Mandarin-Gold (36 page)

The
Hyacinth
ranged alongside, her guns trained on this most important target. One whiff of grape, and his sinking junk would be like the rest, a mass of jagged beams, stained red with the blood of her crew.

Every gunner on both sides seemed to be reloading. There was a sudden silence, punctured only by the screams of the wounded, the crash of splitting wood and breaking masts. Elliot seized a voice trumpet and shouted to the captain of the
Hyacinth.

'Don't sink him! Let the admiral go free! He has fought well!'

The
Hyacinth
turned away reluctantly in search of other targets, and the waterlogged junk, like a wounded, broken-backed sea beast, moved slowly on towards the shore, and the humiliation of defeat.

Volley now followed volley, until the river was littered with floating beams from shore to shore, and desperate swimmers and drowning men waved their hands hopelessly for help. One by one they sank, and the cries of the wounded grew fainter as the current carried them away, and then the water was dotted with, hump-back bodies, floating like bundles of bloodied rags.

The banks of the river were crowded with villagers come out as though to see some great sporting spectacle. They were cheering, and their voices sounded shrill and thin across the troubled river. Chinese gunners had left their forts and climbed on the turrets for a better view. Smoke .blew thick and white, hanging like a strange acrid mist above the shining river, mercifully blurring the outlines of blazing fireboats and sinking junks.

'Disengage,' ordered Smith laconically, and the signal ran up to the masthead.

'Well,' said Elliot, 'that was a sharp action.'

It had also been astonishingly short; only forty-five minutes by his German silver hunter. How quick it was to decide an argument by force, that would have taken months to resolve by discussion, waiting for advice from London! It was true, of course, that you had to make your own decisions in such peculiar and unparalleled circumstances. It was also true that in these circumstances you often made decisions you felt were wrong, or at least not wholly right, because you had no time to reach better ones, and the other side were too stubborn and obdurate to allow you that time.

Now the Chinese had lost all advantage and credibility as an opponent to Western will and influence. They were as vulnerable as their paper houses. There must be a lesson here somewhere, he thought; maybe it was that painted guns fired no bullets.

Elliot should have felt elated. Instead, he felt immeasurably sad, sickened by the needless slaughter, depressed at the damage to a nation's pride, which he guessed would take generations to remedy.

'What are our casualties?' asked Smith. He had a report to make, ‘and it would make good reading. He felt almost cheerful.

'One sailor wounded aboard our ship, sir,' replied the first officer. 'Nothing serious fortunately. And one killed by a splinter aboard the
Hesperides.'

'Who?' asked Gunn in a hoarse whisper. This was his ship, his first, his special charge. Fear gripped his throat like a strangler's hands.

'No-one special, Sir. Only a Chink woman. Sort of camp follower; Name of Ling Fai.'

The street lamps wore dim soft haloes in the London fog that muffled the clop of the horses' hooves and the faint cries of the street-sellers. Jardine climbed out of his carriage, and hurriedly walked up the steps of the Foreign Office to meet Lord Palmerston. After the prodigal heat of the East, he hated the chill and the cold that made his joints creak like rusty hinges.

He had been in London for some months, but news travelled very slowly, and the Government had many other matters of concern, so that what had appeared of great importance in Canton or Macao on the far side of the globe seemed infinitely less pressing here. Its significance diminished like a scene viewed through the wrong end of a telescope, and it took its turn behind more urgent domestic problems..

But now, at last, after appointments made and broken, Jardine had received a letter from Lord Palmerston asking him to attend on him, to explain what he considered should be done over the irritating matter of China trade.

Jardine was in a far stronger position to urge the use of force to solve a problem that had dragged on in various degrees of intensity for more than a hundred years, than when he had first arrived, in London.

Since then, the directors of thirty-nine Manchester cotton firms had addressed an urgent petition to the Government, explaining that they had exported cotton goods worth half a million pounds sterling to Canton. Because of the intransigent attitude of the Chinese, all these goods were at risk — and so was their money.

As a result, some of their firms faced imminent financial ruin, and thousands of workers, largely women and children already on starvation wages of a few shillings a week, would now be thrown on the resources of their parishes as paupers.

In addition, the directors of ninety-six London manufacturing firms, had sent a similar petition regarding their goods, and other merchants in Blackburn and Bristol, in Liverpool and Leeds, had also urged the Government to take swift and positive action to protect British subjects, and British goods in China for which they had not yet been paid.

The Whig Government realized the damage that inaction could do to them politically, but they cherished a reputation for enlightened thought and action—such as providing free education and improving the Poor Law and abolishing slavery. They did not wish now to be accused of going to war to succour opium smugglers. Accordingly, they had prevaricated and done nothing, hoping that these problems would somehow solve themselves. But instead, they had grown worse. Jardine was now determined that this indecision should end.

'The Foreign Secretary is awaiting you, sir,' the butler told him, as he gave his name, and opened the inner doors.

Palmerston stood behind the huge table that dominated his room. He was wearing his favourite suit of dark green tweed. His hair was still dark and thick, and hot yet flecked with grey, which, in years to come, he would tint carefully to appear younger than he was.

He had been Foreign Secretary for nearly ten years, except for a short time under Peel's Tory Government, and he watched Jardine with interest as they shook hands. They both spoke the same language of action. As Palmerston had written: 'Half-civilized governments, such as those in China, Portugal and Spanish America; all require a dressing every eight or ten years to keep, them in order.'

Various officials filed in and were introduced, and then took their places around the table.

Jardine sat at Palmerston's right hand, and explained in his quiet unemotional voice the background to the situation in Canton. He produced maps and charts to show the depths of water off the coast, the terrain of the country should troops be needed, the location of roads and towns and wells.

