate their work from the medium of timber into the medium
of stone and so led them on to create the Parthenon instead of
resting

content

commonplace log-house which Man

2 On the
every place where tall trees grow.

with

has always built in

the

1
Pseudo-Xenophon: AtfienaiSn Pohteia ('Athenian Institutions'), edited by Kalinka,
E. (Leipzig 1913, Teubner), ch. 2.
2 The translation of a
commonplace architecture in timber into a unprecedentedly
and unsurpassedly noble architecture in stone -was of course not an exclusively Attic
achievement. It was the general consequence of a general exhaustion of timber-supplies

42

THE RANGE OF CHAIXENGE-AND-RESPONSE

intellectual

observer
quote our anonymous Athenian

to

plane,

once again,
with every language spoken under the Sun has
enabled the Athenians to select this expression from that language and
in contrast to other Hellenes,
this from the other, with the result that
life and costume
as a
rule, preserve their local dialect,
'their familiarity

who,

general
the Athenians rejoice in a cosmopolitan civilization for which the entire
1
Hellenic and non-Hellenic worlds have been laid under contribution.
This Attic culture did, indeed, gather the whole of the contemporary
Hellenic culture into itself, in order to transmit it to posterity

seasoned with the 'Attic

Salt'

and ennobled by the Attic impress.

and Boeotia
The contrast between Boeotia and Attica is not the only illustration of our theme which the Aegean area has bequeathed from the
Boeotia had another
age when it was the theatre of Hellenic history.
divided
neighbour, Chalcis a closer neighbour than Athens, though
from Boeotia by the sea. The city of Chalcis stood on the Euboean
so narrow that at times they have been spanned
shore of the Straits
by a bridge which run between the Island of Euboea and the
Boeotian mainland. In the Euboean hinterland of Chalcis City,
and within the frontiers of the Chalcidian State, lay the Lelantine
Plain. And this Chalcidian campagna was not like the 'bad lands'
of Latium or Attica. It was as good a ploughland as Boeotia itself;
ChalcidicS

for the Chalcidians, the Lelanor fortunately

but, unfortunately
tine Plain was narrow and hence, while the Boeotian farmers were
still finding land for the plough, enough and to spare, without
;

brought up
looking beyond their borders, the Chalcidian farmers
the
flanks
of
the
on
their
island,
towering
short,
by
precipitous
for
fresh
search
to
were
stimulated
of
ploughlands
peak
Dirphys
abroad. The salt waters of the Euripus Straits, which washed the
foot of their city walls, offered the Chalcidians a sea-passage for
their voyages of exploration.
Sailing out into the Aegean and
beyond it, they took to the land again wherever they found another
Lelantine Plain awaiting the Chalcidian plough with a native population incompetent to hold its own against the Chalcidian colonist.
Sailing north and east, they founded a new Chalcidicc on the
coasts of Thrace; sailing south and west, they founded another in
Sicily.
It was, however, on Athenian sites and in Athenian hands
that the Hellenic architecture produced its masterpieces.
may note in passing that
the absence of building timber had a profoundly stimulating effect not only upon the
Hellenic architecture but upon the Sumenc. Here, however, the effect was of a different
kind. While the Hellenic architect, in translating from timber into stone, was stimulated
to create a new beauty, the Sumeric architect, in translating from timber into brick, was
stimulated to invent a new technique. He discovered the principles of the arch and the

throughout the Aegean area.

vault.

We

0p.

cit, loc. cit.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

Of

43

which the Chalcidians performed under the

stimulus of land-shortage in Euboea is not to be compared with the
feats to which the denudation of Attica stimulated the Athenians.
While the Athenians responded to the Attic challenge by a qualitacourse, this feat

change in their economy, the Chalcidians' response to the

quantitative. They merely added field to
instead
of
field,
transforming fields into mines and olive-groves.
The agricultural life of the Chalcidian colonies, each set in its
arable plain
a Thracian Torone or a Sicilian Leontini
was a
replica of the life which had been lived in the Lelantine Plain by
the colonists' forefathers and which was still being lived there by
their cousins whose forefathers had succeeded in
staying at home.
In other words, the expansion of Chalcis differed from the expansion
of Athens in being extensive and not intensive. 1 Nevertheless,
tive

Euboean challenge was

Chalcis too, in response to a less formidable challenge, made a

mark albeit a fainter mark than the Athenian upon Hellenic
It was through those Chalcidian farmer-settlers overseas
that the barbarians of Macedonia and of Latium were drawn into
the orbit of the Hellenic Civilization and were given their first

history.

tincture of the Hellenic culture. 2

The

Chalcidians reacted, in their

degree, to the prick of Necessity's spur, while comfortable Boeotia
cared for none of these things.

Byzantium and Calchedon

The enlargement

of the area of the Hellenic World drca 725which the Chalcidians played this prominent part,
offers us some further Hellenic illustrations of our theme. Among
the barbarians who came within range of the movement and who
reacted to it by becoming converts to Hellenism instead of being
supplanted by Greek settlers, the difference, in stimulating effect,
between a hard and an easy environment is illustrated by the con-

525 B.C., in

between the careers of the two Italian city-states which arose

respectively in the Roman and in the Capuan campagna. This
contrast needs no more than a bare mention here, since we have
examined it in another connexion already 3 and we may pass on to
the celebrated illustration which is afforded by the contrast between
the two Greek colonies of Calchedon and Byzantium which were
planted respectively on the Asiatic and on the European side of the
entrance to the Bosphorus from the Sea of Marmara.
A century or so after the foundation of the two cities, the Persian

trast

1 This
point has been noted, by anticipation, in I. B (ii), vol.
taken up again in Part III. B, vol. iii, pp. 120-2, below.
2 See further III. C
(u) (6), Annex IV, vol. lii.
3 See
pp. 1 8-2 1, above.

i,

pp. 24-5, above, and

is

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

44

who had been

placed in charge of the

European hinterland of the Straits by Darius,
'made a mot which won him immortal celebrity among the Hellespontine
Greeks. At Byzantium he heard that the Calchedonians had planted
their city seventeen years earlier than the Byzantines had planted theirs
and he had no sooner heard it than he remarked: "Then the Calchedonians must have been blind men all that time." He meant that they
must have been blind to choose the worse site when the better was at

statesman Megabazus,

their disposal.' 1

Megabazus's famous observation was epigrammatic rather than

acute; for it is not so difficult to be wise after the event, and in
Megabazus *s day the respective destinies of Calchedon and Byzantium were already manifest. Calchedon was still what she had been
to begin with an ordinary Greek transmarine agricultural settlement of the kind which Chalcis and Megara and half a dozen other
agricultural communities in Old Greece had planted by the score
round the coasts of the Mediterranean and its backwaters. Meanwhile, Byzantium was already growing into one of the busiest ports
of the Hellenic World and was fairly launched on the career which
was to culminate in her becoming the ultimate capital of a Hellenic
universal state in the last phase of Hellenic history. Thus, by
Megabazus's time, any comparison between the respective advantages of the sites of Byzantium and Calchedon would naturally
turn upon their respective facilities as ports
and on this test the
eligibility of Byzantium was no doubt incomparably greater than
that of her neighbour over the water. Byzantium not only possessed
the natural harbour of the Golden Horn which had no counterpart
on the exposed and featureless section of the opposite Asiatic
coastline where Calchedon stood. More than that, the set of the
current which comes down the Bosphorus from the Black Sea into
the Sea of Marmara is in favour of any vessel trying to make the
Golden Horn from either direction,' while it is adverse to any
vessel heading for the open beach of Calchedon. 2 Thus every ship
that plies between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean has a
double incentive for passing by on the other side from Calchedon
and making Byzantium its port of call. The founders of Calchedon
would have been blind men indeed if, in face of this obvious fact,
they had deliberately chosen Calchedon in preference to Byzantium
:

as the site for a port.

In

of course, the founders of Calchedon made their

historic choice on quite a different consideration. As they
apthe
southern
entrance
to
the
on
their
proached
Bosphorus
voyage
1

reality,

Herodotus, Book IV, ch. 144.

See the detailed account of this which

is

given

by Polybius, Book IV,

chs. 43

and 44.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

45
of exploration, they looked at the landscape and chose their site
with eyes that were not blind at all, but were simply fanners* eyes
and not mariners'; and from the farmer's standpoint their choice
was admirable. They planted their city on the Bithynian Riviera:
a sheltered strip of fertile coast which seems like an enclave of
Mediterranean scenery in a more northerly clime. On this favoured
spot, the Greek farmer-prospectors who founded Calchedon settled
down to raise the crops and plant the fruit-trees which they had
always raised and planted at home. For their purpose, they could

not have chosen better; and we may be sure that this was the
judgement of the next company of Greek explorers, in search of
fresh land for their ploughs, who came this way seventeen years
later.
We may picture the founders of Byzantium cursing the
Calchedonians for their perspicacity and themselves for their
tardiness as they turned their ships' prows away from the smiling
Bithynian Riviera, now crowned by Calchedon's walls, towards the
much less inviting opposite coast of Thrace. Some Hesiodic
equivalent of the proverb that 'It is the early bird that gets the
first worm' must have often been in the Byzantines' mouths when
they tilled the soil of their little Thracian peninsula
only to see
their crops carried off systematically, year after year, by the barbarians of the hinterland.

'The Byzantine

territory is an enclave in Thrace, which marches with

the entire Byzantine land-frontier and comes down to the sea on either
side.

In consequence, the Byzantines are

afflicted

with an interminable

and insoluble war against the Thracians. Even when they make a
military effort and get the better of the Thracians for the moment, they
can never get rid of the Thracian war owing to the multitude of the
Thracian hordes and Thracian princelings. If they overthrow one

way for three others more formidable

the Byzantines give in and come to terms for
paying a stipulated tribute, they find themselves no better off. For any
concession which they make to one enemy has the direct effect of
bringing five new enemies down upon them. So they are in the toils of
this interminable and insoluble war, in which they are exposed to all
the danger of being at close quarters with a bad neighbour and all the
horror of warfare against a barbarian adversary. These, in a general
way, are the evils against which they have to struggle on land; and,
besides the ordinary evils attendant on war, they have to endure the
legendary punishment of Tantalus. They possess a first-rate soil; they
and then the barcultivate it intensively; they raise fine big crops
barians arrive on the scene to gather in and carry off the crops and
destroy what they do not take away! It is not only the loss of labour and
money and the spectacle of devastation but the fineness of the crops that

princeling, this simply clears the

than the

first.

Even

makes the business

if

heartbreaking.'
*
Polybius, Book IV,

ch. 45.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

46

Thus Byzantium was

subject, as a matter of course,

throughout

her history, to a recurrent calamity which Athens only experienced

of the Peloponnesian
during fifteen out of the twenty-eight years
1
War and Miletus only during her eleven years' war with Lydia
2

Her agriculture
in the reigns of Kings Sadyattes and Alyattes.
not
was at the mercy of an invader whom she was
strong enough to
meet in the field and who therefore had a free hand to carry off or
who
destroy her crops. After all, then, the Greek farmer-colonists
founded Calchedon were not blind men when, with both shores of
the Bosphorus to choose between, they settled on the Bithynian
Riviera and shunned the inhospitable Thracian shore; nor were
the founders of Byzantium men of vision. They simply followed in
the earlier prospectors' wake and took their leavings. However, a
vindication of the Calchedonians' perspicacity is not the true moral
of this story. The true moral is that when the Byzantines found
themselves perpetually subject, on land, to a prohibitive handicap
which the Athenians and the Milesians suffered only for a few
critical years in the whole course of their respective histories, the

Byzantines were thereby stimulated, even more powerfully than

the Athenians and the Milesians were stimulated in their less
desperate circumstances, to turn their attention from the land to
the sea and to indemnify themselves for their ruinous losses as
farmers by making handsome profits as merchants and mariners.
Under this powerful stimulus, to which the prudent Calchcdonian
farmers on the opposite shore were never exposed, the Byzantines
made the most of their straits and discovered no doubt to their

own

that *the Golden

surprise as well as to their neighbours'
Horn' was a cornucopia. The wealth and influence which Byzantium was taught by Necessity to derive from her command of the

Bosphorus are described in the second century B.C. by Polybius in

terms which recall the passage already cited 3 from an anonymous
Athenian writer of the fifth century who is describing the effects of
his own country's wider but less durable sea-power.
'The Byzantines occupy a site which, from the twin standpoints of
security and prosperity, is the most favourable of all sites in the Hellenic
World to seaward and the most unprepossessing of all to landward. To
1
During the first part of the War, the Peloponnesians invaded Attica in the years
431, 430, 428, 427, and 425 B.C. During the second part, they were in permanent
occupation of a fortified position on Attic soil, at Decelea, during the years 413-404 B.C.

inclusive.
2 See the account of this war in
Herodotus, Book I, chs. 17-22. The Lydian invaders
of Milesia practised the same form of economic warfare as the Thracian invaders of the
Byzantine territory and the Peloponnesian invaders of Attica. They destroyed or
carried off the annual crops. On the other hand, the Lydians showed less barbarity
or at any rate more enlightened self-interest
than either the Thracians or the Peloponnesians in leaving the farm-buildings, out in the countryside, intact,
3 On
pp. 41-2, above.
*

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

47

seaward, Byzantium commands the mouth of the Black Sea so absolutely that it is impossible for any merchantman to pass either in or out
against the Byzantines' will; and thus the Byzantines control all the
numerous commodities originating in the Black Sea which are in general
demand. These commodities include both necessities like the cattle
and slaves for which the hinterland of the Black Sea is notoriously a
prime source of supply, both for quantity and for quality and luxuries
like honey, wax and caviar, which the same
region provides in abundance. Moreover, the Black Sea hinterland offers a market for the
surplus of our Mediterranean products, such as olive oil and wines of
every vintage
grain being the medium of exchange in which the
balance of trade is adjusted periodically in either direction. The Hellenic
World would necessarily be debarred from all this trade completely, or
at any rate would lose all possibility of making a
profit on it, if the
Byzantines chose to give up "playing the game" and went into partnership with the Celts (or, normally, with the Thracians), or again if
Byzantium itself were simply not on the map. The Straits are so narrow
and the adjoining hordes of barbarians so formidable that in those circumstances the Black Sea would unquestionably be closed to Hellenic
navigation. As a matter of fact, the Byzantines themselves probably
draw the greatest economic profit of all from their unique position,
which enables them to export all their surplus products, and import
all that they need, both easily and
profitably, without any exertion or
At
the
same
time, many commodities which are in general
danger.
demand reach their destination through the Byzantines' agency, as has
been observed already. To this degree, the Byzantines are benefactors
of Society who fairly deserve not only gratitude but positive military
assistance, on an international basis, from the Hellenic World against the
1
standing menace of the barbarians.'

The

Byzantines were content to perform their service to Hellenic

Society without recompense so long as, on the landward side, they
2
only had to deal with their regular tormentors, the Thracians.
When, however, in the course of the third century B.C., the local
Thracians were temporarily subjugated by a migratory horde of
Celts, the Byzantines suffered heavily from this change of masters
in their hinterland. Where the Thracians had chastised them with
whips, the Celts now chastised them with scorpions. They raised
the annual ransom for the Byzantine crops to an exorbitant figure ;
and in this extremity the Byzantines met with hardly any response
when they appealed for financial assistance to the rest of the Hellenic World. Accordingly, the Byzantines were driven to raise
funds fqj ransoming their fields from the Celts by levying a toll
on all ships passing through the Bosphorus; and their action so
upset the Hellenic carrying-trade that the consequence was a war
i

Polybius,

Book IV,

ch. 38.

Polybius,

Book IV,

ch. 45-

48

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

between Byzantium and Rhodes, the leading maritime community

1
in the Hellenic World of the day.
Thus the vast divergence between the destinies of Byzantium

not explained by Megabazus's epigram. It was

not the blindness of the Calchedonians but the barbarity of the
Thracians and the Celts that made Byzantium's fortune. If the
actual founders of Byzantium had arrived first on the scene, they
would certainly have made the Calchedonians' choice and if the
actual founders of Calchedon had arrived second and had been left
no choice but to found Byzantium, they, for their part, would
of an intolerable
inevitably have been confronted by the challenge
situation on land, with the Byzantines' historic choice between
starving as landsmen or making a fortune out of the sea.

and Calchedon

is

Aegina and Argos

Another illustration of our theme from Hellenic history is the
contrast between the careers of two city-states of the Argolid:
Argos herself and Aegina. The Argives, being owners of one of the
finest arable plains in the Peloponnese, had only one idea when they
began to find their Argive plain too small for them. They set out,
land
beyond their borders but, unfortunately for themselves, they did
not look out to sea but lifted up their eyes unto the hills and coveted
what lay beyond them. Taking up the spear before labouring at
the oar, they sought their new fields in the quarter where it was
hardest to acquire them : in the territory of their Hellenic neighbours, who were spearmen too. The Chalcidians had known better
than to try conclusions with the sturdy Boeotians they had reserved
their steel for easy victories over ill-armed and ill-disciplined
Thracians and Sicels. The Argives were less prudent. Fighting
for the mastery of the Peloponnese, they collided with the Spartans,
who had responded to the same challenge in the same way, but had
faced the implications of their response by militarizing their life
from top to bottom. 2 For spearmen such as these, the Argives were
no match ; and this was the end of their city's career. She never
extricated herself from the role of being Sparta's discomfited rival
until Hellenic history came to an end.
Meanwhile, the little Argolic island of Aegina had been playing
an utterly different historical role, in conformity with the vastly
poorer physical endowment which she had received from Nature.
a bare, solitary mountain-peak
above
Aegina, raising her horn
like the Chalcidians, to take possession of additional arable
;

Polybius, Book IV, chs. 46 and 47.

For Spartan militarism, see I. B (n),

PP. 50-79* below.

vol,

i,

pp. 24-6, above, and III, A, vol.

n'i,

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

49

the waters of the Saronic Gulf within full view of Athens, was no
doubt one of those 'small islands' which were in the Athenian
1

2
philosopher's mind as signal examples of denudation at its worst.
Aegina was, in fact, an Attica in miniature ; and, under a still more
severe pressure from the physical environment than that to which
the Athenians were exposed, the Aeginetans anticipated, on a small
scale, the Athenians' achievements.
Aeginetan merchants were
the
lead
in
the activities of the Hellenic settlement at
taking
Naucratis in Egypt at a time when Athenian merchants were still
rare visitors there ; 3 and Aeginetan sculptors were carving statues
to stand in the pediments of the temple which Aeginetan architects had built for the local goddess Aphaia, half a century before
the Athenian Pheidias carved his masterpieces for the Parthenon.

Israelites, Phoenicians,

and

Philistines

If we turn now from Hellenic history to Syriac, we shall find

that the various elements of population that entered Syria, or held
their own there, at the time of the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung,

distinguished themselves relatively thereafter in close proportion to

the relative difficulty of the physical environment in the different
districts in which they happened to have made themselves at home.
In an earlier passage, 4 we have taken note of the difficulty which
an immigrant population must have found in acquiring the art of
irrigating the gardens of Damascus. Yet the Ghutah
though a
with
the
of
Eden
was
hard country compared
fabulous Garden
the choicest prize that offered itself in Syria to the incoming barbarians ; and it is therefore remarkable that, in the subsequent progress of the Syriac Civilization, it was not the Aramaean occupants
of Damascus that took the lead. Nor was the lead taken by those
other Aramaeans who settled down at Hamath to irrigate the fertile
banks of the Orontes with their water-wheels ; nor again by those
tribes of Israel who halted east of Jordan in order to fatten their
cattle on the fine pasture-lands of Gilead. 5 Most remarkable of all,
the primacy in the Syriac World was not retained by those refugees
1
'the eye-sore
Aegina was execrated to an Athenian audience as AiJ/xTj Zfctpat&o;
of the Peiraeus*
by the Athenian statesman Pericles when he was exhorting his countrymen to deal the maritime rival of Attica the knock-out blow at the culmination of a long
and bitter struggle for the command of a sea which was too narrow to be shared between
the barren island and the barren peninsula.
2 See the
quotation from Plato on p. 39, above.
3 In the time of
King Amasis of Egypt (regnabat circa 569-525 B.C.) the Aeginetans
were one of three Hellenic communities the other two being the Samians and the
that possessed separate religious precincts at Naucratis dedicated to their
Milesians
respective tutelary Gods. The other nine Hellenic communities which had a footing at
Naucratis were content to share a common precinct: the Hellenion. At this time, Athens
not only had no settlement of her own at Naucratis, but was not even one of the nine
city-states that shared in the administration of the International Settlement. (Herodotus,

Book
<

II, ch. 178.)

II.
(ii) (6) 2,

In

II

on pp. 334-S* above.

Numbers,

ch.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

So

to Syria not as barbarians but as the

Civilization and who took possession of the

from the Aegean who came

heirs of the

Minoan

:
the maritime plain
ports and cities and fields of the Shephelah
that extends from the south-western face of Mount Carmel to
the north-eastern frontier of Egypt.
In the connotation which their name has acquired, the Philis-

have fared still worse than the Boeotians. In our modern

Western vocabulary, with its echoes of Syriac and Hellenic
tradition, the word 'Boeotian' signifies nothing worse than a contines

a wilful
genital obtuseness of vision, while 'Philistine* signifies
blindness and a militant hostility towards 'the Chosen People' who
see the light.
Possibly,
deserve their bad name-

neither Philistines nor Boeotians fully

It is probable, on the whole, that they

have been misrepresented, considering that their reputation has

been at the mercy of hostile neighbours. Yet this consideration in
itself tells a tale. Why is it that the picture of these nations which
has come down to us is a picture painted by their neighbours' hands
and not by their own? It is because these neighbours and contemporaries of theirs were more active, more vocal, and more
successful than they were, and hence were better able than they
were to impress their own will and their own view upon the future.
The Athenians and Chalcidians, who were the Boeotians' neighbours, have occupied our attention already. We have taken note
of the feats accomplished by them which the Boeotians never
attempted. Let us look now at the neighbours of the Philistines,
and compare the Philistines' record with theirs.

The

1
It
Syriac Civilization has three great feats to its credit.
an
it
the
Atlantic
invented
discovered
alphabetic system of writing ;
it
a
and
arrived
at
Ocean;
particular conception of God which is
common to Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam, but
alien alike from the Egyptiac, Sumeric, Indie, and Hellenic veins of
2 Which
were the Syriac communities
religious thought and feeling.
by whom these achievements were severally contributed? The
Philistines may prove to have been the transmitters, if not the
inventors, of the elements of the Alphabet, if the conjectured
derivation of the Alphabet from some Minoan script 3 is substantiated in the future investigations of our Western archaeologists.

Pending further archaeological research, the credit for the inven1 See
I. C (i) (), vol.
pp. 82 and 102, above.
i,

And

equally alien, it would appear, from the Minoan and Hittltc veins, as far as
these are known to us. In this catalogue, the exception which proves the rule is the
conception of God which was attained by Ikhnaton (sec I. C (ii), vol. i, pp. 145-6,
above, and Part VII, below). The abortive solar monotheism of Ikhnaton has a distinctly Syriac touch; but this flash of illumination in the soul of a single individual, who
was repudiated by the society in which he happened to be born, can hardly be placed
to the credit of the Egyptiac Civilization.
3 See I. C
(i) (), vol. i, p. 102, footnote 3, above, and II.
(vii), p. 386, footnote 2, below.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

51
tion of the Alphabet must at present be left unallocated. When we
come, however, to the other two Syriac achievements, the history

a matter of common knowledge, we find that the

Philistines have no part or lot in them.
Who were those Syriac seafarers who ventured to sail the whole
length of the Mediterranean to the Pillars of Hercules and out
of which

is

Not

the Philistines, whose Minoan ancestors had been

the pioneers of long-distance seamanship in the Mediterranean. 1
In the Philistine communities of the maritime plain, the ancestral
seafaring tradition was buried, with the sowing-corn, in the furrows
of the broad ploughlands and so, when the Philistines came to feel
the need to expand, they took the same wrong turning as the
Argives took in the Peloponnese. Turning their backs on the sea,
the Philistines took up arms to conquer the arid lowlands of Beersheba and the well- watered valleys of Esdraelon and Jezreel ; and
they met the Argives' fate when, in fighting for the mastery of
Palestine, they came into conflict with still better fighters: the
tribesmen in the hill-country of Israel and Judah. The discovery
of the Atlantic was achieved not by the Philistine Lords of the
Shephelah, but by the Phoenician tenants of the rugged middle
section of the Syrian coast.
These Phoenicians were a remnant of the Canaanites the population which had been in occupation of Syria before the postMinoan Volkerwanderung descended like a human flood upon the
Country. When the neighbours and kinsmen of the Phoenicians
had been overwhelmed by the incoming Philistines and Teucrians
from the sea and Israelites and Aramaeans from the desert, the
Phoenicians had survived because their homes along the middle
section of the Syrian coast were not sufficiently inviting to attract

beyond?

the invaders.
Phoenicia, which the Philistines left alone, presents a remarkable
physical contrast to the Shephelah, in which the Philistines settled.
On this section of the coast, there is no broad plain and no gradation between plain and hill-country. Instead, the mountain-range
of Lebanon rises almost sheer out of the sea
grudging the coastdwellers any plain of their own and cutting them off from the
plains of the interior. Lebanon and Mediterranean lie in such a
close embrace that they do not even leave room between them for
road or railway. 2 The Phoenicians communicated with each other
See I. C (i) (), vol. i, p. 102, footnote
In the year 1933 there was a continuous

above.
standard-gauge railway from Haydar
Pasha, the Asiatic railway-terminus at Constantinople, all the way to Tarabulus at the
northern end of the Phoenician section of the Syrian coast; there was also a continuous
line of standard-gauge railway from Haifa, at the southern end of this section of coast, to
Cairo; but the gap between Tarabulus and Haifa remained unbridged owing to the
expense involved in the difficult engineering feat of building a standard-gauge coastal
*

4,

line of

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

52

and with the outer world by water, coastwise and of the three
the two
Tyre, Aradus, and Sidon
leading Phoenician cities
first-mentioned were not even situated on the mainland but were
perched, like gulls' nests, on rocky off-shore islands. When the
Aramaeans drifted into Syria out of the desert, they silted up
against the eastern face of Lebanon without penetrating beyond it
and when the Philistine Volkerwanderung passed that way en
route from Anatolia towards Egypt, we may presume that the ships
;

southward straight past the forbidding Phoenician coast to

the farther side of 'the Ladder of Tyre', while the ox-carts took
the inland road, to the east of Lebanon, along which the modern
sailed

from Turkey

Egypt finds himself transported

to-day. Even when the Philistines and Teucrians were flung back
from the frontier of Egypt, 1 they did not fall upon Phoenicia in
their recoil.
They fastened upon the Shephelah and made no
permanent settlements north of Mount Carmel. Thus, thanks to
Lebanon, the Phoenicians survived the Philistines' passage; and,
again thanks to Lebanon, they actually took over from their new
neighbours that Minoan tradition of long-distance navigation which
the Philistines themselves now discarded. While the Philistines
were browsing on the Shephelah like sheep in clover and were
moving inland, at their peril, in search of pastures new, the
Phoenicians, whose maritime horizon had hitherto been restricted
to the short range of the coastwise traffic between Byblos and the
railway-traveller

Delta of the Nile, 2

open

sea

to

now launched

and won a second home

out, Minoan-fashion, into the

for the Syriac Civilization in

the western basin of the Mediterranean and on the coasts of the

Ocean beyond.

Thus the maritime achievement

of the Syriac Civilization was

contributed not by the Philistines but by the Phoenicians. The
physical discovery of the Atlantic, however, is surpassed, as a feat
of human prowess, by the spiritual discovery of Monotheism and
;

achievement was contributed by a Syriac community that had

been stranded by the Volkerwanderung in a physical environment
which was still less inviting than the Phoenician coast namely, the

this

railway to link Tarabulus and Haifa together. Thus the railway-traveller who, between
London and Aleppo, had only been required to change carriages twice at the Straits of
Dover and at the Bosphorus had to change four times more in order to complete his
railway-journey to Cairo. At Horns he had to leave his through-carriage, bound for
railhead at Tarabulus, in order to proceed along the branch line leading to the inland
junction of Rayaq. At Rayaq he had to change trains from the standard-gauge railway
on to a narrow-gauge railway which earned him (by rack-and-pinion over Anti-Lebanon)
to Damascus. At Damascus he had to change again on to another narrow-gauge railway.
And finally he had to change a fourth time in order to board a train running on the
standard-gauge railway between Haifa and Cairo. These details of modern railway
geography bring out, in a striking way, the difficulty of land-traffic along the Phoenician
i
coast.
See I. C (i) (&), vol. i, pp. 93 and 100-1, above.
2 See I. C
(i) (), vol. i, p. 102, footnote 4, above.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

53

hill-country of Ephraim and Judah. This country was indeed so

in spite of its position in the heart of
extremely uninviting that
it
Syria, overlooking the high road between Egypt and Shinar
1
appears to have remained (like the rift-valley of the Jordan) a
virgin wilderness throughout the thousand years and more during
which the rest of Syria had been incorporated successively first
in the Empire of Sumer and Akkad, which was the Sumeric
universal state, and then in the Hyksos 'successor-state* of that
empire, and then in 'the New Empire' of Egypt. Apparently, this
patch of thin-soiled, forest-covered hill-country remained literally a

no-man's-land until 'the New Empire' began to lose its grip upon
Syria and the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung set in; and then, at
last, it was populated by the adventurous vanguard of the Hebrew
Nomads who had drifted into the fringes of Syria out of the North
Arabian Steppe. 2 These Hebrews were content, for the most part,
to halt in the pasture-lands east of Jordan and south of Hebron.
The hill-country beyond was the farthest bourne of their migration and here the Israelite pioneers transformed themselves from
;

Nomadic

stock-breeders into sedentary tillers of a stony ground

which they laboriously cleared of its forests 3 only to see the soil
which they had won from the trees washed away by the rains to
deepen the Philistine ploughlands on the Shephelah. The hardness of the life which has to be lived by the husbandman whose
lot is cast in this hill-country of Ephraim and Judah is conveyed in
the following passages from the report of an experienced British
investigator who, in the year 1930, observed on the spot the life of
the Israelite husbandmen's modern Arab successors. 4

'The cultivated land in the Hills varies very largely both in depth and
quality of the soil. In the valleys there are stretches of fertile land, which
will grow sesame as a summer crop. On the hillsides the soil is shallow
and infertile, and the extent of land-hunger is evident from the fact that
every available plot of soil is cultivated, even when it is so small that the
plough cannot be employed. There cultivation is carried on with the
mattock and the hoe. The harvest of such plots, even in a favourable
in general it seems doubtful whether such
year, is exceedingly small
See the quotation from Eduard Meyer in II. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, p. 257, above.
These statements likewise are made on the authority of Eduard Meyer: Geschichte
des Altertums, vol. ii (i), 2nd edition (Stuttgart and Berlin 1928, Cptta), p. 96.
3 See
Joshua xvii. 14-18, for the mark made upon the Israelites' folk-memory by
the labour of deforesting this hill-country in order to find room for an ex-Nomadic
deterred by its fear
people that had been driven off the North Arabian Steppe yet was
of the iron chariots of the Canaanites from descending into the fertile valley of Jezreel.
4 The modern Arab peasantry of Palestine, like their Israelite predecessors, are
descended partly from Nomadic intruders off the North Arabian Steppe, who in physical
race were Afrasian 'long-heads*, and partly from 'broad-headed' denizens of the highland
zone of folded mountains (see vol. i, p. 328, above), who worked their way down to the
Palestinian highlands from the Anatolian Plateau. Anthropometric studies of the modern
population of Palestine indicate that, in the repeated mixture of two races which has here
1

taken place, the 'Alpine' strain has prevailed over the 'Mediterranean'.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

54

On

the other hand, even the most rocky hillsides

of
support trees, especially olives; and, if capital were available, many
the cultivators of these exiguous and infertile plots would be able to gain
a livelihood by cultivation of fruit trees and of olives. These cultivators
have, however, no capital, and cannot afford to forgo even the meagre
fruitcrops obtained, for the four or five years which are required before
trees render a return. In the case of the olive, the period before a return

cultivation can pay.

expected is much longer.

"There is little irrigation in the Hill Country. Here and there are
springs which afford a supply for the irrigation of a small area; but,
taken as a whole, the country is arid and the crops depend on rain.

may be

'In the best case ... it is impossible that the general character of the
cultivation in the Hill Country can be radically changed, except in so
.
From the point of view
far as fruit can be made to replace grain. .
of agriculture, the Hill Country will always remain an unsatisfactory
.

proposition.

'The

life

'It is

of the fallah

is

one of great struggle and privation.

common

impression that the fallah 's cultivation is entirely

a good deal of ridicule has been and is poured upon the

inadequate, and
nail-plough which he uses. In the stony country of the Hills, no other
plough would be able to do the work at all. With regard to the use of
that plough, Dr. Wilkansky [a modern Zionist agricultural expert]
writes:
"The Arab plough is like the ancient Hebrew plough. ... It
all the functions
performs very slowly, it is true, but very thoroughly
for which a combination of modern machines is required. . . . The
ploughing of the fallah is above reproach. His field, prepared for sowing,
is never inferior to that
prepared by the most perfect implements, and
sometimes it even surpasses all others." n

In such a country, and under such conditions, the Israelites continued to live in obscurity until the Syriac Civilization had passed

As

century before Christ, at a date when

all the great
prophets of Israel had already said their say, the name
of Israel was still unknown to the great Greek historian Herodotus
and the Land of Israel was still masked by the Land of the Philistines in the Herodotean panorama of the Syriac World. When
Herodotus wishes to designate the peoples of Syria as a whole, he
calls them 'the Phoenicians and the Syrians in the Land of the
Philistines' 2 and 'the Land of the Philistines'
Filastin or Palestine
is the name
by which Erez Israel has continued to be known
the
Gentiles
down to this day. 3 Yet in these barren landamong
locked highlands, which were not of sufficient worldly importance
to acquire even a recognized name of their own, there was immanent
its

zenith.

late as the fifth

1
Simpson, Sir J. H.: Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development (British Parliamentary Paper Cmd. 3686 of 1930: London 1930, H.M. Stationery

Office),
2

p. 14, 65,

e.g. in

Book

TlaAaicmvTj

and

66.

