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Politics and trade in Central AsiaW. BosshardPublished online: 25 Feb 2011.
To cite this article: W. Bosshard (1929) Politics and trade in Central Asia, Journal of TheRoyal Central Asian Society, 16:4, 433-454, DOI: 10.1080/03068372908725073
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POLITICS AND TRADE IN CENTRAL ASIAB Y W. BOSSHARD
LECTURE GIVEN TO THE CENTRAL ASIAN SOCIETY ON JULY 10, 1929,
THE EARL PEEL, PEESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY, IN THE CHAIR.
LORD PEEL, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
Chinese Turkestan, or Sinkiang as it is called by the Chinese, wasthe country of my travels during 1927-28. This part of the world, situatedin the heart of a great continent, is called Central Asia, but I do notknow whether geographers are using this definition in a wider sense, orwhether they have definitely laid down what one should call CentralAsia; at any rate, (J have not succeeded in discovering this in anyof the books I have studied on this subject. Before entering upon mysubject of " Politics and Trade in Central Asia," I will try to give youa short description of the country and its' inhabitants. Chinese Tur-kestan is situated between 76 and 89 degrees east longitude and 35 and44 degrees north latitude. It is an immense plain, steadily decreasingfrom north-west to south-east, covered in its biggest part by an abso-lutely sterile sea of sand, the Takla-Makan. The desert covers 98£ percent, of the whole country, while the fertile land only amounts toli per cent.* This vast, immense country, which knows nothing ofmotor-cars and aeroplanes, telephones and railways, nor newspapers, isthe westernmost province of the great Chinese Eepublic. It was con-nected with the Chinese Empire more than 2,000 years ago, was lostseveral times, but in spite of the enormous distance from Peking, alwaysreconquered by the faithful troops of the Chinese Emperors.
On the other hand, it is most surprising to read that the totalperiod of the Chinese occupation up to date amounts only to 427 years.tand when I first came to that country I was puzzled by the .questionhow the Chinese had been able to hold it so long with their systemof maladministration prevailing under the late Peking Government.
The desert, with its enormous dunes of sand in some parts and itsbig barren plains in others, has during the last 1,500 years very muchincreased. The splendid researches made by Sir Aurel Stein duringthe last thirty years have fully proved that during the first centuries
. of our era a number of settlements existed in places which a're todayten to seventy miles from the nearest water-pond. During the winter of1927-28, Dr. Trinkler and I visited a few of these old ruined sites, andduring these desert journeys my attention was drawn to the mostextraordinary fact that the water subsoil level is in many places only
* Sykes: "Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia."† Skrine: "Chinese Central Asia."
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6 to 7 feet below the surface. We had large quantities of water aswell as ice with us, but we seldom used it, because our men would nearlyevery evening, when the camp was put up, dig a well with very littledifficulty. Sir Aurel Stein gives us in his maps a number of detailswhich clearly prove that the present ground-water level is not as deepas one would expect it in a desert. This water-level seems to fallgradually from south to north. Along the mountain ranges of theKuen-Lun we have the rivers and brooks watering the oases, but theysoon dwindle down into small irrigation channels, and eventually disap-pear entirely. But beyond the cultivated area there is generally a largezone of tamarisk shrubs, followed by a girdle of poplar-trees. Onlywhen going further into the desert does one meet with these most im-pressive forests of dead poplars. But even there the water is withineasy reach below the surface. The reason why I am going into allthese details is to show you what a big area could be turned into afertile country were modern technical achievements allowed to workthere. Colonel Etherton says in his book * that there could be practi-cally an unlimited production of cotton in the area at present opento cultivation and with the facilities for extending the irrigationsystem. Although he is, in my opinion, too great an optimist asregards trade development in Central Asia, I entirely agree with himon this point. Sir Aurel Stein, undoubtedly the greatest authority onCentral Asia, has further told us that the sand which he collected fromthe desert would give the most fertile ground could it be properlywatered;! this so-called sand, actually loess, is carried by the strongwinds, the boorans as they call them in Central Asia, to the oases, andtheir great fertility is -partly due to this dung provided by Nature in•unlimited quantities. So much about the desert.
The cultivated land which stretches between the mountains and theTakla-Makan is one of the most fertile countries I have ever seen. Anumber of oases are situated along the edge of the great desert; themost important of them are: Kashgar, Yarkand, Khargalik, Guma,Khotan and Keria to the south of the Takla-Makan; Turfan, Kara-shar, Kuchar, Aksu, and Maralbashi on the north.
The total population of this district is estimated at about 1,500,000,+and it may be divided into the Turkis, the natives of the country; thenomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, living in the valleys of the Kuen-Lunand Tian-shan Mountains ; and the Chinese officials and immigrants.
The Turkis are said to be of Aryan descent, § and one encountersmany a man who could easily be taken for an inhabitant of Southern
* Etherton: "In the Heart of Asia."† Sir Aurel Stein: "Innermost Asia: Its Geography as a Factor in
History " (the Geographical Journal, May and June, 1925).‡ Sykes: "Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia§ Skrine : "Chinese Central Asia."
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Europe. Being Mohammedans of the Sunni or orthodox sect, theirwomen have to veil their faces when they leave their houses.
The nomadic tribes, mostly Kirghiz, do not aggregate more than125,000 in all.* They live, as already mentioned, in the steep valleysof the adjacent mountains, herding their flocks of sheep, and movingwith their transportable houses, the so-called aquois or kibitkas, duringthe summer to the high grazing grounds at the edge of the glaciers andsnow-fields, aud returning for the cold winter months to the lower partof the country. They are of typical'Mongolian descent, Mohammedanstoo; but their women, being compelled to do a great part of the dailywork, go aLout unveiled and freely mix with men. They are verypicturesque, with enormous white head-dresses, decorated with beadsof coral lapis-lazuli, turquoise and glass, and their long embroideredribbons reaching nearly down to their heels.