'Now, sir,' said Palmerston, as he finished, 'we are much in your debt for this cogent summary of a long and grievous problem. Assuming for the moment that you, sir, were in my position as Her Majesty's Foreign Secretary, what action would
you
feel justified in taking? Remembering, of course, that the opium trade is not a cause over which our supporters would wish the Government to go to war.'

'I have given this matter much thought, both in China and since I have been here in London. Were I in your position, Minister, I would proceed in the following manner.

'First, having attempted over many years to understand the Chinese, conundrum, I would advocate a stronger approach to their intransigence. Our minimum requirements for such an approach would be at least seven thousand men in transports, with a naval force of two ships of the line, plus, say, two frigates and-two other, vessels of shallow draught able to sail up any river. I would prefer these last two to be steam paddle-boats, independent of any wind.

'I would assemble this force at the mouth of the Pei-ho River that leads to the capital, Peking. From there I would send a message to the Emperor demanding an apology for repeated and gratuitous insults to the British flag, to the British sovereign, and to British subjects, individually and collectively.

'I would also demand payment for the twenty thousand odd chests of opium your representative, Captain Elliot, has seen fit to surrender for reasons that are by no means clear to me. Thirdly, I would demand a treaty that allowed free trade with all western nations through four ports which could each become as busy as Liverpool. These would be Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai.'

'Those are very serious demands to make of any ruler,' said Palmerston, much impressed. 'What if the Emperor refused them, as I feel he would be bound to do? After all, China has a huge population and, I am informed, a considerable navy and army.'

'In numbers, yes,' agreed Jardine. 'But in achievement and armament and calibre of fighting men, both can virtually be discounted. Assuming, Minister, that the Emperor refused my demands — and they are
de
mands,
not requests — I would immediately seize a number of islands along the coast, or one large island, such as Chusan, until the demands were met. The Chinese could not afford to lose face indefinitely, so they would have to submit — simply because they could not be rid of us in any other way.

‘This would end — I hope for ever — this nonsense of Hong merchants, vast bribes and an artificially short trading season each year at Canton. It would also throw open the whole country and its enormous potential markets to the commercial initiative of Britain and other manufacturing countries.

'Various Governments have tried to do this by diplomatic means over the last century or so, but they have not succeeded, because the Chinese, like other Eastern races, only understand one persuader —
force!

'There would be a second benefit, too, in that the Coast Trade could be put on a far sounder and more secure basis than it enjoys at present. But there would be no need at this stage to mention this very great advantage.

‘The first would be a glittering prize enough for any administration when it came to re-election. The righting of a great wrong. A huge foreign country made to swallow its insults by virtually a handful of British soldiers and Jack Tars!'

'Parliament would debate it, of course,' pointed out Palmerston.

'Of course,' agreed Jardine. 'But you could then put up some orator like young Lord Macauley,' the Secretary of State for War. He would surely carry all with a speech on the lines that our Empire has been built by men of spirit who have treated orders from England as so much wastepaper.

'Should the Opposition claim that you gave Captain Elliot no specific orders about stopping the drug traffic, he would reply that
of course
you did not, for the trade was impossible to stop. Here in England, we maintain a preventative service of Customs officers, all brave and skilled, no less than six thousand strong. I am informed they command an annual budget of half a million pounds. We also maintain fifty cruisers around our coasts and
still
about six hundred thousand gallons of brandy and a corresponding amount of tobacco is said to slip through their watchful fingers
every year.
How many more men, how much greater expense, would your government incur if they had attempted to stop
all
smuggling in China,
ten thousand miles away?
Minister, with that argument you would carry the day.'

‘I incline to the view that you may very well be right, Dr Jardine,' said Palmerston slowly. 'Tell me, have you ever thought of a political career for yourself?'

'Frequently.'

Jardine did not add that some of his rivals thought this an impossible ambition for him, but he knew they were wrong. He kept his promises, and promises were the pivots by which orators swung voters to their view as rudders turned his fleet of clippers.

'I will ascertain what seats may become available in time for the next election,' said Palmerston. 'A man of your ability, Jardine, with your commercial acumen, your professional sense of integrity and your considerable rhetoric would be a great advantage in any Parliament.

'Now, unless there are any questions, gentlemen, I will ask Dr Jardine to let us have a note of his recommendations and then I suggest we adjourn.'

There were no questions.

'Earth to earth, dust to dust; the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'

Mackereth's voice droned on above the grave. Behind him, the bell in the church of St James the Apostle, Macao, boomed out its lonely, solitary knell.

'I never knew she was a Christian,' said Gunn afterwards, as they walked back to his great house. In fact, he had known very little about Ling Fai. She had been there when he wanted her, like a servant or a hireling. She had been the second woman he had known sexually which would never be the same as the first, but still it meant more, a little more, than the dozens he had slept with since. But she had still only been a Chinese, even if she were a Christian.

'She became a Christian,' MacPherson explained, ‘just after we took over the
Hesperides.'

'She never mentioned it,' said Gunn, remembering her scented body hard against his, her clutching fingers, her warm tongue like a darting snake.

'Oh, yes, the Reverend Mackereth accepted her into the Church.'

So much happening, and he had known nothing about it; all he had been concerned with was cutting down the opposition and then in building up his trade and his fortune. Well, it was too late to alter things now; years too late.

'She was attached to you,' MacPherson went on.

'And I liked her,' replied Gunn carefully. 'Very much.'

'I don't mean
liked.
I would not say that a Chink woman can love, doctor. But Ling Fai came very close to it.'

'You mean, loving you?'

‘No.
You!’

'I never realized that,' said Gunn. And of course he
hadn't. It had just been a physical thing to him; and yet he had
liked
her. And he missed her now she was no longer there, so far as he missed anyone; now she would never be there again, would never come silently to his cabin at dusk, or early morning; never again lie with him.