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 \ ffi: British Museum, :£ 
 
R^B,d^ F&bruat^ 15th. Price 6/-. 
 
 Ziska 
 
 The Problem of 
 a Wicked Soul 
 
 BY 
 
 Marie Corelli 
 
 Author of *' The Sorrows of Satan," 
 /^Barabbas," 
 
 . " A Romance of 1 wo Worlds/' 
 " The Mighty Atom/' 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 W 
 
 Bristol ^Q ^ London 
 
 97 
 Arrowsmith Simpkin, Marshall 
 
 ■\] 
 
Kidnapped in London 
 
 JBcinQ tbe Stors of ms 
 
 CAPTURE BY, 
 DETENTION AT, 
 
 AND 
 
 RELEASE FROM 
 
 7>&^ Chinese Legation^ London 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 BRISTOL 
 J. W. Arrowsmith, II Quay Street 
 
 LONDON 
 SiMPKiN, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Company Limited 
 
^ 
 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE IMBROGLIO 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MY CAPTURE 28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MY IMPRISONMENT 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PLEADING WITH MY GAOLERS FOR 
 
 LIFE 50 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PART MY FRIENDS PLAYED . .62 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SEARCH FOR A DETECTIVE . . 75 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENE . . 83 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RELEASED 94 
 
 APPENDIX 107 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 MY recent detention in the Chinese Le- 
 gation, 49 Portland Place, London, 
 has excited so much interest, has brought 
 me so many friends and has raised so 
 many legal, technical and international 
 points of law, that I feel I should be failing 
 in my duty did I not place on public 
 record, all the circumstances connected 
 with the historical event. 
 
 I must beg the indulgence of all 
 readers for my shortcomings in English 
 composition, and confess that had it not 
 been for the help rendered by a good 
 friend, who transcribed my thoughts, I 
 could never have ventured to appear as 
 the Author of an English book. 
 
 SUN YAT SEN. 
 London, 1897. 
 
IRibnappeb in %onbon. 
 
 o^o 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE IMBROGLIO. 
 
 WHEN in 1892 I settled in Macao, 
 a small island near the mouth of 
 the Canton river, to practise medicine, 
 I Httle dreamt that in four years time 
 I should find myself a prisoner in the 
 Chinese Legation in London, and the 
 unwitting cause of a political sensation 
 which culminated in the active interference 
 of the British Government to procure my 
 release. It was in that year however, and 
 at Macao, that my first acquaintance was 
 
10 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 made with political life ; and there began 
 the part of my career which has been the 
 means of bringing my name so prominently 
 before the British people. 
 
 I had been studying medicine, during 
 the year 1886, in Canton at the Anglo- 
 American Mission, under the direction of 
 the venerable Dr. Kerr, when in 1887 I 
 heard of the opening of a College of 
 Medicine at Hong Kong, and determined 
 immediately to avail myself of the advan- 
 tages it offered. 
 
 After five years' study (1887 — 1892) 
 I obtained the diploma entithng me to 
 style myself ^^ Licentiate in Medicine and 
 Surgery, Hong Kong." 
 
 Macao has belonged to Portugal for 360 
 years ; but although the Government is 
 Europeanised, the inhabitants are mostly 
 Chinese, and the section of the population 
 which styles itself Portuguese, consists 
 really of Eurasians of several in-bred 
 generations. 
 
The Imbroglio. Ii 
 
 In my newly selected home, I found the 
 Chinese authorities of the native hospital 
 willing to help me forward in the matter 
 of affording me opportunities to practise 
 European medicine and surgery. They 
 placed a ward at my disposal, suppHed me 
 with drugs and appliances from London, 
 and granted me every privilege whereby 
 to secure my introduction amongst them 
 on a fair footing. 
 
 This event deserves special notice as 
 marking a new and significant departure 
 in China ; for never before had the Board 
 of Directors of any Chinese hospital 
 throughout the length and breadth of 
 the great empire given any direct official 
 encouragement to Western medicine. 
 Many patients, more especially surgical 
 cases, came to my wards, and I had the 
 opportunity of performing several of the 
 major operations before the Directors. 
 On the other hand, I had difficulty from 
 the first with the Portuguese authorities. 
 
12 Kidnapped in London, 
 
 It was not the obstructive ignorance of 
 the East, but the jealousy of the West, 
 which stepped in to thwart my progress. 
 The law of Portugal forbids the practice 
 of medicine, within Portuguese territory, 
 by any one who is not possessed of a 
 Portuguese diploma, obtainable only in 
 Europe. Under this rule the Portuguese 
 doctors took refuge and fought my claims 
 to practise. They first forbade me to 
 practise amongst, or prescribe for, Portu- 
 guese ; the dispensers in the pharmacies 
 were not allowed to dispense prescriptions 
 from the pen of a doctor of any alien 
 nationality ; consequently my progress 
 was hampered from the first. After futile 
 attempts to establish myself in Macao, 
 and at considerable pecuniary loss, for I 
 had settled down little dreaming of oppo- 
 sition, I was induced to go to Canton. 
 