And now comes the ruling class, the Chinese. I probably need notgo into details of the present administrative organization of Sinkiang,as you all know that the seat of the Governor-General, or, as it iscalled since the days of the Nanking regime, the Council, is at UrumchiThe country is divided into six circuits, each presided over by a Tao-Tai, the Hsing-Cheng-Chang of today. He. is responsible to Urumchi,and his subordinates are the Ambans, or magistrates, numbering in thewhole province about fifty.. These districts are again subdivided into^areas controlled by natives. All the Chinese depend entirely on theso-called Begs, who are employed as translators, as practically noneof the officials know the local language. Besides the ruling class there is agreat number of Chinese immigrants. Many a small trader has openedhis shop near the official quarters; money-lenders come, disappearingafter a few years with their harvest; but all these people seemedto me insignificant in comparison with the big merchants whom oneencounters in trade centres like Hong-Kong, Canton, Shanghai, orNanking. They are all small traders, flourishing under, and cateringmostly for, the ruling class, the Tao-Tais, Ambans, and their numerous
hangers-on.The Administration.
I will try now to give you a rough sketch of how the Chinese haveruled this,province since the fall of the Imperial throne. In 1911,after several months of unrest and insecurity, the Governor Yang atUrumchi assumed power, and soon restored order and confidence. Inthis country, where the majority of the population is divided into agreat number of different races, the Governor-General has very wiselyadopted the old Eoman principle of rule by division. Officially heacknowledged the Centrai Government in Peking, but being far awayfrom headquarters, he formed a kingdom of his own, with its adminis-
* Sykes: "Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia."
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tration, laws, and money. Mr. Lattimore, in his lecture before theCentral Asian Society (March 28,1928), has given a vivid description ofthe Sinkiang Administration. The lecturer then described the autocraticway adopted by Yang Tu-chun, the Governor-General, and at the sametime gave us the solution of how he had been able to keep this provincequiet, while national and other agents were stirring up the rest of China.No official appointment was made without getting first a strong hold of theman in question; even the biggest idealist had to step down and accepthis superior's view. " Other people may be misled by ideals, but theChinese are only.apt to be misled by the cash in hand," Mr. Lattimorerightly remarks. Officials sent from Peking for important jobs wereeither held up at his Yamen till he was sure that they were not holdingviews opposed to his own, or he sent them back after a short time witha present. I have been told that the Central Government tried severaltimes to replace him by another man, but as they were unable to send anarmy across the Gobi, in order to give their orders impressive weight,Yang simply refused to relinquish the power he was holding. Duringthe last seventeen years he established what may be called a familyhierarchy, posting all his relations from one end of the country to theother. In 1927 all the Ambans from Keria to Eashgar were, with twoor three exceptions, either directly or through marriage related to theGovernor-General. Undoubtedly he was a strong man, who, first ofall, put his personal ambitions above the welfare of the country; but,taking into consideration the conditions prevailing in other provinces ofthe Chinese Republic, I must admit that his governorship seemed, atfirst sight, to be a success. During the last seventeen years therehave been no -riots of any importance, and highway robbery, such asmade roads unsafe in the East, were unknown in Chinese Turk-estan. But it is doubtful whether his success would have lasted.In June, 1928, the Chang-Chung, as he was called, acknowledged theNanking Government, the five-coloured flag disappeared, titles werechanged, but conditions seemed to remain the same. On July 7 hewas shot by his own Foreign Minister Fang, who, according to what Ihave been told by Europeans who knew him, was a well-educatedChinese, with principles opposed to the selfish, pocket-filling wayfollowed by his superior. The Governor-General seems to have had avery clear notion of what was going to happen and what the results ofbis governorship would be. He transferred, a long time ago, hisenormous wealth to the safe custody of British and American banks, andsent his family away to settle down in the Philippine Islands. Hissubalterns, nearly all of the same clan, had to pay big sums for anyappointment in the province. Their salary was so small that they hadto adopt .a most corrupt system in order to recover capital and interest.They followed the example of their master, and in the far-away towns,
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where relationship and money had placed them, they tried to amassa fortune in the shortest possible time. Any means justify the end, wastheir slogan—presents had to be given and bribes paid in order toobtain justice or favours; only in the most exaggerated cases did thesuppressed people have the courage to apply to the Governor-General atUrumchi, who sometimes recalled the Amban, or whatever he mighthave been, punished him by taking part of his amassed wealth and bygiving him a job in another corner of the province. It must be bornein mind that in Chinese Turkestan, where corruptness'permeated allclasses, advancement, like other marketable commodities, was bought andsold. A local Amban had probably paid a very large sum in order to obtainhis post. As his appointment was apt to be cancelled at any moment, itfollowed that he had to hasten to make money while he could and lostno opportunity of extorting bribes from those beneath him. As withthe Ambans, so with his subordinates: they all worked on the samelines, with the result that nothing was done which was not speciallypaid for, and the people were plundered in order that their rulers mightgrow rich. Such were the ways in which villages and towns werevampired; but history proves that whenever a ruler oversteps acertain limit, the patience of the oppressed people one day ceases,and an unpleasant outburst is the result. The last such instanceoccurred at the time of Yakpob Beg, in 1874, when tax collectors^claimed from the poor landowner three times the amount of the legaldemand, the result being that when the -Chinese reconquered thecountry the local inhabitants greeted them as their benefactors. *
The Chinese practically did nothing for the upkeep of thecountry. The roads were very bad, the bridges unsafe; publicwork was mostly done by forced labour. The Government hadno money for irrigation schemes which would have opened great areasfor cultivation. The water of many rivers could be stored up, withsmall cost, by barrages,. and from the ground claimed back fromthe desert thousands of families could find a livelihood. But such afar-sighted policy as was adopted by the British in India, Egypt,Iraq, and the Sudan, did not suit the higher Chinese officials. • Thestatement made by one of them to an Englishman clearly illustratesthis fact. During a conversation the Chinese referred to some Englishstatesmen, saying that he had heard that in Europe men sometimesput the interest of their country above personal aims. " In China," hesaid, " it is different: our first thought and all our thoughts are directedby our family interests." The Chinese were, further, wise to do theirutmost to delay the march of education within the borders of Sinkiang,for so surely as the intelligence of the children became developed, sosurely would the most corrupt governmental system in modern history
* Boulger: "Life of Yakoob Beg."