II, ch. 104,

js

and in Book VII,

the Ancient Greek and

ch. 89.

JL? the modern Arabic

for Philistia.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

55

1
(to paraphrase Plato's language) a divine inspiration which made
this uninviting country a means of grace to those who came to

Syriac fable tells how this divinity once tested a

king of Israel with the most searching test that a God can apply to
a mortal.
settle there.

'The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God

said: "Ask what I shall give thee." And Solomon said: "... Give
And the speech pleased the
thy servant an understanding heart."
Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him:
"Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
.

neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of
thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern
life;

judgment behold, I have done according to thy words lo, I have given
thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee
before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have
also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour, so
that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days." 2
This fable of Solomon's Choice is a parable of the history of the
Chosen People. In the power of their spiritual understanding, the
:

'

surpassed the military prowess of the Philistines and

the maritime prowess of the Phoenicians. They had not sought
after those things which the Gentiles seek, but had sought first the
kingdom of God and therefore all those things were added unto
them. 3 As for the life of their enemies, the mighty men of the
Philistines were delivered into Israel's hands to be smitten with the
edge of the sword. As for riches, Jewry entered into the inheritance of Tyre and Carthage to conduct transactions on a scale
beyond Phoenician dreams in continents beyond Phoenician
the same peculiar
knowledge. As for long life, the Jews live on
to-day, long ages after the Phoenicians and the Philistines
people
have lost their identity like all the nations. The ancient Syriac
neighbours of Israel have fallen into the melting-pot and have been
re-minted, in the fullness of time, with new images and superscriptions, while Israel has proved impervious to this alchemy
performed by History in the crucibles of universal states and universal
to which we Gentiles all
churches and wanderings of the nations
in turn succumb. 4
Israelites

Lebanon and jfabal Ansartyah

The contrast between the

roles

of the Phoenicians and the

Philistines in the history of the Syriac Civilization is reproduced, in

1 See the
passage quoted above in II. C (ii) (a) 2, vol. i, on p 252, in footnote 2.
3 Matt. vi.
* i
31-3; Luke xii. 29-31.
Kings iii. 5-13.
4 From the Gentile standpoint, modern Jewry is the 'fossil' remnant of a society that is
extinct. For this phenomenon of 'fossilization', see I. B (ui), vol. i, p, 35, and I. C (i)
(6), pp. 90-2, above; and II. D (vi) and Part IX, below.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

56

Arabic Civilization, in a corresponding

which can be studied in the life at the present day

the history of the

contrast

affiliated

between the enterprise of the Lebanese highlanders, in the hinterland of the former Phoenician ports of Sidon and Tyre and Byblus,
and the stagnation of the Nusayri highlanders who live on the
northern side of the Nahr-al-Kabir in the hinterland of Aradus.
In modern times the highlanders of the Lebanon have emulated the historic exploits of the Phoenician islanders of Tyre and
Aradus by seeking their fortunes abroad and making a livelihood
in Egypt and in West
as traders and shopkeepers far and wide
1
The Nusayri highlanders, on the
Africa and in the New World.
other hand, have been as stay-at-home as the Philistine contemporaries of the Phoenicians.
The extreme degree and long continuance of the Nusayris'
stagnation in their highland homes is attested by the antique aspect
of their religion. The Lebanon, in its own degree, is a museum of
2
religious survivals. The ex-Monothelete Maronites and the Monophysite Jacobites and the Imami Shi'Is of the Jabal 'Amil and the
Druses are so many 'fossil' remnants of different phases in the long
contact between the Syriac Civilization and the Hellenic. 3 The
Nusayris, too, have acquired some tincture of Syriac religion in
its latest phase.
They have travestied the Isma'lli Shi'ism which
forced an entry into their mountain fastness in the age of the
Crusades4 by deifying the Caliph 'All abu Talib but this worship
of 'All is only an accretion; 5 and the core of their religion appears
to be some local worship which is more ancient than either Islam or
Christianity and is perhaps even prior to that impact of Hellenism
on the Syriac World in which both Christianity and Islam have
The sharpness of the contrast, in every aspect of
originated.
social life, between the Nusayris and the Lebanese is very
striking
and there is also a striking contrast between the two peoples'
respective physical environments.
While the native physical environment of the Lebanese is perhaps not quite so stimulating as the rocky islet of Tyre, which
cannot be cultivated at all, it presents a severer challenge to the
husbandman than the hill-country of Ephraim and Judah. On the
stony flanks of Lebanon there is a rigid limit to the harvests that
can be wrung out of a scanty soil, and this soil itself can only be
;

See II.
(vi), p. 338, below.
.Efc-Monothelete, because the Maronites have been in full communion with the
Roman Catholic Church since A.D. 1445, though they have retained their own Syriae
liturgy and their own ecclesiastical discipline.
1

See
See

II.

II.

D
DJ

and

(vi), pp. 234-6,

(vi), p. 258, below.
(vi),p.

II.

(vii),

pp. 285-8, below.

On the sijtrength of it, the French mandatory authorities have dubbed the Nusayris
(Arabic plural 'Ansariyah') 'Alouites', which is a Gallicism for the Arabic 'Alawiym.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

57
conserved and kept under cultivation by laborious terracing. 1
By
contrast, the Jabal Ansanyah, though it 'has been described as a
barren region', is in reality 'an extremely agreeable and fertile
tract. Being lower and less rocky, it is
naturally much more fertile
2
than the Lebanon'.
In the light of the local precedents, it looks as
though the Lebanese had been stimulated to emulate the Phoenicians
by the barrenness of their native mountain, while the agreeableness of the Jabal Ansariyah has inveigled the
Nusayris into
vegetating in a Philistine sloth.

Brandenburg and the Rhineland

When we turn from the Aegean and from Syria 3 to the scenes of
our own Western history, similar contrasts strike the eye.
Suppose, for example, that one finds oneself in the capital city of

two great Central European Empires of the modern

age the Hohenzollern Empire of Brandenburg-Prussia-Germany
and the Danubian Hapsburg Monarchy. One has only to board an
outgoing train at any railway terminus in either Berlin or Vienna in
order to receive the same impression that a traveller receives when
he goes by train from the Aegean area into the interior of Anatolia

either of the
:

or into the interior of Europe. 4 In whichever direction you may

happen to be travelling outwards from the nucleus of the Hohenzollern or of the Hapsburg Empire into its fringes and outskirts,
you find yourself passing out of an unusually difficult physical
environment into environments where the difficulties are less
formidable.

Sec II.
below.
(vi), p. 258,
British Admiralty:
Handbook of Syria (London 1920, H.M. Stationery Office),
P- 3393
cannot take leave of the Syriac World without observing that, in the penultimate
phase of Syriac history, the contrast which we have brought out between Phoenicia and
Philistia was reproduced, in the Hijaz (a region which is a southward extension of
Syria into Arabia), in the similar contrast between the two oases of Mecca and Medina.
"The community which had settled in the valley of Mecca . . . cannot, when they selected
this spot, have hoped to live by its produce; for that the soil is incapable of producing
anything is attested by all who know it, from the author of the Qur'an to the present
day. . . . Unlike Mecca, Yathrib [Medina] lies in a fruitful plain. "Walled habitations,
green fields, running water, every blessing the Eastern mind can desire, are there."
And indeed the richness of the soil finds expression in the name Ta'ibah, "the pleasing".'
and
(Margoliouth, D. S.: Mohammed, 3rd edition (London 1905, Putnam), pp.
185.) In consequence, we find that the Yathribis, like the Philistines, were content to
cultivate their garden without turning their hands or minds to other things or betaking
themselves beyond their own borders, whereas the Meccans were stimulated by the
challenge of a barren home to take to the Steppe as the Phoenicians, in similar circumstances, had taken to the sea, and to earn their livings as camel-caravaners. It is significant that Mecca, and not Medina, was the oasis in which the Hijazi Prophet Muhammad
was born and brought up. It was the stimulus of his contact with the great world in his
caravan expeditions to the Syrian desert-ports of the Roman Empire, circa A.D. 594 seqq.,
that gave Muhammad the mental stimulus which impelled him to embark upon the
career of a religious revolutionary. (For the career of Muhammad, see III.
(u) (6),
*

We

78

vol.
4

iii, pp. 276-8, with Annex II, below.)

For this impression, as experienced by the writer of this Study, see pp. 36-7,

above.

58

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Take the nucleus of the Hohenzollern dominions the territories

which Frederick the Great inherited from his father when he came
to the Prussian throne Brandenburg, Pomerania, East Prussia. As
:

the Havel
you travel through this unprepossessing country between
and the Masurian Lakes, with its starveling pine-plantations and
its sandy fields, you might fancy that you were traversing some
the aggressive desert
outlying corner of the Eurasian Steppe, where
was thrusting its dry bones up and out through the skin of the
European landscape. Then travel on westward from Brandenburg
into the Rhineland or eastward from Prussia into Lithuania or
northward from Pomerania into Scandinavia: whichever way you
As the pastures and beechgo, you will experience a new sensation.
woods of Denmark or the black earth of Lithuania or the vineyards
of the Rhineland greet your eyes, you will breathe a sigh of relief
at your passage into a normal European landscape out of a landscape which was an offence to your aesthetic sensibilities. 'So this
repulsive Ostelbisches Land is, after all, something exceptional in
the European physical environment!' True enough; yet it is no
less true that the descendants of the medieval Western colonists
whose lot was cast in these 'bad lands' have played an exceptional

Western World. The legendary

'Prussian' may be as unprepossessing as his homeland. (There is
always a flicker of flame behind a screen of smoke and always a
grain of truth beneath the most hostile caricature.) Be that as it
may, he has managed to make his unpromising kingdom 'the
education of Europe' in certain matters which no good European
role in the

modern

history of the

Prussian has taught his neighbours how

to make sand produce cereals by enriching it with artificial
manures; and he has taught us how to raise a whole population
to an unprecedented standard of social efficiency by a system of
universal compulsory state education and to an unprecedented
standard of social security by a similar system of health and
unemployment insurance. In these responses to his physical environment, the Prussian has performed a greater service to Mankind
and has established a more lasting memorial for himself than in
his more notorious achievements: the training of the Prussian
Army and the building of the German Reich.

can

affect to despise.

The

Austria and Lombardy

Take, again, the nucleus of the Danubian Hapsburg dominions

those Danubian territories which the Emperor Charles
inherited
from the Emperor Maximilian before the Danubian Monarchy
took shape in the sixteenth century of the Christian Era, and which
the Austrian Republic inherited again from the last Austrian
:

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

59

Emperor Charles when the Monarchy broke up in 1918. On the

aesthetic scale of values, the heart of Austria and the heart of
Prussia are of course at opposite extremes. The
Alps in the Tyrol
and the Salzkammergut, and the Danube in Upper and Lower
Austria, are as beautiful as the sands and pine woods of Brandenburg and Pomerania are ugly. Yet, if the observant traveller is not
an artist but an economist, his prosaic eye will register the same
impression when he travels outwards from Vienna as when he
travels outwards from Berlin. Whether his
journey carries him out
of the Tyrolese or Styrian mountains into the plains of Bavaria or
Lombardy or Croatia or Hungary, or from the banks of the Austrian
Danube to the banks of the Bohemian Elbe, the economist, as he
observes the changes in the landscape, will ignore the transition
from variety to monotony which the artist perceives, and will take
note that he has left a lean land, flowing with nothing better than
milk and honey, and has entered fat lands where the plains are
covered with hop-fields or vineyards or wheat-fields or beet-fields,
and where the mountains are loaded with mineral ores. Yet that
lean land of Austria bred the dynasty 1 which gathered together the
fat lands round about and held them united for four centuries
against a host of enemies without and within.
The contrast between the relative poverty of the nucleus of the
Hapsburg Monarchy and the relative riches of the appended crownlands gives the physical explanation of the genesis of the Danubian

dynasty bred in a difficult environment supplanted

the more softly nurtured dynasties round about. The same contrast explains the economic straits to which the City of Vienna has
been reduced since the Danubian Monarchy's dissolution.
stranger, visiting Vienna after 1918 without any knowledge of
modern Western history and witnessing Vienna's plight to-day,
would be at a loss to understand how a magnificent city of some
two million souls could ever have come into existence in a poorly
endowed country of some six million souls all told. Actually, of

Monarchy.

course, the present size and magnificence of Vienna are explained

by the city's ci-devant status as the capital of an empire with fifty
million inhabitants and with abundant natural resources, while the
location of

The

capital

by the Danubian Empire's origin.

of the Hapsburg Monarchy was never moved from the

Vienna

is

explained

a matter of strict historical accuracy, the Hapsburg Dynasty was bred in the
Hapsburg, in the present Swiss Canton of Aargau, before it came to rule over
Austria. This, however, only gives additional point to our present argument; for, compared with the Aargau, even Austria is a land of plenty.
* For the human
In particular, see
(v), pp. 177-90, below.
explanation, see II.
6thos
of the Tyrolese
the
drawn
between
a
distinction
is
where
footnote
I,
p. 181,
Highlander, which once made Austria an Imperial Power, and the ethos of the Viennese
bourgeois, which reflects the demoralizing influence of an empire upon the inhabitants
1

As

castle of

of its capital

city.

60

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

a land which was

Austrian homeland of the Hapsburg Dynasty
the most venerable but least valuable jewel in the Hapsburg Crown.

'The Black Country' and 'The Home Counties'

When we turn from Central Europe to Great Britain, the apand the stimulus
parent law of correspondence between the difficulty
the law illustrated by the geographical
of a physical environment
seems at first sight to be put in
situations of Vienna and Berlin
London. While the
question by the geographical situation of
and Hohenzollern Empires lie
capitals of the ci-devant Hapsburg

in the leanest districts of Central Europe, the Thames Valley, in

which London lies, is one of the most well-favoured districts of the

United Kingdom. This superficial anomaly disappears, however,

For one thing, we shall find that,
as soon as we look deeper.
although the so-called 'home counties' certainly were the choicest
portion of the English physical environment in the age when the
capital of England came to be established at London, it is also true
that London did not win her position without having to respond
to any challenge at all. In that very age, she responded victoriously
to a challenge from the human environment which we shall
examine further on in this Part. 1 This, however, is by the way.
For our present purpose, it is more to the point to notice that, in
the modern social geography of the United Kingdom, London has
not remained the capital of the country in every sense.
While London has retained her status in the Kingdom as the
focus of politics and finance, the economic centre of gravity
shifted, during the Industrial Revolution, from the south-east
towards the north-west, until, on the eve of the General War of

had come

on the farther side of a line drawn

diagonally across the island from the estuary of the Severn through
Coventry and Leicester to the estuary of the Humber. If we now
fix our attention upon the region north-west of this line and pick
out the districts which shared between them the industrial primacy
in 'pre-war' Great Britain, we shall see at once that they conform
1914-18,

it

to rest

to our law conspicuously.

The midland manufacturing

cities

Birmingham and Coventry, Leicester and Northampton which

almost bestride our dividing line are the only group situated in
good arable or grazing country; and this is the exception that
proves the rule. In each of the other industrial districts of 'prewar' Great Britain, the physical environment is one which, judged
by the average standard of the island, offers unusually difficult
conditions to Man. This is true alike of the valleys of South Wales
of Tyneside and Teesside; and of the neck of Scotland where
;

See

II.

(v), p.

199, with the

Annex, below.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

Clydeside

now

61

harbours, in Glasgow, the second largest city of

Great Britain after London

The most

herself.

striking illustration

of all is the gigantic industrial zone which embraces the southern end
of the Pennines in the shape of a magnet with its tips at Preston and
Leeds and its curve skirting the upper course of the Trent a zone
which includes the Lancashire cotton-mills and the Staffordshire
potteries and collieries and the multiple industries of Nottingham
and the steel- works of Sheffield and the wool-mills of the North
Riding.

The

forbidding character of the physical environment in which

this Pennine industrial zone is set was brought home to the writer
of this Study once when he had occasion to travel by road from
the rural spot in the east of Yorkshire, in which he is writing these
lines at this moment, to a place in Shropshire within sight of the
Wrekin. After traversing York a city not less reminiscent than
Canterbury of medieval England we drove on south-westwards
across a fertile plain still innocent of other products than crops and
cattle, till we reached the frontier of the industrial zone at a village
which is celebrated for a legend. The legend is that, a century ago,
a certain Anglican prelate whose diocese extended over the West
Riding used to appoint the church of this village as his trystingplace with West Riding candidates for confirmation, because, he
declared, this was the farthest point west, towards the new terra
in orders
incognita of industrial squalor, to which any gentleman
or out of them
could be expected to ride! And indeed, when we
passed that prelate's legendary bourne now that the squalor beyond
it, on which he had refused ever to set eyes, had had a hundred
years longer to grow, the aesthetic side of our nature protested in
sympathy with the prelate's scandalous ultimatum to the lost souls
in his industrial cure. Beyond this village, the fertile lowlands
came to an end and at the same point the fells and the factories

began.

In their outward aspect, the 'dark satanic mills' seemed a fitting

match for the bleak grey landscape and at the same time the tour
deforce of these monstrous works of Man, erected in defiance of
the wilderness, had all the moral incongruity of an abomination
of desolation standing in the place where it ought not. In this
;

there
pullulating, throbbing, squalid life in a forbidding landscape,

was something portentously unnatural and the acme of unnaturalness was reached when we paused on the summit of the Pennine
Range itself a hand's-breadth of fell-country that had been left
and looked down, this way
still inviolate in its state of Nature
and that, towards Leeds just behind us and Manchester just
ahead. When, at nightfall, we found ourselves passing through
;

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

62

such another mellow city as York in such another

our glimpse of the West Riding and South
pleasant countryside
Lancashire already began to fade into the unreality of an evil dream.
Yet this industrial tour deforce that has been accomplished in the
Pennine Zone is of course not just a hideous blemish on the landwhich the legendary prelate
scape. The portent has also an import
who deplored its appearance never divined. The Pennine Zone is
indeed a magnet, not only in a fanciful geographical conceit, but in
sober economic reality. It is a magnet which has drawn to itself the
so potently that
productivity and the population of a great country
it has actually succeeded in shifting that country's economic centre
of gravity
shifting it from the fertile basin of the Thames to the
barren skirts of the Pennine fells. The uncompromising prelate
himself, if he could return to life to-day, would almost be con-

Shrewsbury

on into his terra incognita in order to

explore the ugly wonderland into which the ugly wilderness has
been transformed. And what is the agency which has produced
strained

by

curiosity to ride

these astonishing effects ? When we look into it, we find ourselves,

here again, in presence of a now familiar social phenomenon the
stronger stimulus of a more difficult environment prevailing over
the weaker stimulus of an environment in which the difficulty
:

is less.

In this psychological aspect, the contrast between the rural

south-east and the industrial north-west of modern Britain since
the Industrial Revolution reproduces that contrast between Boeotia
and Attica, in ancient Greece, which struck the imagination of Hellenic observers after the great Athenian statesmen and economists
a Solon and a Peisistratus and a Cleisthenes and a Themistocles
had done their work. In our so-called Middle Ages, the inhabitants of 'the home counties' of England, south-east of our line, held
economic assets comparable to those which the Boeotians held in
the first age of Hellenic history. Indeed, they not only possessed
the best arable and pasture lands in the Kingdom, but in Surrey
and Sussex they also had command of easily workable iron ores,
with the woods of the Weald to supply fuel for their forges and with
with these rich but wasting assets, the Southerners, like the Foolish
Virgins in the parable, improvidently burnt up their fuel till it was

consumed away. The

iron railings round St. Paul's are said to

be the last substantial piece of work that was produced by the
Southern iron-masters. By the time when these railings were
all

Weald was bare, and thereupon the Southern iron

industry came to a dead halt. The stagnant reed-choked hammerponds upon which the latter-day 'hiker' stumbles in the middle of

forged, the

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

63

the Surrey heaths are no more

to-day than this dead industry's
funeral monument. 1 Meanwhile, the medieval inhabitants of the

Welsh and

and Northern English 'bad lands' had been

stimulated by the poverty of their environment to exercise their
ingenuity in making the most of it. In South Wales and in Durham,
they probed the sub-soil, in the spirit of the ancient inhabitants
of Attica, to see whether Nature might
prove to be less niggardly
below than she was on the surface and their inquisitiveness was
rewarded by the discovery of a new kind of fuel. In the Pennine
Zone, they took to supplementing the meagre livelihood obtainable
from fell-farms by spinning and weaving and they turned to human
profit fell-sides that were too steep and barren for the plough by
harnessing the water-power of the falling beck. And so, under the
Scottish

constant prick of Necessity, they equipped themselves,

unwittingly,
for exchanging roles with their Southern
neighbours as soon as
their neighbours' improvidence gave them their
opportunity. When
the oil in these Foolish Virgins' lamps gave out, the Wise Virgins
of the North were ready to step into their places and to astonish

World with the mighty though sadly vulgar illumination

which they were able to produce. In the Industrial Revolution, the
Northern coal-fuel with its unheard-of potency and the Northern
the

mechanical processes with their unheard-of productivity replaced

and eclipsed the commonplace wood-fuel and the traditional handwork of the South. 2 The modern industrial Britain which arose,
like a jinn of the desert, out of the 'bad lands' beyond the SevernHumber line, surpassed the medieval agrarian Britain of 'the home

Judah

Solomon

the king of the hill-country of Ephraim and

3
surpassed in all his glory the oasis-queen of Sheba.

counties' as

*
For the history of the Southern iron industry, see Straker, E. : Wealden Iron (London
1931, Bell).
z It is
amusing to notice that the dearth of wood, which stimulated the ancient
Greeks into creating the beauties of Hellenic architecture, and the ancient Sumerians
into inventing the arch and the vault (see footnote 2 on p. 41, above), has stimulated the
modern British into burning coal.
3 The
shifting of the economic centre of gravity of Great Britain at the time of the
Industrial Revolution is sometimes attributed in large measure to the change in the flow
of international trade which followed the discovery of the New World. Since the
Western explorers who made this discovery were not natives of the British Isles, the
effect of their discovery upon the economic life of Great Britain must be regarded, from
the British standpoint, as the accidental effect of an extraneous cause. So far, therefore,
as this extraneous cause contnbuted to the shift in the economic centre of gravity of
Britain, it tells against our explanation of the shift as an incident in the internal history
of Britain and as a consequence of the different relations between Man and his physical
environment which
obtained, during the Middle Ages, in the South and in

respectively

the ports on the west coast and of their economic hinterlands, and to the prejudice of the
ports on the east coast. This dividing line between the eastern and the western faces of
Great Britain by no means coincides, however, with the line, running diagonally across
some two or three
the country from Severn to Humber, which came eventually
to divide the agrarian section
centimes after the discovery of America had taken place

64

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

In the present 'post-war' age, this glory is perhaps departing.

Since about the year 1920 there have been indications that the
economic centre of gravity of Great Britain is tending to shift back
J
and simultaneous
again, south-eastward, towards its medieval locus,
indications that the economic centre of gravity of the World is
and indeed from Europe,
shifting away from the British Isles,
America. It may be that,
altogether, and is passing over to North

symptoms become more sharply pronounced, the ci-devant

industrial focus of Britain, marooned among the barren Pennine
as the cifells, will come to present as melancholy a spectacle
devant political capital of the Danubian Monarchy, imprisoned
if

these

within the frontiers of the little Alpine Republic of Austria. The

drama of Industrial Britain, which opened in a busy squalor and
culminated in a grim magnificence, may be transfigured in its third
2
act into an austere tragedy with a cruel end.
The economic contrast between the two sections into which
Great Britain is divided by the Severn-Humber line is not the only
Still more
illustration of our theme which the island provides.
and
familiar is the cultural contrast between England
Scotland,
which has survived the union of the two kingdoms and which still
lends reality to a Border which has lost its political and has never
possessed any economic significance. The notorious difference of
temperament and habit between the legendary Scotchman solemn,
parsimonious, precise, persistent, cautious, conscientious, and
and the legendary Englishman frivothoroughly well educated
lous, extravagant, vague, spasmodic, careless, free-and-easy, and
follows the same lines, and correill-grounded in book-learning
of Great Britain from the industrial. For instance, the discovery of America, as was to be
expected, brought prosperity in the sixteenth century to the seamen of Devonshire and
to the merchants of Bristol: the western maritime districts which were least distant from
'the home counties' and from London. Yet it has still to be explained why Bristol after-Awards lost the primacy in the American trade to Liverpool and Glasgow: west-coast
ports which were geographically handicapped, in competition with Bristol, by being
separated from the open Atlantic by a longer stretch of narrow dangerous waters. It has
also to be explained why, in the Industrial Revolution, the new life showed itself not only
in the Lancashire and Lanarkshire hinterlands of Merseyside and Clydeside but equally
in Tyneside and Teesside and in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which was served by the
port of Hull. Newcastle and Middlesbrough and Hull, like the extinct hearths of medieval
English trade and industry in East Angha, all face away from the Atlantic and from
America. If the accessibility of the American market and of the American source of
supply was really the determining factor in the shift of the economic centre of gravity of
Great Britain at the time of the Industrial Revolution, it would be impossible to explain
why at this very time Bristol decayed and Newcastle began to flourish. On the other hand,
the phenomena are all explicable if it is conceded that the geographical relation to America
was no more than a secondary factor and that the governing factor in the shift was the
difference, examined above, in the degree of the respective stimuli which were administered to human activities by the two sections of the island, as demarcated by our diagonal
dividing line.
1 These
symptoms are discussed, in another connexion, in III. C (i) (d), vol. iii, p. 207,
below.
a These lines were written a few weeks before the
2ist September, 1931, which, at
the time of revision, seemed likely to be a momentous date in English economic and
financial history.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

65
to
the
same
contrast
in
the
local
spends
physical environment, as
the similar difference, which has likewise been elaborated and

caricatured

on both

sides,

between the legendary Prussian and the

legendary Bavarian.
*

The Struggle for North America

The

our present theme in our Western

history is the outcome of the competition between half a dozen
different groups of Western colonists for the mastery of North
America. The victors in this contest were the New Englanders;
and at an earlier point in this chapter, apropos of the reversion of
Town Hill, Connecticut, to its pristine state of Nature, we have
taken note of the unusual difficulty of the local American environment which first fell to the lot of the ultimate masters of the whole
continent. Let us now compare this New England environment, of
which the site of Town Hill is a specimen, with the earliest
American environments of the New Englanders' unsuccessful
competitors the Dutch, the French, the Spaniards, and the New
Englanders' own kinsmen and neighbours from England who
established themselves along the southern section of the Atlantic
classic illustration of

seaboard.
In the middle of the seventeenth century of the Christian Era,
when all these settlers had already found their first footing on the
fringes of the North American mainland, it would have been quite
easy to predict the coming conflict between them for the possession
of the interior; but the most acute and far-sighted observer then
alive would hardly have been likely to hit the mark if he had been
asked, at the time, to designate the ultimate victor. He might conceivably have had the acumen to rule out the Spaniards in spite of
their two obvious assets their ownership, in Mexico, of the only
region in or adjoining North America which had been broken-in
and developed economically, before the European colonists' arrival,
by an indigenous civilization; and the primacy of Spain, in our
hypothetical observer's own day, among the Great Powers of the
Western World. Our observer might have discounted the high
development of Mexico in view of its outlying position cut off,
as it was, from the main body of North America by a broad belt of
the political
inhospitable plateau and desert; and have discounted
strength of Spain by reading the political signs of the times as they
were written between the lines of the Treaty of Westphalia.
'The
Empire', he might have pronounced, 'is already a
:

Spanish

round which the vultures are gathering. France will

succeed to the military hegemony of Spain in Europe, Holland and
England will succeed to her naval and commercial supremacy on
carcass

66

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

the seas. The competition for North America lies now between
these three countries. Let us estimate their respective chances in
the double light of their general positions in the World and of their
local holdings in America. On a short view, Holland's chances might
appear to be the most promising. She is mistress of the seas (Eng-

land being no match for her on this element, and France not
seriously competing) and in America she holds a splendid watergate opening into the interior: the valley of the Hudson. On a
longer view, however, France seems more likely to be the winner;
for the French St. Lawrence offers still better means of access to
the interior of North America than the Dutch Hudson, while it is
in the power of the French to immobilize and exhaust the Dutch by
bringing to bear against them the overwhelming military superiority
of France on the Continent of Europe. All the same, as between
French and Dutch prospects, I hesitate' (we hear him saying) 'to
decide. The one prophecy that I make with confidence is that the
English are not in the running. Possibly the more southerly of the
;

English colonies, with their relatively genial soil and climate, will
manage to survive though at best they will find themselves
hemmed in between the Dutch along the Hudson in the north and
the Spaniards in Florida on the south and the Dutch or the French,
whichever it may be that cuts off their hinterland on the west by
securing the control of the Mississippi. One thing, however, is
certain. The little group of settlements in the bleak and barren
country which the colonists have christened "New England" is
bound to disappear. They are cut off from the other English
settlements by the Dutch in the Hudson Valley, while the French
in the St. Lawrence Valley press them close on the opposite flank.
The destinies of these New Englanders, at any rate, are not in
doubt!'

Let us

now

suppose that our hypothetical observer lives to see

the turn of the century. By the year 1701 he will be congratulating
himself on his discernment, fifty years earlier, in rating French
prospects higher than Dutch; for in the course of these last fifty
years the St. Lawrence has vanquished the Hudson. The French
explorers have pushed up the St. Lawrence on to the Great Lakes,
and over the portage into the Basin of the Mississippi, and down
these Western Waters to the delta of the great river, where they have
established the new French colony of Louisiana to match the older
French colony of Canada at the other end of the trans-continental
waterway. As for the Dutch, our observer must admit that he had
rated their prospects much too high.
They might have made
themselves masters of the Great Lakes before the French arrived
there. Indeed, for the ocean-going vessels of the
century, the head

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

67
of navigation was rather less distant up the Hudson than it was
up the St. Lawrence from the shores of Lake Ontario. Yet, far
from that, the Dutch have tamely allowed the Hudson Valley itself
to be taken from them by their weaker maritime rivals the English.
Well, the Dutch are out of the running now in North America, and
the French and the English are left there tete a tSte ; but the English
can hardly be regarded as serious competitors. The events of the
last half-century assuredly do not call for any revision of forecasts
on this head notwithstanding the unlooked-for success which the
English have gained in the Hudson Valley. Certainly the New
Englanders are making the most of this windfall. Already they are
colonizing the back-country of the Dutch province and are linking
New England up with the rest of the English settlements on the
Atlantic coast.
Possibly the New Englanders have been saved
from extinction but this only to share the modest prospects of
their southern kinsfolk. For the English feat of conquering the
Hudson Valley from the facile Dutch has been utterly surpassed
by the simultaneous French feat of conquering from the formidable
virgin wilderness the whole extent of the magnificent inland waterway between Quebec and New Orleans. While the English colonies
have been consolidated, the French colonies have effectively
hemmed them in. The future of the Continent is decided! The
victors are the French!
Shall we endow our observer with superhuman length of life, in
order that he may review the situation once more in the year 1803 ?
If we do preserve him alive till then, he will be forced to confess
that his wits have not been worthy of his longevity. By the end of
1803, the French flag has actually disappeared off the political map
of North America altogether. For forty years past, Canada has
been a possession of the British Crown, while Louisiana, after
being ceded by France to Spain and retroceded again, has just been
sold on the soth December, 1803, by Napoleon to the United
the new Great Power which has emerged out of the thirStates

teen English colonies

by

a most extraordinary metamorphosis.

'The United States of America!' Who would have prophesied

it? Yet the ambitious title is justified by the accomplished facts.
In this year 1803, the United States have the continent in their
It only remains to
pockets, and the scope for prophecy is reduced.
forecast which section of these United States is going to pocket the
that
the breadth of a continent
larger share of this vast estate
has come into their joint possession. And surely this time there
can be no mistake ? The Southern States are the manifest masters

of the Union and residuary legatees in North America of Great

Britain and France. Look how the Southerners are leading in this

68

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

round of the competition in this inter- American race for the

Winning of the West. It is the backwoodsmen of Virginia who
have founded Kentucky the first new state to be established west
of those mountains which have so long conspired with the French
to keep the English-speaking settlers on the Atlantic coast from
final

penetrating into the interior. And take note of the key-position

which Kentucky occupies, extending right down the left bank of
the Ohio to the confluence of the Mississippi's principal tributary
with the Mississippi himself. The West is in the Southerners'

and mark how all things work together for their good. The
statesmanship of an English Chatham and a Pennsylvanian Franklin
and a Corsican Buonaparte has endowed them with an immeasurable
supply of land and, as fast as they can put this new land under
grasp,

the hoe, the new-fangled mills of distant Lancashire are offering

them an ever-expanding market for the cotton-crop which the soil
and climate of the South enable them to raise. The Negro provides the labour and the Mississippi the means of transporting the
produce to the quays of New Orleans, where the ships from Liverpool are waiting to bear it away. Even the New Englander is a
useful auxiliary, as the Southerner superciliously points out.
*Our Yankee cousin', the Southerner observes in 1807, 'has just
invented a "steam-boat" which will navigate our Mississippi upstream ; and he has made a practical success of a machine for carding

and cleaning our

Those unlovable,

cotton-bolls.

unfortunate

fellow-citizens of ours in that out-of-the-way corner, down east!

Their "Yankee notions" are more profitable to us than they are to
the ingenious inventors! For what are
England's prospects?