 It was in Macao that I first learned of 
 the existence of a political movement 
 which I might best describe as the for- 
 
The Imbroglio. 13 
 
 mation of a ^^ Young China'' party. Its 
 objects were so wise, so modest, and so 
 hopeful, that my sympathies were at once 
 enhsted in its behalf, and I believed I was 
 doing my best to further the interests of 
 my country by joining it. The idea was 
 to bring about a peaceful reformation, and 
 we hoped, by forwarding modest schemes 
 of reform to the Throne, to initiate a 
 form of government more consistent with 
 modern requirements. The prime essence 
 of the movement was the establishment 
 of a form of constitutional government to 
 supplement the old-fashioned, corrupt, 
 and worn-out system under which China 
 is groaning. 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter into details 
 as to what form of rule obtains in China 
 at present. It may be summed up, how- 
 ever, in a few words. The people have 
 no say whatever in the management of 
 Imperial, National, or even Municipal 
 affairs. The mandarins, or local magis- 
 
14 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 trates, have full power of adjudication, 
 from which there is no appeal. Their 
 word is law, and they have full scope to 
 practise their machinations with complete 
 irresponsibility, and every officer may 
 fatten himself with impunity. Extortion 
 by officials is an institution ; it is the con- 
 dition on which they take office ; and it is 
 only when the bleeder is a bungler that 
 the government steps in with pretended 
 benevolence to ameHorate but more often 
 to complete the depletion. 
 
 English readers are probably unaware 
 of the smallness of the established salaries 
 of provincial magnates. They will scarcely 
 credit that the Viceroy of, say. Canton, 
 ruling a country with a population larger 
 than that of Great Britain, is allowed as 
 his legal salary the paltry sum of £to 
 a year ; so that, in order to live and 
 maintain himself in office, accumulating 
 fabulous riches the while, he resorts 
 to extortion and the selling of justice. 
 
The Imbroglio. 15 
 
 So-called education and the results of 
 examinations' are the one means of 
 obtaining official notice. Granted that 
 a young scholar gains distinction, he 
 proceeds to seek public employment, and, 
 by bribing the Peking authorities, an 
 official post is hoped for. Once obtained, 
 as he cannot live on his salary, perhaps 
 he even pays so much annually for his 
 post, licence to squeeze is the result, 
 and the man must be stupid indeed who 
 cannot, when backed up by government, 
 make himself rich enough to buy a still 
 higher post in a few years. With ad- 
 vancement comes increased licence and 
 additional facility for self-enrichment, so 
 that the cleverest ^^ squeezer'' ultimately 
 can obtain money enough to purchase the 
 highest positions. 
 
 This official thief, with his mind warped 
 by his mode of life, is the ultimate au- 
 thority in all matters of social, political, 
 and criminal life. It is a feudal system. 
 
1 6 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 an imperiiim in imperio^ an unjust auto- 
 cracy, which thrives by its own rottenness. 
 But this system of fattening on the pubHc 
 vitals — the selhng of power — is the chief 
 means by which the Manchu dynasty 
 continues to exist. With this legaHsed 
 corruption stamped as the highest ideal 
 of government, who can wonder at the 
 existence of a strong undercurrent of 
 dissatisfaction among the people ? 
 
 The masses of China, although kept 
 officially in ignorance of what is going on 
 in the world around them, are anything 
 but a stupid people. All European au- 
 thorities on this matter state that the 
 latent intellectual ability of the Chinese 
 is considerable ; and many place it even 
 above that of the masses in any other 
 country, European or Asiatic. Books on 
 politics are not allowed ; daily newspapers 
 are prohibited in China ; the world around, 
 its people and poHtics, are shut out ; while 
 no one below the grade of a mandarin of 
 
The Imbroglio. 17 
 
 the seventh rank is allowed to read Chinese 
 geography, far less foreign. The laws of 
 the present dynasty are not for public 
 reading ; they are known only to the 
 highest officials. The reading of books 
 on military subjects is, in common with 
 that of other prohibited matter, not only 
 forbidden, but is even punishable by death. 
 No one is allowed, on pain of death, to 
 invent anything new, or to make known 
 any new discovery. In this way are the 
 people kept in darkness, while the govern- 
 ment doles out to them what scraps of 
 information it finds will suit its own ends. 
 The so-called *^ Literati'' of China are 
 allowed to study only the Chinese classics 
 and the commentaries thereon. These 
 consist of the writings of ancient philo- 
 sophers, the works of Confucius and others. 
 But of even these, all parts relating to the 
 criticism of their superiors are carefully 
 expunged, and only those parts are pub- 
 lished for public reading which teach 
 
1 8 Kidnapped in London, 
 
 obedience to authorities as the essence 
 of all instruction. In this way is China 
 ruled — or rather misruled — namely, by 
 the enforcement of blind obedience to all 
 existing laws and formalities. 
 
 To keep the masses in ignorance is the 
 constant endeavour of Chinese rule. In 
 this way it happened, that during the last 
 Japanese incursion, absolutely nothing was 
 known of the war by the masses of China, 
 in parts other than those where the cam- 
 paign was actually waged. Not only did 
 the people a short way inland never hear 
 of the war, but the masses had never even 
 heard of a people called Japanese ; and 
 even where the whisper had been echoed, 
 it was discussed as being a ^' rebellion " of 
 the '* foreign man." 
 