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have been 'shaken in its foundations. Ifiold-that the present state ofadministration under Governor Yang was destineo. to exist only so long asthe governing classes succeeded in exerting their sway by the repressfon-of individuality and by withholding education from the masses. Nonewspaper in the Turki language was allowed to be printed. Chineseand foreign papers were.subjected to a censure, which tried to withholdany news which might cause disturbances. But in spite of all this,conditions in Sinkiang, as far as I could judge them, had not yet cometo the point of open dissatisfaction, because the people are veryindifferent and still remember the hardship their fathers had sufferedunder the rule of a man originating from their own country, YakoobBeg. But should the policy of the late Governor-General be con-tinued and Eussia get the influence she is aiming at, a change iscertainly to be expected in Sinkiang. I hardly believe that it cancome from the interior of the country; there is no strong man, nosecond Yakoob Beg, with ambition and courage; there are no arms,except with the Chinese; and the population on the whole are cowards,and there can be no question that the condition of the masses is whatthe late Governor desired it to be. The Chinese, fully aware of theirdifficult position, had spies all over the country—minor officials who,after having learned from the superiors how to make money and lead aneasy life, would be unpleasantly affected by any change of Government." The Begs, these Chinese-speaking Turkis, which have directly to dealwith the native inhabitants, were far too content with their presentposition, in which they were allowed to plunder the people at theirheart's content, to agitate for any change of Government; so long as theykept the Chinese well supplied with money and did not bother them, noquestion was asked, for the Chinese maxim is above all things, ' Any-thing for a quiet life.' "* This was written nearly thirty years ago byCobbold, but very little indeed had changed in 1928 since he visited
Sinkiang in 1898.Politics.
If a change comes, it can only originate from outside or with thehelp of neighbouring states, and that leads us to the relations ChineseTurkestan has with the adjacent powers. There are Tibet, India, andAfghanistan in the south; Eussia in the west. Although there havebeen invasions from the south in former times, when Tibet was a greatpower in Asia, holding in subjection vast tracts of Sinkiang, Kansu, andeven Central China,! I-do not think that the Lhasa Government oftoday has any ambition in this direction. Afghanistan, even if sheshould recover from the present troubles, certainly has no intentionof bringing troops across difficult mountain paths in order to plungeinto a campaign which might lead to a guerilla warfare with very
* Cobbold: "Innermost Asia." † Stein: "Ruins of Desert Cathay."
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uncertain results. There remain\lndia and Eussia, the two greatpowers which during the whole of last century were rivals in CentralAsian politics. Let me give you now a brief history of diplomaticrelations with these two powers.
Johnson, Hayward, Shaw, possibly other Englishmen, visitedthe country unofficially during the sixties of last century. In 1873an official mission was appointed by\the Viceroy of India, underSir Douglas Forsyth, for the purpose of concluding a commercialtreaty with His Highness the Amir of Yarkand and Kashgar.* Butthe effect of this impressive expedition did not last very long.Yakoob Beg's kingdom fell with him, after a successful invasion of theChinese General Chang Yao. The new rulers paid no direct atten-tion to any treaties concluded by the rebellious Athalik Gazhi,and for nearly twenty years no official mission came from Indiato Kashgar. Most likely the Chinese • considered the great attentionpaid by the British Crown to a man who in their eyes was a minorrebel as a very inopportune and unfriendly act towards their Emperor.They did not protest, but they certainly did not forget—no Chinaman,I think, ever does—that one of the greatest European powers had con-sidered one of their provinces as definitely lost to China. When, in1892, the Government of India appointed Mr. (now Sir) George Macartneyas an Assistant to the Resident in Kashmir, with headquarters atKashgar, he was faced by great obstinacy. Whether it was the officialChinese world or Bussian intrigues which were opposed to his appoint-ment as Consul, I cannot say, but until 1904 his position was by nomeans what one could call satisfactory. After twelve years Sir GeorgeMacartney had succeeded in persuading the Chinese of the friendlyintentions of himself as well as of the Government he represented.They agreed to his appointment as British Consul-General, and thefollowing fourteen years fully proved how great a friend the Chinesehad in Sir George Macartney. I had no opportunity of seeing anyofficial papers relating to his activity while .at Kashgar. I*can onlyjudge from what I have heard and from what is mentioned in the fewbooks dealing with Central Asian politics,! but I think I am not veryfar from the fact when stating that the high esteem in which Britishrepresentatives are still held is entirely due to his great statesmanshipand his eminent knowledge of the Chinese and Turki people. I amprobably not exaggerating when calling him the balancing power betweenBussia, China, and the British Empire, and Sir Percy Sykes gives usin his book more than one instance which illustrates my statement.
* Forsyth : "Report of a Mission to Yarkand in 1873."† Blacker: "On Secret Patrol in High Asia." Cobbold: "Innermost
Asia." Etherton: "In the Heart of Asia." Sykes: "Through Deserts andOases of Central Asia.'
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His own, as well as the ability of c«pme t>i his successors, has tilltoday been able to hold local opinion of British rule at a very highstandard, and one of the rights which British subjects still enjoy inChinese Turkestan is extra-territoriality. Legal cases are thereforesettled under the supervision of the Consul-General, which means thatthe usual way of bribing the Judge cannot be taken as it would if thematter rested entirely in Chinese hands. Up to 1920 British subjectsfurther enjoyed freedom from any taxation, but with the cancelling ofthe Eussian agreement this had to be given up.
During the war political intrigue in Central Asia was at its height.German official missions were sent out to stir up the people of Asiaagainst the Allies; the leader of one of them, Dr. von Hentig, wasstranded at the Yamen of Kashgar, but eventually escaped the EussianCossacks who had been after him ever since he had come to ChineseTurkestan.* But he as well as all the others who travelled "un-officially," either under disguise or with passports of a neutral country,were minor episodes in comparison with what was going on in Eussia.The wildest rumours spread over Sinkiang, and eventually in the summerof 1918 " the Government of India decided to send a mission to Tashkentin order to gain touch with the new regime in Eussia, and further tokeep a watch on enemy movements in Central Asia."t The head of thismission was Sir George Macartney; the second in command, ColonelBailey. Very little has been published about the adventures of thismission, and in studying the events of that period, I found that thepresent British Consul-General was right in saying that two books onthe Central Asian question were still unwritten: Sir George Macartney'sand Colonel Bailey's.
And now let me turn to Eussia and give a brief history of herdiplomatic relations with Chinese Turkestan. In doing so I am muchhandicapped, as I do not know the Eussian language and have had torely entirely on English and German publications, which from my pointof view are one-sided.
