The Lorcha "Arrow," Employed In The Iron Trade Between Canton
And The Mouth Of The River, Commanded By An English Captain, And Flying
The English Flag, Had Been Boarded By A Party Of Mandarins And Their
Followers While At Anchor Near The Dutch Folly.
The lorcha - a Portuguese
name for a fast sailing boat - had been duly registered in the office at
Hongkong,
And although not entitled at that precise moment to British
protection, through the careless neglect to renew the license, this fact
was only discovered subsequently, and was not put forward by the Chinese
in justification of their action. The gravity of the affair was increased
by the fact that the English flag was conspicuously displayed, and that,
notwithstanding the remonstrances of the master, it was ostentatiously
hauled down. The crew were carried off prisoners with the exception of two
men, left at their own request to take charge of the vessel. Mr. Parkes at
once sent a letter to Yeh on the subject of this "very grave insult,"
requesting that the captured crew of the "Arrow" should be returned to
that vessel without delay, and that any charges made against them should
be then examined into at the English consulate. In his reply Commissioner
Yeh justified and upheld the act of his subordinates. Of the twelve men
seized, he returned nine, but with regard to the three whom he detained,
he declared one to be a criminal, and the others important witnesses. Not
merely would he not release them, but he proceeded to justify their
apprehension, while he did not condescend to so much as notice the points
of the insult to the English flag, and of his having violated treaty
obligations. Yeh did not attempt to offer any excuse for the proceedings
taken in his name. He asserted certain things as facts which, in his
opinion, it was sufficient for him to accept that they should pass
current. But the evidence on which they were based was not sufficient to
obtain credence in the laxest court of justice; but even if it had been
conclusive it would not have justified the removal of the crew from the
"Arrow" when the British flag was flying conspicuously at her mast. What,
in brief, was the Chinese case? It was that one of the crew had been
recognized by a man passing in a boat as one of a band of pirates who had
attacked, ill-used, and plundered him several weeks before. He had
forthwith gone to the Taotai of Canton, presented a demand for redress,
and that officer had at once given the order for the arrest of the
offender, with the result described. There is no necessity to impugn the
veracity of the Chinaman's story, but it did not justify the breach of
"the ex-territorial rights of preliminary consular investigation before
trial" granted to all under the protection of the English flag. The plea
of delay did not possess any force either, for the man could have been
arrested just as well by the English consul as by the mandarins, but it
would have involved a damaging admission of European authority in the
matter of a Chinese subject, and the mandarins thought there was no
necessity to curtail their claim to jurisdiction.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 231 of 366
Words from 120434 to 120980
of 191255