 With this incubus hanging over her, 
 China has no chance of reform except it 
 come from the Throne; and it was to 
 induce the Throne to modify this pernicious 
 state of things that the ''Young China " 
 
The Imbroglio. 19 
 
 party was formed. Hoping that the 
 Peking authorities, by their more extended 
 contact during recent years with foreign 
 diplomatists, might have learned some- 
 thing of constitutional rule, and might be 
 willing to aid the people in throwing off 
 their deplorable ignorance, I ventured, 
 with others, to approach them, beseeching 
 them, in all humility, to move in this 
 direction for the welfare of China. These 
 petitions only resulted in the infliction of 
 many rigorous punishments. We had 
 seized the moment when the Japanese 
 were threatening Peking, and the Emperor, 
 fearing that harsh dealings with the 
 reformers might alienate many of his 
 people, took no notice of them until 
 peace was assured. Then an edict was 
 issued denouncing the petitioners and 
 commanding the immediate cessation of 
 all suggestions of reform. 
 
 Finding the door closed to. mild means, 
 
 we grew more concrete in our notions and 
 
 2 * 
 
20 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 demands, and gradually came to see that 
 some degree of coercion would be necessary. 
 In all quarters we found supporters. The 
 better classes were dissatisfied with the 
 behaviour of our armies and fleets, and 
 knew that corruption in its worst forms was 
 the cause of their failure. This feeling was 
 not confined to one locality, but was wide- 
 spread and deep-rooted, and promised to 
 take shape and find expression in decided 
 action. 
 
 The headquarters of the ' ^ Young China' ' 
 party was really in Shanghai, but the 
 scene of action was to be laid in Canton. 
 The party was aided in its course by one 
 or two circumstances. First among these 
 was the existence of discontented soldiery. 
 Three-fourths of the Cantonese contingent 
 were disbanded when the war in the North 
 had ceased in 1895. This set loose a 
 number of idle, lawless men ; and the 
 small section of their comrades who were 
 retained in service were no better pleased 
 
The Imbroglio. 21 
 
 than those dismissed. Either disband all 
 or retain all, was their cry ; but the 
 authorities were deaf to the remonstrance. 
 The reform party at once enlisted the 
 sympathies of these men in their cause, 
 and so gained numerical strength to their 
 military resources. 
 
 Another chance coincidence hastened 
 events. For some reason or other a body of 
 police, discarding their uniform, set to work 
 to loot and plunder a section of the city- 
 After an hour or two, the inhabitants rose, 
 and obtaining mastery of the quondam 
 police, shut some half-dozen of the ring- 
 leaders up in their Guildhall. The super- 
 intendent of the official poHce then sent 
 out a force to release the marauders, and 
 proceeded forthwith to plunder the Guild- 
 hall itself. A meeting of the inhabitants 
 was immediately held, and a deputation 
 of looo men sent to the Governor's 
 residence to appeal against the action of 
 the police. The authorities, however, told 
 
22 Kidnapped in London, 
 
 the deputation that such a proceeding was 
 tantamount to a rebelUon, and that they 
 had no right to threaten their superiors. 
 They thereupon arrested the ringleaders 
 of the deputation, and sent the others 
 about their business. The discontents 
 soon became disaffected, and, the ^^ Young 
 China " party making advances, they 
 readily joined the reformers. 
 
 Yet a third and a fourth incident helped 
 to swell their ranks. The Viceroy, Li 
 Han Chang (brother of the famous Viceroy 
 Li), put a fixed tariff on all official posts 
 throughout his two provinces, Kwang- 
 Tung and Kwang-Si. This was an inno- 
 vation which meant a further '' squeeze " 
 of the people, as the officials, of course, 
 made the people pay to indemnify them 
 for their extra payments. The fourth, 
 and the most characteristically Chinese, 
 method of extortion was afforded in the 
 occasion of the Viceroy's birthday. The 
 officials in his provinces combined to give 
 
The Imbroglio. 23 
 
 their master a present, and collected 
 money to the amount of a million taels 
 (about ;^200,ooo). Of course the officials 
 took the money from the richer merchants 
 in the usual way, by threats, by promises, 
 and by blackmailing. A follower of Li 
 Han Chang, Che Fa Nung by name, 
 further angered all the '* Literati'' by 
 selling, to all who could afford to pay, 
 diplomas of graduation for 3000 taels 
 (about ;^5oo) each. The richer men and 
 the *^ Literati " became thereby disaffected 
 and threw in their lot with *^ Young 
 China.'' 
 
 In this way the reform movement 
 acquired great strength and coherence 
 and wide-spread influence, and brought 
 matters all too soon to a climax. The 
 plan was to capture the city of Canton 
 and depose the authorities, taking them 
 by surprise and securing them in as quiet 
 a way as possible, or, at any rate, without 
 bloodshed. To ensure a complete coup^ 
 
24 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 it was considered necessary to bring an 
 overwhelming force to bear ; consequently, 
 two bodies of men were employed, one in 
 Swatow and the other from the banks of 
 the West river. These places were fixed 
 upon as the Swatow men, for instance, 
 were totally ignorant of the Cantonese 
 language. Although only i8o miles north 
 of Canton, the language of Swatow differs 
 as much from that of Canton as Enghsh 
 does from Itahan. It was deemed wise 
 to bring strangers in, as they were more 
 likely to be staunch to the cause, since 
 they could not communicate with, and 
 therefore could not be tampered with by, 
 Cantonese men. Nor would it be safe for 
 them to disband or desert, as they would 
 be known as strangers, and suspicion would 
 at once fall on them were they found in 
 Canton after the disturbance. 
 