Eussian interests in Central Asia have always been of a much greaterimportance than British. Eussia is separated from Sinkiang by a moun-tain range which can be crossed by caravans at all times of the year, whilethe way to India is only open for a few summer months. Eussia furtherborders Chinese Turkestan with a frontier about three times as long asIndia's, and a number of important commercial towns are within easyreach from Kashgar, Aksu, and Urumchi. The people of Chinese Turkes-tan have also very much in common with the population of the FerghanaBasin, and an old trade-route has connected these two countries since im-
* von Hentig: "Eine Diplomatenfahrt ins verbotene Land."† Blacker: "On Secret Patrol in High Asia," etc. Etherton: "In the
Heart of Asia."
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memorial times. This probably was one of the reasons why Eussia hadestablished an Imperial Consulate-General long before England sentSir George Macartney to Kashgar. The Czarist representative had alwaysa great number of "Cossacks at hand, and Cobbold * tells us that for a longtime he was the actual ruler of this part of the province. Wheneverhe had to discuss an important question he called the local Chineseauthorities to his house, and they were mere puppets in his hands. Butthe Chinese "never forget": they may remain silent, but they rememberwell. When they saw that the Eussian Empire had fallen to pieces,that Eussian influence had vanished, the Chinese, who had for yearssought to recover what they had been compelled to cede to Eussia inthe past, seized the opportunity presented by the fall of the northernColossus and closed all the Eussian Consulates in China, requesting theConsuls to " move on." t In October, 1920, according to Colonel Ether-ton's statement, the Imperial Consulate at Kashgar was closed down.For five years there was no Eussian representative in Chinese Tur-kestan, the former trade agreement between Eussia and the SinkiangGovernment was abrogated in 1922.1 But the Soviets, after havingsettled affairs in Eussia in a more or less satisfactory manner, turnedtheir eyes towards Sinkiang and concluded a trade agreement with thelate Governor Yang.
In July, 1925, the doors of the former Imperial Eussian Consulateat Kashgar opened again, and when I visited it first in November, 1927,pictures of all the prominent members of the Soviet Council decoratedthe walls of the big reception hall. The present Consul-General has noescort any more, but his staff numbers more than forty Eussians fromMoscow, assisted by numerous natives from both sides of the border. Theattitude Chinese officials are taking towards the Eussian representativeresembles concealed warfare and chicane. Every year the Chinese closethe frontier at Irkestah for a few months for some reason or other; theythreaten to put Turkis into prison should they take any work as servantsat the Soviet Consulate. During summer, 1928, the present Consul-General intended to make a journey round the Takla-Makan. Heinformed the Chinese authorities and they agreed to his plans. He gotas far as Kuchar, where big supplies for the onward journey werecollected, but as soon as he had gone as far as Shahyar, the Chinesestopped him, arrested one of his men under some pretext, andafter long negotiations he had to return to Kashgar. The Chinesedid not want to let the Soviet Consul-General go to the Lop-Nor, and were only looking for a pretext on which to send him back.Such and similar actions might please anti-Sovietists, but they do notcause a very bright outlook from the European standpoint. European
* Cobbold: " Innermost Asia." † Etherton: "In the Heart of Asia."‡ Skrine: "Chinese Central Asia."
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prestige has during the last years already suffered enormously in CentralAsia, and the day might come when England's representative would besubjected to similar conditions, should personal or national relationscease to be as good as they are at .present.
Tfie Chinese undoubtedly fully realize the results Soviet propagandawould cause, and they are trying to counteract any move which theyrecognize as such. When the Soviet Consul-General was at Yarkandlast summer, a man of his retinue, a Russian Mohammedan subject,wanted to preach at the biggest mosque. His request was sanctionedby the local Amban, and day and hour were made known all over theplace. But the poor man's surprise was great when at the fixed timenot a single soul appeared. Only afterwards it became known to theRussians that the local magistrate had prohibited, under heavy penalty,any Chinese subject from attending this meeting. Again, last summerthe doctor of the Soviet Consulate went to Bostan Terek, a hill-stationtwo days' journey from Kashgar. He wanted to stop at the Kazi'shouse at Upal, but the latter, hearing who the newcomer was, closedthe door in front of him and shut him out. The Kashgar Tao-Tai, beinginformed of what had happened, sent a present of five taels to the Kazifor his loyal behaviour. A third and last instance: At Yarkand, a wealthyTurki was alleged to be a friend of the Soviet. His entire propertywas confiscated and the man was sent to Aksu without any trial. Theseare only three instances out of a long list which I could quote, but theycertainly illustrate the great efforts made by the Chinese to keepBolshevism out of their country.
Yet again, when last summer all the Russian diplomatic agents hadto leave China, the five Soviet Consulates in Sinkiang remained, andwere left undisturbed in spite of the broken relations with the NankingGovernment.
After this rough sketch of the historical development of diplomaticrelations with Chinese Turkestan, I have to come back to the questionalready mentioned at the beginning:"Will China be able to hold thisprovince against any aggression towards its territorial rights ?
China has been for years in a state of turmoil. At present theNanking Government pretends to represent the whole of China, butalready there has been a rising of the Dungans, the MohammedanChinese in Kansu, which has led to the massacre of morethan 200,000 Chinese. Sinkiang is separated from Central andEastern China by • the Gobi, and any forces which the UrumchiGovernment might need would have to undertake a march of severalmonths. The local army, consisting of Chinese, Chinese-Turki half-castes, and pure TurHs, is mostly on paper. In more than one bookdealing with Central Asia it has been related how commanders in thedifferent places are making ap for the small salary they get by pocketing
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the wages of three-fourths of their army, keeping in actual service onlyone-fourth of. the official list. When one notes such facts, onereally wonders that Chinese Turkestan still exists as a province of theCelestial Eepublic, after all the changes which have swept away a numberof Asiatic kingdoms and khanates. In my opinion, Sinkiang leads " uneexistence de grace," being at the mercy of Soviet Eussia whenever sheshould feel inclined to push the frontier a few hundred miles eastwards.
England can, according to my judgment, have no territorial interestsin Chinese Turkestan, a country which would cost enormous amountsfor administrative upkeep, for roads, bridges, telegraphs, etc., and which.is, as already mentioned, during several months of the year cut off fromthe nearest base, India.
India has some commercial interests in Chinese Turkestan, and sohas Eussia, and this leads to the second part of my lecture: the tradein Central Asia.