New

Her prospects

no better in

1807 than they were a

wide
West has been thrown open
century since. To-day, when the
to Southern enterprise at last, it still remains closed to the New
Englander. New England is still barred in on the landward side by
the barrier of Canada, which has not ceased to be a foreign country
in passing from the French to the British Crown. So there our
are

this year

in his out-of-the-way corner, cooped up on

Hill; and there, presumably, he will go
on sitting till Doomsday! "Sedet, aeternumque sedebit!" '*
If our unlucky prophet takes Southern prospects on the morrow

poor relation

still sits

the "bad lands" of

Town

of the Louisiana Purchase at the Southerner's own valuation, he

must indeed be in his dotage for in the last round of the twocenturies-long contest for the mastery of the North American
Continent, the Southerner is destined to meet a swifter and more
crushing defeat than those that have been met heretofore by the
Spaniard and the Dutchman and the Frenchman. To witness his
;

Virgil: Aenetd,

Book VI,

1.

617.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

we

69

have to wait as long as a century. We

discomfiture,
shall see the relative positions of South and North reversed in less
than a lifetime.
In the year 1865, the situation is already transformed, out of all
recognition, from what it was in 1807. In the Winning of the West,
the Southern pioneer had been outstripped and outflanked by his
Northern rival. After almost winning his way to the Great Lakes
through Indiana and after getting the best of the bargain in
Missouri, the Southerner has been decisively defeated in Kansas,
and he has never reached the Pacific. The descendants of the men
who mastered the difficulties of Town Hill, Connecticut, have now
become masters of the Pacific coast along the whole front from
shall not

Los Angeles. Nor has the Southerner's command of the

Mississippi much availed him. He had counted on the network of
the Western Waters to draw the whole of the West into a Southern
system of economic and political relations; and when the Yankee
presented him with steam-boats to ply on the Western Waters, he
imagined that the Yankee had delivered the West into his hands.
But Yankee notions' have not ceased. The inventor of the steamer
has gone on to invent the locomotive; and the locomotive has
taken away more from the Southerner than the steamer ever gave
Seattle to

'

Valley in the human

geography of North America as the main gateway from the Atlantic
a potentiality which the Dutch had failed to turn to
to the West
has been actualized at
account in competition with the French
last in the railway age. The railway-traffic which now passes up
the valley of the Hudson and the valley of the Mohawk and then
along the lake-side to link New York with Chicago has superseded
the river-traffic on the Mississippi between New Orleans and St.
Louis. Therewith, the internal lines of communication of the

him

for the potential function of the

Hudson

North American Continent have been turned at right angles from

south and north to east and west and the North-West has been
detached from the South, to be welded on to the North-East in
interest and in sentiment. Indeed, the Easterner, who once made
;

the South-West a present of the river-steamer, has now won the

heart of the North- West with a double gift: he has come to the
North- Western farmer with the locomotive in one hand and with
the reaper-and-binder in the other, and so has provided him with
solutions for both the problems with which the West is confronted.
In order to develop its potential economic capacities, the whole
West has need of two things transport and labour ; but the Southwestern planter believing that his labour-problem has been solved
has sought a solution
for ever by the institution of negro slavery
for his transport-problem, and for this only, from the Yankee's
:

70

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

'mechanical ingenuity. The North- Western farmer is in a different

case.
He disposes of no servile man-power, and his free-labour
force is recruited by the casual process of immigration from Europe
So he finds the
all too slowly to till his fast-expanding fields.
the Eastern factories
agricultural machinery which is turned out by
as great a godsend as the Eastern railways. By these two 'Yankee
notions', together, the allegiance of the North- West has been
decided and thus the Civil War has been lost by the South before
it has been fought. In taking up arms in the hope of redressing
her economic reverses by a military counterstroke, the South has
;

merely precipitated and consummated a ddbdcle that was already

inevitable.

This ultimate victory of the New Englanders, in a competition

for the mastery of North America in which their Spanish, Dutch,
French, and Southern competitors were successively discomfited, is
illuminating for the study of the question with which we are concerned at the moment: the question of the relative stimulating
effects of different degrees of difficulty in the physical environment

For, unusually difficult though the New Englanders'

environment was, it is manifest that the rival colonists' environments were none of them easy. To begin with, all alike had undergone the initial ordeal of plucking up their social roots in Europe
and crossing the Atlantic and striking fresh roots in the soil of a
of human

New

life.

World;

themselves,

it

and,

when they had succeeded

was not only the

New

in re-establishing

who found
new American

Englanders

permanent difficulties to contend with in their

home. The French settlers in Canada had to contend with an
almost arctic cold; and the French settlers in Louisiana had to
break in a great river. The Mississippi was as wayward in changing
his course, and as devastating in his inundations, as the Yellow
River or the Nile or the Tigris; and the levies with which the
Creoles protected their hard-won fields and villages cost no less
human effort to build and maintain than the earthen bulwarks of
the Egyptiac and the Sumeric and the Sinic Civilization. In fact,
the difficulties presented by the physical environment in Canada
and in Louisiana were only less formidable than those which the
New Englanders encountered on Town Hill itself. Thus this
North American illustration, as far as it goes, tells in favour of the
proposition that the difficulty and the stimulus of an environment
are apt to increase paripassu. It will tell the same tale if we push
it even farther.

Can we push

it

farther?

Can we venture,

in 1933, to prophesy

1 The stimulus
of transmarine colonization and migration
pp. 84-100, below.

is

examined further on

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

71

whose hands the mastery of North America will lie a century

hence ? Can we hope to come any nearer to the mark ourselves
than our imaginary prophet in 1650 and 1701 and 1803 ? Can we
do more than ring down the curtain on the present scene, in which
in

the offspring of the

New

Englanders dominates the stage

Diffi-

though divination

may be, there are already certain signs that

the drama is not yet played out and the final victory in the struggle
not yet decided. One small sign once came to the notice of the
author of this Study.
cult

A few

days after the occasion, mentioned above, when I passed

by the deserted site of Town Hill, Connecticut, I found myself with
an hour to spend between trains in one of the small back-country
manufacturing towns of New England, on the Massachusetts side
of the Connecticut-Massachusetts state-line. Since the General
War of 1914-18, the industrial districts of New England have fared
as badly as those of the mother country. They have fallen on evil
days, and they show it in their aspect. In this town, however, on
this day, the atmosphere was not at all forlorn or lifeless. The town
was in fete, and the whole population was abroad in the streets.
Threading my way through the crowds I noticed that one person
out of every two was wearing a special badge, and I inquired what
the colours signified. I was told that they were the colours of the local
French Canadian club and I ascertained that my rough impression
of their frequency in the streets was borne out by statistics. In that
year 1925, in that New England manufacturing town, the French
Canadians were by far the strongest contingent in the local labomv
1

indigenous New Englanders had left these factories, as

they had left the fields of Town Hill, to find their fortunes in the
West; but the town, unlike the village, had not been deserted. As
force.

The

indigenous population had ebbed out, a tide of French

Canadian immigrants had flooded in. Conditions of work and life
which had ceased to be attractive to the descendants of the Pilgrim
Fathers seemed luxurious to these Norman peasants' children from
the sub-arctic hinterland of Quebec. Moreover, I was told, the
French Canadian immigrants were spreading from the towns of
New England on to the land, where, as peasants, they found themselves truly at home. On their frugal standard of living, American
rates of industrial wages left them with a surplus which quickly
mounted up to the purchase-price of a derelict New England farm.
The immigrants were actually re-populating the deserted countryside. Perhaps, on my next visit, I should find Town Hill itself no
Man
longer desolate. Yet if, on that forbidding spot, the works of
be
foreseen
overcame the wilderness for the second time, it could
fast as the

See pp. 15-16, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

72

would repeat itself with a difference. The fields and

orchards and even the houses might wear again in 1950 the aspect
which they had worn two centuries before; but this time the
blood in the veins of the farmers would be French and not English
and divine worship in the antique wooden church would be conducted no longer by a Presbyterian minister but by a Catholic

that history

priest!

seems possible that the contest between the French

Canadian and the New Englander for the mastery of North
America may not, after all, have been concluded and disposed of
War. For, when the
finally by the outcome of the Seven Years'
French flag was hauled down, the French peasant did not disappear
with the emblem of the French Government's sovereignty. Under
the tutelage of the Roman Catholic Church, this peasantry continued, undisturbed, to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
Earth; and now in the fullness of time the French Canadian is

Thus

it

making a counter-offensive into the heart of his old rival's homeland. He is conquering New England in the peasant's way
by
which
Governments
at
than
those
have
slower but surer methods

command. He

conducting his operations with the ploughshare and not with the sword, and he is asserting his ownership by
the positive act of colonizing the countryside and not by the
cartographical conceit of painting colours and drawing lines on a
scrap of paper. Meanwhile, law and religion and environment are
combining to assist him. The environment of a harsh countryside
keeps him exposed to a stimulus which no longer invigorates his
rival in the softer atmosphere of the distant Western cities. His
religion forbids him to restrict the size of his family by contratheir

ceptive

methods of

is

birth-control.

And United

States legislation,
countries overseas but not

which has restricted immigration from

from countries on the American Continent, has left the French
Canadian immigrant in a privileged position which is shared with
him by none but the Mexican. 1 Perhaps the present act in the
drama of North American history may end, after a century of
peaceful penetration, in a triumphal meeting between the two
resurgent Latin peasantries in the neighbourhood of the Federal
Capital of the United States! Is this the denouement that our
great-grandchildren are destined to witness in A.D. 2033 ? There
1
This Restriction of immigration into the United States has been effected by the
Immigration (Restriction) Acts of 1921 and 1924. It should be noted that the wide door
left open for immigration into the United States across the land-frontiers is only open

for native-born inhabitants of the adjoining American countries.

European or Asiatic
who attempts to enter the United States through Canada or Mexico, without having
secured a place in the annual quota of immigrants assigned to his own country of origin,
finds himself excluded. In this matter, the United States Bureau of Immigration has
adopted the British Admiralty's doctrine of 'continuous voyage*.

THE STIMULUS OF HARD COUNTRIES

have been reversals of fortune every

bit as strange as this in

73

North

American history before.

III.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

The Testimony of Philosophy, Mythology, and Religion

So much for comparisons between the respective stimulating
effects of physical environments which present different
degrees of
us
Let
now
the
same
from
a
different
difficulty.
approach
question
angle by comparing the respective stimulating effects of old ground
and new ground, apart from the intrinsic nature of the terrain.

Does the

effort of breaking

The

new ground

act as a stimulus in itself ?

answered
question
by the critical empiricism of an eighteenth-century Western philosopher as well as by the
wider spontaneous human experience which has found a cumulative expression in Mythology. David Hume concludes his essay
Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences with the observais

in the affirmative

and sciences, like some plants, require a fresh

however
rich the land may be, and however you may
soil; and,
recruit it by art or care, it will never, when once exhausted, produce anything that is perfect or finished in the kind'. The same
affirmative answer is conveyed in the myth of the Expulsion from
Eden and in the myth of the Exodus from Egypt. In their removal
out of the magic garden into the workaday world, Adam and Eve
transcend the food-gathering economy of Primitive Mankind and
give birth to the fathers of an agricultural and a pastoral civilization. 1 In their exodus from Egypt, the Children of Israel
though

tion that 'the arts

they hanker in the wilderness after the flesh pots of the house of
2
bondage
give birth to a generation which helps to lay the
foundations of the Syriac Civilization in taking possession of
the Promised Land. 3 When we turn from myths to records, we
find these intuitions confirmed by the evidence of empirical
observation.

In the histories of

religions,

we find that

to the consternation of

those who ask the scornful question: 'Can any good thing come
the Messiah of Jewry does come out of that
out of Nazareth ?' 4
obscure village in 'Galilee of the Gentiles': 5 an outlying piece of
new ground which had been captured for Jewry by the Macca6
bees rather less than a century before the date of Jesus's birth.
And when the indomitable growth of this Galilaean grain of
i

2 See
See II. C (ii) (b) I, vol i, p. 290, above.
pp. 24-5, above.
See the passage quoted in II. B, vol. i, p 198, above.
John 1.46. Compare John vn. 41 and 52, and Matt iv. 14-1 6, which is a reminiscence

of Isaiah ix. 1-2.

s Matt. iv.
15.

Regnante Alexandra Jannaeo, 103-76 B.C.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

74

mustard-seed turns the consternation of Orthodox Jewry into

active hostility, and this not only in Judaea itself but among the
Jewish diaspori, then the propagators of the new faith deliberately
c
turn to the Gentiles' 1 and proceed to conquer new worlds for
the range of
Christianity on ground which had lain wholly beyond
the strong right arm of an Alexander Jannaeus. In the history of
the same story, for the decisive victories of this
Indie faith are not won on the old ground of the Indie World. The
Hinayana first finds an open road in Ceylon, which was a colonial
annex of the Indie Civilization. And the Mahayana starts its
in the
long and roundabout journey towards its future domain
Far East by capturing the Syriacized and Hellenized Indie province
of the Panjab. It is on the new ground of these alien worlds that the

Buddhism

it

is

highest expressions of the Indie and the Syriac religious genius

in witness to the truth that 'a prophet
eventually bear their fruit
is not without honour save in his own country and in his own
house'. 2

The Testimony of the

'Related' Civilizations

A convenient empirical test of this social 'law' is

by those
civilizations of the 'related' class that have arisen partly on ground
already occupied by the respective antecedent civilization and
partly on ground which the 'related' civilization has taken over
on its
either from primitive societies or from other civilizations
offered

own

account, without the antecedent civilization having here precan test the respective stimuceded it and prepared the way.
lating effects of old ground and new ground by surveying the
career of any one of these 'related' civilizations, marking the point
or points within its domain at which its achievements in any line
of social activity have been most signal, and then observing
whether the ground on which such points are located is new
ground or old.
Let us begin with the extreme case of the Babylonic Civilization,

We

whose original home has been found to be wholly coincident with

that of the 'apparented' civilization the Sumeric. 3 In which of its
4
three foci
did the Babylonic CivilizaBabylonia, Elam, Assyria
:

most distinguish itself? Undoubtedly in Assyria. Whether

we judge by prowess in arms or by constructive ability in politics
or by creative genius in art, we must pronounce that the Babylonic

tion

Civilization reached a higher level in Assyria than in either of the

other two Babylonic countries. And was Assyria old ground or
1

Actp xin. 46.

Matthew

See the table and the footnote in vol i, p. 132, above.

See I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 116-17, above.

xiii.

57.

Compare Mark

vi.

4;

Luke

iv.

24; John

iv. 44.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

new ?

75

turns out, on further examination, that Assyria was the

one portion of the original home of the antecedent Sumeric Civilization which possibly might be regarded as new ground
at any
rate

It

by comparison with Sumer and Akkad and Elam for when we

;

probe the

local history of Assyria as

archaeological knowledge

deep as the present state of our

allows us to penetrate, we find some

reason for supposing that Assyria was not one of the original communities into which the Sumeric Society articulated itself after its
albeit a colony that was
birth, but was in some sense a colony
almost coeval with the mother country. Perhaps it is not altogether
fantastic to surmise that the stimulus derived from this breaking of
new ground in Assyria at some early stage in the growth of the
Sumeric Civilization may account in part for the special vigour
which was afterwards displayed by the 'affiliated' Babylonic Civilization on this Assyrian ground. 1
Turning next to the Hindu Civilization, let us mark the local
sources of the new creative elements in Hindu life
particularly in
which
has
been
the
central
and
religion,
always
supreme activity of
the Hindu Society.
find these sources in the South. It was

We

here that all the distinctive features of Hinduism took shape 2 the
cult of Gods represented by material objects or images and housed
in temples the emotional personal relation between the worshipper
and the particular God to whose worship he has devoted himself;
the metaphysical sublimation of image-worship and emotionalism
in an intellectually sophisticated theology (Sankara, the father of
:

Hindu Theology, was born, circa A.D. 788, in Southern Malabar). 3

All these features of Hinduism bear a Southern stamp. And was
the South of India old ground or new ? It was new ground, inasmuch
had not been incorporated into the domain of the 'apparented'
Indie Civilization until the time of the Maurya Empire (circa
4
323-185 B.C.), when the Indie Society, after having first broken
down and then passed through a Time of Troubles, at length
entered upon that advanced stage in the disintegration of a civilization which we have learnt to recognize as a 'universal state'.
Let us look now at the two civilizations that are 'affiliated* to the
5
Syriac, namely the Arabic and the Iranic.
as

it

of the Arabic Society, did its rather

feeble pulse beat least feebly? Assuredly in Egypt, where a ghost
c
of the Abbasid Caliphate (a ghost, that is to say, of the 'reintegrated'
of the
Syriac universal state) was evoked in the thirteenth century

Where, during the short

life

*
For another explanation of Assyria's rise as a reaction to the stimulus of pressure
from the human environment, see the present volume, pp. i33~7> below.
a See
Eliot, Sir Charles: Hinduism and Buddhism (London 1921, Arnold, 3 vols.),

vol.
3
s

i,

Introduction, p. xli.
Eliot, op. cit , vol.

See
See

i.

(i)

(6), vol.

i,

* See I. C (i)
with
Annex
I, above.
pp. 67-72,
ii,

p. 207.

(i), vol. i,

pp. 86-7, above.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

76

Christian Era by the Mamluks. 1 It was in Egypt that the Arabic

literature and the Arabic architecture kept themselves alive during
the quarter of a millennium that elapsed between the inauguration

of the Cairene Caliphate and the Ottoman conquest. And was

Egypt old ground or new? It was new ground inasmuch as it had
not begun to be incorporated into the domain of the Syriac Civilization, to which the Arabic Civilization was 'affiliated', before the
entry of this Syriac Civilization into its universal state and even
then the 'dead trunk' of the indigenous Egyptiac Civilization,
which still cumbered the ground in Egypt, was only absorbed into
the tissues of the Syriac Civilization slowly and arduously.
The conquest of Egypt by the Achaemenian Empire, which was
the original Syriac universal state, 2 was a mere external annexation.
The Egyptians were simply subdued politically by force of arms
;

and even this only intermittently. The Achaemenian regime

made no progress whatever towards converting their souls and,
when the Syriac universal state was interrupted by the intrusion
of Hellenism, 'Hellenization' seemed a more likely destiny for the
residue of the Egyptiac Society than a merger with the Syriac
Society which had been submerged, quite as deeply as the
Egyptiac Society itself, under the Hellenic flood. It was not until
both the Hellenic and the Egyptiac Society were in extremis that,
in the competition for spiritual dominion over Egypt, the Hellenic
Society lost and the Syriac Society gained the upper hand. The
ultimate victory of the Syriac Civilization in Egypt was first foreshadowed when Egypt was captivated by Monophysitism a
version of Christianity in which the Syriac reaction against Hel;

lenism expressed itself before the dissolution of the Roman Empire

and the re-integration of the Syriac universal state in the 'Abbasid

The victory of the Syriac

consummated when the population

Egypt was only

of Egypt
after having successively abandoned their ancient Egyptiac religion for Primitive
were
Christianity and Primitive Christianity for Monophysitism
converted en masse from Monophysitism to Islam; and this did not
happen until the 'Abbasid Caliphate itself had dissolved into the
interregnum (circa A.D. 975-1275)* out of which the Arabic Civilization afterwards emerged. Thus, in Egypt, the Arabic Civilization
was occupying ground which the 'apparented' Syriac civilization
had not completely made its own until the Arabic Civilization was
on the point of coming to birth. Yet it was on this new ground in
Caliphate.

See

The

Civilization in

a See vol.
i, p. 70, above.
i, pp. 75-9, above.
reaction of the Syrian Civilization against the intrusion of Hellenism, of which
this Monophysite version of Christianity was one symptom in one
phase, is discussed
further in II. 3D (vi), on p. 236, and II.
(vn), on pp. 386-7, as well as in Pail IX, below.
* See vol.
i, pp, 67-8, above.

vol.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

77
that
the
Arabic
Civilization
Egypt
displayed such vigour as it did
before
its
career
was
display
prematurely closed by incorporation
into the body social of its lustier Iranic sister. This is noteworthy,
considering that the original home of the Arabic Civilization

included not only the new ground of Egypt but also the old ground
of Syria
the very region in which the 'apparented Syriac Civilization had taken its rise. Yet, in the history of the 'affiliated*
Arabic Civilization, Syria always played the subordinate and Egypt
the leading part.
the sister of the
Again, in what areas did the Iranic Civilization
most conspicuously flourish ? Almost all the great achieveSyriac
ments of the Iranic Civilization in the principal spheres of social
not only in war and in politics, but even in architecture
activity
and in literature 1 were accomplished at one or other of the two
extremities of the Iranic World either in Hindustan, at one end, or
in Anatolia, at the other; 2 and they culminated respectively, in
these two areas, in the Mughal and in the Ottoman Empire. Were
these two Iranic empires erected on old ground or on new ground ?
The ground was new in both cases. The Ottoman Empire was
3

erected on the domain of the Orthodox Christian Civilization; and

indeed it occupied this domain so effectively that it actually performed, for the main body of Orthodox Christendom, the function
of a universal state. 3 Similarly, the Mughal Empire was erected on
the domain of the Hindu Civilization and performed the function of
a universal state in the Hindu World. 4 Thus the Iranic Civilization
1 Persian literature
which in the early age of Iranic history continued to flourish, and
this in the heart of the Iranic World, in Iran itself
is a conspicuous apparent exception
to the general rule here formulated. This Persian literature, however, is to be regarded
as a creation not of the Iranic but of the 'apparented' Syriac Civilization (as Latin
literature is a creation of the Hellenic Civilization and not of the 'affiliated* Western or
Latin Christendom). The genesis of Persian literature was an event of the 'Abbasid age,
when the Syriac Civilization was enjoying a kind of 'Indian Summer* after the reintegralion of its universal state. It is to this age of the Syriac Civilization that Persian literature
genetically belongs, although chronologically the lifetime of one of its great masters,
Sa*di of Shiraz (vivebat area A D. 1 184-129x5, falls within the post-Synac interregnum,
and the lifetimes of two others Hafiz of Shiraz and Jam! of Khurasan fall respectively
within the fourteenth and the fifteenth century of the Christian Era: that is to say,
within a time when the Iranic Civilization had already emerged
Hafiz and the other
Persian poets of his generation flourished under social conditions curiously resembling
those which produced both the Scandinavian skalds and the Ionian Homendae. *It
would seem that the existence of numerous small courts, rivals to one another, and each
striving to outshine the others, was singularly favourable to the encouragement of poets
and other men of letters, who, if disappointed or slighted in one city, could generally
find in another a more favourable reception.' (Browne, E G.:
Literary History of
Persia, vol.
(Cambridge 1928, University Press), pp 160-1 ) Thereafter, however,
from the beginning of the sixteenth century of the Christian Era, Persian literature
wilted in Iian under the regime of the Safawis. (For a discussion of this last-mentioned
:
Literary History of Persia, vol iv (Cambridge 1928,
phenomenon, see Browne, E,
University Press), pp. 24-31; and the present Study, I.
i,
(i) (6), Annex I, in vol

G A

above.)

original domain of the Iranic Civilization, see I. C (i)

pp. 68-9, above.
3 For this role of the Ottoman
Empire, see further Part III. A, vol. iii, pp. 26-7, and
4 See Part VI, below.
Part VI, below.
a

For the area covered by the

(6), vol.

i,

78

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

displayed, at two points which were remote from one another, the
identical idiosyncrasy of flourishing best on foreign soil. Moreover, it is to be noted that, in both cases, the acquisition of this
foreign soil had not started until after the beginning of the interregnum (circa A.D. 975-1275) into which the universal state of the

'apparented' Syriac Civilization dissolved and out of which the

'affiliated' Iranic Civilization itself emerged. The first permanent
conquests of Hindu territory in the Kabul Valley and in the Panjab

were made

(circa A.D.

by Sebuktegin and his more

of Ghaznah; the first permanent
1

975-I025)

celebrated successor Mahmud

conquests of Orthodox Christian territory were

made

(circa A.D.

1070-5) by the Saljuqs.

Accordingly, it was on sites acquired piecemeal from alien
civilizations at recent dates that the Iranic Civilization eventually
erected its most imposing monuments. On the other hand, the
second home which the 'apparented' Syriac Civilization had once
found on the Iranian Plateau and in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin 2
never became the most active focus of the 'affiliated' Iranic Civilization, in spite of the fact that these two regions lay in the heart
of the zone in which the Iranic Civilization originally emerged.
During the age when, in the new territories conquered from
Orthodox Christendom and Hinduism, the Iranic Civilization was
going from strength to strength, it succumbed in Iran and in
Transoxania to a series of local misdevelopments. 3 In the first
place, during the post-Syriac interregnum, these regions bore the
the last and most destructive
brunt of the Mongol invasion
avalanche of the post-Syriac Volkerwanderung. Thereafter, they
lay torpid under the dead weight of the two local Mongol 'successorstates' of the 'Abbasid Caliphate
the appanage of the Il-Khans and
the appanage of the House of Chaghatay and these disorderly and
sluggish regimes only disappeared to make way for the devouring
militarism of Timur. The final blows, by which the two regions
were prostrated simultaneously at the beginning of the sixteenth
century of the Christian Era, were the establishment of the Shi'i
Power in Iran and the conquest of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin by the
Uzbeg barbarians off the Eurasian Steppe two violent political
transformations which had the identic effect of fixing a great
religious and cultural gulf between the geographical heart of the
;

Sebuktegin established his suzerainty over the Kabul Valley in A.D. 075; and
conquered it and forcibly converted the population to Islam in A.D. 1021,
(Vaidya, C. V.- A History of Mediaeval India (Poona 1921-4, Oriental Book-Supplying
Agency, 2 vols.), vol. i, p. 193 ) Sebuktegm's raids on the Panjab began in A.D. 986-7;
Mahmud raided Kanauj in A.D. 1019 (Smith, V.: The Early History of India, 3rd edition
2 See I. C
(Oxford 1914, Clarendon Press), p. 382).
(i) (6), vol. i, pp. 80-2, above.
a See I. C
and
(i) (6), Annex I, in vol. i, II. D (v), pp. 144-8 of the present volume
1

Mahmud

Part IV.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

Iranic

World and

either of its extremities.

extremities and not at the heart of the Iranic

Thus
body

it

79

was

in the

social that the

blood pulsated most vigorously; or, in terms of our original metaphor, it was on new ground and not on old ground that the seed of
the Iranic culture produced its finest harvests.
In what regions has the greatest vigour been displayed by the
Orthodox Christian Civilization? A glance at its history shows
that

centre of gravity has lain in different regions at

different times. In the first age after its emergence out of the postHellenic interregnum, the life of Orthodox Christendom was most
its

social

vigorous on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles

in the central and north-eastern parts of the Anatolian Plateau
or, in the administrative terminology of the day, in the Anatolic
and Armeniac army corps districts (themata) of the East Roman
Empire. Thereafter, in the course of the two centuries which
elapsed between the conversion of Bulgaria to Orthodox Christianity in A.D. 865-70 and the occupation of the interior of Anatolia
by the Saljuq Turkish converts to Islam in A.D. 1070-5, the centre
of gravity of Orthodox Christendom shifted from the Asiatic to the
European side of the Straits; and, as far as the main body of
Orthodox Christian Society is concerned, it has remained in the
Balkan Peninsula ever since. In modern times, however, that
portion of Orthodox Christendom which constitutes the main body
of the society from an historical standpoint has been far outstripped
in growth and overshadowed in importance by the mighty offshoot
of Orthodox Christendom in Russia. 1
Are these three areas in which the Orthodox Christian Civilization has successively raised its head to be regarded as old ground
or as new ? Central and North-Eastern Anatolia was certainly new
ground as far as the Orthodox Christian Civilization was concerned.
It was the former domain of the Hittite Civilization; and although
the Hittite Civilization had died a premature death by violence
during the Volkerwanderung in which the Hellenic Civilization
was brought to birth, 2 its Anatolian homeland was not penetrated
by Hellenism until after the destruction of the Achaemenian
Empire by Alexander the Great. Even then, this region remained
unhellenized much longer than many places that were far more
distant from the Aegean. The process did not set in vigorously
here until after the last of the local 'successor-states' of the
Achaemenian Empire had been converted into Roman provinces;
and the first positive local contributions to the Hellenic culture
* An offshoot which has neither lost its
importance nor ceased to be recognizable
an
through being draped twice over first by Peter the Great and then by Lenin
exotic fancy dress of the momentarily fashionable Western cut.
2 See I. C
above.
(i) (6), vol. i, pp. 93 and 100-1,

8o

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

were made

as late as the fourth century of the Christian

Era by the

Cappadocian Fathers of the Church. Thus the earliest centre of

gravity of the Orthodox Christian Civilization in the interior of
Anatolia lay in a region which had not been completely incorporated
into the domain of the 'apparented' Hellenic Civilization until
Hellenism was in articulo mortis.
The second centre of gravity in the interior of the Balkan
Peninsula was established on new ground likewise. For the veneer
of Hellenic Civilization in a Latin medium, with which this region
had been thinly overlaid, in the lifetime of the Roman Empire,
during a span of some five centuries, had been destroyed without
1
leaving a trace during the interregnum into which the Empire had
eventually dissolved. The destruction was more thoroughgoing

was

in any of the western provinces with the single

exception of Britain. In the Balkan Peninsula, as in Britain, the
superficial change of regime was accompanied by a radical change

here than

it

of population and religion. The Christian Roman provincials were

not simply conquered but were practically exterminated by the
pagan barbarian invaders; and these barbarians eradicated all
elements of local culture so effectively that when their descendants
repented of the evil which their fathers had done they had to obtain
fresh seed from outside in order to start cultivation again. By the
time when Orthodox Christianity was re-sown in the Balkan
Peninsula in the ninth century of the Christian Era, the soil had
been lying fallow for more than three centuries that is to say, for
about twice as long as the soil of Britain had been lying fallow at
the time when Augustine was sent on his mission by Gregory the
Great. Thus the region in which the Orthodox Christian Civilization established its second centre of gravity was ground which had
recently been reclaimed de novo from the wilderness.
As for the third centre of gravity in Russia, there is no need to
labour the point. The offshoot of Orthodox Christendom which
was transplanted to Russia in the tenth century of the Christian
:

Era was propagated there in virgin soil on which no civilization had

ever grown before; and this new Russian offshoot of Orthodox
Christendom was separated from the main body by a double
barrier of sea and steppe. 2
Russia was new ground with a
1 The survival
of a Romance language among the mountains of South-Eastern
Europe, from the Carpathians to the Pindus, cannot properly be regarded as a trace of the
Latin version of the Hellenic Civilization
the Balkan Peninsula; for the survival of the
language did not carry with it any survival of the culture of which this language had once
been the vehicle. The still Latin-speaking and still nominally Christian Vlachs and
Rumans had to be converted, in 'the Middle Ages', to the Orthodox Christian Civilization de novo, just like the contemporary Bulgars and Jugoslavs, who were
pagan barbarians speaking outlandish tongues.
2 At the
present time, the domain of Orthodox Christendom in Russia and its domain
in the Balkan Peninsula are geographically isolated from one another no
longer. The

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

vengeance; and

81

Orthodox
Christian Civilization has flourished with an exuberance which
stands out in contrast to its strained and stunted growth elsewhere.
It is still

it

is

noteworthy

more remarkable

that,

in Russia, the

to observe that while the centre of

gravity of the Orthodox Christian Civilization has shifted twice in

the course of Orthodox Christian history, it has never lain in the
homeland of the 'apparented' Hellenic Civilization in the Aegean
area, although this area has been included in the domain of Ortho-

dox Christendom from first to

In the early age of the Orthodox

Christian Civilization, when its centre of gravity lay on the
Anatolian Plateau, the Aegean frontage of Anatolia, which had
played a leading role in the early age of the Hellenic Civilization,
was perhaps the least important district in the Asiatic peninsula. 1
Again, since the centre of gravity of the main body of Orthodox
Christendom has shifted to the European side of the Straits, it has
normally lain on the landward and not on the seaward side of
Salonica. In fact, peninsular Greece, which was the hub of the
Hellenic universe after the primacy had once passed from Ionia, has
never played a prominent part in Orthodox Christian history except
on two occasions one in the 'medieval' and the other in the
'modern' age of Western history when Greece has served as a
last.