 It was arranged that on a certain day 
 in October, 1895, these men should march 
 across country, one body from the south- 
 
The Imbroglio. 25 
 
 west, the other from the north-east, towards 
 Canton. All proceeded satisfactorily, and 
 they commenced their advance. Frequent 
 meetings of the Committee of Reformers 
 were held, and arms, ammmiition and 
 dynamite were accumulated at the head- 
 quarters. The soldiers advancing across 
 the country were to be still further 
 strengthened by a contingent of four 
 hundred men from Hong Kong. The 
 day for the assemblage came and the 
 southern men were halted within four 
 hours march of the city. A guard of one 
 hundred men, fully armed, was stationed 
 around the Committee in their Guild ; 
 runners, some thirty in number, were 
 despatched to the disaffected over the 
 city to be ready for the following morning. 
 Whilst the conspirators sat within their 
 hall a telegram was received to the effect 
 that the advancing soldiers had been 
 stayed in their progress, and the reform 
 movement forthwith became disconcerted. 
 
26 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 It was impossible to recall the messengers, 
 and others could not be found who knew 
 where the disaffected were resident. 
 Further news came to hand rendering it 
 impossible to proceed, and the cry arose 
 ^ ^ Sauve qui pent. ' ' A general stampede fol- 
 lowed ; papers were burnt, arms hidden, 
 and telegrams despatched to Hong Kong 
 to stop the contingent from that place. 
 The telegram to the Hong Kong agent, 
 however, only reached him after all his 
 men had been got on board a steamer, 
 which also carried many barrels of revol- 
 vers. Instead of dismissing the men as 
 he should have done, he allowed them to 
 proceed, and they landed on the wharf of 
 Canton only to find themselves placed 
 under arrest. The leaders in Canton 
 fled, some one way, some another ; I 
 myself, after several hairbreadth escapes, 
 getting on board a steam launch in which 
 I sailed to Macao. Remaining there for 
 twenty-four hours only, I proceeded to 
 
The Imbroglio. 27 
 
 Hong Kong, where, after calling on some 
 friends, I sought my old teacher and 
 friend, Mr. James Canthe. Having 
 informed him that I was in trouble 
 through having offended the Cantonese 
 authorities, and fearing that I should be 
 arrested and sent to Canton for execution, 
 he advised me to consult a lawyer, which 
 I immediately proceeded to do. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 MY CAPTURE. 
 
 I DID not see Mr. Cantlie again, as Mr. 
 Dennis, who directed my steps, con- 
 strained me to get away at once. 
 
 In two days time I went by Japanese 
 steamer to Kobe, whence, after a few 
 days' stay, I proceeded to Yokohama. 
 There I changed my Chinese attire for a 
 European costume a la Japanese. I 
 removed my queue, allowed my hair to 
 grow naturally and cultivated my mou- 
 stache. In a few days I sailed from 
 Yokohama for the Hawaiian Islands and 
 there took up my quarters in the town of 
 Honolulu, where I had many relations, 
 friends and well-wishers. Wherever I 
 went, whether in Japan, Honolulu, or 
 
 28 
 
My Capture, 29 
 
 America, I found all intelligent Chinese 
 imbued with the spirit of reform and eager 
 to obtain a form of representative govern- 
 ment for their native land. 
 
 Whilst walking in the streets of Hono- 
 lulu I met Mr. and Mrs. Cantlie and 
 family, who were then on their way to 
 England. They did not at first recognise 
 me in my European dress, and their 
 Japanese nurse at once addressed me in 
 the Japanese language, taking me for a 
 countryman. This happened frequently, 
 Japanese everywhere at first taking me 
 for one of themselves and only finding 
 their mistake when they spoke to me. 
 
 I left Honolulu in June, 1896, for 
 San Francisco, where I remained for a 
 month before proceeding eastward. There 
 I met many of my countrymen and was 
 well received by them. I spent three 
 months in America, and came to Liver- 
 pool by the s.s. Majestic, In New York I 
 was advised to beware the Chinese 
 
30 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 Minister to the United States, as he is a 
 Manchurian, and has but Httle sympathy 
 with Chinese generally and a reformer in 
 particular. 
 
 On October ist, 1896, I arrived in 
 London and put up at HaxelPs Hotel in 
 the Strand. I went next day to Mr. 
 Cantlie's, at 46 Devonshire Street, Port- 
 land Place, W., where I received a hearty 
 welcome from my old friend and his wife. 
 Lodgings were found for me at 8 Gray's 
 Inn Place, Gray's Inn, Holborn. Hence- 
 forward I proceeded to settle down to 
 enjoy my stay in London and to become 
 acquainted with the many sights, the 
 museums and the historical relics in this 
 the very centre of the universe. What 
 impressed me, a Chinaman, most was the 
 enormous vehicular traffic, the endless 
 and unceasing stream of omnibusses, 
 cabs, carriages, wagons, and wheeled 
 conveyances of humbler character which 
 held the streets ; the wonderful way in 
 
My Capture, 31 
 
 which the police controlled and directed 
 the traffic, and the good humour of the 
 people. The foot passengers are, of 
 course, many, but they are not in such 
 crowds as we find in Chinese streets. 
 For one thing, our streets are much 
 narrower, being, in fact, mere alleys ; and, 
 in the second place, all our goods are 
 conveyed by human carriage, everything 
 being slung from a bamboo pole carried 
 across the shoulders. Yet even in the 
 wide streets of Hong Kong our foot 
 passenger traffic is in swarms. 
 
