In May, 1906, two ministers were appointed by the Throne to take charge of the entire customs service, with plenary powers to reform or modify ad libitum.  Sir Robert was not consulted, nor was he mentioned in the decree.  He was not dismissed, but was virtually superseded.  Britain, America, and other powers took alarm for the safety of interests involved, and united in a protest.  The Government explained that it was merely substituting one tribunal for another, creating a dual headship for the customs service instead of leaving it under the Board of Foreign Affairs, a body already overburdened with responsibilities.  They gave a solemn promise that while Sir Robert Hart remained there should be no change in his status or powers; and so the matter stands.  The protest saved the situation for the present.  Explanation and promise were accepted; but the Government (or rather the two men who got themselves appointed to a fat office) remain under the reproach of discourtesy and ingratitude.  The two men are Tieliang, a Manchu, and Tang Shao-yi, a Chinese.  The latter, I am told on good authority, is to have L30,000 per annum.  The other will not have less.  This enormous salary is paid to secure honesty.

In China every official has his salary paid in two parts:  one called the “regular stipend,” the other, a “solatium to encourage honesty.”  The former is counted by hundreds of taels; the latter, by thousands, especially where there is a temptation to peculate.  What a rottenness at the core is here betrayed!

[Page 209] A new development worthy of all praise is the opening, by imperial command, of a school for the training of officials for the customs service.  It is a measure which Sir Robert Hart with all his public spirit, never ventured to recommend, because it implies the speedy replacement of the foreign staff by trained natives.

Filling the sky with a glow of hope not unlike the approach of sunshine after an arctic winter, the reform in the field of education throws all others into the shade.  By all parties is recognised its supremacy.  Its beginning was feeble and unwelcome, implying on the part of China nothing but a few drops of oil to relieve the friction at a few points of contact with the outside world.

The new treaties found China unprovided with interpreters capable of translating documents in foreign languages.  Foreign nations agreed to accompany their despatches with a Chinese version, until a competent staff of interpreters should be provided.  With a view to meeting this initial want, a school was opened in 1862, in connection with the Foreign Office, and placed under the direction of the Inspector-General of Maritime Customs, by whom I was recommended for the presidency.  Professors of English, French, and Russian were engaged; and later on German took a place alongside of the three leading languages of the Western world.