Christians of the Balkan area now march with their Ukrainian coRussian area along a line extending from the Central Carpathians
through the Bukovina and Bessarabia to the Black Sea coast. This geographical continuity between the Russian and the Balkan domains of Orthodox Christendom does not,
however, date back farther than the eighteenth century. The two domains were separated
from one another by an outlying strip of the Eurasian Steppe until after the RussoTurkish War of A.D. 1768-74 It was only in the sequel to this war, when the north
coast of the Black Sea and its whole hinterland were annexed to the Russian Empire,
that this insulating strip of steppe was cleared of the last of its Nomadic pastoral tenants
and was colonized with an agricultural population of Orthodox Christian peasants.
This was the final stage in a gradual converging encroachment of the Orthodox Christian
peasant's ploughland upon the Muslim or pagan herdsman's cattle-range which had
been in progress since the Ruman pioneers had descended in the fourteenth century
from the Transylvanian highlands into the plains of Wallachia and Moldavia, and since
as they did at about the same date
the Zaporogian Cossacks had established themselves
on their island-fortress in the River Dmepr. (See II. D (v), pp. 154-7, below.) In
the tenth century, however, this encroachment had not yet begun. At that time, the
pagan Turkish Pechenegs were pasturing their flocks on virgin steppe-land from the
banks of the Don to the Iron Gates of the Danube without interruption The Orthodox

Rumanian Orthodox

religionists of the

Christian missionaries who carried the seeds of their civilization to Russia could only
icach this new field by facing the perils of sea and steppe in succession. They had first to
travel by ship from Constantinople to the Crimea, and thence to pick their way across
the open prairie, where they were at the mercy of the Pechenegs until they found safety
at last in the southern outskirts of the Russian forests.
*
When the East Roman Army was concentrated in Anatolia during the military crisis
produced by the Peisian and Arab invasions in the seventh century of the Christian
Era, this district was assigned to the Thracensian Army Corps, which was permanently
withdrawn from the European district from which it derived its name and was stationed
here in Western Anatolia in order to support the Anatolic Army Corps, which had been
withdrawn from Syria on to the Anatolian Plateau. The Anatolici were the front-line
troops; the Thracenses were mere reserves. Accordingly, the Thracensian district was
httle accounted of, whereas the Anatolic district, in conjunction with the Armeniac,
swayed the destinies of the East Roman Empire.
II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

82

Watergate through which Western influence has forced an entry

into the Orthodox Christian World. 1
Turning now to Hellenic history, let us ask our question apropos
of the two regions which (as we have just observed in passing)
successively held the primacy in the Hellenic World. When the
Hellenic Civilization flowered on the Anatolian coast of the Aegean
and afterwards on the European Greek peninsula, was it on new
ground or on old ground that this flowering took place ? It was on
new ground, here again for neither of these regions had lain within
the original home of the antecedent Minoan Civilization, to which
the Hellenic Civilization was related. On the European Greek
peninsula, the Minoan Civilization, even at its widest extension in
its latest age, had held no more than a chain of fortified positions
3 On the
Anatolian coast
along the southern and eastern coast-lines.
of the Aegean, the failure of our modern Western archaeologists
to find traces of the presence, or even influence, of the Minoan
Civilization has been so signal that it can hardly be attributed to
chance, but seems rather to indicate that for some reason this
coast actually did not come within the Minoans' range. 3 As far as
we know, the first settlers from the Aegean to occupy the west
coast of Anatolia effectively were those refugees of Minoan culture
and Greek speech who were driven thither, as late as the twelfth
century B.C., in the same final convulsion of the post-Minoan
Volkerwanderung that drove the Philistines on to the coast of
4 These were the founders of Aeolis and
Ionia; and thus
Syria.
Hellenism flowered first on soil which the antecedent civilization
had never seriously cultivated. Moreover, when the seeds were
scattered abroad from Ionia into other parts of the Hellenic World,
the Ionic soil on which they flowered next was the stony ground of
Attica on the opposite side of the Aegean. They did not germinate
in the Cyclades : the Ionic islands which stood, like stepping-stones,
between the Ionic mainlands in Asia and in Europe. Through the
whole course of Hellenic history the Cycladic islanders played a
subordinate role as humble servants of the successive masters of the
sea. This is remarkable, since the Cyclades had been one of the
two foci of the antecedent Minoan Civilization. The other Minoan
focus, of course, was Crete; and the role played in Hellenic history
by Crete is even more surprising.
;

* The first of these two

forcible entries was the military conquest of peninsular Greece
by the Latins, during and after the so-called 'Fourth Crusade'. The second was the
infiltration of modern Western ideas which began towards the end of the seventeenth
century and came to a head politically, some hundred and fifty years later, in the Greek
War of Independence which broke out in A.D. 1821.

a
3

I. C (i) (), Annex II, vol

above.
On this point, see I. C (i) (b), vol. i, p. 95,
See I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 100-2, above.

See

i,

above.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

83

Crete might have been expected to retain its social importance

not only for historical reasons, as the place in which the Minoan
Civilization had attained its culmination, but for
geographical
reasons as well. Crete was by far the largest island in the Aegean
Archipelago, and it lay athwart two of the most important searoutes in the Hellenic World. Every ship that sailed from the
Peiraeus for Sicily had to pass between the western end of Crete
and Laconia; every ship that sailed from the Peiraeus for Egypt
had to pass between the eastern end of Crete and Rhodes. Yet,
whereas Laconia and Rhodes each played a leading part in Hellenic
history, Crete remained aloof, obscure and benighted from first
to last. While Hellas all around was giving birth to statesmen
and poets and artists and philosophers, the island which had once
been the home of the Minoan Civilization now bred nothing more
reputable than medicine-men and mercenaries and pirates; and
though the greatness of Minoan Crete had left its impress upon the
Hellenic Mythology in the fables of Minos the thalassocrat and his
brother Rhadamanthys, the judge of the dead, this did not save the
latter-day Cretan scapegrace from becoming a Hellenic byword.
Indeed, he has passed judgement on himself in the song of Hybrias 1
and in a hexameter which has been embedded, like a fly in amber,
in the canon of Christian Scripture. 'One of themselves, even a
prophet of their own, said: "The Cretians are always liars, evil
>2
Thus even the Apostle of the Gentiles
beasts, slow bellies."
the
Hellenes
of
Crete
from the charity which he bestowed
excepted
3
upon Hellenes in general.
Let us ask our question once again
this time in regard to the
Far Eastern Civilization which is 'affiliated' to the Sinic Civilization.
At what points in its domain has this Far Eastern Civilization
shown the greatest vigour ? The Japanese and the Cantonese stand
out unmistakably as its most vigorous representatives to-day; and
both these peoples have sprung from soil which is new ground and
not old ground from the standpoint of Far Eastern history. As
regards the south-eastern seaboard of China, we have noticed in an
earlier chapter* that it was not incorporated into the domain of the

An

English translation of the Song of Hybrias, by Gilbert Murray, will be found

Part III. A, vol. in, on p 87, footnote i.
2 The
Epistle of Paul to Titus, ch. i, v. 12. The hexameter here quoted runs in Greek :
*

below

Kp-fjres act 0c?ar<u, KCLKO. Bypla,, yaarepes apyot.

context
of this verse in the poem called 'Minos' which was attributed
original
to the Cretan 'prophet' Epimenides, see I C (i) (), vol. i, p 99, footnote 2.
3 The Cretans have not
forgiven St. Paul for immortalizing their ill repute, and they
have racked their brains to turn the passage of Scripture in which they are pilloried to the
Apostle's own discredit. When the present writer was travelling in Crete in the year
1912, a Cretan peasant adjured him in all seriousness to discount Paul's testimony on the
what had given Paul his antiground that Paul was a biased witness. On being asked
Cretan bias, the peasant explained that a Cietan had once got the better of Paul in a
+ In I. C
business transaction!
(i) (5), vol. i, p. 90, footnote 2.

For the

84

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

'apparentecT Sinic Society until the last phase of Sinic history, and
even then only on the superficial plane of politics, as a frontier
province of the Empire of the Han, which was the Sinic universal
Its inhabitants remained barbarians; and their successors
state.
in the four modern Chinese provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi,
Fukien, and Chekiang testify, in the nomenclature which they
employ, that they claim no part or lot in the chapter of history
which the Han Dynasty brought to a close. They resign the
glorious name of 'Han people' to their neighbours in the basins of
the Yangtse and the Yellow River, and use the name of 'T'ang
people' to designate themselves. In this designation they signify
that their own history did not begin until the Far Eastern Civilization had already emerged from the post-Sinic interregnum for the
lineaments of the Far Eastern Civilization had taken shape before
the close of the fifth century of the Christian Era, whereas the T'ang
Dynasty was not founded until A.D. 618. Thus the four provinces
of China Proper which are now the most vigorous and progressive
are the four in which the Far Eastern Civilization has broken new
ground. As for the Japanese Archipelago, the offshoot of the Far
Eastern Civilization which was transplanted thither, by way of
Korea, in the sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian Era was
propagated there on ground where there was no trace of any previous culture. The strong growth of this offshoot of the Far Eastern
Civilization on the virgin soil of Japan is comparable to the growth
of the offshoot of the Orthodox Christian Civilization which was
1
transplanted from the Anatolian Plateau to the virgin soil of Russia.
;

The Special Stimulus of Migration Overseas

This survey of the relative fertility of old ground and new
ground, as exemplified in the histories of seven 'related' civiliza2
for the doctrine
tions, has given us a certain empirical support
which is implicit in the myths of the Exodus and the Expulsion
the doctrine that the ordeal of breaking new ground has an intrinsic
stimulating effect. Before passing on from the physical to the
human environment, let us pause to glance at certain illustrations
:

by which the foregoing empirical evidence may be reinforced.

These additional illustrations confirm the view which is suggested by the unusual vitality of the Orthodox Christian Civilization in Russia and of the Far Eastern Civilization in
that
Japan
the stimulating effect of breaking new ground is greatest of all when
the new ground can only be reached by crossing the sea.
The special stimulus inherent in transmarine colonization appears
1

See pp. 8o-r, above.

For a defence of
Annex, below.

this empirical evidence against a possible

criticism, see II.

(m),

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

85

of the Mediterranean during the first half

of the last millennium B.C. when the Western Basin of the Mediterranean was being colonized competitively by maritime
pioneers
very clearly in the history

representing three different civilizations in the Levant. It appears,

for instance, in the degree to which the two
greatest of these
colonial foundations
Syriac Carthage and Hellenic Syracuse-

each outstripped its parent-city. 1 Carthage dwarfed Tyre in the

volume and value of her commerce, and on this economic basis she

up a

empire to which the parent-city did not and

could not aspire. Syracuse likewise dwarfed her parent Corinth in
political power, and perhaps even more signally in the contribution
which she made to Hellenic culture. Again, the Achaean colonies
in Magna Graecia became busy seats of Hellenic commerce and
industry, and brilliant centres of Hellenic thought, as early as the
sixth century B.C., whereas the parent Achaean communities
along
the northern coast of the Peloponnese remained in a backwater
built

political

main stream of Hellenic history for three more

centuries, and only emerged from this long obscurity after the
Hellenic Civilization had passed its zenith. As for the Locrians,
outside

the

who were

the Achaeans' neighbours on both sides of the Ionian

Sea, it was only the Epizephyrian Locrians, in their transmarine
settlement in Italy, who ever distinguished themselves at all. The
Locrians of Continental Greece remained obscure from first to last.
The most striking case of all is that of the Etruscans, 2 who were
the third party competing with the Greeks and the Phoenicians
for the colonization of the Western Mediterranean. In this competition, the Etruscans effectively held their own. Their colonies on
the west coast of Italy were comparable, in size and number, to the
Greek colonies in Magna Graecia and Sicily and to the Phoenician
colonies in Africa and Spain; and the Etruscan colonists, unlike
either the Phoenicians or the Greeks, were not content to remain
within sight of the sea across which they had come. They pushed
forward from the west coast of Italy into the interior with an dlan
which carried them on across the Appennines and across the Po,
until their outposts halted at last at the foot of the Alps. At the
same time, these colonial Etruscans remained in close contact with
their Greek and Phoenician rivals and though this contact gradually drew them into the ambit of the Hellenic Society and eventually
resulted in their being incorporated into the Hellenic body social,
this cultural 'conversion' increased rather than diminished the
;

importance of their position in the Mediterranean World.

Thus

colonization of North America, Boston in Massachuparent-town in Lincolnshire, and New York and New Orleans
have outstripped the two cities in England and France after which they are respectively
a See I. C
Annex II, above.
named,
(i) (6), vol. i, p. 114, footnote 3, with
1

As, in the

modern European

setts has outstripped its

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

86

the Etruscan colonies in Italy are illuminated by the full light of

history; and we are also not without evidence of an abortive
Etruscan colonial enterprise in another quarter a daring but unsuccessful attempt to compete with the Greeks, in Greek home waters,
for the mastery of the Dardanelles and for the command of the
Black Sea. 1 It is the more remarkable that the Etruscan homeland
in the Levant, which sent out overseas the Etruscan colonists of
Italy and the Etruscan colonists of Lemnos, should be an historical
terra incognita. No historical record of its exact location survives
and nothing can be built on the Hellenic legend that the Etruscans
have to be content with the knowledge,
came from Lydia. 2
supplied by the records of 'the New Empire' of Egypt, that the
ancestors of the Etruscans, like the ancestors of the Achaeans, took
part in the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung and in the presumption
that the ports from which the descendants of those older Etruscan
sea-raiders afterwards set sail to make their fortunes in the west lay
somewhere on the Asiatic coast of the Levant in the no-man's-land
between Greek Side and Phoenician Aradus. This surprising gap
in the historical record can only mean one thing: 3 namely, that the
Etruscans who stayed at home never did anything worth recording.
The astonishing contrast between the nonentity of the Etruscans at
home and their eminence overseas gives the measure of the stimulus
which they must have received in the process of transmarine
:

We

colonization.

The
all

stimulating effect of crossing the sea is perhaps greatest of

in a transmarine migration which occurs in the course of a

Volkerwanderung.

Such occurrences seem to be uncommon. The only instances

which the writer of this Study can call to mind are the migration of
the Teucrians, Aeolians, lonians, and Dorians across the Aegean to
the west coast of Anatolia and the migration of the Teucrians and
Philistines round the eastern end of the Mediterranean to the coast
of Syria in the course of the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung; the
migration of the Angles and Jutes across the North Sea to Britain in
the course of the post-Hellenic Volkerwanderung the consequent
migration of the Cornavii and other Britons across the Channel to
the Armorican Peninsula of Gaul the contemporary migration of
the Irish Scots across the North Channel to the corner of North
Britain that is now called Argyll; 4 and the migrations of the
;

See I. C (i) (), Annex II, in vol i, above.

This legend may have no better basis than the not very close resemblance between
two proper names : Tyrrhenoi and Torrheboi.
3 Pace those modern Western scholars who take
this to mean that the Etruscans of
*
autochthonous
Italians or else immigrants, by an overland route,
Italy were either
from the interior of the European Continent.
4 See II. D
(v), p 194, and II. D (vii), pp. 323-4, below.
1

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

87

Scandinavians in the course of the Volkerwanderung which followed

the abortive evocation of a ghost of the Roman Empire by the
1
This Scandinavian Volkerwanderung took place
Carolingians.
almost entirely by sea, and this in several directions from Norway
across the North Atlantic to the Shetlands and Orkneys and thence
by way of the Hebrides to Ireland and by way of the Faroes to
:

Denmark across the North Sea to England; from

either Norway or Denmark down the English Channel to Normandy; and from Sweden across the Baltic to Russia.
The Philistine migration, as we have observed at an earlier point
Iceland; from

in this chapter, 2

came to a standstill in an easy environment which

a
soporific effect upon the immigrants after they had
produced
settled down and this sequel would appear to have neutralized any
stimulating effect that may have been produced by the previous
;

The

likewise, appears to have

produced no appreciable stimulating effect to judge by the rather
and this in
undistinguished subsequent history of the Bretons

sea-passage.

British migration,

spite of the facts that the new Continental Brittany was decidedly
a hard country, and that the new-comers from overseas did not

establish their footing there without having to encounter and overcome a considerable resistance, both from the Roman Church and
from the Prankish 'successor-state* of the Roman Empire. 4 In the
that is to say, in the transmarine
other four instances, however
migrations of the lonians, the Angles, the Scots, and the Scandiwe can discern certain striking phenomena which have an
navians
inner connexion with one another and which appear in conjunction, in each instance, with singular uniformity, while they are not
to be found in the far more numerous instances of migration overland.
Considering that the four migrations in question have
occurred quite independently of one another at wide intervals of

time and place, 5

we may

venture, perhaps, to generalize from

them

*
For
For the abortive Scandinavian Civilization, see II
(vii), pp. 340-60, below.
the Scandinavian Heroic Age, out of which the abortive Scandinavian Civilization failed
to come to birth, see Part VIII, below. For the abortive Carolmgian ghost of the Roman
Empire, see Part X, below.
* See
pp. 49-51, above.
3
Moreover, the Philistine migration was only maritime in part The flotilla which
skirted the Asiatic coast was accompanied by a train of ox-carts in which the women and
children and goods of the migrant horde were transported overland.
4 The failure of the Bretons to distinguish themselves is the more remarkable when
we consider that their migration across the Channel in the post-Hellenic Volkerwandcrung is the exact analogue of the migration of the Aeohans and lonians across the
Aegean in the post-Minoan Volkci wanderung. The Continental Bretons, like the Asiatic
Acolians and lonians, are the overseas descendants of refugee representatives of the
antecedent civilization who have been dislodged by the incoming barbarians. They are
not the overseas descendants of the barbarians themselves, like the Angles and the
Dorians. In the history of the Aeohans and lonians, the combination of the stimulus of
transmarine migration with the asset of an inherited culture has, of course, shown itself

particularly potent
s

With the exception of the English and the

temporary

in date

though geographically

isolated

Scottish migrations,
from one another.

which were con-

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

88

to the extent of regarding those

phenomena which

are

common

to

four as being inherent features of a Volkerwanderung when this

takes place not in the usual fashion overland but in this exceptional
fashion over the water.
The distinctiveness of these phenomena and their inner conall

nexion with one another are both explained by one and the same
simple fact : In transmarine migration, the social apparatus of the
migrants has to be packed on board ship before they can leave
the shores of the old country and then unpacked again at the end of
the voyage before they can make themselves at home on new ground.
All kinds of apparatus
persons and property, techniques and

and ideas

are equally subject to this law. Anything

that cannot stand the sea voyage at all has simply to be left behind ;
institutions

and many things

and these not only material objects which the
migrants do manage to take with them can only be shipped after
never, perhaps, to be reassembled
they have been taken to pieces
in their original form.

This law governs

transmarine movements whatsoever. It has

governed, for example, the ancient Greek and Phoenician and
Etruscan colonization of the Western Basin of the Mediterranean
and the modern European colonization of America; and the challenge which, in virtue of this law, is inherent in a sea-passage
accounts for the intrinsic stimulus of crossing the sea which we have
observed already in these two cases. In these particular cases,
however, the colonists happen to have belonged to societies which
were already in process of civilization at the time when the sea was
crossed. When a transmarine migration occurs in the course of
a Volkerwanderung, the challenge is much more formidable and
the stimulus proportionately more intense because the
impact here
falls upon a society which is not
at
the
time but
socially progressive
is overtaken
the
while
it
is
still
in
that
static
condition
by
challenge
which is the last state of Primitive Man. 1 The transition, in the
all

Volkerwanderung, from this passivity to a sudden paroxysm of

storm and stress produces a dynamic effect
upon the life of any
2
which
the
community
undergoes
experience; but this effect is
naturally more intense when the migrants take ship than when they
keep their feet on solid ground throughout their trek. The driver
of an ox-cart has a greater command than the master of a
ship over
the circumstances of his journey. He can maintain an unbroken
1

For the Ym-state in which we find Primitive Man as we know

him, see T C (m) (e),
pp 179-80, and II. B, vol. i, pp. 192-5.
In essentials, every society which takes
a Vplkerwandeiung is still
that static condition
part
even though, ex hypothesi
it has been irradiated
by certain elements of the civilization into whose ambit it has been
attracted and in whose 'external proletariat' it has been enrolled and
whose former
vol.

i,

domain

below -)

it is

now

invading.

(See Part

II.

A, vol.

i,

pp. 187-8, above, and Part VIII '

See further Part VIII, below.

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

89
contact with his base of operations he can pitch camp and strike
camp where and when he chooses; he can set his own pace; and
in these circumstances he can carry with him much of the social
apparatus which has to be discarded by his seafaring comrade.
Thus we can measure the stimulating effect of transmarine migration in the course of a Volkerwanderung by comparing the phenomena with the effect of migration overland, and a fortiori with the
effect of staying at home and letting the paroxysm pass without
being moved to follow either the swan-path or the cart-track.
;

When the Scandinavians went beyond the sea, their migration meant
more than a change of place. At home, the World, large as it was, could
be surveyed from the homestead with the eyes of the mind but, as one
horizon burst on the view and another closed in ... the ancient Middlegarth lost its definiteness and made way for something more akin to our
*

Universe. This change of outlook gave birth to a

and men.

new conception of gods

The

local deities whose power was coextensive with the

of
their
territory
worshippers were replaced by a corporate body of gods
the
World. The holy place with its blot-house which had formed
ruling
the centre of Middlegarth was raised on high and turned into a divine
mansion. Time-honoured myths setting forth the doings of mutually
independent deities were worked up into a poetical mythology, a divine
saga, on the same lines that had been followed by an earlier race of
Vikings, the Homeric Greeks. This religion brought a new god to birth :
1
Odin, the leader of men, the lord of the battlefield.'

In somewhat similar fashion, the overseas migration of the Scots

from Ireland to North Britain prepared the way for the entry of
a new religion. It is no accident that the transmarine Dalriada
became the head-quarters of St. Columba's missionary movement
which not only achieved the conversion of the Picts and the
Northumbrians but also exercised a profound retroactive influence
upon Christianity in Ireland itself through the Familia Columbae
:

a cluster of federated monasteries, mostly situated on Irish soil,

which all recognized the supremacy of lona. 2
One distinctive phenomenon of transmarine migration is the
intermingling and interbreeding of diverse racial strains; for the
first piece of social apparatus that has to be abandoned is the primiNo ship will hold more than one ship's
tive tribe or horde.
company, and the primitive ship is small. At the same time, the
primitive ship is relatively mobile compared with the ox-cart or
other primitive means of transport on land. Moreover, in transmarine migration, no less than in overland migration, there is
safety in numbers. For these reasons, a new community founded
1

: The Culture
of the Teutons (London 1931, Milford,
pp. 306-7.
For the Familia Columbae, see further II.
(vn), p. 325, below.

Grbnbech, V.

irt II,

3 parts in

vols.),

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

90

by migrants across the sea is apt to be established by the concerted

efforts of a number of crews which have joined forces from different
in contrast to the ordinary process of migration overland,
quarters
in which a whole tribe is apt to pack its women and children and
seed-corn and household gods and household utensils into its oxcarts

and move

Earth.

We

off en masse, at a foot's pace, over

catch a glimpse of this phenomenon of

the face of the

maritime race-

mixture in the foundation-legends of Hellenic Aeolis and Ionia

whatever these legends may be worth in the form in which they
have been transmitted by Herodotus and Pausanias. In almost
every Greek city-state along the west coast of Anatolia, the latterday inhabitants traced their ancestry back to more places than one
not to speak of the strains
in the European Greek peninsula
introduced by intermarriage with the native women whom the
pioneers took captive. We are on surer ground when we turn from
the case of Ionia to that of Iceland, where an exact and detailed oral
record survived to be perpetuated in the Landnamabok.
the peculiarly favourable conditions for mental development
in Iceland, the most important was the selection of the human stock that
settled the island.
It included all those families of petty kings and
peasant chieftains from Western Norway who refused to yield to the
autocratic rule of Harold Fairhair, preferring to seek a new home on the
distant island which had recently been discovered. At the same time it
was impossible for the society of Iceland to become a mere repetition of
the old Norwegian community; the racial mixture was too pronounced
for that. There came Norwegians from various parts of the country,
stragglers from Sweden, vikings from the West, including even some
semi-Celtic elements.' 1

'Among

This distinctive phenomenon of unusually far-going racial mixture is closely connected with another: the unusually rapid disintegration of the kin-group which is the basis of social organization
in a primitive society. The comparative efficacy of transmarine
migration and of overland migration as solvents of the kin-group is

appraised as follows, at the conclusion of an exhaustive inquiry,

a distinguished modern student of Scandinavian antiquities :

by

'The analogy of the Icelandic settlers will incline us to accept the idea
that a migration involving transport by sea was especially liable to impair
the sense of kin-solidarity among those who venture on it, though the

who remained behind might

not be appreciably
affected. It is extremely unlikely that each group of kindred would build
a vessel and man it exclusively, or even mainly, with their own kinsmen ;
on the contrary, all analogies show us that any individuals wishing to
organization of those

join an expedition
1

would

rally to the first ship that

Olrik, A.: Viking Civilisation (English translationCp. p. 112.

pp, 175-6.

London

was

sailing

and

1930, Allen and Unwin),

THE STIMULUS1OF NEW GROUND

91

probably remain permanently associated with its crew in the new

country
A classic example is afforded by the sons of Earl Hrollaug of Norway,
one of whom, Gongu-Hrolf, is declared by Snorri to have founded the
Duchy of Normandy; one lost his life in the Western Isles of Scotland
on an expedition with Harald Hairfair; another became Earl of the
Orkneys, while yet another settled in Iceland. It seems more than
4

probable that the peoples of Schleswig-Holstein lived under similar

conditions in the 5th century, with viking expeditions, and finally the

permanent conquest of England, as the result. The settlers in England

might therefore be almost as lacking in full kindreds as the settlers in
Iceland a few centuries later. Before we make certain that the invaders
must have come over en masse, in full kindreds, in order to achieve such
a vast result as the conquest of England, we shall do well to remind
ourselves that the feat was all but paralleled, in a much shorter time and
in the teeth of a resistance at least equally obstinate, by the vikings of a
later period; yet that no one thinks it necessary to assume a wholesale

emigration of kindreds in this case, or to postulate that the organization

of the Vikings, when they arrived in England, was on a basis of kindreds.
'If we are to adopt the Danish theory that the Normans are mainly of
Danish and not Norwegian origin, we can point to Normandy also as
the
affording corroborative evidence for the disintegrating influence on
kindred of a settlement by sea. According to this theory the invaders of
Normandy came from the highly cohesive kindreds of Denmark. Yet
the traces of kinship-solidarity in thirteenth-century Normandy are far
fainter than in other districts of Northern France, which the Teutons

reached by land.
'So far as it goes, too, the evidence available for the easternmost and
westernmost of Teutonic settlements bears out our contention. The
laws of the Swedish kingdom in Russia, won by naval expeditions, show
but a feeble conception of kinship: the slayer alone pays for his deed,
and the right of vengeance is limited to brother, father, son and nephew.
On the other hand, West Gothic custumals in Spain show division of
wergild between kinsmen, definitely organized blood-feuds between
The West Goths travelled
kindreds, and oath-helpers of the kindred
a long way, but they travelled by land.
'Thus we are driven to the conclusion that the main disintegrating
factor in the case of the Teutonic kindreds was migration, and especially
of the
migration by sea. Denmark and Schleswig are the strongholds
France
Northern
and
Netherlands
kindreds: those of Friesland, the
had vitality enough to withstand centuries of highly adverse influences,
whereas the Icelander stood alone from the moment he set foot on
questioned whether the Anglo-Saxon
settler was in much
Here, too, we should find
an explanation of the weakness of the kindreds in Norway, for much of
the settlement of that country must have been accomplished by sea, and
Icelandic soil; and

it

may be

better case in this respect.

at a very late period.*

i

Phillpotts, B. S.

Kindred and Clan (Cambridge 1913, University Press), pp, 257-65.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

92

of transmarine migration is the

atrophy of a primitive institution which is perhaps the supreme
expression of undifferentiated social life before this is refracted,
by a clarifying social consciousness, on to the separate planes of
and religion and art the institution of the
economics and

Another

distinctive

phenomenon

politics

and his cycle.

work by the same authority
wavro$

Satjitcov

On this point we may

quote another

'In Iceland the May Day game, the ritual wedding, and the wooing
scene seem hardly to have survived the settlement, partly, no doubt,
because the settlers were mainly of a travelled and enlightened class, and
partly because these rural observances are connected with agriculture,
which could not be an important branch of activity in Iceland.' 2

If

we wish

to see the ritual of the eviauros Safacw in

its

glory in

the Scandinavian World, we must study its development

Scandinavian peoples who did not leave their homes

among

seems that at Lejre and Salhaugar in Sjaelland, at Upsala in

Sweden, and possibly at the old Skiringssal in South Norway, the
'It

was presented in ancient sanctuaries consecrated by the

tombs of kings or gods. There is some reason for believing that it was
the central rite of a religious confederacy. This drama was apparently
performed only once every nine years, by actors of royal birth, and there
was a tradition of an actual slaying. Such stately drama as this was
bound by immemorial tradition to one locality. The sanctuary, the

fertility-drama

3
goddess, the priest-king could not migrate with the members of the
confederate tribes. There is therefore no trace of what we may call
literary drama, or of such highly developed tragic drama, outside
Southern Scandinavia, where Teutonic peoples had been settled for

several thousand years.' 4

The

work from which these two last passages are

that
the
Scandinavian
quoted
poems which have been preserved
by Icelandic tradition and committed to writing in the Icelandic
compilation called the Elder Edda are derived from the spoken
thesis of the
is

words of the primitive Scandinavian fertility-drama

the only
element in the traditional ritual which the migrants were able to
cut away from its deeply-embedded local roots and to take on
board ship with them. According to this theory, the development
of a primitive ritual into a Scandinavian drama was arrested among
1
See Part II. B, vol. i, p. 189. The undifferentiated unity of Art and Religion and
Life itself in a primitive human society is pointed out, apropos of the Scandinavian case,
by Gronbech, V.: The Culture of the Teutons (London 1931, Milford, 3 parts in 2 vols.),
Part II, pp. 239-41 and 269.
2
Phillpotts, B. S.: The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandinavian Drama (Cambridge
The
1920, University Press), p. 204. On the same subject, see further Grbnbech, V.
:

the migrations of the Franks did not

4
Phillpotts, op. cit., p. 207.

last

long and affected their customs very

little.'

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

those Scandinavians

93

who

and the theory is

For it is a wellsupported by
established fact that, although the Hellenic Civilization came to
flower in transmarine Ionia first, the Hellenic drama, which was
one of the highest creations of Hellenic culture, sprang from the
continental soil of the European Greek peninsula. The counterpart, in Hellas, of the sanctuary at Upsala was the theatre of
Dionysus at Athens. Neither Ionia nor Iceland could show the like.
The distinctive phenomena of transmarine migration which we
migrated across the sea ;
an analogy from Hellenic history.

have noticed so far are

'

but the challenge implicit in

these negative phenomena has evoked a remarkable positive response which must now engage our attention.
At an earlier point in this Study we have found reason to believe
all

negative

that race-mixture, by setting up a physical disturbance, administers

a stimulus to the psyche which is conducive to the genesis of a
civilization
so much so, that the geneses of civilizations may
1
actually prove to require contributions from more races than one.
This indirect physical stimulus may be assumed to reinforce the

'

direct psychic stimulus which is administered by 'a sea change* ;

and the two factors in combination shatter the 'cake of custom'

which primitive societies, as we know them, are fast bound. 2

Thereupon, in long-imprisoned and suddenly liberated souls there
emerges a rudimentary social consciousness which reveals itself in
two closely connected forms: an awareness of strong individual
personalities and an awareness of momentous public events. The
circumstances and spirit of this mental awakening are forcibly conveyed in the following description of it, as it came to pass in
Iceland, from the pen of one of the three modern Western scholars
in

whom we

*-

have quoted already.

'The largest part of the population came from the districts of Hordaland and Rogaland in Western Norway, [and] it was these regions that
had contributed most to the great Viking Age and the period of discoveries. Many families had spent years in the western colonies. They
had acquired a wide horizon and an insight into political conditions in
near and distant places; for all these scattered habitations were closely
connected with each other by family ties and common enterprises. The
numerous merchant-ships constantly brought news, which was received,
The experiences of contemporaries naturally
scrutinised and judged.
became transformed into sagas.
'These aristocratic and talented persons settled in Iceland under more
severe conditions of life than they had formerly known. Instead of being
a petty king, the peasant had at most a very limited chieftain authority
as thsgodi (sacrificial priest and thing leader) of his district; many a man
*

See
For

(ii) (6) i, vol.

pp. 239-243, and II.
this 'cake of custom' see Part II. B, vol. i, p. 192, above.

II.

(ii)

(a) i, vol.

i,

i,

p. 278, above.

94

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

of noble origin had to settle as a peasant in the godord (godi district) of

another man. Instead of proud raftered halls, they built houses with
walls of earth several yards thick, a continuous row or group of such
houses constituting the farm buildings. Cattle-breeding, bird-hunting,
if they were to yield
fishing required an extreme degree of attention
man who once had
a
foodstuffs for all the housecarls and servants;
traded in the most precious commodities of foreign countries had now
circumstances of
only the home-woven frieze to export. The external
The only earmark of nobility that was still
life were narrowing down.
retained from the forefathers was the mental culture, the ability to pass in
1
review a succession of events, to form a judicious estimate of situations.'

In the strenuous and stimulating mental atmosphere here described,

the void resulting from the absence of the primitive social apparatus
that has been left behind in crossing the sea is filled by new acts of

The

energies released by the breaking of the 'cake

of custom' crystallize, in the new transmarine environment, into
new activities which are definite in their forms and are limited in
their scope, in each case, to some single plane of social life. In the
field left clear by the atrophy of the fertility-ritual there arises a
social creation.