 I was just beginning to know Holborn 
 from the Strand, and Oxford Circus from 
 Piccadilly Circus, when I was deprived of 
 my liberty in the fashion so fully described 
 by the public press of the country. 
 
 I had been frequently at Mr. Cantlie's, 
 almost daily in fact, and spent most of 
 my time in his study. One day at 
 luncheon he alluded to the Chinese Lega- 
 tion being in the neighbourhood, and 
 
32 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 jokingly suggested that I might go round 
 and call there ; whereat his wife remarked, 
 '* You had better not. Don't you go near 
 it ; they '11 catch you and ship you off to 
 China.'' We all enjoyed a good laugh 
 over the remark, little knowing how true 
 the womanly instinct was, and how soon 
 we were to experience the reality. While 
 dining one evening at Dr. Manson's, 
 whom I had also known in Hong Kong, 
 as my teacher in medicine, I was 
 jokingly advised by him also to keep away 
 from the Chinese Legation. I was well 
 warned, therefore ; but as I did not know 
 where the Legation was, the warning was 
 of little use. I knew that to get to 
 Devonshire Street I had to get off the 
 omnibus at Oxford Circus, and from 
 thence go straight north up a wide street 
 till I found the name Devonshire on the*^ 
 corner house. That was the extent of 
 my knowledge of the locality at this time. 
 On Sunday morning, October nth, at 
 
My Capture, 33 
 
 almost half-past ten, I was walking towards 
 Devonshire Street, hoping to be in time 
 to go to church with the doctor and his 
 family, when a Chinaman approached in 
 a surreptitious manner from behind and 
 asked, in EngHsh, whether I was Japanese 
 or Chinese. I repHed, '^ I am Chinese." 
 He then inquired from what province I 
 came, and when I told him I was from 
 Canton he said, '^ We are countrymen, 
 and speak the same language ; I am from 
 Canton." It should be observed that 
 EngHsh or *' Pidgin," that is ** business " 
 English, is the common language between 
 Chinamen from different localities. A 
 Swatow and a Cantonese merchant, al- 
 though their towns are but 180 miJes apart 
 (less than the distance between London 
 and Liverpool), may be entirely ignorant 
 of each other's spoken language. The 
 written language is the same all over 
 China, but the written and spoken 
 languages are totally different, and the 
 
 3 
 
34 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 spoken languages are many. A Swatow 
 merchant, therefore, doing business in 
 Hong Kong with a Cantonese man, speaks 
 EngHsh, but writes in the common lan- 
 guage of China. While upon this subject 
 it may be well to state that the Japanese 
 written language is the same in its charac- 
 ters as that used by the Chinese ; so that 
 a Chinaman and a Japanese when they 
 meet, although having no spoken words 
 in common, can figure to each other on 
 the ground or on paper, and frequently 
 make imaginary figures on one hand with 
 the forefinger of the other to their mutual 
 understanding. 
 
 My would-be Chinese friend, therefore, 
 addressed me in English until he found 
 my dialect. We then conversed in the 
 Cantonese dialect. Whilst he was talking 
 we were slowly advancing along the street, 
 and presently a second Chinaman joined 
 us, so that I had now one on each 
 side. They pressed me to go in to their 
 
My Capture. 35 
 
 '* lodgings '' and enjoy a smoke and 
 chat with them. I gently demurred, 
 and we stopped on the pavement. A 
 third Chinaman now appeared and my 
 first acquaintance left us. The two 
 who remained further pressed me to 
 accompany them, and I was gradually, 
 and in a seemingly friendly manner, led 
 to the upper edge of the pavement, when 
 the door of an adjacent house suddenly 
 opened and I was half-jokingly and half- 
 persistently compelled to enter by my 
 companions, one on either side, who rein- 
 forced their entreaties by a quasi-friendly 
 push. Suspecting nothing, for I knew 
 not what house I was entering, I only 
 hesitated because of my desire to get to 
 Mr. Cantlie's in time for church, and I 
 felt I should be too late did I delay. 
 However, in good faith I entered, and 
 was not a little surprised when the front 
 door was somewhat hurriedly closed and 
 barred behind me. All at once it flashed 
 
 3 * 
 
36 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 upon me that the house must be the 
 Chinese Legation, thereby accounting for 
 the number of Chinamen in mandarin 
 attire, and for the large size of the house ; 
 while I also recollected that the Minister 
 resided somewhere in the neighbourhood 
 of Devonshire Street, near to which I 
 must then be. 
 
 1 was taken to a room on the ground 
 floor whilst one or two men talked to me 
 and to each other. I was then sent 
 upstairs, two men, one on either side, 
 conducting and partly forcing me to as- 
 cend. I was next shown into a room on 
 the second floor and told I was to remain 
 there. This room, however, did not seem 
 to satisfy my captors, as I was shortly 
 afterwards taken to another on the third 
 floor with a barred window looking out to 
 the back of the house. Here an old 
 gentleman with white hair and beard 
 came into the room in rather a bumptious 
 fashion and said : 
 
My Capture. 37 
 
 ^^ Here is China for you ; you are now 
 in China." 
 