Sinkiang, in spite of its natural wealth, is still in,a stage which maybe called prehistoric as regards commerce, and it was scarcely likely thatthe resources of the country would be developed-as long as the lateGovernor Yang's system of administration was dominating. Apart fromthe Eussian cotton-cleaning factories, which can by no means be callecmodern, there is no factory whatsoever in the country. The absenceof any of them is the more remarkable, as it would be possible to manu-facture in the country a great number of articles which are at presentimported. Although there are numerous rivers with a strong current,such as we have in Switzerland, there is no electric light nor power inChinese Turkestan. The carpet-making is dying out, the once well-known Central Asian or so-called Samarkand pattern has disappearedfrom the market, and the Chinese have done everything to kill anindustry which once was famous- all over the world, and had occupieda great number of workers. Or take the silk. "What developmentcould be expected if Western enterprise were allowed to work onthe same basis as in Europe ? The climatic conditions are ideal for thedelicate silkworm, material is abundant, labour is cheap,* though atpresent poor in quality. In Kashmir conditions are certainly notas good as they are in Sinkiang, and yet Srinagar has the biggest silkfactory in the world. But the Chinese lack any interest in such enter-prises, and the Eussians, in order to get rid of an unpleasant competitor,levy a prohibitive Customs duty on any kind of silk which goes in
transit to Europe.Trade.
Trade connections between Ladakh and Chinese Turkestan existedlong before the Porsyth Mission came to Kashgar. Shaw mentionsin his book!|! some caravans going every year from Central Asia to
* Shaw : "High Tartary, Yarkand, and Kashgar."
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Western Tibet. It was not until 1874 that England concluded the firstcommercial treaty with Kashgar, and the rules and regulations laiddown fifty years ago have proved to be so far-sighted that theyhave governed trade with Central Asia ever since. All goodsoriginating from this part of the world were declared duty free whencoming to India. The Indian Government further provided the traderswith a reliable transport system along the treaty high-road, and furtherconstructed bridges and ferries at very high cost; but the statementmade by Shaw in one of his reports on trade in Ladakh in the earlyseventies reads as if it had been made yesterday. He says :*
" It must be confessed that the greater our experience of the routesbetween India and Yarkand, the greater do the difficulties appear inthe way of establishing a satisfactory trade route, owing to the lengthof the journey, the enormous altitudes to be traversed, the arid andunproductive character of a large portion of the country, the absenceof population, and the deficiency of carriage and supplies."
Today the trade between India and Chinese Turkestan is mostlyin the hands of Hindus from Hoshiarpur and Shikarpur. During thewar, when Eussian imports had ceased to be of any importance, theseIndians exploited their hunting-ground mercilessly. They do not tradein the way a European would do it; they do not look ahead nor altertheir methods to suit changed circumstances ; they have no propersystem nor organization, and they do not stick to quality, but buyanything in India which takes their fancy and with which they hopeto realize big profits. As most of these goods are bought in India,and high import duty has been paid at Bombay, Calcutta, or Karachi,they are sold at an unreasonably high price in Chinese Turkestan.Few of these Hindu traders know English; none of them would beable to deal direct with a Manchester firm and bring goods in transitto Central Asia, evading the prohibitive Indian Customs duty, and thusenable the local people to buy goods at a much reduced price. Manyof the Hindus are money-lenders of the worst kind, taking advantage ofthe lawless conditions of the country. When these Hindus saw theirchance, they imported Japanese goods of the cheapest possible qualityand sold them in local bazaars at a high price. The natives of Tur-kestan, not knowing the origin of these goods, which had come fromHindustan, bitterly complained of the inferior quality of British mer-chandise. Some of the Hindus, I have been told, made fortunes ina very short time, not realizing how greatly they had damaged Britishand European trade interests. When, therefore, in 1925 the Eussiansstarted to trade ofiScially with Sinkiang, people gladly turned to theircheaper goods, and imports from India suffered year by year. The
* Forsyth : " Report of a Mission to Yarkand in 1873."
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following figures will give you an idea of the trade between India andChinese Turkestan:
Vear.
191819201924192519261927
Amount of Export to Ladakh.
Kupees 3,439,0002,706,0002,610,0002,356,0002,991,0002,014,000
Import from Ladakh.
Kupees 3,529,0004,348,0001,453,0001,860,0002,480,0001,215,000
The Hindu, further, does not give any encouragement to export andlocal manufactures. Unwillingly he buys felts, silk, charas, and otherproducts, but his object in doing so is only to remit his money. Shouldhe have the opportunity of transferring his profits through a bank,he would not care at all for export, and several Hindus told me thattransactions which did not earn a net profit of at least 35 per cent,were of no interest to them. But it is a well-known fact that a marketcan only be developed by exchanging goods from a foreign country withlocal products.
If no action is taken to back up British as well as European tradein Central Asia—and I do not at present see that any British subjectin Sinkiang would be able to take such action without Government'shelp—the figures already quoted will dwindle down to an insignificantamount, which is in no proportion to the high expenses incurred onthe other side by the upkeep of bridges, roads, and the official surveyof them.
The Mohammedan population of Chinese Turkestan does not likethe Hindu traders; it loathes them, but knows that the Indians arebacked by a European representative of the powerful British Raj.
Russian Trade.
Let us now see what Russia has been doing. In 1851 Russia con-cluded a commercial treaty with China, which mostly affected thenorthern part of Sinkiang. General von Kaufmann, in 1872, came to asimilar arrangement with Yakoob Beg as Forsyth did two years later.The Russians developed before the war an enormous activity; theypushed the railway from Tashkent on to Osch, twelve days' easyjourney from Kashgar. Trade with Russia had become so importantthat the Banque Russo-Asiatique established a branch at Kashgar,linking up this commercial centre with Moscow and Europe. In orderto stimulate trade with Central Asia the old Russian Government paida reward or bounty of sixteen gold roubles (about £2 stg.) for everypony load which crossed the Russian frontier towards Chinese
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Turkestan. They further started building roads and rest-houses, someof them undoubtedly for military purposes, and they would have broughtCentral Asia within easy reach from Europe had not the war and therevolution following it put an end to their activities.
I have already mentioned that in 1922 the existing treaty withEussia was cancelled by the Sinkiang Government. The Chinese closedthe frontier towards the west, and for the time being trade was carriedon, on a very small scale, by a few merchants without any governmentalsupport. In 1925 the Eussians came back, gradually building up whathad been destroyed during the past years. I have not been able to obtainany pre-war figures, but I can show you the trade development withEussia during the last three years:
Year.