Saga or the Epic. In the field

left clear
disintegration of the kin-group there arises a
polity in the likeness of a ship's company on an enlarged scale and
on a permanent basis: a commonwealth in which the binding
element is not community of blood but that common obedience to
a freely chosen leader and common respect for a freely accepted
law which has been called 'the social contract' in the figurative
language of our modern Western Political Mythology.
The Saga and the Epic both alike arise in response to the same
new mental need. In both, the new awareness of strong individual
personalities and of momentous public events, which the storm
and stress of the Volkerwanderung has brought into consciousness,
finds an expression through art. 2
*The Icelandic Saga
grew out of reports of contemporary happenA
man
who
had
recently returned home would sit at the Althing
ings.
narrative

form of
by the

literary art: the

Olrik, op. cit , pp. 176-7

The difference between the Saga and the Epic lies not in the nature of the stimulus
by which they are evoked nor in the nature of the interests and feelings and ideas which
are expressed in them, but merely in the method and origin of their respective techniques.
In the Icelandic Saga, the new interest in personalities and events finds expression in a
technique which is new likewise. The form and matter of the dialogues and soliloquies
that grew out of the continental Scandinavian fertility-ritual are religiously preserved in
the Elder Edda; but, having once been torn away from their roots in Older to he transported across the sea, they are not put to new uses in the new country nor developed any
further. They are preserved, as it were, as fossils; and when the Icelanders fashion 'the
Saga, the true Icelandic counterpart of the Epic, out of the stories current in the countryside', they create, to convey it, 'a new prose form* in which they are 'hampered by no
fossilised tradition* (Phillpotts- The Elder Edda, p
The sagas only indirectly
205).
reveal the existence of an older dramatic technique in a certain dramatic sense and
dramatic detachment which are characteristic of their style (op. cit,, loc. cit.)
On the
other hand, the makers of the Epic
in Ionia or in England
solve the same problem of
2

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

and

95

a connected account
of all that had taken place
story
the
at
well-known scenes of action
during
year
Probably many a saga
in
this
The
was
related
to
an
originated
way.
story
attentively listening
circle of hearers by one who had himself been taking part in the events;
and while the first scene is being thus reported, Life itself continues the
destinies of the acting persons.' 1
tell his

Thus, one day at the Althing, Thormod listens to a saga that is

being told by Thorgrim and slays the teller after the tale is done
because an incident in the story has been the slaying, by Thorgrim
2
himself, of Thormod's own foster-brother.
Thus, likewise, during
the siege of Troy, when Achilles is sulking in his tent, he is there
found entertaining himself by singing *the tales of warriors' 3
such
tales as 'the wrath of Achilles' itself is destined to become in the
mouths of Homeric minstrels. Already, in the tenth year after the
fall of Troy, the tales of the siege and of the victors' homeward
voyages are ever in the mouths of the minstrel Phemius in Ithaca
and the minstrel Demodocus in the land of the Phaeacians.4
'That lay is praised of men the most which ringeth newest in
their ears.' 5 Yet there is one thing in an epic lay that is still more
highly prized than its novelty by the hearers, and that is the

human

interest of the story.

predominates just so long as the storm

intrinsic

The
and

interest in the present

stress of the Heroic Age

continues; but this social paroxysm is essentially transitory; and,

finding an artistic expression for the new interest in personalities and events by 'making
over* both the form and the matter of the continental fertility-ritual to fit the new
demand. Thus, in the Greek and English Epic we find the tale of Troy's fall or Achilles'
wrath or Odysseus' wanderings or Beowulf's exploits grafted on to myths in which the
stuff of primitive ritual has been reshaped and projected into heroic narrative. The
amalgamation of these two elements in the Epic is so thorough, and the artistic perfection
of the finished product is so complete, that it needs all the paraphernalia of 'the Higher
Criticism' to analyse the process which has taken place. Neveitheless, such analysis
reveals not only the presence of these two once separate elements in the Epic but also
the extreme diversity of their nature and origin. The Epic, unlike the Saga, has a ritual
root, and it shares this root with the Drama. The continental Ionic Drama of Attica and
the transmarine Ionic Epic of Ionia are two flowers of art which have sprung from a
single religious stem. By contrast, the poetry of the Elder Edda and the prose of the
Sagas are two flowers that have sprung from different stems out of roots bedded in
different soils. The Elder Edda is a flower which has wilted, before it has been able
its full perfection, because its root has been cut in order to transport it
to unfold itself
across the sea. The Saga is a flower which has blossomed because it has grown up from

new
1

roots in the

new

ground.

Olrik, op. cit, pp. 177-8.

This illustiation is cited at greater length in

op

cit.,

loc

cit.,

omitted in the foiegomg quotation.

3
TQV 8* $pov <f>pva Tepiro/xevov ^op/xtyyt XtyeCfj.
rn o y* dvaov ZrepTTtv, deiSe 8* apa nXea av$p>v.

in the passage here

.

(Ihad, IX, 11. 186-9.)

four lays sung by Phemius and Demodocus in the Odyssey, no less than three
are taken from the Trojan Cycle, while only one is a tale of the Gods. Phemius sings
of the homeward voyage of the Achaeans (Od. I, 11. 325-7), Demodocus of a quarrel
between Odysseus and Achilles (Od. VIII, 11. 73-82), and of the Wooden Horse (Od.
VIII, 11. 499-520).
5
r^v yap aotS^v /taAAov CTrt/ctatovcr' civQpwiroi,
n Tt? dfcot;6VT<r<ri vecuTarn du^TeAi?Tai.
(Od. 1, 11. 351-2.)
*

Of the

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

96

storm abates, the lovers of the Epic and the Saga come to feel
that life in their time has grown tamer than it was in the time of
their heroic predecessors. Therewith, they cease to prefer new
lays to old; and the latter-day minstrel or saga-man, responding
to his hearers' change of mood, repeats, like Nestor, the tales of the
older generation. When the storm abated in Iceland, 'now that
as the

the present moment was less eventful and exciting, attention was
fixed on the deeds of the past they were again brought forth and
And only then did
shaped artistically into connected accounts.
the sagas in the proper sense of the term begin to take shape.' 1
When the storm abated in Ionia, the latter-day epic poet still
;

harped upon Phemius's and Demodocus's Trojan theme

'Tell me, Muse, of a man a man of many shifts a man who wandered
much when he had sacked Troy's sacred fastness. O, many were the
folk whose cities he beheld and knew their thoughts beside; and many
were the sorrows that he suffered in his heart; sorrows of the sea, in
striving for his life and striving therewithal to bring his comrades
homeward.' 2
:

Thus

the art of the Homeric Epic and the Icelandic Saga continued to live and flourish when the stimulus which had first
evoked it was no longer at work. It ultimately attained its literary
zenith in the altered circumstances of a later age. The literary
is the
as exemplified in Beowulf
history of the English Epic
same. Nevertheless, these mighty works of art would never have
come into being if that original stimulus had not been exerted and
it was
produced, as we have seen, by the ordeal of migration across
the sea. This explains why the Hellenic Epic developed in transmarine Ionia and not, like the Hellenic Drama, in the European
Greek peninsula the Teutonic Epic on the island of Britain and
not on the European Continent 3 and the Scandinavian Saga on the
island of Iceland and not, like the Scandinavian Drama, in Denmark or Sweden. This contrast between the transmarine and the
;

continental artistic

phenomena appears with such

regularity in
of the authorities

such widely different times and places that one

whom we have cited formulates it as a law. Drama
*

develops in
the home country, Epic among migrating peoples, whether they
or to Ionia, for the
migrate to France or England or Germany
with
Drama
Greek
holds good here too.'4
analogy
i

Od. I, II. 1-5.

the Teutonic peoples who took part in the post-Hellenic Vtflkerwanderung, the
majority migrated overland on the European Continent and only the Angles and the
Jutes overseas from the Continent to Britain. Yet, of the extant epic poetry that has
sprung from the Teutonic migrations of that age, all the mature and complete specimens
are of English make, while the Continental School is represented by a handful of rather
rudimentary original fragments and some Latin versions.
4
Phillpotts, B. S.: The Elder Edda (Cambridge 1920, University Press), p. 207.
3

Olrik, op. cit., p. 179.

Of

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

97

The

other positive creation that emerges from the ordeal of

transmarine migration in the course of a Volkerwanderung is not
artistic, like the Epic and the Saga, but political. This new kind of
polity is a commonwealth in which the binding element is contract
and not kinship.
have noted its nature already by anticipation,
and examples of it leap to the mind.

We

The most famous examples, perhaps, are those city-states which

were founded by seafaring Greek migrants in the last convulsion of
the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung along the west coast of Anatolia,
in the districts which subsequently came to be known as Aeolis and
Ionia and Doris. The scanty surviving records of Hellenic constitutional history seem to indicate that the principle of
political
organization by law and locality instead of by custom and kinship
asserted itself first in these Greek settlements overseas and was
afterwards adopted in the European Greek peninsula by mimesis,
In the act of establishing their foothold on the Anatolian coast in
the face of opposition from the previous occupants of the country,
the Greek seafarers would proceed upon the new principle sponeach hailing from a
taneously. A number of ship's companies
different district and recruited from members of many different
would join forces to conquer a new home for themkin-groups
selves overseas and to secure their common conquest by building a

common

In the city-state thus founded, the 'cells' of the

new political organization would be, not kindreds held together by
the tie of common descent, but 'tribes' 1 representing ship's comcitadel.

panies; and these ship's-companies, in taking to the land, would

still be held together
by the ties which had held them on shipboard. Having co-operated at sea as men do co-operate when they
are 'all in the same boat' in the midst of the perils of the deep,
they would continue to feel and act in the same way ashore when
they had to hold a strip of hardly- won coast against the menace of a
hostile hinterland. On shore, as at sea, comradeship would count
for more than kin, and the orders of a chosen and trusted leader
would override the promptings of habit and custom. In fact, a bevy
of ship's-companies joining forces to conquer a new home for
themselves overseas in a strange land would turn spontaneously
into a city-state articulated into local 'tribes' and governed by an
elective magistracy.
There are no corresponding circumstances to account for the

evolution of the Hellenic city-state in European Greece and indeed

our scanty records indicate that the Greeks who had stayed at
home in Europe came into line politically with the Greeks who
had migrated across the sea to Asia by imitating, artificially and
;

II

The

conventional English translation of the Greek

word

^uAat.

98

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

an act which, in the settlement of Aeolis and Ionia and

Doris, had been something immediate and spontaneous. On the
coast of Anatolia, the city-state was a new creation evoked by the
stimulus of transmarine migration. In European Greece it was
a revolutionthe second-hand product of a deliberate 'synoecism'
ary aggregation of village-communities into city-states, which was
belatedly,

accompanied or followed by the substitution of locality for kin as the

basis of political organization. There is no reason to suppose that any
such 'synoecism' would ever have been carried out or even thought
of in 'the old country' if the spontaneous generation of the city-state
in 'the new country' overseas had not provided the Hellenic Society
a model which was commended not only by its
with a model polity
own obvious intrinsic merits but also by the prestige of its creators,
the Hellenes of Aeolis and Ionia, who were in the forefront of the

Hellenic Civilization in this first age of Hellenic history. 1

When we turn from the post-Minoan Volkerwanderung to the
Scandinavian, we can discern the rudiments of a similar political
development in certain new Scandinavian communities which arose

out of transmarine migrations likewise. 2 If the abortive Scandinavian Civilization had actually come to birth, the part once played
in Hellenic history by the city-states of Aeolis and Ionia might have
been played in Scandinavian history by the five city-states of the
Ostmen along the Irish coast 3 or by the five boroughs which were
organized by the Danes to guard the landward border of their con4
Even as it was, the stimulus of transmarine
quests in Mercia.
1
The artificial character of the process of 'synoecism* in Continental Greece, as a.
deliberate imitation of an overseas pattern, is indicated by the fact that the four 'Ionic'
<f)vXai, into which the Athenian body politic was articulated before the Clcisthenic
reorganization of 508 B c., were a selection from a larger number of <j>v\ai into which we
know that the body politic was articulated at Miletus. (See Wilamowitz-MoellcndorrT,
U. von: Aristoteles und Athen (Berlin 1893, Weidmann, 2 vols.), vol. 11, pp. 138-42.) On
this analogy, we may conjecture that the three 'Doric* </>vXai likewise originated spontaneously in some city-state of the overseas Doris and were reproduced artificially in
some of the 'Dorian* city-states of Continental Greece (there is no evidence for their
reproduction in Sparta). So much for the overseas origin of the 'Ionic* and 'Doric' <f>y\at
in the city-states of Continental Greece.
may attribute the same origin to the 'Dorian*,
'Ionian*, and 'Aeolian* races into which the Greek-speaking World as a whole was
conventionally articulated. The Greek transmarine settlements on the Anatolian coast
fell into three distinct geographical groups speaking three different dialects of the Greek
language. The local names of these groups were Aeolis, Ionia, and Doris; and we may
conjecture that the same names were subsequently applied to communities in other parts
of the Greek-speaking World on grounds of linguistic affinity or of accidental similarity
of name. (See Beloch, K. J. : Gnechische Geschichte, 2nd edition, vol. i (i) (Strassburg
1912, Trabner), pp. 139-42 )
2 See
Olrik, A.: Viking Civilisation (London 1930, Allen and Unwm), pp. 98-9.
3 These
city-states were Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. (For
their history, see Kendrick, T. D.:
History of the Vikings (London 1930, Methuen),
pp. 277 and 299.)
* These five
boroughs were Lincoln, Stamford, Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham
(see Kendrick, op. cit., p. 236).
Compare the four similar boroughs which were
established, after the conclusion of the Treaty of Wedmoie, at Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Bedford, in order to guard the landward borders of Danish East

We

Anglia (Kendrick, op.

cit.,

p. 240).

THE STIMULUS OF NEW GROUND

99

migration produced several Scandinavian polities that did attain a

the south coast of the Baltic, in
high degree of development.
Wendland, the short-lived fraternity of the Jomsvikings

On

developed
a standard of asceticism, discipline, and prowess which won for
Jomsborg, in its day, the same reputation in the Scandinavian
World that Sparta had once enjoyed in Hellas. 1 The older Scandinavian settlement of Aldeigjuborg
established by vikings who had
crossed the Baltic from west to east and had pushed on up the Gulf
of Finland and up the River Neva into Lake Ladoga
made an
impression of political efficiency upon the minds of the Northern
Slavs which is reflected in the foundation-legend of the Scandinavian empire in Russia. The legend relates that the Slavs who had
fallen under the yoke of these intruders from beyond the sea
succeeded in driving their new masters out ; but that, having once
experienced, under duress, the benefits of Scandinavian rule, they
found the reversion to their native anarchy so intolerable that
they invited the Scandinavians to return and receive their willing
obedience. This legendary 'social contract' between a primitive
Slavonic population and a Scandinavian ruling class which had
acquired its political education in crossing the sea is the traditional
explanation of the origin of the Russian State. Yet the creation of
Russia was not the greatest political feat that was achieved by
Scandinavians who migrated overseas. It was surpassed by the
a Scandinavian polity whose
creation of the Republic of Iceland
foundation is not veiled in legend but is illuminated by the full light
of history. On the apparently unpromising soil of this barren
arctic island, which could only be reached from the nearest Scandinavian point d'appui in the Faroes by crossing some five hundred
miles of open Atlantic, the political as well as the literary genius of
the Scandinavian Civilization produced its finest flower.
As for the political consequences of the transmarine migration of
the Angles and Jutes to Britain in the course of the post-Hellenic
Volkerwanderung, it is perhaps something more than a coincidence
that an island which was occupied at the dawn of Western history
by immigrants who had shaken off the shackles of the primitive
kin-group in crossing the sea should afterwards have been the
'Jonisborg . . . was inhabited by a ... viking garrison; and legend tells that this
society within the fortress was governed by strict rules. There were no women at all
allowed inside, and each one of the men was a warrior of tested valour, not older than
fifty years of age nor younger than eighteen. Courage, and courage alone, won admission
that company a self-sacrificing loyalty to each and all one's
to their company, and
fellows was demanded of the Jomsvikings, slander of any kind was prohibited, and the
private retention of booty forbidden. Military efficiency was the sole object of their
organization and regulations, and though no single man might be away fron^the
fortress for more than three days without special licence, each summer the Jomsvikings
were abroad together fighting, and so widespread did their fame become that soon they
were counted as the greatest wariiors of the North/ (Kendrick, op. cit., pp. 181-2.)
1

ioo

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

country in which our Western Civilization achieved some of the

most important steps in its political progress. The Danish and
Norman invaders who followed on the heels of the Angles, and who
share the credit for subsequent English political achievements,
likewise came over the element that has to be traversed by all who
set foot on the shores of an island; and the sea-passage had the

same

liberating effect

upon

their social organization as

upon

that of

their seafaring predecessors.

people thus fruitfully diversified
in its racial composition, and at the same time uniformly freed from
the encumbrance of a hampering primitive institution, offered an

unusually favourable field for political cultivation. It is not surhave succeeded, in

prising that our Western Civilization should
England, in creating first 'the King's Peace' and thereafter 'Parliamentary Government', while, on the Continent, our Western
survival of the kinpolitical development was retarded by the

group among the descendants of Franks and Lombards who had

not been relieved of that social incubus at the outset by a liberating
transit of the sea.

Finally, we may observe, in this political connexion, the curious

fact that one of the two enduring political entities that have

eventually emerged out of the struggle for existence between the

ephemeral barbarian 'successor-states' of the Roman Empire in
Britain has been the Kingdom of Scotland; 1 and that the founders
and eponyms of this Scotland in Britain were an overseas offshoot
of those original Scots of Ireland who, in their native island, are a

byword

for their prolonged

failure to create

an effective united

even under the pressure of the most formidable

foreign aggression from the Scandinavians and thereafter from the
Irish

state

English.

IV.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

Having now examined the relative stimulating effects of a less

and a more difficult environment in cases in which the environments are physical, we may complete this part of our study by
surveying the field of human environments on the same comparative method.
For convenience, we may divide this field into sections. We may
distinguish, first, between those human environments that are
geographically external to the societies upon which they act, and

For the creation of the Kingdom of Scotland, see further II.

(v), pp. 190-2 and
194-5, below.
3 It is one of the curiosities of
history that even in these latter days, when the Irish have
to some extent retrieved their political reputation by their success in establishing an
Irish Free State, this political achievement in Ireland itself has been forestalled by the
success of the Irish emigrants across the Atlantic
playing the game of 'machine
polities' in the United States!
1

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

101

those that are geographically intermingled with them. The former

category will cover the action of societies, peoples, states, cities, and
other social organizations that are in exclusive occupation, at any
given time, of particular portions of the habitable world, upon
neighbouring social organizations of the same kind. From the
standpoint of the organizations which play the passive role in such
social intercourse, the human environment with which they are
confronted here is 'external' or 'foreign'. The second of our two
categories will cover the action of one social 'class' upon another,
where the two 'classes' are in joint occupation of the same geographical area, and where the term 'class' is employed in its widest
meaning. From the standpoint of a 'class' which plays the passive
role, the human environment constituted by the other 'classes' that
are acting upon it is 'internal' or 'domestic'. Leaving this 'internal
human environment' for later examination, and starting with the
'external human environment', we may begin by making a further
subdivision between the impact of the 'external human environ3
ment when it takes the form of a sudden blow and its impact in the
form of a continuous pressure.
What is the effect of sudden blows from the external human
environment ? Does our proposition 'The greater the challenge the
greater the stimulus' hold good here ? Let us seek light, once more,
from our well-tried empirical method of inquiry.
The first test cases that naturally occur to our minds are certain
sensational instances in which a military and militant Power has
first been stimulated by successive contests with its neighbours, and
has then suddenly been prostrated in an encounter with some
adversary against whom it has never measured its strength before.
What usually happens when incipient empire-builders are thus
dramatically overthrown in mid-career? Do they usually remain
lying, like Sisera, where they have fallen, while their half-built
empire collapses like a house of cards ? Or, on the contrary, do
they rise again from their Mother Earth, like the giant Antaeus of
the Hellenic Mythology, 1 with their strength and vigour and moral

Do

they succumb ? Or do they react to an unprecedentedly heavy blow by an unprecedented outburst of purposeful
energy ? The historic examples indicate that the second and not the
former alternative reaction is the normal outcome.
What, for example, was the effect of the Glades Alliensis upon the
fortunes of Rome ? The catastrophe overtook her only five years
after her victory in her long and arduous duel with Veii had placed
her, at last, in a posture to assert her hegemony over Latium. The
overthrow of the Roman Army at the Allia and the occupation of

redoubled

For the myth of Antaeus, see further Part X, below.

102

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Rome

herself

by barbarians from the back of beyond might have

been expected to wipe out, at one stroke, once and for all, the power
and prestige which Rome had won, just before, by the overthrow
and annexation of her Etruscan neighbour. Instead, Rome recovered from the Gallic disaster so rapidly that, within less than
half a century after the Gauls had been ignominiously bought off,
the Roman State was able to engage in a longer and more arduous
duel with a mightier neighbour than Veii for higher stakes. The
Roman State was able to fight the Samnite Confederacy for the
prize of a hegemony over all Italy, and eventually to emerge victorious from a fifty-years' war which far surpassed, in scale and
1
severity, any previous war which Rome had ever ventured to wage.
What, again, was the effect on the fortunes of the 'Osmanlis
when Timur Lenk took Bayezid Yilderim captive on the field of
'
Angora ? This catastrophe overtook the Osmanlis just when they
were on the point of completing their conquest of the main body
f
of Orthodox Christendom in the Balkan Peninsula. The Osmanlis

had planted their military colonies in Thrace and Macedonia they

had overthrown the latest masters of the interior the Serbs on
the field of Kosovo; and they were beleaguering the last remnant
of the East Roman Empire in Constantinople. At the moment
when they were thus on the verge of consolidating the results of
fifty years' labours in Europe, they were prostrated, on the Asiatic
side of the Straits, by a thunderbolt from Transoxania. A collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans might have been
the more so, inasmuch
expected to follow the disaster at Angora
as Timur, being rather more provident if not much more persevering
than Brennus, had taken steps to paralyse the Ottoman Power in
its Anatolian homeland by liberating and
re-establishing the rival
Anatolian Turkish principalities.
So far from that, however,
;

Mehmed

the Conquerer, who succeeded to the Ottoman throne

just half a century after his ancestor Bayezid had been carried away
captive to Samarqand, was able to place the coping-stone on
Bayezid's building by taking possession of Constantinople and
rounding off the Ottoman Empire until, from Trebizond to the
gates of Belgrade and from the Crimea to the Morea, it comprised
the whole domain of Orthodox Christendom except its transmarine
annex in Russia. 2
In the third place, we may take notice of the fortunes of the Incas
after their passage of arms with the Chancas towards the middle of
the fourteenth century of the Christian Era. When the Chancas
1
The traditional initial and terminal dates of the first three Romano-Sammte Wars
are 343-290 B.C. the traditional date of the Battle of the Allia is 390 B c.
3 Mehmed Fatih
imperdbat A.D. 1451-81; the Battle of Angora had been fought
;

A.D. 1402.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

103

marched on Cuzco and the reigning Inca Yahuar Huaccac evacuated

his capital in a panic, it looked as though the Incas had lost the
empire which had been founded a hundred years before when their
ancestors had conquered the Collao and Nazca.
The battle on the
in
which
of
the future
Prince Hatun Tupac
Sacsahuana,
plain
1

Inca Viracocha

just succeeded in staying the Chancas' onslaught

and saving Cuzco from fire and sword, was the hardest battle that
the Incas had yet had to fight. Nevertheless, the great work of

expanding and elevating the Empire into an Andean universal

state was taken up and completed by Viracocha *s son and successor
the Inca Pachacutec, who came to the throne at Cuzco some fifty
2
years after the Battle of Sacsahuana had been fought.
Other illustrations of the same 'law'
the stronger stimulus of
the heavier blow
will meet our eyes if we reopen the book of
Roman history at a later page and study the course of those wars
between Rome and the rival Great Powers of the Hellenic World

which cleared the ground for the eventual conversion of the Roman
Empire into a Hellenic universal state. In this phase of Roman and
which began with the outbreak of the first
Hellenic history
Romano-Punic War in 264 B.C. and ended with the simultaneous
destruction of Carthage and annexation of Macedonia in the year
Rome had to fight three rounds with Carthage and four with
146
Macedonia before she was able to deliver two 'knock-out blows'
which brought the titanic struggle to a close. No doubt, the poet
Virgil had these two series of wars in mind when he bade his
countrymen ever remember 'to battle down the stiff-necked':
debellare superbos. 3 Yet the historical facts surely indicate that the
method of attrition was not a masterly choice but a costly and
though the Romans managed to beat the
Carthaginians and the Macedonians in every war that they fought
with either Power, nevertheless, at each successive renewal of the
combat, the prowess displayed by the vanquished and the exertions
required of the victors were both conspicuously greater than they
had been each time before.
dangerous necessity;

for,

defeat of Carthage in the first Romano-Punic War stimulated Hamilcar Barca to conquer for his country an empire in Spain

The

which far surpassed her lost empire in Sicily, and Hamilcar's son
Hannibal to strike at the heart of the Roman Power in Italy. Even
after the Hannibalic War had ended in the defeat of Hannibal's
For the foundation of the^Inca Empire, see I. C (i) (6), vol i, pp. 121-2, above.
elevation of the Empire of the Incas into an Andean universal state may be said
to have been accomplished through the incorporation of the states along the seaboard of
the Pacific, from lea to Chimu inclusive, which covered, between them, the original
1

The

of the Andean Society. The Inca Pachacutec, who achieved this, imperabat circa
A.D. 1400-48; the Battle of Sacsahuana had been fought circa A.D. 1347.
3
Aeneid> Book VI, 1. 853.

home

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

104
last

army

at

Zama,

in the

home

territory of Carthage, the

Car-

thaginians twice astonished the World during the half century that
was still to run before their name was blotted out of the Book of
Life. Under the stimulus of this appalling situation, when they lay
at the

mercy of an implacable enemy, with

their

impending doom

ever present to their minds, they displayed an energy and a fortitude which had not distinguished them in the days of their power

They showed

their mettle first in the rapidity

with which they paid off their war indemnity to Rome and recovered their commercial prosperity; 1 and they showed it again in

and

their security.

the heroism with which the whole population of the doomed city
men, women, and children fought and died in the last struggle,
when the Romans were avowedly bent upon destroying them
utterly, and when it was certain that nothing now could save them

from

their fate.

of Macedon had been content during the

Again, King Philip
Hannibalic War, when he might have saved his country by joining
forces with Hannibal himself in Italy, to engage in desultory and
ineffective 'side-shows' on his own side of the Adriatic. It was the
blow of Cynoscephalae, which cost him his hegemony in Greece,
that stimulated him to show that 'his last sun had not yet set' 2 and
to transform Macedonia into so formidable a power that, a quarter
of a century after Cynoscephalae had been fought, Philip's son
Perseus was able to challenge Rome single-handed and almost to
defeat her utmost efforts to overcome him. Even when Perseus'
stubborn resistance was finally broken at Pydna, the Macedonian

people were so far from losing their spirit that, some twenty years
later, it only needed the appearance of an adventurer impersonating
Perseus' son Philip to make the nation rise in arms again in a last
struggle for liberty which was a forlorn hope from the start.
In our own Western history, similar reactions were evoked by
Napoleon I's premature and abortive attempt, during the General
War of 1792-1815, to establish a Western universal state in the

form of a French Empire. 3

For example, the Austrians, who had allowed themselves in
1792 to be turned back by a cannonade at Valmy from an invasion
1 As
early as 191 B.C., only ten years after the restoration of peace, the Carthaginians
offered to pay off the whole outstanding amount of the indemnity forthwith in a single
lump sum, in anticipation of the stipulated succession of instalments. This offer was
not accepted by the Romans. (Livy, Book XXXVI, ch. 4.)
2 See the account
given by Livy (Book XXXIX, ch. 26) of an interview in the year
185 B c. (the eleventh year after Cynoscephalae) between Philip and a Roman commissioner. After stating his case, Philip 'elatus demde ira adiecit nondum omnium
dierum solem occidisse'.
^The Macedonian king's outburst was a reminiscence of a line
of Theocritus: "HSij y&p fodafyi irdvd* oAtov appi SeSwcetv; (Theocritus: Thyrsts.
1.

102)
3

This aspect of the Napoleonic Empire

is

examined further in Part VI, below.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

105

of France which might have nipped the Revolution in the bud, and
had allowed themselves thereafter to be ejected by the French
twice over from Italy, were aroused at last by the blow of 1805,
when in a single campaign Napoleon captured half the Austrian
at Ulm and occupied Vienna and destroyed the rest of the
Austrian Army at Austerlitz. Austria after Austerlitz prepared for
a renewal of the contest with the same grim energy that Macedonia
had displayed after Cynoscephalae and in 1809, when she tried
conclusions with the conqueror again, and this time single-handed,
without an ally, she made him pay as much more dearly for a

Army

second victory as Macedonia made the Romans pay in 171-168 B.C.

If Austerlitz was Austria's Cynoscephalae, Wagram was her Pydna.
Moreover, the Austrians, like the Macedonians, still had the spirit,
after suffering two signal defeats, to take up arms once again; and,
more fortunate than the Macedonians, they marched this time to
victory. The intervention of Austria on the side of Russia and
Prussia in 1813 was the decisive act which made the overthrow of

Napoleon inevitable and brought

his

ephemeral empire to the

ground.
Again, the Prussians played the same ineffective part in 1805 as
the Macedonians played during the Hannibalic War, and they paid
the penalty by meeting their Cynoscephalae at Jena; but the effects
of Jena upon Prussia were dynamic. The remnant of the Prussian
Army which had marched out so ingloriously in the autumn to an
ignominious defeat had the hardihood to fight a winter campaign

and to exact a Pyrrhic victory from Napoleon at Eylau and after that
to go on fighting still, in the farthest corner of Prussian territory
beyond the Memel. In the year after Jena, the Prussians only
accepted the French conqueror's terms because they were virtually
coerced into surrender by their own Russian allies and the severity
of the terms only added to the stimulus which the shock of Jena
had first administered. The energy evoked in Prussia by this
stimulus was extraordinary. It not only regenerated the Prussian
;

(and this through the instrumentality of the very restrictions which Napoleon had imposed upon the Prussian Army in
order to reduce it to impotence) it regenerated, into the bargain,
the Prussian Administrative Service and the Prussian Education
System. In fact, this new-found energy transformed the Prussian
State into a chosen vessel for holding the new wine of German
Nationalism and simultaneously it performed the miracle of conjuring this strong German wine out of a watery cosmopolitanism.
The first-fruits of this titanic Prussian response to the challenge of
Jena were the acts of faith which decided the issue of the Befreiungskrieg; the final harvest was gathered in by Bismarck in that

Army

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

io6

calculated combination of diplomacy and war which produced its

intended result in the establishment of a new polity: Prussia-

Germany.

As

for the role of the Russians in the General

War

of 1792-1815,
it is notorious that they fought indifferently so long as they were
In 1812 the national
fighting the French on foreign ground.
energies of the Russian people were evoked, in successively higher
degrees, as the French invaders crossed the political frontier and
as they passed, at Smolensk, out of the insensitive fringe of alien
territories, recently incorporated in the Russian Empire, into the
quick of Holy Russia. At last, in the burning of Moscow, Russia
found herself; and then she turned upon her invader in a counter-

come

to a standstill until the tide of war had

ebbed back right across the Continent from Moscow to Paris.
When we turn to the next chapter of Western history, in which

attack that did not

are reversed, exactly the same

phenomena present themselves mutatis mutandis. In 1 870, when the
French, in their turn, played the vainglorious and ignominious

the roles of France and

Germany

role of the Prussians in 1806, the Prussian General Staff, who this
time had calculated and provided for everything down to the

were half-surprised at the ease with which they were

able to invade France and destroy the French armies in the field
and lay siege to Paris. 1 On the other hand, in 1914 the Prussian
General Staff of the day, who were obsessed by the memory of
what had happened forty-four years before, were astonished at
what happened this time when they repeated the invasion of
last button,

France with apparently greater odds in their favour than their

predecessors had been able to count upon in 1870. In 1914 the
Germans encountered a French resistance for which the campaign
of 1870 offered no precedent; and their under-estimate of French
moral in 1914 was one of several psychological miscalculations
which, cumulatively, were responsible in large measure for Ger-

many's

final defeat in

the

War

of 1914-18.

The Germans

fell

into

this particular error of

judgement because they neglected to take

effect of the stimulus which their own
fathers had administered to France in dealing her the blow of
1870. This stimulus had revealed itself already, before the War of
1870 was over, in the contrast between the ddbdcks at Sedan and
into account the

momentous

1 It was the
glamour of Napoleon I's victories that blinded the French to realities in
1870, just as, in 1806, the Prussians had been blinded to realities by the glamour of the
victories of Frederick the Great. Among neutral spectators, the expectation of a French
victory in 1870 was widespread when war broke out. The wnter of this Study possesses
a map, published at that moment by The Illustrated London News, in which the section
covered by the German Rhineland is printed in red in order to pick it out on the assumption that it is destined to be the war-zone
The French Army itself is said to have been
supplied with maps of Germany but not with maps of France

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

107
the stubborn resistance of the
people of Paris in a siege
from which they had no hope of being delivered. The same stimulus revealed itself again at a later date and in a sublimated form in
the Affaire Dreyfus, when a moral issue stirred the whole French
nation to the depths. For those who had eyes to see, it was evident
that this was the turning-point at which the shock of defeat, still

Metz and

working in French souls, had translated

itself into

the stirrings of

regeneration and so, to properly instructed observers, the extreme

difference between the successive French reactions to successive
German invasions in 1870 and in 1914 did not come altogether as
;

a surprise.