 Sitting down, he proceeded to interro- 
 gate me. 
 
 Asked what my name was, I replied 
 *^Sun." 
 
 '^Your name," he repHed, ^4s Sun Wen; 
 and we have a telegram from the Chinese 
 Minister in America informing us that you 
 were a passenger to this country by the 
 s.s. Majestic ; and the Minister asks me to 
 arrest you." 
 
 ** What does that mean ?" I enquired. 
 • To which he replied : 
 
 ** You have previously sent in a petition 
 for reform to the Tsung-Li-Yamen in 
 Peking asking that it be presented to the 
 Emperor. That may be considered a very 
 good petition; but now the Tsung-Li- 
 Yamen want you, and therefore you 
 are detained here until we learn what 
 the Emperor wishes us to do with 
 you." 
 
38 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 ^^ Can I let my friend know I am here ? " 
 I asked. 
 
 ^' No,'' he repHed ; ^^ but you can write 
 to your lodging for your luggage to be 
 sent you." 
 
 On my expressing a wish to write to 
 Dr. Manson, he provided me with pen, 
 ink and paper. I wrote to Dr. Manson 
 informing him that I was confined in 
 the Chinese Legation, and asking him 
 to tell Mr. Cantlie to get my baggage sent 
 to me. The old gentleman, however, — 
 whom I afterwards learned to be Sir 
 Halliday Macartney, — objected to my 
 using the word ** confined," and asked 
 me to substitute another. Accordingly I 
 wrote: *' I am in the Chinese Legation; 
 please tell Mr. Cantlie to send my luggage 
 here." 
 
 He then said he did not want me to 
 write to my friend, and asked me to write 
 to my hotel. I informed him that I 
 was not at a hotel, and that only Mr. 
 
My Capture. 39 
 
 Cantlie knew where I was living. It was 
 very evident my interrogator was playing 
 a crafty game to get hold of my effects, 
 and more especially my papers, in the 
 hope of finding correspondence whereby 
 to ascertain who my Chinese accompHces 
 or correspondents were. I handed him 
 the letter to Dr. Manson, which he read 
 and returned, saying, '^That is all right." 
 I put it in an envelope and gave it to Sir 
 Halliday Macartney in all good faith that 
 it would be delivered. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MY IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 SIR HALLIDAY then left the room, 
 shut the door and locked it, and I was 
 a prisoner under lock and key. Shortly 
 afterwards I was disturbed by the sound 
 of carpentry at the door of my room, and 
 found that an additional lock was being 
 fixed thereto. Outside the door was 
 stationed a guard of never less than two 
 people, one of whom was a European ; 
 sometimes a third guard was added. 
 During the first twenty-four hours the 
 Chinese guards at the door frequently 
 came in and spoke to me in their own 
 dialect, which I understood fairly well. 
 They did not give me any information as 
 to my imprisonment — nor did I ask them 
 
 40 
 
My Imprisonment. 41 
 
 any questions — further than that the old 
 gentleman who had locked me up was Sir 
 Halliday Macartney, the Ma-Ta-Yen, 
 as they called him : Ma standing for 
 '^ Macartney/' Ta-Yen being the equiva- 
 lent for *^ His Excellency." This is in 
 the same category with the name under 
 which the Chinese Minister passes here, 
 Kung-Ta-Yen. Kung is his family name 
 or surname; Ta-Yen indicates his title, 
 meaning'^ His Excellency." Henevergives 
 his real name in public matters, thereby 
 compelHng every foreigner to uncon- 
 sciously style him '* His Excellency." I 
 often wonder if he deals with the British 
 Government under this cognomen solely ; 
 if he does, it is a disparagement and slight 
 that is meant. Court and diplomatic 
 etiquette in China is so nice, that the 
 mere inflection of a syllable is quite enough 
 to change the meaning of any communi- 
 cation to the foreigner from a compliment 
 to a slight. This is constantly striven 
 
42 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 after in all dealings with foreigners, and it 
 requires a very good knowledge of Chinese 
 literature and culture indeed, to know that 
 any message delivered to a foreigner does 
 not leave the Chinese diplomatist hugging 
 himself with delight at having insulted a 
 foreigner of high rank, without his knowing 
 it. To the people around him he thereby 
 shows his own preeminence, and how the 
 ^* foreign devils '* — the Yang Quei Tze — 
 are his inferiors. 
 
 Several hours after my imprisonment, 
 one of the guard came into my room and 
 told me that Sir Halliday Macartney had 
 ordered him to search me. He proceeded 
 to take my keys, pencil and knife. He 
 did not find my pocket in which I had a 
 few bank notes ; but he took the few 
 unimportant papers I had. They asked 
 me what food I wanted, and at my request 
 brought me some milk which I drank. 
 