1925/261926/271927/28
Imports from Russia.
Roubles 2,600,00011,200,00012,000,000
Exports to Eussia.
Roubles 800,0005,600,0006,800,000
The present Russian policy on Central Asian trade can be bestdescribed by the statement made in 1873 by Captain Chapman, amember of the Forsyth Mission. He says :*
" The progress of trade beyond her [Eussia's] frontier as a politicalmeasure, apart from its importance as a source of national wealth, hasbeen the first consideration of Eussia in her dealings with CentralAsian States, whose markets have been closely studied in order thatthey might be made dependent on Eussian commercial centres.
The systematic pursuit of a commercial policy, moving hand inhand -with a forward foreign policy, and not working spasmodically,marks each step of Eussian progress : the wisdom which has producedthese goods which are the most necessary to each locality, and hasrefrained from pouring articles of luxury into countries unprepared fortheir reception, has made her merchants amongst the most successful ofher pioneers in those regions where, until lately, Europeans penetratedwith infinite difficulty."
Government in Eussia has. changed, but the policy of the lateCzaristic regime was exactly the same as that now adopted by theSoviets. They have the following system : Connected with the Con-sulate is a so-called Trade Agency with a big office, a staff of Turki- andChinese-speaking Eussians, and a number of native salesmen. Theirshow and sample room can compare favourably with any of its kind ofa big firm in Europe, the goods being well arranged and properlylabelled. This permanent exhibition of goods manufactured in SovietEussia undoubtedly impresses the native buyer much more than thedirty Hindu serai, where so-called British goods are sold. The Soviet
* Forsyth: "Report of a Mission to Yarkand in 1873," chap. ix.
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Trade Agency specially caters for the local markets, and no expense isspared to secure the buyers' interest. Many articles are sold cheaper atKashgar than one can buy them at Andijan or Tashkent, and onlyduring my stay in Moscow I came to understand Bussia's trade policy!Counting together the cost, the expense for bringing the goods onhorse- or camel-back from the Bussian railway head to Kashgar, the7$ per cent, import duty levied by the Chinese and the expenses in con-nection with their sale, one would expect a higher selling price inChinese Turkestan than In Bussian. territory, and yet one can obtainBussian cloth, sugar, oil, cigarettes, etc., 20 to 35 per cent, cheaper atKashgar than at Andijan. .
In trying to find out any reason for this amazing fact, I have cometo the conclusion that Bussia's intention by selling at such cheap ratesis to obtain world currencies, such as dollar or £ stg., with which foreignproducts can be bought. With this money the Bussian Government isable to import machines, typewriters, etc., which are sold by theGovernment in its shops with an increase of 300 per cent, and more.
The Soviet Government is therefore making very little profit—if any—out of this export business, but I think, as regards Central Asiantrade, there is another object behind. For a century Bussia hasbeen trying to kill the trade with India, but I should not be surprisedif the present prices made a big jump as soon as the head of theTrade Agency considers this achievement realized. The presentpropaganda of Bussian manufactures is at any rate in the hands ofvery able people. Oi course, I do not know whether Bussianmerchandise is still sold at Kashgar with some profit, or whether theSoviets are paying for an eventual loss incurred in the export business,but it proves to me they are doing their utmost to attack England wherethey think her weak points are. Connected-with the Trade Agency is abranch of the State Bank, which, however, has not yet assumed theimportance of the former Banque Busso-Asiatique, which, as you certainlyknow, went bankrupt in 1925.
As big as the import from Bussia is the export from ChineseTurkestan. I need not go into details about products of the country.Forsyth gave a very good description in 1874, and Colonel Etherton,Sir Percy Sykes, Mr. Skrine, and others mention fifty years later therural wealth of Chinese Turkestan. Bussia, in order to take fulladvantage of her investments, has been building up in a very short timean enormous export trade. The biggest share falls to cotton and wool,which; if my information is correct, is shipped direct to the U.S.A. TheBussians have established big cotton and wool cleaning factories atKashgar, and these export goods are packed by experts according toEuropean standard. When one realizes that the price of the best woolis at Kashgar about four times less than the cheapest quality on the
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London market, one can fully understand the great attention Russia ispaying to this line of export trade. The next big item is livestock,amounting to over 300,000 taels or 600,000 rupees a year; then followsilk, carpets, hides and furs, felt carpets, etc.-
The whole import as well as export trade is so well organizedthat one who has the opportunity of getting an inside view can onlybut admire the great efforts and the unceasing zeal of the organizers.The Eussian buyer is paying better prices than the Hindu, prob-ably with the same object as already mentioned, but as soon as thegreedy and narrow-minded Indians have definitely closed down theirserais and Eussia remains the- only buyer, she undoubtedly will dictatethe prices and use her influence towards the local producers.
All the trade is, according to Soviet system, in the hands of Stateofficials who are connected with the Consulate and enjoy the privilegesof the diplomatic staff. f
Trade and the Chinese Officials.
The attitude of the Chinese officials towards trade is of no smallinterest. They do not encourage it, in spite of the big income arisingfrom import as well as export duty. They tolerate it, but in theirhearts I think they consider it a nuisance. They would prefer to buildanother Chinese wall along the frontier and be satisfied with theircaravans going and coming to and from Peking) From time to timeregulations of a most striking nature are issued. The object is clear:the Chinese try to discourage any outside trade. While they areindifferent to the Hindu traders, for reasons already mentioned, theydo make difficulties for the Eussians. Some time ago the Trade Agencywas buying up lots of carpets of pre-aniline age: the Tao-Tai of Kashgar,hearing about it, prohibited the export to Eussia. Another instance:In November last, the present manager of the Trade Agency wanted togo from Kashgar to Khotan in order to study personally further possibledevelopments of trade. The Chinese refused to give their consent forsuch a journey and it had to be cancelled.