The
18

was

tenacity of the French resistance during the War of 1914a tenacity which was symbolized by the defence of Verdun
one of the principal factors in the victory of the Allied and

Associated Powers. Perhaps the most impressive feature in the

behaviour of the French during those war-years was the fortitude
with which they endured the devastation of some of the wealthiest
and most valuable parts of their national territory and the sequel is
still more remarkable.
sympathetic and admiring witness of
;

French national heroism during this war might have imagined, at

the time, that he was witnessing the death of a nation on the field of
honour. 'France', he might have prophesied, 'may possibly emerge
victorious, but her victory will certainly be the death of her. This
long-drawn-out devastation of the war-zone must have inflicted a
mortal wound upon the French national economy. These terrible
casualties must have doomed the population of France to an
irretrievable decline. A magnificent euthanasia! Yet death is still
death of the body, even when it has been robbed of its spiritual
Such prophets never dreamed that the ghastly wound
sting.'
which was being inflicted on France would actually rejuvenate her.
Yet so it has turned out. In the reconstruction of the devastated
areas, the whole material apparatus of life has had to be renewed.
The debris of the old equipment has naturally been replaced by

new equipment

of the latest pattern and, as the work of renovation

has proceeded, the French have come to congratulate themselves
on the accident which they lamented so bitterly while the devastation was taking place
that the war-zone happened to include the
;

majority of their industrial districts. Whether the cost of reconstruction actually has been, or ever will be, defrayed by German
Reparations payments is a secondary question. In the fifteenth
year after the Armistice, it is already evident that it has profited
France handsomely to have had her hand forced by devastation,
even if the consequent reconstruction has had to be carried out
almost entirely at French expense. In this compulsory renovation

io8

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

of her industrial plant, France has been compelled to make an

inestimably valuable capital investment. Moreover, her gain is not
to be measured in crude terms of iron and steel and bricks and
new apparatus involves a new technique; and a new
mortar.

technique involves a new spirit. It is no paradox to say that, in

the reconstruction of the devastated areas, France herself has
renewed her youth. 1
As for Germany, the miracle which a military devastation has
accomplished in one fashion for victorious France has been
accomplished in another fashion for the defeated rival of France by
a financial inflation. It is already evident that the blows which have
been rained upon Germany since the Armistice of 1918 are having
the same stimulating effect as the blows inflicted on Prussia a
2 In
fact, the unfriendly service which the
century ago in 1 806-7
Germans did to the French before the Armistice has been done by
the French to the Germans during these post-war years so that an
observer who perceived only the outward actions and their effects,
without being aware of the motives behind them or the temper
informing them, might almost imagine that France and Germany
.

were two flagellants who had gone into a partnership in asceticism

under a mutual vow to wield the lash for one another in turn.
'These are they which came out of great tribulation'; 3 and cer-

when the first draft of this chapter

was written, both France and Germany seemed to be less far from
salvation than Great Britain: the one Great Power in Europe
tainly, in

the autumn of 1931,

which had succeeded for more than seventeen years after the outbreak of the Great War in turning the blows of Fortune aside and
avoiding both the two calamities of invasion and inflation. An
Englishman, communing with his own soul in the autumn of the

Pound Sterling on the 2ist

well
whether
ask
himself
this British tour de
September, might
force had not really been a perverse evasion of 'things that accom4
a perversity whereby Great Britain had simply
pany salvation'
condemned herself to 'work out' her 'own salvation' belatedly 'with
year 1931

after the collapse of the

1
In the autumn of 1931, some thirteen years after the Armistice, on the morrow of
the fall of the Pound Sterling from the Gold Standard, France momentarily found
herself an a position
the World which, even at the time of the Peace Conference, it had
seemed inconceivable that she should ever occupy again. At that moment, she possessed
and exercised an effective military supremacy and political hegemony on the European
Continent, she was predominant over the whole ot Europe in the air; she was second
only to the United States in her holding of gold, and she was in a conspicuously better
economic position than any other great country in the World in virtue ot her relative
immunity, for the time being, from the incidence of the world-wide economic depression.
It was as if, when Zeus hurled the thunder-bolt which was to annihilate Semele, his
defenceless victim had been transfigured, at the stroke, into Athene radiant in her
shining armour.
2 This
passage was written in the summer of 1931, and it still holds good at the
moment of revision in the spring of 1933
3 Revelation vii.
4 Hebrews vi.
14.
9.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

109

and trembling', instead of having salvation thrust upon her

betimes. 'For whosoever will save his life shall lose it.' 2
The classic example of the stimulating effect of a blow is the
reaction of Hellas in general, and Athens in particular, to the
the Syriac universal state
onslaught of the Achaemenian Power

fear

in

480-479 B.C.
'The vastness of the

employed in the expedition of Xerxes King

of Persia against Hellas cast the shadow of a terrible danger over the
Hellenic Society. The stakes for which the Hellenes were called upon to
fight were slavery or freedom, while the fact that the Hellenic communities in Asia had already been enslaved created a presumption in
every mind that the communities in Hellas itself would experience the
same fate. When, however, the war resulted, contrary to expectation,
in its amazing issue, the inhabitants of Hellas found themselves not only
relieved from the dangers which had threatened them but possessed, in
addition, of honour and glory, while every Hellenic community was
filled with such affluence that the whole World was astonished at the
completeness with which the situation had been reversed.
forces

'

During the half century that followed this epoch, Hellas made vast
strides in prosperity. During this period, the effects of the new affluence
showed themselves in the progress of the arts and artists as great as any
;

recorded in history, including the sculptor Pheidias, flourished at the

time. There was an equally signal advance in the intellectual field, in

which philosophy and public-speaking were singled out for special

honour throughout the Hellenic World and particularly at Athens. In
philosophy there was the school of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; in
public-speaking there were such figures as Pericles, Isocrates and Isocrates* pupils; and these were balanced by men of action with great
military reputations like Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon,
Myronides and a long array of other names too numerous to mention.
'In the forefront of all, Athens achieved such triumphs of glory and
prowess that her name won almost world-wide renown. She increased
her ascendancy to such a point that, with her own resources, unsupported by the Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians, she broke the
resistance of powerful Persian forces on land and sea and so humbled
the pride of the famous Persian Empire that she compelled it to liberate
3
by treaty all the Hellenic communities in Asia.'

The pre-eminence

of Athenian vitality in this outburst of Hellenic life which followed the repulse of Xerxes' onslaught is comof 1914-18 ;
parable with the rejuvenation of France after the War
the
brunt of
bore
for Athens on that occasion, like France on this,

the stimulating blow. While the fertile fields of Boeotia were saved
from devastation by the treachery of their owners to the Hellenic
cause, and the fertile fields of Lacedaemon by the presence and the
1

Phihppians 11. 12.

Diodorus of Agynum:

Library of Universal History,

2 Matthew xvi.
Book XII, chs. i-a 1 .

25.

no

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Salamis, the poor land of Attica

was devastated systematically by the invaders in two successive
seasons. Indeed, Attica suffered more in 480-479 B.C. than France
in A J>. 1914-18 ; for the Germans only succeeded in occupying a
fraction, albeit an especially valuable fraction, of the French

prowess of the Athenian

fleet at

national territory, whereas the Persians occupied and devastated

the whole of Attica, including Athens itself and the Acropolis and
the temple of Athene, on the summit of the rock, which was the
The whole population of Attica men,
Attic holy of holies.

women, and children

sea to the Peloponnese

'

to evacuate the country and cross the

as refugees ; and it was in this situation that

had

the Athenian fleet fought and won the Battle of Salamis, within
sight of the victors' abandoned fields and ruined homes and altars.
It is no wonder that a blow which aroused this indomitable spirit
in the Athenian people should have been the prelude to achievements which are perhaps unique in the history of Mankind for
their brilliance and multitude and variety. In the material reconstruction of Attica, the new equipment of the farmsteads surpassed
the old as conspicuously as the new equipment of the French
factories has surpassed the plant destroyed by German shell-fire.
Half a century later, this new apparatus of agriculture in Attica was
still so far superior to anything that was to be found in other parts
of Hellas that when Athens
betrayed into folly by excess of good
fortune
at last conjured up against herself an overwhelming
counter-coalition of other Powers, the Boeotian contingent in the
Allied and Associated Armies found it worth while to carry off the
woodwork of the Attic farm-buildings bodily across the mountains. 1
Yet, in the reconstruction of Attica, this imposing reequipment of the farmsteads was nothing accounted of. The work
which was regarded as truly symbolic of the country's glorious
resurrection was the rebuilding of the temples and in this work
Periclean Athens displayed a vitality far superior to that of post-war
France. When the French recovered the battered shell of Rhcims
Cathedral, they performed a pious restoration of each shattered
stone and splintered statue. When the Athenians found the Heka;

This fact

is

recorded in the fragment of a history of Hellenic affairs, of unknown

come to light on the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus. The relevant passage

authorship, which has

runs as follows :

'Thebes had enjoyed a great increase in general prosperity as an immediate result of

the outbreak of the Atheno-Peloponnesian War
she prospered still more after the
While the occupation lasted,
joint Thebano-Lacedaemonian occupation of Decelea.
the Thebans bought up cheap the slaves and other prize of war; and the tact that they
were the Athenians' next-door neighbours enabled them to transpoit to the Thebaid
all the
capital equipment of Attica, including the very timber and tiling of the buildings.
At that time the Attic countryside was more lavishly equipped than any other in Hellas.
It had suffered very little in the previous Lacedaemonian invasions, and an immense
amount of skill and labour had been invested in it by the Athenians.
.
.'
(Hellcnica
Oxyrhynchia (Oxford 1909, University Press), xii. 3-4.)
.

THE STIMULUS OF BLOWS

in

tompedon burnt down to the foundations, they let the foundations

lie and proceeded, on a new site, to create the Parthenon.
As for Sparta, she had to wait for the stimulus which she had
been spared
or denied
by Destiny in 480-479 B.C. until it was
accorded to her some fifteen years later by an act of God. It was
the great earthquake of 464 B.C.
a catastrophe which laid the City
of Sparta in ruins and raised all the Helots of Laconia in revolt
that put the Spartans on their mettle
against their stricken masters
again and nerved them first to check the expansion of the Athenian
Empire and later to put an end to its existence. As for Thebes, she
did not completely recover from the demoralization of her 'Medism'
480 B.C., nor wholly efface its stigma, until almost a century later
when, in the year 382, the Gods at last had mercy on her and
inspired the Spartans to seize by fraud and hold by force the Theban
in

citadel, the

Cadmea. Under the stimulus of

this heaven-sent blow,

Thebes achieved,

The

stature.

for a season, the miracle of adding a cubit to her

liberation of the Cadmea in 378 B.C. was followed by

the victory of Leuctra in 371 and the invasion of Laconia in 370.

Thebes had not only fulfilled her ancient ambition of establishing
an undisputed authority over the other city-states of Boeotia ; she
had actually defeated the invincible Spartans and raided their
inviolable territory and wrested from them the hegemony of the
Hellenic World.
In this series of examples from the military and political histories
of sovereign states, the stimulus of blows is manifest. Yet if these
examples warrant the inference that 'the heavier the blow the
stronger the stimulus' is a genuine social law, we must beware of
making the further inference that Militarism in itself is a source of
creative energy ; for the historic examples of our present law are
not confined to the battle-field, 1 and there are other mediums
besides those of war and politics in which these stimulating blows
are dealt

The

and received.

example, which we have reserved until the end of

this chapter, is presented on the field of religion in the Acts of the
These dynamic acts, which were to win the whole
Apostles.
Hellenic World for Christianity as they worked themselves out in
the fullness of time, were conceived at the moment when the
Apostles were looking steadfastly toward Heaven as their Lord went
classic

i
the burning
recent Western history
One of the notorious deeds of Militarism
has stimulated the
of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, by General Sherman in A D. 1864
stricken city to raise herself to an eminence in the arts of peace which she had never
attained in her ante-bellum infancy Sherman challenged Atlanta to show her destroyer
that she was not a Persepolis but a phoenix ; and he taught her the way by opening^her
eyes to the indestructible importance of her geographical position as a railway junction.
On the morrow of her disaster, Atlanta took for her civic motto the Latin word Resurgens,
and turned her strategic position to commercial account by making herself into a distributing centre for the whole of the south-eastern United States,

us

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

1
up out of their sight. At the moment, it was a crushing blow for
them to lose again the personal presence of a Master who had so lately
returned to them from the dead. Yet the very heaviness of the blow

evoked, in their souls, a proportionately powerful psychological

reaction which is conveyed mythologically in the message of the
two men in white apparel 2 and in the descent of the Pentecostal
3
In the power of the Holy Ghost, they preached
tongues of fire.
the divinity of the crucified and vanished Jesus not only to the
Jewish populace but to the Sanhedrin 4 and, within three centuries,
the Roman Government itself capitulated to the Church which the
;

Apostles had founded at a

V.

moment

of extreme spiritual prostration.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

'Marches' and 'Interiors'

So much

for the stimulus of the

human environment when

its

impact takes the form of a sudden external blow. We have next to

examine the cases in which the impact takes the different form of a
continuous external pressure.
In terms of political geography, the peoples, states, or cities
which are exposed to such pressure fall, for the most part, within
the general category of 'marches' and the best way to study the
effects of this particular kind of pressure empirically is to make
some survey of the parts played by marches, in the histories of the
societies or communities to which they belong, in comparison with
the parts played by other territories that belong respectively to the
same societies or communities but are situated geographically in
;

their 'interiors'. 5

In the Egyptiac World

In the history of the Egyptiac Civilization, for example, we have
noticed already, in another connexion, 6 that, on no less than three

momentous occasions, the course of Egyptiac history was directed

by Powers originating in the south of Upper Egypt. The foundation of the United Kingdom circa 3200 B.C., the foundation of
the universal state circa 2070/2060 B.C., and the restoration of the
universal state circa 1580 B.C., were all accomplished by Powers

We

that originated within this narrowly circumscribed district.

may
observe now, apropos of our present inquiry, that this district is
* Acts i. lo-ii.
3 Acts ii.
4 Acts ii-v.
Acts i. 9-10.
1-4.
In Part IV, below, we shall have occasion to recur to this survey of the parts
played
by marches, apropos of the pathological phenomenon of an excessive concentration of
energy upon certain particular activities which aie the responses to particular challenges.
An example of this phenomenon which is conspicuous in the histories of marches is the
social malady called Militarism
6 See I. C
Geschuhte fas
(n), vol. i, p. 140, footnote 2, above, following Meyer, E.
Altertums, vol. 11 (i), 2nd edition, pp. 60-1.
1

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

113

coincident with the Southern March of the Egyptiac World which

was exposed to pressure from the barbarians of Nubia. And if we
look further into Egyptiac history from our
present angle of vision,
we shall find other marches playing equivalent parts in reaction to
pressures from barbarians or from alien civilizations which impinged upon the Egyptiac World from other quarters. In particular, a pressure from North- Western Africa or from South-Western

Asia was apt to

call

into existence,

paramount Power with

its

in the Egyptiac World,

seat in the corresponding

marches on

this or that fringe of the Delta. 1

The

polarization of political

power

at the

two extremities of the

Egyptiac domain was an

early as well as a persistent phenomenon

consolidation of the twenty or thirty once
independent local states of the Lower Nile Valley2 into two empires
with the Northern and the Southern March as their respective
nuclei was the prelude to the foundation of the United Kingdom;

of Egyptiac history.

and

dualism had been converted into unity through the

triumph of the Southern over the Northern Power, the memory of
it was still
kept alive in the symbolism of the Double Crown, until
at last, after the passage of some two thousand years, the Northern
March succeeded in capturing in its turn, and thenceforth retaining,
the primacy. In the thirteenth century B.C., new pressures from
the Hittite Power on the Asiatic mainland and from the postMinoan Volkerwanderung in the Levant caused the sceptre to pass
from Thebes, the historic metropolis of the Southern March, to
the City of Ramses the new frontier-fortress on the eastern fringe
of the Delta which now guarded this exposed extremity of the
Egyptiac World as Thebes had guarded the frontier over against
Nubia. 3 Thereafter, during the sixteen centuries of twilight which
elapsed between the decline of 'the New Empire' and the ultimate
extinction of the Egyptiac Society in the fifth century of the
Christian Era, political power reverted to the Delta as persistently
as it had been apt to revert to the Southern March during the preceding two thousand years. After being governed in the thirteenth
after this

and twelfth centuries

B.C.

from Deltaic Ramses, the Egyptiac

1 e
g. at the City of Ramses and at Tanis and at Bubastis on the eastern fringe of the
Delta; at Sais on the western fringe (see below).
2 The historical
'nomes', i.e. provinces, as they were called after their *mediatization'.
3 For this transfer of the
capital from Thebes to the City of Ramses, see Meyer, E. :
Geschichte des Altertums, vol. ii (i), 2nd edition, pp. 453-4, 487-8, and 494-5. The City
of Ramses was the first Deltaic capital of an oecumenical Egyptiac State with the exception
of Avans ; and Avans is the exception which proves the rule ; for Avaris was the capital of
the Hyksos and the Hyksos were alien interlopers in the Egyptiac World who never
felt themselves at home there. For this reason, the Hyksos did not attempt to establish
themselves an the interior, but remained encamped at Avans, on the edge of their Egyptian
dominions, in order to keep open their line of retreat to their original settlements in Syria.
Thus Avaris, under the Hyksos regime, was not really the capital of an Egyptiac State
but rather the head-quarters of an alien military occupation.
;

II

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

ii4

World was governed

and in the tenth and

in the eleventh century from Deltaic Tanis

ninth centuries from Deltaic Bubastis ; and

the classic instance of Deltaic paramountcy is the rise of the

Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, which originated in the Delta in response
to the challenge of the Assyrian occupation in the seventh century

and came,

after supplanting the intruders, to rule all Egypt,

as far south as Elephantine, from Sais. The Saite Power, thus

B.C.

founded, endured until it failed to respond to another challenge

from Asia in failing to save Egypt from political incorporation into
the Achaemenian Empire. The subsequent successive attempts
some abortive and others temporarily successful to throw off the
Achaemenian yoke all emanated from the Delta likewise. During
these centuries when the Delta was politically in the ascendant, the

Thebaid was politically in eclipse. The position of post-Imperial

Thebes in the latter-day Egyptiac World resembled that of postImperial Rome during the post-Hellenic interregnum and the
early age of Western Christendom. The ci-devant Imperial City
was perfunctorily compensated and consoled for the loss of its
political power by the enjoyment of an ecclesiastical primacy
which was a legacy from its previous greatness and a tribute to its
enduring prestige.

Can we

was that, in the competition for political

paramountcy between the Thebaid and the Delta, the Thebaid
had the upper hand from the foundation of the United Kingdom
until the decline of 'the New Empire', while the Delta had the
upper hand thereafter ? This permanent change in the balance of
power is to be explained by certain permanent changes in the
incidence of external pressure upon the Egyptiac World. From the
fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C. onwards, the pressures
from North- Western Africa and from South-Western Asia decidedly
outweighed the pressures from other quarters; and accordingly,
during these latter days, the stimulus derived from external pressure was felt in greatest measure by the Northern Marches in the
Delta. Concurrently, the pressure from the Upper Nile Valley
relaxed; and the classic Southern March, in the section of the
valley immediately below the First Cataract, was relegated to the
discern

why

it

interior of the Egyptiac

domain

The

World by an extension of the Egyptiac

up-river.

Southern March was only a march so long as the

marked a sharp line of cultural division between the
Egyptiac Civilization and a Nubian barbarism and this condition
classic

First Cataract

1
See Meyer, E. : Gottesstaat, Militarherrschaft und Stdndewesen in Aegypten =
Berichten Berl. Akad. 1928, pp. 495 seqq.; eundem: GescTnchtedesAltertums, vol. ii (ii),
and edition (Stuttgart and Berlin 1931, Gotta), pp. 6-60.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

115

did not prevail either in the evening or at the dawn of

Egyptiac
In the so-called pre-dynastic age, there had been no
history.
substantial difference in culture between the sections of the Nile
Valley below the First Cataract and above it. The differentiation of

a dynamic civilization in Egypt from a static

primitive culture in
Nubia declared itself on the eve of the foundation of the United
Kingdom; and the stimulus of barbarian pressure upon the
Egyptiac frontiersmen at the new dividing line perhaps accounts
for the foundation of the United Kingdom by a dynasty whose seat

was at Al Kab. The new difference in cultural level between Egypt

and Nubia was accentuated during the regime of the Egyptiac
United Kingdom, as the Egyptiac Civilization soared to its zenith;
and this cultural gulf remained fixed during the subsequent 'Time
of Troubles'
when Nubia appears to have been occupied by
Afrasian Nomads from the North- West
and also during the
regime of the Egyptiac universal state, which was founded and
maintained by the Theban emperors of the Eleventh and Twelfth
Dynasties. Though Nubia was annexed to the Egyptiac universal
state politically, its incorporation into the Egyptiac World remained
the incorporation of the southern seaboard of
China into the Sinic World under the Han. 1 The Egyptiac Civilization was still exotic in Nubia; and such local interaction between
the two cultures as took place in that age resulted in the barbarizing
of the Egyptian garrison and not in the civilizing of the Nubian
On the other hand, Nubia was not only politically
proletariat.
annexed but was also culturally assimilated by the restored Egyptiac
universal state
'the New Empire'
and after the organization of
the new dominion by Thothmes I (imperabat circa 1557-1505 B.C.)
the southern boundary of the Egyptiac World stood near the foot
of the Fourth Cataract, at the new frontier-fortress of Napata,
instead of standing at the head of the First Cataract at the old
frontier-fortress of Elephantine. In thus definitively incorporating
Nubia into the Egyptiac World, the Theban emperors of the
Eighteenth Dynasty cut the roots of their own country's greatness.
They transferred from the Thebaid to Napata the military burden, and with it the political stimulus, of serving as the Southern
March; and on the one occasion, during the last sixteen centuries
of Egyptiac history, on which the now prevalent political paramountcy of the Northern Marches was contested by the South, the
superficial,

like

Southern Power which aspired to oecumenical authority had

new Southern March of Napata and not in the
devant Southern March of the Thebaid.

roots in the

When

the break-up of 'the

1

New

its

ci-

Empire' into successor-states,

See pp. 83-4, above.

n6

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

under the rule of local princelings descended from Libyan mercenaries, was followed by a re-polarization of political power at the
two extremities of the Egyptiac World, the two poles in the new
tension were not both coincident with those at which power had
been concentrated on the eve of the foundation of the United
Kingdom, some two thousand five hundred years earlier. In the
post-Imperial age, the capital of the Northern Power was duly
planted in the Delta, this time at Bubastis, by the Libyan princes of
Heracleopolis ; while these latter-day Libyan Heracleopolites' Napatan kinsmen 1 and contemporaries, who established the Southern
Power, retained their capital at Napata, which was now the Southern
point of pressure and stimulus, and did not transfer it either to the
Thebaid or to any other point in the interior. In the fullness of
time, this Napatan Power attempted to emulate the thrice-repeated
feat of the Thebaid: the political unification of the whole Egyptiac
World under a single sovereignty. The new Southern March,
however, now failed to accomplish what the old Southern March
had achieved thrice over. The Napatan attempt to gain oecumenical power, which was initiated by Kashta when he annexed the
Thebaid circa 750 B.C. and was almost carried to completion by
Piankhi when he made his expedition down-Nile into the Delta circa
725, was frustrated first by the alien Assyrian invaders and finally
by the indigenous Deltaic Power of the Saites, who began as the
Assyrians' creatures and endedastheir local residuary legatees. Circa
661-655 B.C., the frontier between the Saite and the Napatan Power
came to rest at Elephantine; and thereafter this obsolete boundary

between an Egyptiac Civilization and a Nubian barbarism acquired

a new function as the internal line of demarcation between the two
political units into which the enlarged Egyptiac World was thenceforth permanently divided.
Thus, in the post-Imperial age, the old Northern

Southern March both

failed to attain

and the new

oecumenical power in the end
;

and the resultant

political dualism persisted during the remainder

of Egyptiac history. Yet though Napata fell short, in achievement,
of Al Kab and Thebes, she was not altogether unresponsive to the
stimulus of external pressure to which, as the latter-day Southern
March of the Egyptiac World, she had come to be exposed in her
turn. The former frontier-fortress of 'the New Empire' on the
Upper Nile became the capital of a 'successor-state' which embraced
half, albeit the more backward half, of the latter-day expanded
Egyptiac World and, unlike the Saites and their successors in the
;

1 Reisner's view that

these princes of Napata were Libyans is not accepted by Eduard
Meyer, who suggests that they were descended from Hnhor, the High Priest of Amon

who established the Theban theocracy ctrca

and

edition, p. 52).

1075 B.C. (Geschichte des Altertums, vol.

ii (ii),

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

117
the
did
not
succumb
to alien conquerors. During
Delta,
Napatans
the long centuries when Egypt north of
Elephantine was successively subject to the Achaemenids and the Ptolemies and the
Romans, Ethiopia south of Elephantine remained an independent

Egyptiac Power. Indeed, during these centuries the domain of the

Egyptiac Culture was extended still farther up-river under this
Ethiopian regime, until Napata herself, who had started her career
as a frontier-fortress, was relegated to the interior as Thebes had

been before her. Thereafter,

circa

300

B.C.,

Napata was supplanted,

as the capital of the Ethiopian state,

by Meroe at the foot of the
Sixth Cataract, midway between the junctions of the Atbaraand the
Blue Nile with the main river; and this Meroitic Power lived on,
as a politically independent embodiment of the
Egyptiac Society,
until the third century of the Christian Era, when the
Egyptiac
Culture suffered a violent death in Ethiopia at the hands of bar-

some two
Egypt itself.

barian invaders,
its

sleep in

centuries before

it

died peacefully in

Thus

the political history of the Egyptiac World, from beginning

may be read as a tension between two poles of political
power which, in every age, were located respectively in the
Southern and in the Northern March of the day. One or other
of these marches was the cradle of every successful or abortive
oecumenical dynasty. On the other hand, there are no examples of
oecumenical dynasties which originated at points in the interior of
the Egyptiac World. The political creations of the interior were
to end,

seldom more than parochial and even when oecumenical dynasties

whose roots lay in one of the marches in the Delta or in the
Thebaid transferred their capitals to places in Middle Egypt for
administrative convenience, political power was apt to ebb back to
the marches as soon as times once more became critical. For
instance, after the foundation of the United Kingdom, the capital
was transferred from Al Kab, in the Southern March, which had
been the original seat of the founders, to Memphis on the borderline between the two lands of the Double Crown yet the new task
of founding the Egyptiac universal state after a time of troubles
was accomplished by a dynasty from Thebes. Again, after the
foundation of the universal state, the capital was transferred once
more, this time from Thebes to a new central site just above Mem;

yet the new task of restoring the universal state after the
intrusion of the Hyksos was accomplished by a dynasty from
Thebes, who thus asserted her political potency for the second

phis

1 This new central

site, to which the capital was transferred by Amenemhat I from
Thebes, was called Iz-Taui, which meant 'Conqueror of both Lands' (Meyer, E..
Geschichte des Altertums^ vol. i (11), 3rd edition, p. 267).

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND -RESPONSE

n8

Finally, after the restoration of the universal state, the

new imperial
capital was transferred from Thebes by Ikhnaton to his

time.

city at Tell-el-Amarna, mid-way between Thebes and Memphis ;

yet this transfer was as ephemeral as the religious and artistic

innovations with which it was bound up. 1 Upon the death of the
imperial revolutionary, the capital reverted to Thebes and remained
there until the Thebaid paid the inevitable penalty for having
ceased to be a march by forfeiting, once for all, its ancient and
long-enduring political paramountcy. Even then, the political
heritage of the Thebaid did not fall to any district in the interior,

but was divided, as we have seen, between the old Northern March
in the Delta and the new Southern March of Nubian Napata.
In the Sinic World

The

part played in the classical period of Egyptiac history by the

Thebaid the march which relieved the interior of the Egyptiac
World from the pressure of the barbarians of Nubia was played
in Sinic history by the valleys of the Wei-ho and the Fen-ho, which
were the marches of the Sinic World against the barbarian highlanders of Shensi and Shansi. The Chou Dynasty, which founded
the Sinic equivalent of the Egyptiac United Kingdom towards the
close of the second millennium B.C., and the Ts'in Dynasty, which
founded the Sinic universal state in the year 221 B.C., both originated
in the Wei Valley, while the Fen Valley was the seat of the Tsin
Dynasty, which was the rival of the Ts'in during the first phase
of the Sinic Time of Troubles. In Sinic, as in Egyptiac, history,
there was a tendency for Powers which originated in the marches
and afterwards attained an oecumenical dominion to transfer their
capitals from the periphery to the interior. The site in the Sinic
World which corresponded to the Egyptiac Memphis was Loyang
It lay on the borderline between the
(the modern Honan-fu).
western valleys and the eastern plain, 2 traversed by the Yellow
River in its lower course, which was the geographical heart of the
Sinic World. 3 The capital of the Ch6u was transferred to the
neighbourhood of Loyang from the Wei Valley after the dynasty
1

For a discussion of Ikhnaton's

role in Egyptiac history, see

I.

(ii),

vol

i,

pp. 145-6,

above.

The exact location of Loyang was in the valley of the Lo-ho, a minor right-bank
stream just below the
tributary of the Yellow River which debouches into the
Yellow River's exit from the gorges that intervene between its Lower Basin in the eastern
plain and its Upper Basin in the highlands where it receives the waters of the Wei and
the Fen.
2

mam

The

of 'Middle Kingdom* (Chung Kwo), which was eventually taken over by the
is under Heaven* (T'ien-hta)> appears
to have been borne originally by the little principality of Chu, in the middle of the
eastern plain, on the borderline between the modern provinces of Honan and Shantung.
(See Cordier, H. Histohe G6n6rale de la Chine (Pans 1920-1, Geuthner, 4 vols.), vol. i,
title

Sinic universal state as an alternative to 'All that

p.

314)

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

had

119

and in a later age the capital of the

Sinic universal state, which had been located originally at
Ch'ang
the
in
Wei
under
the
Prior
was
transferred
likeNgan
Valley
Han,
fallen into

decadence

when

the Posterior Han gave the Sinic universal

state a second lease of life. It is the more
significant that, not-

wise to Loyang

withstanding this repeated attraction of the capital of the Sinic

World from the periphery into the interior, the two Powers which
made Sinic history both originated in the Western March. The
only Power that is credited with an original seat in the eastern plain
is the
semi-legendary Yin or Shang Dynasty, which was traditionally

supposed to have been paramount before the Chou united

March under their own sceptre.

the eastern plain with the Western

In the Far Eastern World

When we

turn to the history of the Far Eastern Civilization

which is 'affiliated' to the Sinic Civilization, we find that the
oscillation between a western capital and an eastern capital, which
had been characteristic of the political history of the 'apparented'
civilization, is reproduced, with a difference, in a new oscillation
between a southern capital and a northern.
In the Sinic World, there had been a tendency for oecumenical
Powers to originate in the Western March, under stimulus from
the pressure of the surrounding barbarian highlanders, and to
transfer their capitals to sites in the interior on the eastern plain.
In the Far Eastern World, the heaviest external pressure came
from a different source and a different quarter. The barbarian
highlanders of Shensi and Shansi had been subdued and assimilated
by the growing Powers of Ts'in and Tsin before the close of the
Sinic Time of Troubles; but this elimination of the barbarians of
the western highlands had merely removed a buffer which had
previously intervened between the Sinic World and the far more
formidable Nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe; and the
simultaneous expansion of the two Sinic principalities of Chao and
Yen, at the northern end of the eastern plain, doubled the length of
the new front between the Sinic World and Eurasia. This front
now extended from the north-western coast of the Gulf of Liaotung
to the north-eastern escarpment of the Tibetan Plateau. The lines
of defence against Nomad inroads, which had been thrown up
piecemeal by the contending states of the Sinic World, with such
energies as they could spare from the last round in their own internecine struggle, were consolidated, after the 'knock-out blow' had
been delivered and the Sinic universal state founded by Ts'in She
1
Hwang-ti, into the Great Wall of China. It was across the line of
1

See Cordier, op.

cit.,

vol.

i,

pp. 206-7.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

120

the Wall, from north to south, that, some five centuries later,
during the interregnum (circa A.D. 175-475) which followed the
break-up of the Sinic universal state, the Eurasian Nomads came in,
as barbarian invaders, in the post-Sinic Volkerwanderung; and the
pressure from the north did not cease when the new Far Eastern
Civilization emerged. Hence, in the Far Eastern World, there was
a tendency, from the beginning, for oecumenical Powers either to
originate in the Northern Marches or to transfer their capitals to
the Northern Marches if they had originated in the southern
interior.

For instance, the Power which evoked, in the Far Eastern World,
a ghost of the Sinic universal state 1 in the first age of Far Eastern
history, originated, like the Sinic universal state itself, in the
Valley; and in the new orientation of political geography the

Wei
Wei

Valley constituted the western section of those Northern Marches

in which the pressure from the Eurasian Nomads was now making
itself felt. It was here that the Sui Dynasty, which re-enacted the
part of Ts'in She Hwang-ti by uniting the whole of Society under
a single rule, established a new oecumenical capital at Si Ngan (the
modern Sian-fu) in the neighbourhood of the ancient Ch'ang
2
Ngan. Si Ngan, under the Sui, drew to itself the power that had
3
previously resided in Nanking, the capital of the South, which the
Sui had annexed to their dominions and when the T'ang Dynasty
reaped the fruits of the Sui Dynasty's labours, as their prototypes
the Han had once entered into the heritage of Ts'in She Hwang-ti,
the T'ang kept the seat of oecumenical power at Si Ngan, where
;

they had found

it.

Ngan, however, did not retain its primacy in perpetuity for

the incidence of the pressure from the Eurasian Nomads tended, in
the course of Far Eastern history, to shift from the western sector
of the Northern Marches to the east, and the seat of political power
in the Far Eastern World shifted eastwards correspondingly. This
shift was approximately contemporaneous with the
momentary
breakdown of the Far Eastern Oecumenical Power during the
interval between the extinction of the T'ang Dynasty in A.D.
907
and the foundation of the Sung Dynasty in A.D. 960.
During the Sung Age, Far Eastern history consisted, for the main
body of the Far Eastern Society on the Continent, 4 in a slow and
Si

1 See further the

comparative study, in Part X, below, of the likenesses and differences
between the evocation of the ghost of the Sinic universal state in the Far Eastern World
and the evocation of ghosts of the Hellenic universal state in the Orthodox Christian and
Western worlds.
* For
Ch'ang Ngan, the capital of the Sinic universal state under the Prior Han, see

p.

u 9,

above.

The

different course taken

overseas, in Japan, is examined

Parts

VI and VIII.