 During the day two English servants 
 came to light the fire, bring coals and 
 
My Imprisonment. 43 
 
 sweep the room. I asked the first who 
 came to take a letter out for me, and 
 being promised that this would be done, I 
 wrote a note addressed to Mr. Cantlie, 46 
 Devonshire Street, W. When the second 
 servant came I did the same thing. I did 
 not, of course, know till later what had 
 happened to my letters, but both men 
 said they had sent them. That (Sunday) 
 evening an English woman came in to 
 make up my bed. I did not address her 
 at all. All that night I had no sleep, and 
 lay with my clothes on. 
 
 On the following day — Monday, 12th 
 October — the two English servants came 
 again to attend to the room, and brought 
 coals, water and food. One said he had 
 sent the note with which I had entrusted 
 him, while the other. Cole, said he could 
 not get out to do so. I suspected, how- 
 ever, that my notes had never reached 
 their destination. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 13th, I again asked 
 
44 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 the younger manservant — not Cole — if he 
 had deHvered my letter and had seen Mr. 
 Cantlie. He said he had ; but as I still 
 doubted him, he swore he had seen Mr. 
 Cantlie, who on receiving the note said, 
 *^A11 right!" Having no more paper, I 
 wrote with pencil on the corner of my 
 handkerchief, and asked him to take it to 
 my friend. At the same time I put a 
 half-sovereign in his hand, and hoped for 
 the best. I was dubious about his good 
 faith, and I found that my suspicions were 
 but too well-founded ; for I ascertained 
 subsequently he went immediately to his 
 employers and disclosed all. 
 
 On the fourth day of my imprisonment 
 Mr. Tang, as he is called, came to see 
 me, and I recognised in him the man who 
 had kidnapped me. He sat down and 
 proceeded to converse with me. 
 
 *' When I last saw you," he began, ''and 
 took you in here, I did so as part of my 
 official duty: I now come to talk with 
 
My Imprisonment. 45 
 
 you as a friend. You had better confess 
 that you are Sun Wen ; it is no use deny- 
 ing it: everything is settled.'' In a vein 
 of sarcastic-pseudo flattery he continued : 
 **You are well known in China: the 
 Emperor and the Tsung-Li-Yamen are 
 well acquainted with your history ; it is 
 surely worth your while dying with so 
 distinguished a name as you have made 
 for yourself upon you." (This is a species 
 of Oriental flattery scarcely perhaps to be 
 appreciated by Western minds ; but it is 
 considered everything in China, how and 
 under what name and reputation you die,) 
 ** Your being here," he proceeded, ''means 
 life or death. Do you know that ? " 
 
 '' How ? " I asked. '' This is England, 
 not China. What do you propose to do 
 with me ? If you wish extradition, you 
 must let my imprisonment be known to 
 the British Government ; and I do not 
 think the Government of this country will 
 give mc up." 
 
46 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 '^ We are not going to ask legal extra- 
 dition for you," he replied. *^ Everything 
 is ready ; the steamer is engaged ; you are 
 to be bound and gagged and taken from 
 here, so that there will be no disturbance ; 
 and you will be placed on board in safe 
 keeping. Outside Hong Kong harbour 
 there will be a Chinese gunboat to meet 
 you, and you will be transferred to that 
 and taken to Canton for trial and execu- 
 tion." 
 
 I pointed out that this would be a risky 
 proceeding, as I might have the chance of 
 communicating with the English on board 
 on the way. This, however. Tang declared 
 would be impossible, as, said he, *' You will 
 be as carefully guarded as you are here, 
 so that all possibility of escape will be cut 
 off." I then suggested that the officers on 
 board might not be of the same mind as 
 my captors, and that some of them might 
 sympathise with me and help me. 
 
 **The steamboat company," replied 
 
My hnprisonment. 47 
 
 Tang, '^are friends of Sir Halliday 
 Macartney's and will do what they are 
 told/' 
 
 In reply to my questions he told me 
 that I should be taken by one of the 
 *' Glen '' Line of Steamers, but that my 
 departure would not take place that week 
 (this was October 14th), as the Minister 
 was unwilling to go to the expense of 
 exclusively chartering the steamer, and he 
 wished to have the cargo shipped first, so 
 that only the passenger tickets would 
 have to be paid for. 
 
 *^ Some time next week," he added, 
 '* the cargo will be embarked and you will 
 go then." 
 
 On my remarking that this was a very 
 difficult plan to put into execution, he 
 merely said : 
 
 *^ Were we afraid of that, we could kill 
 you here, because this is China, and no 
 one can interfere with us in the Legation." 
 
 For my edification and consolation he 
 
48 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 then quoted the case of a Korean patriot, 
 who, escaping from Korea to Japan, was 
 induced by a countryman of his to go to 
 Shanghai, where he was put to death in 
 the British concession. His dead body 
 was sent back by the Chinese to Korea 
 for punishment, and on arrival there it 
 was decapitated, while the murderer was 
 rewarded and given a high political post. 
 Tang was evidently fondly cherishing the 
 belief that he would be similarly promoted 
 by his government for arresting me and 
 securing my death. 
 
 I asked him why he should be so cruel, 
 to which he replied : 
 
 ^' This is by order of the Emperor, who 
 wants you captured at any price, alive or 
 dead." 
 
 I urged that the Korean case was one 
 of the causes of the Japanese war, and 
 that my capture and execution might lead 
 to further trouble and great compHcations. 
 