Whatever the view of the Chinese officials may be, they certainlyfully realize that Eussian trade goes hand in hand with propaganda, andmore than once it has been suggested to me by Chinese as well as Turkiresidents to take an active interest in Central Asian trade. Many ofthem hold the opinion that Bolshevist propaganda has to be care-fully watched. But the question immediately arises: How long willthe Eussians accept such treatment ? Personally I was surprised at firstthat the Eussians had not sent an army over to Chinese Turkestan along time ago, as Kashgar is within easy reach of the Eussian border.I have already mentioned that no proper army exists, and half a regi-ment of infantry and two batteries, supported by three or four aeroplanes,
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could take the whole of Sinkiang. Some of the Chinese are undoubtedlyfully aware of the Eussian danger, and when last summer the Russo-German Pamir Expedition was near the border of Sinkiang, a rumourswept through the bazaars that a Eussian army was on its wayto Kashgar. About 500 soldiers were sent up to Muk-Karaul, inorder to hold up this imaginary fiend, consisting of about one dozenGerman and Russian scientists.
But coming back to Eussia, the most striking anomaly in connectionwith this complicated subject is to be found in the financial aspects ofthe case. Eussia, with a depreciated currency and a damaged credit,has for years past annually expended with one hand hundreds of millionsof roubles in foreign countries on schemes which remain unremunera-tive, while with the other hand she has tried to seize at any cost Asiaticmarkets. The territorial expansion by means of military force has cometo a standstill: commercial hegemony is leading to the same result.And yet, I believe, there are three reasons which guaranteed in the past,and might still guarantee for some time, the independence of ChineseTurkestan:
1. The cost of an occupation and administrative army would inthis vast country swallow enormous amounts of money, which probablycould not be balanced by taxes and revenues.
2. After the failure Bolshevist propaganda has suffered in Europe,Moscow has turned her interest towards Asia. The reception offered toKing Amanullah of Afghanistan, the treaty with Persia, etc., clearlyshow that the Soviets are trying to gain the confidence of the remain-ing Asiatic States. Any territorial expansion of Russia at the costof China would create the greatest suspicion with the Asiatic people, and•would particularly cause an ill-feeling in the Chinese Republic itself,where Moscow, in spite of the present strained relations, still hopes toget a permanent footing.
3. Eussia's financial position is not stronger than it was some yearsago. Moscow is doing its utmost to stabilize trade and currency andto obtain a footing in foreign markets. In Europe they had very littlesuccess; Eussian goods are of much inferior quality in comparison withpre-war manufactures. They therefore have to push their export tradein another direction—viz., Asia—where European goods are only ob-tainable at high cost and they consequently can compete with them.But export helps at the same time to stabilize the currency and bringsready cash, which is, according to newspaper reports, badly needed atthe Kremlin.
These three reasons probably explain the present policy of SovietRussia towards Sinkiang. There' may be others, unknown to me,which hold Moscow's politicians back from any aggressive action. . Butshould the Chinese continue with the system of administration adopted
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by the late Governor Yang, there may come a day when the nativeinhabitants, after careful and well-planned Eussian propaganda, willapply to Moscow for help, which in my opinion would be freely granted.For an outsider it remains now to speculate on what steps England wouldtake. There is a great community in Sinkiang which entertainsstrong anti-Soviet ideas, a community which looks towards India forhelp should Eussia threaten the present status of Chinese Turkestan.I am no politician; I can only judge Britain's policy from happeningsduring the last few years, but I believe that the Government of Indiawould disappoint those who believe that they could expect financial ormilitary support against the Soviets.
Conclusion.
I am coming towards the end, and, summarizing, I have' come to theconclusion that politically England's position has been considerablyweakened during the last few years; but she still holds a strong positionin Central Asia in comparison with her old rival, Eussia. Yet thequestion remains open to me what steps Great Britain would takeshould extra-territoriality go and their representative be subjected tothe same treatment as his colleague, the Soviet Consul-General. Com-mercially speaking, India had a great chance during and after the war.Had trade been in proper hands at that time it would have obtained asure footing and would have developed into large proportions. Thecircumstances connected with this question have been already fullydiscussed, and it only remains to state that dealings with India arelosing ground with great rapidity, and probably soon will die theirnatural death if no measures are taken to revive British and Europeantrade.
Let me add that, after careful investigation, I have come to theconclusion that Chinese Turkestan with its great rural wealth couldeasily be developed, and a most interesting and profitable trade couldbe done with India to the great advantage of China itself. I haveclosely studied the most important markets and gathered togethermuch information, and taking into consideration the great desire of thenew Nanking Government to establish and develop foreign relationsand trade, I firmly believe that Sinkiang will play in the future, whenconnections between different countries are made shorter every day, amore important part than it has done during the past.
On the other side, Soviet Eussia, with her already great tradinginterests, might use her influence to regain the political hegemony theCzarist Government was holding twenty or thirty years ago.
As regards the Chinese, Mr. Lattimore has told us, in his lecturealready mentioned, that to their mind one of the chief functions ofChinese power is to assert Chinese domination—domination, not
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equality—over every race that comes within the scope of Chineseaction. All their talk of the so-called unequal, or equal treaties isa mere farce; they never intend to give to another race the same rightsenjoyed by their own people in foreign countries. They might agree oncertain points as far as the big commercial centres are concerned, butthere never will be any equality in Central Asia as long as the Chineseare not compelled either by military force or other pressure to comedown from their present high and unapproachable seat, and accept andguarantee—let me lay stress on the# word " guarantee "— equal treaties,such as exist between civilized nations.
Sir Louis DANE : My Lord, I may perhaps say that my connectionwith Central Asian trade and politics extended off and on from 1880 to1913, and during those thirty-three years the widest possible changespolitically and otherwise have taken place. Mr. Bosshard in his veryinteresting lecture has enlarged upon the rivalry of England andEussia in the East, and especially in Central Asia. Of course before1880 we really knew very little about the territories here between usand the Eussian boundary. We knew something about Central Asiaowing to Sir Douglas Forsyte's mission in 1873. I have met a goodmany officers and Indians who went up with Sir Douglas Forsyth,Colonel Biddulph, and others who took part in that mission, but weknew very little about the other territories. We have now, however, ayery complete idea of what the country is like, and we know that it isphysically impossible for India to be invaded in force by any of theroutes coming across the extreme north-western corner of India. Con-sequently we are not so vitally interested in what is happening inKashgar, Urumchi, and the rest of Sinkiang as we were before 1880.There is no doubt we shall always do our best to maintain our influencethere and to further Indian trade. Indian trade has gone on forcenturies—indeed, thousands of years—over those passes'. It is limitedby the fact that it has to cross some passes over eighteen thousand feethigh, not to speak of others over seventeen thousand feet. It can onlybe conducted during four months of the year, and only articles ofextreme value in relation to their size can possibly be carried, such ascharas, a drug made from the female hemp plant, silk, certain otherCentral Asian drugs and gems and carpets and felts. In the old daysa certain amount of opium went up, but of course that is all closeddown. We can never hope for any large trade with Central Asia ; theGovernment does its best with the route which runs from Hoshiarpurthrough Kulu over the Karakarom Pass to Kashgar and Yarkand andon to Khotan. For three years, as Assistant Commissioner at Kulu, I
' was in charge of the British portion of that route, which will always bekept up; but I do not think anybody in his senses would suggest we
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should jenter into a foreign conflict with Bussia with the idea ofboosting English and Indian trade in those tracts. in which, as youhave heard from Mr. Bosshard, Bussian trade so readily enters Kashgar.