3 See
p. 122, footnote i, below.
the
by
history of the offshoot of the Far Eastern Society
below in the present section, on pp. 158-9, as well as in

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

121

stubborn retreat of the Far Eastern Oecumenical Power from north

to South under an ever increasing pressure from a succession of
Nomad Powers operating from Manchuria. The Khitan had
extorted the cession of sixteen districts along the northern border
circa A.D. 927-37, before the oecumenical
authority of the Sung had
been established; the Khitans* successors, the Kin, conquered
from the Sung, circa A.D. 1125-42, the whole of Northern China
down to the watershed between the Yellow River and the Yangtse;
and, when the Kin had been supplanted in their turn by the Mongols, the Mongol Great Khan Qubilay (imperabat A.D. 1259-94)
completed the work of his Kin and Khitan predecessors by extinguishing the Sung altogether and reuniting the whole of the main
body of the Far Eastern World under a barbarian dominion. The
tide of barbarian conquest, however, had no sooner engulfed the last
remnant of the Far Eastern Society on the mainland than it began
to recede ; and the point of interest, for our present purpose, lies in
the sequel which followed the eviction of the Mongols from China
in A.D. 1 3 68 1 by a new thoroughbred Chinese Power: the Ming.
This new thoroughbred Chinese dynasty arose in the same
quarter in which their last thoroughbred predecessors, the Sung,
had held out longest, that is to say in the South; and the founder
of the Ming, Hung Wu, signalized the expulsion of the barbarians
from China and the restoration of a genuine Chinese regime by a
solemn transfer of the capital.
When the Kin had conquered Northern China, they had established their capital on the site of the modern Peking (*the Northern
Capital'), on the borderline between the barbarian portion of their
dominions to the north of the Great Wall and the Chinese portion
to the south of it. 2 The same site commended itself, for the same
geographical reason, to Qubilay; and in his reign Peking became
the capital not merely of a reunited China but of a universal state
which extended from the Pacific coasts of Asia right across the
continent as far as the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates and the
Carpathians and the Baltic and thus embraced the whole circumference of the Eurasian Steppe. This Kin and Mongol capital was
naturally obnoxious to the Chinese as a reminder of the barbarian
3

* The insurrection
against the Mongols which ended in their eviction began about
the year 1351.
*
Compare the location of the Hyksos* capital, Tanis, on the borderline^ between the
non-Egyptiac portion of their dominions in Syria and the Egyptiac portion in the Lower
Nile Valley. (See p. 113, footnote 3, above.)
3
Qubilay began to recondition Peking in AD. 1264 and transferred his capital
thither in 1267 from Qaraqorum, which was his ancestral capital in the Basin of the
Orkhon, in the heart of Eurasia. At the same time he kept a footing on the Steppe by
building himself a subsidiary residence, within easy reach of Peking, at Chung-Tu
(Coleridge's Xanadu) just outside the Great Wall.
'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome

decree.

.'

122

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

yoke which they had borne so long and had only just succeeded in
throwing off. Accordingly, Hung Wu had no sooner driven the
Nomads out again into their native steppes and re-established the
frontier of a liberated China along the line of the Great Wall, than
he transferred the capital from Qubilay's city to Nanking, which
had been the 'Capital of the South' at the dawn of Far Eastern
1
laid out his new city at Nanking on a scale
history.
Hung
commensurate with the size of the greater empire of which it was
designed to be the capital henceforward. Yet neither historical
sentiment nor cultural amour propre nor administrative convenience nor a lavish outlay on public buildings availed to retain
the capital of the Ming Empire on this site in the interior. For
though the Nomads had been expelled from China for the moment
by Hung Wu's prowess, he could not exorcize the danger of their

Wu

possible return On the morrow of their expulsion, as they began to

recover from their momentary prostration and to rally their forces
like Satan and his angels in the exordium of Paradise Lost, their
.

pressure became perceptible once more at the point where it had

been making itself felt for the past five centuries that is, in the
eastern sector of the Northern March
and, once again, the point
which was bearing the brunt of the political pressure drew to itself
the primacy in political power. In A.D. 1421, Hung Wu's son and

second successor,

Yung Lo

(regnabat A.D. 1403-25), retransferred

his own father's chosen city of Nanking

the capital of China from

to the very city of Peking which had first been raised to honour by
the hereditary barbarian enemy.
c
Yung Lo's reversion from the Southern Capital' in the interior
to 'the Northern Capital' in the Marches was justified by the event.
Indeed, the renewed pressure from the north became so strong
that, though the retransference of the capital to the danger-point
postponed the day of fresh disaster for China, it could not for ever
avert it. In A.D. 1619-44, rather more than two centuries after
Yung Lo's statesmanlike move, the Great Wall was broken through
and Peking captured and all China overrun by a new Power from
the north-eastern no-man's-land in the shape of the Manchus 2 and
;

Nanking had been continuously the capital of the South, under five successive
dynasties, from A D. 317 (the date which saw the end of the ephemeral restoration of
the Sinic universal state under the so-called 'United Tsin') down to A D. 589 (the date
which saw the evocation of a ghost of the Smic universal state by the Sui). In A D. 589
the Sui annexed the South to their own Northern dominions and thereby united the
whole Far Eastern World of the day under a single rule (See p. 120, above )
1

2 Unlike the
Mongols, the Manchus were not stock-breeding Nomads but primitive
hunters who were at home, not on the Eurasian Steppe, but
the highlands
clad
in virgin forest
which bound, on the east, the easternmost enclave of the Eurasian
Steppe in the common basin of the Rivers Liao and Sungari. The particular Manchu
community which conquered China in the seventeenth century of the Christian Era
came from the section of this highland-forest country that lies between Kirm and the
Pacific coast. These Manchu conquerors of China, being still on the primitive level at

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

123
in the eighteenth century of the Christian Era the Manchu
sovereign
Ch'ien Lung ruled from Peking 1 an empire
all
China
and
uniting
half Eurasia under a common dominion
which could bear com-

parison with the empire that had once been ruled from Peking
by the Mongol Great Khan Qubilay himself. From A.D. 1421
down to A.D. 1928, Peking remained the capital of China through
all vicissitudes. The
attempt of the T'aip'ing insurgents, in the
middle of the nineteenth century, 2 to bring back the capital to
Nanking collapsed with the failure of their endeavour, of which it
was a part, to deal with the Manchus as the Ming had dealt with the
Mongols. In 1928, however, the Emperor Yung Lo's historic act
was reversed, at last, by President Chiang Kai-shek; and at the
time of writing Nanking is the capital of the Chinese Republic,
while Peking has been degraded to the rank of a provincial centre
under the belittling title of Peping.

be permanent? And, if it is, will it

militate against the validity of our social 'law' that marches are
apt to be stimulated, by the external pressure to which they are
Is this

change

likely to

exposed, into developing a political power which gives them a

predominance over the interior? In the writer's belief, the recent
transfer of the Chinese capital from Peking to Nanking is likely
to be perpetuated, and this just because, so far from invalidating our
'law', it actually illustrates and confirms it.
How are we to account for the success of the Kuomintang in retransferring the capital of China from Peking to Nanking some
three-quarters of a century after the T'aip'ing's failure in their

attempt to do this very thing?

The

explanation is to be found in
certain far-reaching transformations of China's human environment which have taken place during the interval.
In 'the eighteen-fifties' of the Christian Era, the quarter from
which China was subject to the heaviest external pressure was still
the north, as it had been since the beginning of Far Eastern history.
At that moment, China was under die rule of a dynasty of northbarbarian origin whose founder had forced his entry by breaking
through the Great Wall, in its eastern sector, from north to south;
the time of the conquest, were much more readily assimilated to the Far Eastern culture,
and absorbed into the Far Eastern body social, than their Mongol predecessors, who had
entered China as full-fledged Eurasian Nomads with a tincture of the abortive Far
Eastern Christian culture of the Nestorian Diaspora (see II.
(vi), pp. 237-8, below).
For the primitive culture of the Manchus, see Lattunore, Owen: Manchuria Cradle of
It will be seen that the Manchu conquest
Conflict (New York 1 93 2, Macmillan), pp. 44-5
of China differed from the Mongol conquest both in nature and in outcome, and bore a
greater resemblance to the Chichimec conquest of Mexico.
1
The Manchu rulers of China followed Qubilay's example by supplementing their
a glorified hunting lodge
capital at Peking, on Chinese soil, with a secondary residence
and summer retreat outside the Great Wall. This Manchu counterpart of Qubilay's
Xanadu* was Jehol in Eastern Inner Mongolia.
a The
T'aip'ing insurrection lasted from A.D. 1850 to A.D. 1864.

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

124

and, according to our 'law', it was to be expected that the capital of

that is to say, at
China would remain in the zone of pressure
so long as
Peking, in the eastern sector of the Northern Marches
this state of affairs continued. By 1928, however, a historic situa-

been intact in 'the eighteen-fifties' had become

entirely obsolete; and the Chinese Political Revolution of 1911,
which overthrew the Manchu Dynasty and put an end to the
Manchu ascendancy in China Proper, was by no means the most
tion

which had

still

revolutionary event in this radical change. The Manchu Dynasty

and the Manchu Bannermen who had transferred their residence
from Manchuria to China at the time of the conquest had been con-

generations before they were put

down from their seat by Chinese Nationalism. 1 The really momentous change in the situation since the failure of the T'aip'ing has
been not political but economic, and has consisted in a counteroffensive of the Chinese cultivator against the Nomad herdsman. 2
verted to Chinese culture

many

This Chinese colonization of the steppe country, which was well

under way before 1911, has been facilitated by the lapse of the
Manchu regime's migration-restrictions and has been stimulated
by the subsequent ravages of civil war and banditry and famine and
flood in the heart of China itself: a fourfold scourge which has been
driving the Chinese peasantry of Shantung and Honan and Chihli
to emigrate in their hundreds of thousands to the empty and
unharassed virgin lands of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Thus,
to-day, the Great Wall no longer marks the boundary between
Chinese peasant and barbarian Nomad. The line across which the

Nomad

invader has trespassed so many times during the last two

thousand years has been left far behind in the Chinese peasant's
peaceful but potent counter-offensive, until now a broad zone of
the steppe-land which the Mongol herdsman used to range has
1

Indeed, it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the Manchu Dynasty

and Nobility, at any rate, had been Sinified before they crossed the Great Wall in
AD. 1619. For their previous extra-mural dominions had included not only their own
original homeland in the forest-clad highlands east of Kirin but also the relatively wellwatered portion of the lowlands in the Liao River basin which had been brought under
the plough by Chinese peasant-colonists and had been shielded from Nomad incursions
by the construction of the Willow Palisade: a north-eastern prolongation of the Great
Wall which takes off from the Wall just above Shanhaikwan and runs down the eastern
escarpment of the Central Asian Plateau and then across the South Manchunan plains
until it strikes the left bank of the Upper Sungan after traversing the foot-hills of the
eastern mountains between Changchun and Kirm. By the time when the Manchus
descended from their highlands, these well-watered and colonized and cultivated and
protected lowlands had become a Chinese country; and it was at Mukden, in this
Chinese milieu, that the Manchus held their court before they crossed the Wall and
moved to Peking. This residence at Mukden Sinified the Manchu princes as effectively
as
the^Scottish kings were Anglicized by transferring their residence from the Highlands
to Edinburgh, and the Achaememdae Babylonicized by
transferring theirs from Persis
to Susa.
Half the Bannermen who conquered intra-mural China for the Manchu
Dynasty were not Manchus at all, but South-Manchurian Chinese; and the so-called
Manchu conquest of China was, in effect, a Chinese civil war. (See Lattimore, op. cit.,
3 For
PP- 4S-7I-)
this, see further Part III. A, vol iii, pp. 16-22, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

125
the
Under
counterattack of these ever advancing furrows, the Mongols have almost
evacuated their former pasturelands south of the Gobi Desert, while
the Manchus have become almost extinct in 'the Three Eastern
Provinces' of the Chinese Republic which are still popularly known
as Manchuria. In other words, the environs of Peking have ceased
to be a march and have become assimilated to the interior for the
first time in Far Eastern history; and it is in accordance with
our law that in these new circumstances Peking itself should for1
feit its long-maintained status of being the
capital of China.
But has Nanking undergone any converse change of circumstances which entitles it to re-acquire the status which Peking has
now lost ? If our law is to be vindicated completely, we must be
able to demonstrate that, concurrently, the environs of Nanking
have ceased to be part of the interior, as they have been hitherto
since the beginning of Far Eastern history, and have become a
march; and, as soon as we state the problem in these terms, we
perceive that, in this quarter, there has in fact been a transformation of China's human environment which is not less far-reaching
than the change in the north. While, along the northern landfrontiers of China, the old pressure from the Nomads of the
Eurasian Steppe has gradually been reduced to vanishing point and
has latterly given place to a counter-pressure upon the Nomads
from the Chinese, China has been exposed contemporaneously to a
new pressure, of steadily increasing intensity, along her eastern
frontage, where she faces the sea. In earlier ages of Far Eastern
history, the coast-line of China was the quarter on which the
pressure upon her was least severe. Save for the desultory visits of
Arab and Persian Muslim merchant-ships in the T'ang period and
the desultory raids of Japanese pirates in the Ming period, the sea
remained, from the Chinese standpoint, 'a perfect and absolute
blank', until, some four centuries ago, it became the vehicle of the
impact of our Western Civilization upon the Far East*
This impact of a human force from the opposite side of the globe
was feeble at first and it is less than a century ago that it began to
acquire its present formidable momentum. At the date, for instance,
when the T'aip'ing made their unsuccessful attempt to retransfer
the capital of China to Nanking, the Western international settle-

been brought under the Chinese plough.

ment of Shanghai was still in its puny infancy: an unregarded

bunch of 'godowns' planted on a mud-bank up a backwater of
the Yangtse estuary. To-day Shanghai is not only the greatest of the
from Canton at one end
treaty-ports that stud the coast of China
Compare the edipse of Thebes after it had been relegated to the interior of the
1 14-18,
Egyptiac World through the incorporation of Nubia (see the present chapter, pp
1

above).

126

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

She is also one of the greatest ports and

greatest cities in the World, and, to all appearance, she commands
a future that will quite eclipse her imposing present. In other
words, as China's northern landward marches have fallen into
atrophy with the cessation of pressure from the Nomads, a new
eastern maritime march has been brought into existence by a new
pressure from overseas which is being exerted upon China by the
Westerners. This new maritime march has taken the place of the
old landward march as the quarter from which the incidence of
external pressure upon China is heaviest; and the sector in which

to Tientsin at the other.

now

the central sector containing Shanghai.

Shanghai is the point of the spear which the West is thrusting into
China's side ; and accordingly, in the political geography of China,
as it has come to be re-orientated during the last three-quarters of
a century, the province of Kiangsu, in which Shanghai is embedded,
has succeeded to the historic position of the province of Chihli,
which used to lie athwart the war-paths of Nomad invaders from
it is

heaviest of

all is

Mongolia and Manchuria.

Now Nanking occupies in Kiangsu a position corresponding to
1

The reader of this passage may demur to this implied relegation of Manchuna to a
secondary role; for he can point out that Manchuria has never ceased to be a zone
which external pressure is being brought to bear upon China and that, since the i8thigth September, 1931, the pressure upon China from this quarter has become so intense
has come to be regarded as a matter of world-wide concern. This is quite true;
that^it
but it should also be observed that, since the last decade of the nineteenth century of the
Christian Era, the pressure which has been exerted upon China through Manchuria
has not been the pressure either of Mongol Nomadism or of Manchu Barbarism
In
these latter days, the pressure through Manchuria has been exerted by Russia and
Japan; and it has been exerted by these two Powers as a consequence of the process of
Westernization which each of them has previously undergone In fact, Russia and Japan
in Manchuria are acting as representatives of the West; and, in virtue of this, the
importance of Manchuria as a channel conducting towards China the aggression of the
West is at least as great* at the present day 'as its importance in bringing the expansive
powers of China to bear on the frontier'. (Lattimore, op cit., p. 259.) Under the shadow
of the Sino-Russian conflict in Manchuria in 1929 and the more formidable SinoJapanese conflict in Manchuria which came to a head in 1931, an observer might be
inclined to judge that, while the personality of the aggressor in Manchuria has changed
the Japanese and the Russian having replaced the Mongol and the Manchu
Manchuria
itself has not forfeited its historic role as the quarter from which the heaviest external
pressure upon China is exerted. Yet on closer inspection it will be found that, in spite of
superficial appearances, the Manchurian frontier, as a zone of entry for the Western
impact upon China, is really secondary to the maritime frontier round the estuary of the
Yangtse. This truth is borne out by the history of the Smo- Japanese conflict which broke
out in Manchuria in 1931; for the conflagration which had first flared up at Mukden
spread to Shanghai forthwith.
'There could have been no more conclusive demonstration than this of the truth that
the centre of gravity of China had indeed effectively shifted from the Province of Chihli
and the Basin of the Peiho River and the port of Tientsin and the former political capital
at Peking to the Province of Kiangsu and the basin of the Yangtse River and the
port of
Shanghai and the new political capital at Nanking In effect, the new centre of energy
with which Western enterprise had endowed
or encumbered
China at Shanghai had
become so potent that, by the years 1931-2, it was virtually impossible foi anything of
major importance to happen to China at large without Shanghai becoming the principal
scene of action. In this phase of Chinese history, Shanghai was a dominant magnetic
point; and the magnetic power of this Western-made focus of modern Chinese economic
life proved stronger than Japanese military
dispositions/ (Toynbee, A. J.: Survey of
International Affaiis 1931 (London 1932, Milford), p. 461.)
1

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

that of Peking in Chihli. Peking

down

Nankow

127

commands the Mongolian war-path

and the Manchurian war-path through

the passage of Shan-hai-kwan, where the Great Wall descends
from the mountains to the sea. Similarly, Nanking commands the
path by which Western men-o'-war penetrate into the heart of
China up the waterway of the Yangtse. A Chinese Government
established at Nanking can defend China against the most formidable of the external pressures to which she is subject to-day
at the point where the pressure is the most intense and, in keeping
the intruder under surveillance and holding him in check from this
post of vantage, the rulers of China can learn his arts as well. Fas
est et ab hoste doceri', 1 and
Nanking is only one short night's railwaydistant
from
and school of thieves
journey
Shanghai: the den
which Western enterprise has planted at China's eastern door.
the

defile

from the seaward side, in spite of the history of the

nineteenth century, is still novel and terrifying to the consciousness of
the [Chinese] people at large. There is no buffer territory between the
sea and the heart of China; there are no non-Chinese "reservoir" tribes
to graduate the shock; and the tradition of the sea-going population
itself is one of exploiting, not of being exploited. The impact of Western
nations, the alien standards of the West, treaties dictated by the West,
have always aroused a reaction of terror and hate far greater than any
defeat in the vague buffer territories of the North. There is no underlying tradition to prescribe a method of dealing with aggression from
over the sea. The methods applied in the eighteenth and nineteenth
'Military defeat

centuries were, generally speaking, coloured by the traditions applying

to the northern land-frontier barbarians. They did not work well; in
fact, they tended to bring on disasters. Hence a feeling, which has now
penetrated very deep, that the Western nations are incalculable, that they
are always likely to spring a fresh surprise, something quite outside of
2
experience and the "rules of the game".'
It was in order to learn the outlandish rules of the

new Western
finance that
and
and
industry
game of war and diplomacy and trade
the capital of China was transferred from Peking to Nanking in
A.D. 1928.

It will

be seen that

this transfer is a perfect illustration

of our law that the external pressure of the human environment

upon a march administers a stimulus which gives the march predominance over the interior.

In the Hindu World

turn next from Far Eastern history to Hindu, we shall
for
recognize certain corresponding phenomena. We shall notice,
instance, that in India, as in China, to-day the march which is
If

we

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IV, 1. 428.

Lattimore, Owen: Manchuria Cradle of Conflict
pp. 297-8.
i

(New York

1932, Macmillan),

128

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

subject to the heaviest pressure is the seaboard, and that the

pressure from overseas is being applied by the same Western force.
In Bombay, 'the Gate of India', we shall identify the Indian
analogue of Shanghai; and we shall observe that just as the vital

elements of the Far Eastern Society in China have been concentrating themselves latterly in the immediate hinterland of Shanghai,
so the vital elements of the Hindu Society in India seem to be
concentrating themselves now in the immediate hinterland of Bombay. It is the Bombay Presidency, from Poona to Ahmadabad, that
is producing the foremost
politicians and industrialists and saints
and thinkers in India in our generation.
We shall notice, again, that, in India as in China, this concentration of pressure and stimulus and response in the maritime march
is of recent date ; and indeed in India it is still far from
being complete. If we pass, for instance, from the intellectual and economic
indices of social vitality to the military, and inquire into the comparative contributions of the various subdivisions of contemporary
India to the Indian Army, we shall find that nearly 58 per cent,
of the personnel is supplied by the Panjab and by the adjoining
North-West Frontier Province, and that, on this criterion, the
Bombay Presidency is altogether outmatched by the Panjab in
vitality, even though it holds its own in the military field, as in the
1
civil, against all other provinces of British India.
Moreover, the
capital of the Indian Empire, though it was transferred to a new site
in A.D. 1912, as the capital of the Chinese Republic was transferred
in 1928, has not been transplanted to the Bombay
'Presidency. It has
been located at Delhi and Delhi, though not appreciably nearer than
theprevious capital, Calcutta, to Bombay, is on thefringe of the Panjab
In fact, the special enclave containing the new imperial
capital has
been carved out of territory which previously belonged to the Panjab
as delimited in British Indian administrative
geography.
;

In the year 1930, the total combatant strength of the British Indian Regular

Army

was 158,200. Of these troops, 91,600 had been recruited from the Panjab and the
North-West Frontier Province, some 35,500 from the Himalayan Highlands (Garhwal,
Kumaon, Nepal); some 31,100 from the rest of India, including the Bombay Presidency;
and 7,000 from the Bombay Presidency itself (See the Report of the Indian Statutory
Commission = British Parliamentary Paper Cmd. 3568 of 1930 (London
1930, H M.
Stationery Office), vol. i, pp. 96-8. In the figures extracted from this source in the
present footnote, the 16,500 troops recruited from the United Provinces have been
credited to the Himalayan Highlands on the assumption that the
majority of them came
from the highland districts of Garhwal and Kumaon.) The above figures include
recruitments outside as well as inside the limits of territory under British administration
or control. In the year 1930, about one-seventh of the Indian
Regular Army was
recruited from territories beyond the limits of British administration or control:
partly
among the highlanders of the North-West Frontier in districts which were not under
effective British rule though they were on the Indian side of the
Indo-Afghan Frontierand partly^to the strength of 19,000) among the highlanders of
Nepal: an independent
state hanging on the southern flanks of the
Himalayas. For the tendency of civiliza-

tions, when they find themselves confronting barbarians along

stationary artificial
frontiers, to recruit their frontier defence-forces from among the trans-frontier bar-

barians themselves, see Part VIII, below.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

129

Why

has the capital of India moved to Delhi and not to the

hinterland of Bombay ? And why do the Panjab and the North- West
Frontier Province supply, between them, more recruits than all the
rest of India together to the Indian Army?
The answer to the second question is, of course, that, in the Panjab and in the North- West Frontier Province, in contrast to the
Maritime March and the interior alike, Indian vitality has been
stimulated to express itself in military prowess by exposure to
external military pressure. This pressure is being applied nowadays
by the warlike highlanders who still preserve their independence de
facto on the extreme edge of the Iranian Plateau, where its southeastern escarpment descends upon the north-western flank of the

Indus Valley. The proximity of these barbarian hill-men has the

same stimulating effect upon the frontiersmen of the Hindu World,
along the banks of 'the Five Rivers', that the proximity of similar
barbarians in the highlands of Shensi and Shansi once had upon
the frontiersmen of the Sinic World in the valleys of the Wei and
the Fen. 1 And the parallel goes further. On the northern marches
of China, the highland zone once occupied by barbarian hill-men
2
eventually became, as we have observed, a passage through which
China was invaded by the more formidable Nomadic peoples from
the Eurasian Steppe in the hinterland. Similarly, on the northwestern marches of India, the pressure which is being exerted by
the local highlanders at the present day was formerly far surpassed
in severity by a pressure from the Nomads of the Eurasian Steppe,
who found a passage into India across the highlands of Afghanistan,
as their counterparts found a passage into China across the highlands of Shensi and Shansi and Jehol.
In Hindu history, as in Far Eastern, it is this pressure from
Eurasian Nomads across an inland frontier that has been the
heaviest external pressure until recently, and this ever since the
time when Hindu history began. The Nomads' pressure was felt
in full force during the interregnum, following the disintegration
of the 'apparented' Indie Civilization, out of which the Hindu
Civilization originally emerged . In the post-Indie Volkerwanderung
the Indie Power that had
after the break-up of the Gupta Empire

the social functions of an Indie universal

India was invaded, across this north-west frontier, by the

resumed and
state 3

fulfilled

1
See the present section, pp. 118-19, above, and compare the relations between the
Chinese frontiersmen and the Manchu barbarian hill-men in Manchuria, on the eve of
their joint conquest of intra-mural China. (See p. 124, footnote i, above.)

Seep. 119, above.

For the role of the Gupta Empire in Indie history, as a resumption of the Indie
universal state which had been first embodied in the Maurya Empire and had then been
see I, C (i) (5),
interrupted prematurely by a Hellenic intrusion upon the Indie World,
.

vol.

i,

II

pp. 85-6, above.

130

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Nomad

Gurjaras and Huns. The invaders swamped the Indus

Valley, made themselves at home in the Indian Desert beyond it,
and swept on through Rajputana into the Deccan. 1 The historic
issue was whether these barbarians should or should not forestall
the emergence of a new civilization, 'affiliated* to the defunct Indie
Civilization, by engulfing the Ganges Valley as well; and this
question was decided in the negative because, along the line of the
River Jumna, a stand against their onslaughts was made with
success. In the historical geography of the Hindu World, the crosssection of the great plain of Hindustan which contains the course
of the Jumna, from the southern foot-hills of the Himalayas to the
northern foot-hills of the Central Indian highlands, has had the
same strategic importance as the passes from Manchuria and Mongolia into the Chinese province of Chihli in the historical geography
of the Far East. Here was the gap through which the Nomad
invaders must pass if they were to penetrate farther and here was
the point where they met with serious resistance. To this neighbourhood, accordingly, the capital of India has gravitated hitherto
throughout the history of the Hindu Civilization.
Already, during the post-Indie interregnum, when Harsha
;

(imperabat A.D. 606-47) momentarily restored the Indie universal

state, he fixed his capital in this new north-western march at

Sthanesvara, covering the approach from the Panjab to the Jumna,

and not in the interior of Magadha the natural administrative
centre of the Ganges Basin, at the junction of the
Ganges with the

Jumna and with two other

tributaries, which had been the capital

of both the Guptas and the Mauryas.
Again, some two centuries
when
the
new
Hindu
later,
Civilization, which had emerged in
the meanwhile, was threatened in its infancy by
pressure from the
Arabs, who had reached the delta of the Indus from the sea and
were pushing their way inland up-river, 2 the Arabs' advance was
arrested by the rise of a Hindu Power, the Pratihara
Rajputs, who
ruled from Gujerat to the
Jumna-Ganges Duab and fixed their
3
in
the
on
the
west bank of the
at
Duab,
capital

Ganges,

Kanauj.

In Vincent Smith's opinion, the Chalukyas, who founded a

principality in the Deccan
circa A.D. 550, were probably Gurjara invaders from
Rajpulana. (Smith, Vincent: The
Early History of India, 3rd edition (Oxford 1914, Clarendon Press), p. 424 )
* For the
province of the Arab Caliphate in the Indus Valley, see I.
(i) (b), vol. i
pp. 105-6, above.
The Pratiharas were Gurjara converts to Hinduism who defended the
3^
society of
their adoption against the aggression of the
Syriac universal state (now resumed, after
the Hellenic intrusion, in the Arab
Caliphate), just as, on the opposite edge of the
in this case, Western Christendomwas
Syriac World, another nascent society
defended against the same Arab aggressors by the Prankish converts to
Christianity.
The Eurasian Nomad origin of the Pratiharas is attested by their military
technique.
were
horse-archers and camel-men, not elephant-riders.
They
(See Vaidya. C. V. : The
History of Mediaeval India (Poona 1924, Oriental Book Supplying Agency), vol. ii,
p. 105 ) The Pratiharas made themselves masters of the Jumna-Ganges Duab definitively circa A.D. 810-16. It is remarkable that they fixed their capital at
Kanauj, in this
*

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

131

Both Kanauj and Sthanesvara, however, were to be eclipsed by a

later foundation in the same region. Delhi was built on the west
bank of the Jumna, on a site intermediate between the sites of the
two earlier capitals, in A.D. 993-4* by Hindu hands; but Delhi, like
Peking, was first raised to honour by rulers who were alien intruders.

Nomads of the Eurasian Steppe broke

their bounds again and began to make their way into India by the old
At

this

very juncture, the

route across the north-west frontier but this time they appeared in a
new guise. The Hun and Gurjara invaders of the post-Indie Volker;

475-775) had come in as undifferentiated

were
who
not immune from conversion to Hinduism.
Their Turkish kinsmen who took the same road two centuries

wanderung

(circa A.D.

barbarians

later arrived in India as converts to

Islam

the Syriac universal

and as apostles of a new Iranic Civilization to which the
church
expiring Syriac Civilization was 'apparented'.
By force of arms
these latter-day Turkish invaders carried their alien religion and
culture into the Ganges Valley, where their Gurjara predecessors
had not secured a footing until after they had become Hindus.
The Turks broke through the Jumna March, and conquered the
Ganges Valley down to the coast of Bengal, in A.D. 1 191-1204; they
conquered the Deccan in A.D. 1294-1309; and eventually a great
Turkish statesman, Akbar the Timurid (imperdbat A.D. 1556-1605),
reunited the Hindu World under an alien rule, as the Mongol
2
Qubilay reunited the main body of the Far Eastern World, by

Hindu and Muslim princimotley fragments

into an all-embracing empire which performed the
palities alike
functions of a Hindu universal state. For the Eurasian invaders of
situated, as it was,
India, Delhi was the natural site for a capital
Indus
and
the
on the borderline between the
Valley
Ganges Valley,
between the region in which Islamic religion and Iranic culture and
Eurasian blood had become predominant and the region where
Hinduism was still holding its own under an alien yoke. Accordingly,
Delhi was the normal seat of Turkish Muslim rule in India from
bringing together

its

the thirteenth century of the Christian Era, when the 'Slave Kings'
fixed their capital there, down to the eighteenth, when the descendants of Akbar, the maker of the Hindu universal state, were mainthe
taining a shadow court at Delhi as proteges and pensioners of
British East India
newly acquired province

Company.

at the extremity of their

dominions, instead of retaining

it^at

some site in Rajputana, the country in which they had been at home for several centuries
and which was still the geographical centre of their empire. In order to explain their
was
choice, we must suppose that the strategic importance of the Jumna-Ganges Duab
already well recognized.
i
Smith, V., op. cit., p. 384

See p. 121, above.

While Delhi was normally the capital of India during the five or six centimes
of Muslim Turkish rule, her enjoyment of this status was not uninterrupted. In the
3

32

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Moreover, Delhi,

like Peking,

status after the downfall of the

has succeeded in recovering her

Power by which

this status

was

first

conferred upon her. The replacement of the Mughal Raj in India

by the British Raj, like the expulsion of the Mongols from China
by the Ming, was accompanied at the moment by a transfer of
the capital from the principal landward march to a new site in the
interior where the new rulers felt themselves at home and were
sure of their authority. In the nineteenth century, Delhi had to
yield her primacy to Calcutta, as, in the fourteenth century, Peking
had to yield hers to Nanking. Yet in India, as in China, the old
capital in the march eventually won back, from the new capital in
the interior, the status which it had temporarily forfeited. In A.D.
1912, fifty-five years after the definitive extinction of the Mughal
Raj and confirmation of the British Raj in the suppression of
the Indian Mutiny, the British Government itself retransferred
the capital of India to Delhi, as the Ming Emperor Yung Lo retransferred the capital of China to Peking fifty-three years after the
expulsion of the Mongols from China by Yung Lo's own father

Hung Wu.
It is

noteworthy

that, while the capital of India

has perpetually

gravitated to the environs of Delhi since the genesis of the Hindu

Civilization, it has never established itself permanently anywhere
in the Middle or Lower Ganges Valley, in Bihar or in Bengal.

Before the advent of the British, it never established itself thereabouts at all ; and no permanent change in the political geography
of the Hindu World has been produced by the historical accident
that the British rule began in Bengal a century before it was fully
confirmed throughout India. This accident gave Bengal a double
temporary advantage over other Indian provinces she became the
base of operations and seat of government of the new All-India raj
which was taking the place of the broken-down raj of the Mughals ;
and her people were exposed to the process of intensive Westernization several generations earlier than their neighbours. Yet these
accidental advantages, considerable though they are, have not
availed against the permanent handicap to which Bengal is subject :
the lack of stimulus which is the penalty of her situation in the
interior. Even under the British Raj, which has its source in seaa port
power, the capital of India has departed from Calcutta
:

early days of the empire of the Great Mughals, the capital was at Agra: and Akbar,
followed in Ikhnaton's footsteps in attempting to turn his autocratic
political authority to account for the artificial creation and imposition of a new universal
church (see Part VIII, below), likewise followed Ikhnaton in building himself a brandnew capital city. After the founder's death, however, Fatihpur Sikri had the same fate
as Tell-el-Amarna; the capital reverted to Agra and
thence, under Shah Jahan, to Delhi;
and so, in the latter days of the Mughal Empire, the Turkish Muslim rule in India
ended at Delhi, where it had begun

who unknowingly

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

133

and has shifted back to Delhi,

where the Eurasian horseman is at home and the Western seafarer is a stranger. As for the stimulus of the impact of our Western
Civilization from across the sea
an impact which has given Bengal
accessible to ocean-going vessels

the character of a march for the

time in Hindu history

the
Bengali response
challenge seems to lack vitality and
In
originality.
Bengali souls, the ferment of Westernization is apt
to

first

this

to deteriorate into 'the leaven of the Scribes'. 'Where there is no

x
vision, the people perish' ; and, in the Indian National Movement,

which the challenge of the West has evoked, the inspiration and the
leadership have been passing, as we have observed already, from
Bengal to the

Bombay

this hinterland of

Presidency.