One thing has happened since the 'eighties: in those days people usedto be very much alarmed along the Indian frontier by the mere rumour ofBussian emissaries, or of Bussian-officers being seen in or near our Border.I remember a prominent statesman, now~the-J?rime Minister of Nepal,being most seriously concerned about the comings and~"goings-xvf_ Russianemissaries along his frontier. The much spoken of Tibet Expeditionof 1904 and 1905 entirely crumpled up any such ideas. It was shownthat when the British Government was really moved' to take action,even in Tibet, on behalf of its serious interests, it was quite capable ofdoing so ; and from Gilgit and Kashmir down to Nepal and Assam thepeople along our frontier realized pretty well that we were the strongman armed, and could keep .our house even on the other side of theHimalayas.
With regard to trade, Mr. Bosshard talks of a great silk industry inKashmir, and compares it with the fading industry in Yarkand andKashgar. He perhaps does not know that the silk industry in Kashmirin 1894 or 1895 had absolutely ceased to exist. The whole of the silk-worms had been destroyed by two diseases—pebrine and flachery.Then, owing to the enlightened policy of the Durbar and my friend theBaja, Sir Umr Singh, the Besident, and the settlement officer, SirWalter Lawrence, we made one of our favourite socialistic attemptsin India—India is perhaps the greatest example of successful statesocialism in the world—and the Durbar took up the question of re-habilitating the industry. Disease-free eggs—or " seeds " as they arecalled—were got from France and Bulgaria, and were successfullyused, and now the industry is getting on very well. My own interestcame when I was appointed Besident in 1901. I became aware whenI was in London before I went out that the English capitalist wastaking a great interest in the Kashmir silk industry, which it wasproposed at that time to hand over to private enterprise. I was invitedby all sorts of magnates to lunches and dinners, and they came downeven to Kensington to see me. I ventured to telegraph to the Viceroythat there was more in it than met the eye, and suggested that theyhad better leave the conclusion of the agreement until I got there.I knew the Durbar was very much opposed to its being handed over toprivate enterprise, and when I got there I found it would be impossibleto do this, as the industry only existed because of moral pressure onpeople to grow silkworms. In view of the previous failure' they werevery much disinclined to take eggs. Then the worms could only be fedon leaves of mulberry trees, which were a state monopoly. So if anyunfortunate European had taken over the industry in Kashmir, first
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of all the state would have provided him with none of the zemindarsto take the seeds—some 80,000 people are employed in growing theworms—and next he would have got no mulberry leaves if he happenedto breed any silkworms. Very elaborate calculations had been made,which showed that, including the initial cost of setting up these hugefilatures, which employ men, women, and boys by thousands, there hadbeen a loss of 60,000 rupees in four years. But there was no less thanseven lakhs' worth of finest Milan silk lying in Lyons unsold, and theGovernment officers in Kashmir would not take it into account. Silkindustry remained with the state, and during the war, I believe, pro-duced a revenue of something like £250,000 a year. It is a sensibly
TnanagecTeriterprise in an Indian state, but it would certainly havedisappeared if handed over to private enterprise for the reasons I havegiven you. Mr. Bosshard might inquire if there may have been some-thing of the same sort in Kashgar; the worms may have suffered fromthe same disease, and there may have been a natural cause for thedecrease of the industry. Silk used to come down into the Punjab andalso those very charming Khotan carpets, which are now very hard toget. I will not trouble you further; but we have had a most interestinglecture, and owe our thanks to Mr. Bosshard. (Applause.)
A MEMBEE : I would like to ask Mr. Bosshard a question withregard to the figures he has shown us of the trade between Russia andSinkiang. Apparently the trade imports from Russia into Sinkiang areabout double the amount in the other direction. How is that paid for ?It can hardly be transport charges.
The LECTURER : The import is about half the export. I have beentold by the Indians that that is the profit they make in Chinese Turkes-tan. They remit that by buying goods and sending them back.
The MEMBER : The trade between Russia and Sinkiang is elevenmillion roubles in one direction and twenty-five million in the other.
The LECTURER: That is so. The import from Russia has goneup from two million in 1925 and 1926, to twelve million in 1927and 1928. I cannot guarantee the figures. Export to Russia is nearlyeverywhere about half, and here I believe, that the biggest part of themoney is paid out as salaries and probably as prbpaganda. I do .notthink that very much money goes back to Russia except in kind.But I have been told that they spend a fairly big amount .for propa-ganda all through Sinkiang.
The CHAIRMAK: I will not comment on the eloquent defence ofstate socialism we have had from Sir Louis Dane, but I would like tothank the lecturer; he has given us an interesting account not onlyof Sinkiang itself, but of the relations of Sinkiang to three greatempires—our own, Russia, and China. I was interested to hear hisaccount of the Russian methods ; they .seem to follow the old lines we
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are familiar with in other parts of the world—trading at a loss, propa-ganda, and methods of using their officials as diplomatic agents. Iagree with Sir Louis Dane, I do not think we need be in a stateof anxiety as to what is going on in that country. As regards develop-ment and possibilities, it seems to me our capital will be betteremployed in other parts of the-world than expended for the moment inSinkiang. The lecturer has added considerably to our information;certainly he has to mine, though I do not think he has altered anygeneral opinion I had already formed. But he has filled up manyinteresting details, and has illuminated the lecture by excellent slides.I am sure on behalf of the Society we can give him a very hearty voteof thanks for coming here and reading us so interesting and informativea lecture. (Applause.)
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