We may

observe further that

Bombay, which has thus become the principal

march of India vis-a-vis the West, has not now acquired the
character of a march for the first time in Hindu history. From the
beginning, it has been exposed to external pressure of various kinds
from various quarters military pressure from Gurjaras and Arabs
:

by land; economic pressure from Arabs and Parsees by

sea.

'The

greater the pressure the greater the stimulus' is a maxim which is

borne out by the phenomena of social geography in the Hindu
World, as well as in the Far Eastern World and in the Sinic and in
the Egyptiac.

In the Sumeric and Babylonic Worlds

In the Sumeric World, we find the same law illustrated in the
2 The
Empire of Sumer and
history of the Sumeric universal state.
Akkad was founded by a Sumerian dynasty whose capital was at
Ur, in the heart of the homeland of the Sumeric Civilization. The
Empire was restored, after a temporary breakdown, by an Amorite
dynasty whose capital was at Babylon: 'the Gate of the Gods'
which was also the gate through which the Amorite Nomads of
the North Arabian Steppe had forced an entry into the Land of
Shinar. Thus, in the Sumeric universal state, political power passed

from the interior to the march on which the heaviest external

pressure was being exerted.
The same phenomena reappear in the history of the Babylonic
Civilization which was 'affiliated' to the Sumeric. We have seen
and
that, in Babylonic history, Babylonia was surpassed, in arms
arts alike, by Assyria; and we have attributed Assyria's superiority
to the fact that, as compared with Babylonia, she was in a certain
sense 'new ground'. 3 We shall now find a second and possibly more
potent cause of Babylonia's failure to hold her
1

Proverbs xxix. 18.

See I. C (i) (), vol.

i,

pp. 103 and 106, above.

own
3

against Assyria

See pp. 74-5, above.

134

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

in the fact that Babylonia occupied a sheltered position in the

interior of the Babylonic World, whereas Assyria was a march
which bore the brunt of successive external pressures. In the postSumeric Volkerwanderung, Babylonia had suffered and succumbed to an invasion of barbarian Kassites at the time when
and repelling an invasion of barbarian
Assyria was suffering

Mitannians and thereafter the Assyrians experienced

;

and resisted

from which the Babylonians were exempt.

After being liberated, in the fourteenth century B.C., from the
Mitannian pressure by the vicarious exertions of the Hittite Power, 1
Assyria was involved, throughout the eleventh and tenth centuries,
further pressures

struggle for existence against a more formidable adversary

than Mitanni in the shape of Aram. The Aramaeans were Nomads
who had issued out of the Arabian Peninsula, in company with the
in a

new

Hebrews, during the Volkerwanderung which preceded the birth

of the Syriac Civilization and while the Hebrews had drifted into
Southern Syria, the Ajramaeans had drifted northwards in the
;

ancient track of the Amorites. One wing of the migrant Aramaean

horde had settled in the oases of east-central Syria, from Damascus
to Hamah; another wing had lapped over the Middle Euphrates
and had occupied the pasture-lands of Northern Mesopotamia;
and it was this eastern wing that came into collision with Assyria.
The situation, however, was not in all respects the same as when
the Aramaeans' Amorite predecessors had forced an entry into the
Sumeric World along this very track some twelve hundred years
before.
The Amorites when they entered Akkad, like the Huns and
Gurjaras when they entered India, had come in as undifferentiated

barbarians and, as such, they had been converted easily and rapidly
to the culture which they found in occupation of the ground on
which they were trespassing. On the other hand, the Aramaeans,
when they began to encroach upon the western borders of Assyria,
had already come within the ambit of the nascent Syriac Civilization, just as the Turks who invaded India in the footsteps of the
Huns had previously come within the ambit of the nascent Iranic
Civilization and had been rendered immune to Hinduism
by an
inoculation
with
Islam.
Thus
the
Aramaean
anticipatory
Syriac
the
World
was
as
formidable
a
pressure upon
Babylonic
danger to
the existence of the threatened civilization as the Turkish Muslim
pressure upon the Hindu World; but, whereas the Rajputs failed
to save India from being overrun by the Turks, the
Assyrians not
checked
the
Aramaeans'
eastward
in
advance
two
centuries of
only
defensive warfare but passed over thereafter, in the ninth
century
*

See

I.

(i) (6),

vol.

i,

p. 113, above.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

135

which carried the Assyrian arms to

the shores of the Mediterranean and ground all Syria under the
Assyrian heel. Thus, in this first round of the long and arduous
struggle between the Syriac and Babylonic civilizations, Assyria
bore the brunt and gained the victory for the Babylonic World. In
the meantime Babylonia had the easy task of assimilating the Chaldaeans
a Nomadic people who had issued out of the Arabian
Peninsula simultaneously with the Aramaeans and the Hebrews,
but whose line of migration lay so far to the south-east that the
B.C., into a counter-offensive

influence of the nascent Syriac Civilization did not reach them.

Thus the Chaldaeans like the Amorites and unlike the Aramaeans
came in as undifferentiated barbarians who were open to assimi-

when

and

their infiltration into Babylonia, during the centuries

Assyria was fighting the Aramaeans for her life, was a peace-

lation;

ful penetration instead of being a formidable ordeal.

Moreover, the Aramaean front was only one of the fronts on

which Assyria had to fight. While she was resisting the pressure
from the Syriac Civilization on the south-west, she had to defend
her rear against the highlanders of the Iranian and Anatolian
plateaux on the east and the north. In this quarter, again, Assyria

performed the function of a march covering the interior of the

Babylonic World ; and, while she eventually gained the upper hand
over her Syriac adversaries, the highlanders kept her perpetually on
the defensive. Indeed, when, through this warlike intercourse, the
highland principality of Urartu, in the basin of Lake Van, even-

became converted to the Babylonic Civilization, the struggle

like the struggle between the East
only became the more intense
Roman Empire and Bulgaria after the conversion of the Bulgarians
to Orthodox Christianity.
Nevertheless Assyria, under this perpetual pressure from every
quarter, developed a vitality which Babylonia could not match so
tually

long as Assyria's prowess gave her shelter. On the other hand, the
positions were reversed when Assyria turned her arms against the
1
interior of the Babylonic World and ceased to defend its frontiers.
During the seventh century B.C. she applied to her sister-country
Babylonia the grinding pressure which she had applied in the ninth
and eighth centuries to alien Syria and this fearful challenge stimulated the Babylonians as potently as it stimulated the Syrians, though
in a different way. In Syrian souls, it evoked the religious inspiration which found expression through the mouths of the Prophets
of Israel; in Babylonian souls it evoked a dogged nationalism
;

This change in the direction of Assyrian energies is examined further in Part IV,
below, apropos of the pathological phenomenon of Militarism as a specific malady of
the marches.
1

36

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

which proved more than a match for the furor Assyriacus. The
fortified by Chaldaean infusions and steeled by
Babylonians
were in at the death when, at the close of the
Assyrian atrocities
seventh century B.C., the highlanders of the Iranian Plateau overwhelmed Assyria at last and these Median allies of Babylon in the
war of annihilation against Assyria were able now to achieve the
destruction of the Power which had successfully resisted the pressure of Urartu and the earlier pressure of Mitanni because Assyria,
by the time when she had to deal with the Medes, had ceased to
perform her historic function as a march.
the
In the seventh century B.C., a wave of Eurasian Nomads
the
north-western exCimmerians and the Scyths broke over
descended
the
and
Iranian
Plateau
upon the Babylonic
tremity of
and Syriac worlds, as the Huns and Gurjaras broke over the northeastern extremity of the same plateau and descended upon the
Indie World in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian Era.
Therewith, the challenge of Nomadic invasion was presented in
South- Western Asia for the first time since the occasion when,
more than a thousand years earlier, during the post-SumericVolkerwanderung, the Hyksos had broken out of the Eurasian Steppe and
had swept across the derelict domain of the Empire of Sumer and
Akkad to settle in Syria, 1 This time, Assyria was the South- West
Asian Power whose proper task it was to take the Eurasian Nomads'
challenge up but, this time, Assyria failed to rise to the occasion
for the first time in her history. Whether from impotence or from
impolicy, she allowed the Nomads to raid South- Western Asia
unchastised; and she even enlisted their services as mercenaries
to fight for her in her Median and Babylonian wars. Thereby, she
repudiated the function which she had made her own for the last
five centuries ; and the Medes seized the opportunity thus offered
to them. They stepped into the breach; occupied the vacant post
of danger and honour; exterminated or subdued or expelled the
Scythian intruders; and inherited, as their reward, the hegemony
2
For
previously exercised by Assyria over South- Western Asia,
;

See I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 104-5, above. In the seventh century B.C., the Scythians
penetrated to Syria, like the Hyksos before them and the Turks after them; and the
name Scythopohs, by which the Greeks afterwards knew the Biblical city of Bethshean
(the modern Baisan) in the Valley of Jezreel, attests that at least one Scythian war-band
made a permanent settlement in Palestine.
2
Except in the western extremity; of the Anatolian Peninsula, beyond the River Halys,
where the local task of exterminating or subduing or expelling the intrusive Nomads
was taken in hand, not by the Medes, but by the Lydians: a local people who were
under the influence of the Hellenic and not the Babylonic or the Syriac Civilization.
The local response of Lydia to the challenge from the Nomads won her a double reward.
On the landward side, she shared with Media, Babylonia, and Egypt the dominion
previously exercised by Assyria over South- Western Asia. On the seaward side, towards
the Aegean, she imposed her suzerainty upon the Greek city-states along the
seaboard,
who had failed to save themselves from the Nomads and theiefore forfeited their
political independence to the Power in the hinterland which had performed the work of
1

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

137

Assyria was a march or nothing. As soon as she failed to respond

to the challenge of external pressure from the human environment,
she fell; and Media, who had taken up the Scythian challenge, was
the Power that dealt Assyria her death-blow.

In the Syriac World

While the immediate consequence of the presentation of the
Scythian challenge was the replacement of Assyria by Media, an
ultimate consequence
which was of much greater historical imwas the eventual victory of the Syriac Civilization in its
portance
the duel which had begun in the
long duel with the Babylonic
eleventh century B.C. with the collision between Assyria and Aram.
After the first round had been decided in favour of the Babylonic

by the victorious Assyrian counter-offensive against

Syria in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C., the struggle had shifted
from the military to the cultural plane and had resolved itself into a
Civilization

competition between the two rival civilizations for the conversion

of the highlanders on the Anatolian and Iranian plateaux. In this
competition, the Babylonic Civilization gained an initial success,
which has been mentioned above, in the conversion of Urartu but
this cultural 'Babylonicization* of one highland country on the
north which did not succumb to Assyrian arms was counterbalanced by the 'Syriacization' of another highland country on the
east which the Assyrians temporarily succeeded in subjugating;
and here, in Media, the Assyrians in applying their ruthless
;

policy of breaking their victims' spirit by uprooting them from

their homes and carrying them away captive
actually served as
'carriers' for the Syriac Civilization which they had trampled

under

foot.

When

the Assyrians finally broke the resistance of the Syriac

peoples in the latter half of the eighth century B.C., they deported
part of the conquered population to 'the cities of the Medes' ;* but
this extreme application of the maxim 'Divide and rule* had an
unintended consequence. By the forcible introduction of Syriac
deportees, the Medes were inoculated with the germs of the
Syriac Civilization before they were stimulated, by the challenge
of Scythian pressure, to step into Assyria's place. At the same
time, the Scythian challenge, which called out this 'Syriacized'
Media's energies, broke the 'Babylonicized' Urartu's back; and

thus the fivefold interaction between Syria and Assyria and Media
and the Scyths and Urartu worked together for the Syriac Civilizasalvation for them. The political subjection of the Asiatic Greeks to Lydia naturally
expedited the cultural conversion of the Lydians to Hellenism. Indeed, this was perhaps
(Horace:
the first of many instances in which 'Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit*.
* 2
Kings xvn. 6 and xvui. n.
Epistolae, Book II, Ep. i, 1. 156.)

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

138

of Assyria, the remnant of the Babylonic

World now gathered together into 'the Neo-Babylonian Empire'
found itself hemmed in
of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar
and pressed upon by the Syriac World on both flanks: not only

tion's good.

from the

After the

fall

rival civilization's

homeland in Syria

itself

but from the

had now acquired

From this encircling movement, the Babylonic
Civilization had no more chance of escape than an antelope has
from the toils of a boa-constrictor. The constriction and mastication of the Babylonic Civilization by its victorious rival was only a
matter of time and the process was completed before the beginning

great new domain

for itself in Iran.

which the Syriac

Civilization

of the Christian Era. 1

we now

turn our attention to the subsequent history of the

Syriac Civilization, we shall find our law illustrated here again.
The enlarged Syriac World which had been brought into existence
by the 'Syriacization' of Iran remained, from the seventh century
B.C. onwards, in direct contact with the Eurasian Steppe; and it
was from the Eurasian Nomads that it continued to receive the
heaviest external pressure. In consonance with this, we find that,
thenceforward, the primacy in the Syriac World passed, in succession, to the peoples who successively took over the burden of
keeping the Eurasian Nomads at bay, and to the regions which
successively served as anti-Nomad marches. The Median hegemony, for example, lasted just so long as the Medes held the front
line in the defensive warfare against Nomad aggression. The hegemony was forfeited by the Medes to the Persians because the princes
of Persis had succeeded in snatching from their Median neighbours
the wardenship of the Eurasian Marches and thereby relegating
Media to an unexposed and unstimulating position in the interior
of the Syriac World. The Medes had been content to bar the
passage of the Nomads at its narrowest point, where the Elbruz
Range on one side and the Central Desert of Iran on the other
If

side barely leave open, between them, "the Caspian Gates'.

this Median front line, and redeemed

Achaemenidae masked

The
from

Nomad

occupation a vast additional zone of Iranian territory, by

extending their own dominions north-eastwards from their home
territory of Persis right up to the line of the Oxus ; and it was their
expansion in this direction that made their fortune by putting
them in a position to supersede the Medes as the Medes had superseded the Assyrians. 2
For the attraction of Iran into the orbit of the Syriac Civilization, and the absorption of the dead body of the Babylonic Civilization into the Synac Civilization's
living
tissues, see I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 79-81, above.
2 It
may be noted that the Lydians as well as the Medes succumbed to the Achaemenidae, and that Lydia, like Media, had previously been 'relegated to the interior' by the
Achaememds* assumption of the wardenship of the Eurasian marches.
*

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

139

This Achaemenian enterprise in the north-east, which was the

preliminary to the overthrow of the Median Astyages and to the
foundation of a Syriac universal state in the form of an Achaemenian
Empire, went almost unmarked among Hellenic observers, whose
vision did not yet extend to such distant horizons. Yet the
acquisition of Bactria was a more
important step in the rise of the Achaemenian Power than the acquisition of Elam; and it was not for
nothing that Cyrus met his death in fighting the Nomad Massagetae
1
beyond the Jaxartes. Under Cyrus's successors, the Achaemenian
Empire held against the Nomads, with a strong hand, every oasis
that could be created by irrigation along the courses of those rivers
Heri Rud and Murghab, Oxus and Jaxartes which flow out
from the northern foot of the Iranian Plateau and from the western
foot of the Pamirs to reach the Caspian or the Sea of Aral or else

We

to lose themselves in the desert.

may conjecture that the
pressure of the Eurasian Nomads upon this North-Eastern March
of the Syriac universal state always weighed more heavily on the

minds of Achaemenian statesmen than the pressure of the Hellenes

upon the opposite extremity of their dominions and this even
during the Athenian counter-offensive that was kept up intermittently for thirty years after the failure of Xerxes' expedition
against Greece. It was assuredly not until Alexander had crossed
the Dardanelles, and perhaps not until he had crossed the Euphrates,
that the Hellenic peril became a greater anxiety than the Nomad
peril to the last Darius.
Moreover, Alexander's own experience in the process of conquering the Achaemenian Empire indicates that, here as elsewhere, the
march which was exposed to the heaviest external pressure had
been stimulated into a greater vitality than any other region. It
took Alexander not more than five years to conquer outright, without parley or compromise, the vast mass of the Achaemenian
dominions, from the Dardanelles and the Libyan oases up to 'the
Caspian Gates', where the Medes had halted in their pursuit of the
routed Scyths and where Alexander overtook the dying Darius.
Persis itself
the home territory of the imperial dynasty and the
native land of the imperial people
quietly accepted the verdict
of the Battle of Arbela, notwithstanding the stimulus which the
Persians
having 'elected to live as an imperial people in a rough

country rather than to cultivate the lowlands as some other nation's

See the picturesque account of Cyrus's last campaign in Herodotus, Book I, chs.
202-15. Herodotus's accurate knowledge of geography did not extend much farther
eastwards than a line drawn from Trebizond to Susa (i.e. a line roughly coincident with
on the
the present eastern frontiers of Turkey and 'Iraq); and his 'River Araxes*
appears to be a conflation of the actual river, still
crossing of which his story turns
bearing that name, which flows from Armenia through Azerbaijan into the Caspian,
with the actual Oxus and Jaxartes, into a single mighty and fabulous stream.
1

140

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

slaves' 1

had never ceased

to derive

from

their physical environ-

Nevertheless, in this instance, the physical stimulus of a

rough country upon the Persians showed itself less potent than the
human stimulus of Nomad pressure upon their kinsmen in the

ment.

north-eastern marches; for, whereas it had taken Alexander no

more than five years to conquer the interior of the Achaemenian

Empire up to 'the Caspian Gates', it took him two whole years

more to complete his task by conquering the marches in the OxusJaxartes Basin.
As soon as Alexander passed beyond the Caspian Gates, he
experienced an entire change in the nature of the resistance which
to that point, he had secured the submission
of vast provinces at the price of a few pitched battles against

he encountered.

Up

heterogeneous imperial field armies which showed little enthusiasm

for defending territories where they felt themselves hardly more at
home than the invader. Upon setting foot, however, in the OxusJaxartes Basin after the last of the Achaemenian armies had been
scattered to the winds, the Macedonian conqueror met with a spontaneous resistance from a feudal aristocracy with local roots. The
border barons of Bactria and Sogdiana defended themselves against
the Macedonians as they were accustomed to defend themselves
against the Massagetae. Their resistance was not only spontaneous
but energetic and protracted. Every castle stood a siege; and even
when a baron had been brought to his knees he rose in revolt again
the moment the conqueror's back was turned. At the end of two
strenuous campaigns, Alexander had to win the allegiance which
force could not exact by a policy of conciliation.
Thus, during the two centuries that had elapsed between the day
when Cyrus met his death at the hands of the Massagetae on the far
side of the Jaxartes and the day when Alexander gave the Nomads
a lesson by bombarding them with his catapults without crossing
the frontier river, the vitality of the Syriac universal state which
was embodied in the Achaemenian Empire had come to be concentrated in these north-eastern marches, where the Syriac World
was exposed to the severest external pressure. It is remarkable to

phenomenon reappearing when the Syriac universal state,

which had been prematurely cut short by the destruction of the
Achaemenian Empire through Alexander's action, was reintegrated
find this

and resumed,

after a Hellenic intrusion

years, in the 'Abbasid Caliphate.

c

Though the Abbasid

capital

which had lasted a thousand

was

fixed,

on considerations of geo-

See the passage quoted from Herodotus in II. D fi), on p. 31, above.
For the historical relation between the 'Abbasid Caliphate and the Achaemenian
Empire, see I. C (i) (6), vol. i, pp. 73-8, above.
1

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

141

1
in the
graphical and administrative convenience, at Baghdad,
ancient homeland of the Babylonic Civilization which had long
since been absorbed into the Syriac World, the
political and military
movement which completed the re-establishment of the Syriac
universal state by setting up the 'Abbasids in the place of the

originated in Khurasan: the province lying between

'the Caspian Gates' and the Murghab, which was the north-eastern
march of the Syriac World in that age. 2 The stimulus which

Umayyads

nerved

Abu Muslim and

his Khurasanis to overthrow the

Umay-

yads was the selfsame stimulus that, in earlier ages of Syriac

history, had nerved Cyrus and his Farsis to overthrow Astyages and
the Medes, and had nerved the dihkans of Balkh and Sughd to
measure themselves against the invincible Iskandar Dhu'l-Qarnayn.
The challenge of pressure from the Nomads of the Eurasian Steppe
was as stimulating to the latter-day Syriac frontiersmen who were
confronted by the Ephthalites and the Turks and the Tiirgesh as
it had been to their
predecessors who had had to deal with the
and
the Massagetae; and the Khurasanis' historic feat of
Scyths
re-establishing the Syriac universal state in A.D. 751 was led up to,
during the years 705-41, by the more arduous, if less momentous,
feat of reincorporating the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin into the Syriac
World after a separation that had lasted some eight or nine

centuries. 3
1 The 'Abbasids fixed their
capital at Baghdad on the same considerations that had
once led the Achaemenids to hold their court at Babylon for four months in the year
(Herodotus, Book I, ch. 192). It lay in the most remunerative province in their dominions
and at the mid-point between the Syrian and the Iranian half of the Empire.
z The destruction of the Achaememan
Empire had been followed, within two centuries, by the submergence of the former Norm-Eastern Marches in the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin under a flood of Nomad invasion; for the Seleucid Empire, which was the Hellenic
'successor-state* of the Achaemenian Empire in Asia, was too exactingly preoccupied
by the task of holding its own against rival Hellenic Powers in the Levant to discharge
efficiently those responsibilities on the distant borders of the Eurasian Steppe which it
had inherited from its Achaemenian predecessor. (See pp. 1434, below.) Thus, from
the latter part of the second century B.C. to the beginning of the eighth century of the
Christian Era, the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin had been lost to the Syriac World and had been
living a separate life of its own under the dominion of successive Nomad intruders
Massagetae (= Sakas) and Yuechi and Ephthahtes and Turks. Under this dispensation,
the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin had often been in closer relations with India than with. Iran;
and in these conditions it had developed symptoms of a distinctive social individuality
which promised, for a time, to take definite shape in the genesis of a new 'Far Eastern
Christian* Civilization.
During this long secession
below.)
* ..
(See II.-D (vii), pp. *
369-85,
.
.v.
"
iac World, T
the role of antiand estrangement of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin from the Syriac
which
was
saved
for
the
the
of
Nomad march devolved upon
Syriac
Khurasan,
province
World by the Arsacid pnnce Mithradates the Great (regnabat 123-88 B.C.) after a struggle
between the Arsacid Power and the invading Sakas or Massagetae which had lasted for

&

'

nearly half a century.

3 Khurasan
the frontier province over against the Eurasian Nomads which the
Umayyads took over from the Sasaman successors of the Arsacidae was the base of
operations from which, under the Umayyad regime, the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin was
eventually reincorporated into the Syriac World, by force of arms, in A.D. 705-41. (See
Gibb, H. A. R.: The Arab Conquests in Central Asia (London 1923, Royal Asiatic
Society).) The work was accomplished by the combined efforts of Arab garrisons which
had been cantoned in Khurasan after the Arab conquest of the Sasaman Empire, half
a century before, and local levies which were raised, by the Arab authorities, from the

142

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

Thereby, the North-Eastern Marches of the Syriac World, over

against the Nomads of Eurasia, were restored, on the eve of the
reintegration of the Syriac universal state under the Abbasids, to
the limits up to which they had been carried originally on the eve
of the first establishment of the universal state under the Achaemenids. And thereafter history repeated itself yet again for under
the 'Abbasid, as under the Achaemenid, regime the vitality of the
Empire concentrated itself in the North-Eastern Marches as it
ebbed away from the interior. This became apparent at the breakup of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, as it had become apparent, once
before, at the destruction of the Achaemenian Empire by Alexander ;
for the most powerful and effective and socially beneficent of the
Caliphate's 'successor-states' arose one after another in this region.
The Samanid regime at Balkh and Bukhara (A.D. 819-999) fostered
Persian literature in its infancy and accomplished something which
the Caliphate had never achieved in propagating Islam among the
Nomads of the Steppe ;* and it was only as converts that it suffered
them at last to trespass from the desert on to the sown. Thereafter,
one horde of these trespassers, the Saljuqs, when they had penetrated to Baghdad in order to rescue the 'Abbasid Caliphs from the
tyranny of the sectarian Buwayhids, turned back to supplant their
fellow-converts, the Ilek Khans, as wardens of the North-Eastern
Marches against their unconverted Nomadic kinsmen who still
remained on the Steppe. Under this Saljuq regime at Merv (A.D.
1089-1141) the frontier of Dar-al-Islam was once more guarded as
faithfully as it had been guarded by the Samanids ; and even the
Shahs of Khwarizm, who first rose to power by betraying their
religion and allegiance when they joined forces (in A.D. 1141) with
the pagan Nomad Qara Qitays in order to expel the Saljuq Sultan
Sanjar from the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin, eventually redeemed their
honour when (from A.D. 1220 to 1231) they bore the brunt of the
Mongol avalanche which finally overwhelmed Dar-al-Islam in the
c

last

convulsion of the post-Syriac Volkerwanderung. 2

indigenous Iranian Khurasanis. It is noteworthy that it was here, in the North-Eastern

Marches, under the formative influence of a common pressure from beyond the frontier,
that the vanquished Iranians and the victorious Arabs first fraternized with one another.
And it was this Arab-Iranian frontier-force that completed the re-establishment
of the
c
Syriac universal state, by putting down the Umayyads and setting up the Abbasids, ten
years after it had proved its mettle and acquired its esprit de corps by completing the
re-conquest of Transoxania on the Syriac Society's account.
1 The
Saljuqs, who at that time were ranging over the steppe-country in the OxusJaxartes Basin, were converted about A.D. 956; the followers of the Ilek Khans, who
were ranging over the steppes adjoining the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin on the north-east, in
the gap between the Tien Shan and the Altai Mountains (in the fourteenth-century
'Mughalistan' and the modern 'Zungaria'), were converted about A.D 960.
2 In A.D.
1209/1210, ten years before the Mongol avalanche descended upon them,
the Khwarizm Shahs had partially counteracted the effects of their original act of
treachery against the Saljuqs by similarly betraying the Qara Qitays. They partitioned
the dominions of the Qara Qitays in conjunction with Gushluk the Naiman, another

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

143

Thus, over the course of some nineteen centuries of Syriac history, from the seventh century B.C. to the thirteenth century of the
Christian Era, we can observe one constant phenomenon. We find
the pressure from the Eurasian Nomads
normally exceeding in
the
severity
pressures from other neighbours of the Syriac World,
and concurrently we find the North-Eastern Marches, upon which
the brunt of this pressure fell, normally surpassing in
vitality all
the other marches as well as the interior.
The exception which proves the rule is the situation which prevailed, for some two centuries out of these nineteen, under the
Seleucid Empire, which was the Achaemenian Empire's Hellenic

Under the Seleucid regime, as under

c
the Achaemenid and the Abbasid, vitality and power tended to
pass from the interior of the Empire to the periphery ; but whereas
they passed under the Achaemenids from Persepolis and Susa and
'successor-state' in Asia. 1

Babylon and Ecbatana to Bactria and Sogdiana, and under the

'Abbasids from Baghdad to Khurasan and to Transoxania, they
flowed out, under the Seleucids, in the diametrically opposite
direction that is, from Seleucia-on-Tigris not to 'Alexandria on
the Verge' of the Eurasian Steppe but to Antioch-on-Orontes.
This gravitation of the Seleucid capital to a site which lay almost in
view of the Mediterranean indicated that the Seleucid statesmen,
unlike their Achaemenid predecessors, felt the pressure from the
Hellenic World more acutely than the pressure from the Eurasian
Nomads. The outcome, however, was to prove that the Seleucids'
policy was ill-advised and the site of Antioch eccentric for, notwithstanding the clever location of Antioch athwart the shortest
portage between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, the transfer of the capital from Seleucia to Antioch cost the Seleucidae their
Empire and the Syriac World its North-Eastern Marches. The
first consequence was that the Greek garrisons in the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin, finding themselves left to their own resources, seceded from
the Seleucid Empire and constituted themselves into an independent Power: the Hellenic Kingdom of Bactria. The second consequence was that this Hellenic Bactria, which had responded with
such spirit to the challenge of desertion by resorting to self-help,
found herself unequal in the long run to the task of holding the
:

pagan Nomad Power, who took the Qara Qitays in the rear. In this unheroic manner,
the whole of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin was momentarily recovered again for Dar-alIslam; but retribution quickly overtook the spoilers. The Naiman and the Khwarizm
Shah were overwhelmed in turn by the Mongol Chingis Khan; and it was in response
to this terrific

Mongol

challenge that the last of the

Khwarizm Shahs,

Jalal-ad-Din

MankobirnI, redeemed the treacheries of his ancestors by the heroic rear-guard action
in which he covered the interior of Dar-al-Islam from Mongol assault and battery for a
whole decade after the Mongols had overrun his own home-territories on the banks of
the Lower Oxus.
1
See the second footnote on p. 141, above, and, further, Part VI, below.

144

THE RANGE OF CHALLENGE-AND-RESPONSE

North-Eastern Marches against the Nomads without support from

the interior. In the second century B.C., Bactria succumbed to a
Nomad invasion ;* and the ground then lost to the Nomads by the
Greeks was only recovered from the Nomads by the Arabs some
2
eight or nine centuries later.

In the Ironic World over against Eurasia

The North-Eastern Marches over against the Eurasian Nomads,
which were thus reincorporated into the Syriac World on the eve of
the reintegration of the Syriac universal state, and which played a
c

3
part of steadily increasing importance under the Abbasid regime,
produced their historic social effect once more in the first age of

the Iranic Civilization, 'affiliated' to the Syriac Civilization, which

emerged, after the interregnum following the break-up of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, when the waters of the Mongol cataclysm began
to subside.

We can discern this effect in the diversity between the respective

historical roles of the

two Mongol

'successor-states'

which were

one in the borderland and the other in the interior.

deposited here
As between these two appanages of the Mongol Empire in Dar-alIslam, nothing came of the principality of the House of Hulagu,
the so-called Il-Khans, in Iran and Iraq. 'The lines' were 'fallen
unto' these barbarians 'in pleasant places yea', they had 'a goodly
4 And
yet, 'as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away',
heritage'.
so the Il-Khans went down to the grave and came up no more. 5
On the other hand, out of the principality of the House of Chaghatay, which bestrode the borderline between the desert and the
;

sown, there came forth two Powers which made their mark, for

good or evil, on history: the Empire of Timur Lenk ('Tamerlane')

in Central Asia and the later Empire of the Timurids in India,

where Timur's great-great-great-grandson Babur played the part

of David and Babur's grandson Akbar the part of Solomon.
A glance at the careers of Timur and Babur shows that both
were frontiersmen who were confronted by a challenge from
the Eurasian Nomads of their time, and that both rose to greatness by responding to this challenge successfully

own way.
Timur (imperabat

each in his

A.D. 1369-1405) started life as a feudal

baron

in the district of Kish in Transoxania that is to say, in the sedentary

as opposed to the Nomad section of the Chaghatay dominions.
:

The Chaghatay principality had been compacted

1

2
3

See the second footnote on p. 141, above.

See the third footnote on p. 141, above.
4 Psalm
See p. 143, above.

xvi. 6.

of two component

Job vu.

9.

THE STIMULUS OF PRESSURES

145

1
where this pagan
parts: the oases of the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin,
Mongol dynasty bore rule over a sedentary Muslim population;
and the steppes of Zungaria, adjoining the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin on
the' north-east, where the Chaghatay Khans were the leaders of

pagan Nomads who were made in

own

image. In A.D. 1321,

however, a century after the Mongol conquest of the Oxus-Jaxartes
Basin and forty years before the beginning of Timur's career, the
two ill-assorted sections of the Chaghatay principality had been
separated from one another politically through the partition of
Chaghatay's appanage between two different branches of the
eponym's descendants ; and the prelude to Timur's career opened
with this event. The political separation enabled the sedentary
population in the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin to assert itself culturally
against the Nomadic element after a century of subjection; and
the first consequence was that here, as in contemporary Iran and
Hindustan and Anatolia, the nascent Iranic Civilization began to
their

make headway.

The

partition

was accompanied by, and was perhaps causally

connected with, the conversion of the western branch of the

Chaghatayids, who obtained the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin for their
portion, from their primitive Mongol paganism to the Islamic
faith of their subjects while even the eastern branch of the House,
;

whose portion was the Zungarian Steppe (now styled, par excellence, 'Mughalistan'), seem to have been converted likewise a
generation later. The next consequence was a reaction of the
Nomads against the rising power of the new sedentary civilization
on their borders. In A.D. 1360 Tughluq Timur, the newly converted Eastern Chaghatay Khan of 'Mughalistan', presented himself in the Oxus-Jaxartes country
perhaps at the instigation of the
Nomad element there, who felt their old ascendancy slipping out of
their hands
and claimed dominion over the western as well as the
eastern portion of his ancestral appanage. By this time, the settled
population of the oases, having enjoyed for some forty years the
benefits of a milder and less barbarous regime, had come to regard
the untamed Nomads of 'Mughalistan* as odious marauders 2 who
whether converted or not were definitely beyond the pale of
*
Excluding the oases along the lower course of the Oxus, in Khwarizm, which were
included, not in Chaghatay's appanage, but in his brother Juji's. (See further p. 14?*
below.)
2 The
mysterious word 'jatah', which the Turkl-speaking sedentary population of the
Oxus-Jaxartes oases in Timur's day applied to the Nomads of 'Mughalistan'^as a term
of abuse, is perhaps identical with the Ottoman Turkish word 'cheteh', which means
something between a brigand and a guerrilla. Is it perhaps derived from the tribal name
of the Getae (Massagetae and Thyssagetae) or Jats, who were the nearest Nomadic
neighbours of the Oxus-Jaxartes oases in the Achaemenian Age, before they erupted
out of the Steppe and poured over the Hindu Kush into the Panjab in the second

century B.C.
II

The End.

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