 '*The British Government,'' I said, 
 
My Imprisonment. 49 
 
 ''may ask for the punishment of all the 
 members of this Legation ; and, as you 
 are a countryman of mine, my people in 
 the province of Kwang-Tung may revenge 
 themselves on you and your family for 
 your treatment of me." 
 
 He then changed his tone, desisted from 
 his arrogant utterances, and remarked 
 that all he was doing was by the direction 
 of the Legation, and that he was merely 
 warning me in a friendly way of my 
 plight. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PLEADING WITH MY GAOLERS FOR LIFE. 
 
 AT twelve o'clock the same night Tang 
 returned to my room and re-opened 
 the subject. I asked him, if he was really 
 a friend of mine, what he could do to help 
 me. 
 
 *^That is what I came back for,'' he 
 repHed, '* and I want to do all I can, and 
 will let you out by-and-by. Meantime," 
 he continued, '* I am getting the lock- 
 smith to make two duplicate keys, one for 
 your room and one for the front door.'' 
 
 Tang had to take this step, he said, as 
 the keys were kept by the confidential 
 servant of the Minister, who would not 
 part with them. 
 
 To my inquiry as to when he could let 
 
 50 
 
Pleading with My Gaolers for Life. 51 
 
 me out, he stated that it would be impos- 
 sible till the following day, and that he 
 could probably manage it at two a.m. 
 Friday morning. 
 
 As he left the room he counselled me 
 to be ready to get out on the Friday. 
 
 After his departure I wrote down a few 
 words on a paper to give to the servants 
 to take to Mr. Cantlie. 
 
 Next morning, Thursday, October 15th, 
 I gave the note to the servant ; but, as 
 Tang told me on the afternoon of that 
 day, it was handed by the servant to the 
 Legation authorities. 
 
 Tang declared that by my action I had 
 spoiled all his plans for rescuing me, and 
 that Sir Halliday Macartney had scolded 
 him very much for telling me how they 
 intended to dispose of me. 
 
 I thereupon asked him if there was any 
 hope for my life, to which he replied : 
 
 ^' Yes, there is still great hope ; but you 
 must do what I tell you.'' 
 
 4* 
 
52 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 He advised me to write to the Minister 
 asking for mercy. This I agreed to do, 
 and asked for pen, ink and paper. These 
 Tang told Cole to bring me. 
 
 I asked, however, that Chinese ink and 
 paper should be supplied me, as I could 
 not write to the Chinese Minister in 
 English. 
 
 To this Tang replied : 
 
 ^^Oh, English is best, for the Minister 
 is but a figure-head ; everything is in 
 Macartney's hands, and you had better 
 write to him.'' 
 
 When I asked what I should write, he 
 said : 
 
 '^You must deny that you had any- 
 thing to do with the Canton plot, declare 
 that you were wrongly accused by the 
 mandarins, and that you came to the 
 Legation to ask for redress." 
 
 I wrote to his dictation a long letter to 
 this effect in Tang's presence. 
 
 Having addressed the folded paper to 
 
Pleading with My Gaolers for Life. 53 
 
 Sir Halliday Macartney (whose name 
 Tang spelt for me, as I did not know how) 
 I handed it to Tang, who went off with it 
 in his possession, and I never saw the 
 intriguer again. 
 
 This was no doubt a very stupid thing 
 to have done, as I thereby furnished my 
 enemies with documentary evidence that 
 I had come voluntarily to the Legation. 
 But as a dying man will clutch at any- 
 thing, so I, in my strait, was easily im- 
 posed upon. 
 
 Tang had informed me that all my 
 notes had been given up by the servants, 
 so that none of them had reached my 
 friends outside. I then lost all hope, and 
 was persuaded that I was face to face with 
 death. 
 
 During the week I had written state- 
 ments of my plight on any scraps of paper 
 I could get and thrown them out of the 
 window. I had at first given them to the 
 servants to throw out, as my window did 
 
54 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 not look out on the street ; but it was 
 evident all of them had been retained. I 
 therefore attempted to throw them out at 
 my own window myself, and by a lucky 
 shot one fell on the leads of the back 
 premises of the next house. 
 
 In order to make these missives travel 
 further I weighted them with coppers, 
 and, when these were exhausted, two- 
 shilling pieces, which, in spite of the 
 search, I had managed to retain on my 
 person. When the note fell on the next 
 house I was in hopes that the occupants 
 might get it. One of the other notes, 
 striking a rope, fell down immediately 
 outside my window. I requested a 
 servant — not Cole — to pick it up and 
 give it me ; but instead of doing so he 
 told the Chinese guards about it, and 
 they picked it up. 
 
 Whilst searching about, the letter on 
 the leads of the next house caught their 
 attention, and, climbing over, they got 
 
Pleading with My Gaolers for Life. 55 
 
 possession of that also, so that I was 
 bereft of that hope too. These notes 
 they took to their masters. 
 
 I was now in a worse plight than ever, 
 for they screwed up my window, and my 
 sole means of commmiication with the 
 outside world seemed gone. 
 
 My despair was complete, and only by 
 prayer to God could I gain any comfort. 
 Still the dreary days and still more dreary 
 nights wore on, and but for the comfort 
 afforded me by prayer I believe I should 
 have gone mad. After my release I 
 related to Mr. Cantlie how prayer was 
 my one hope, and told him how I should 
 never forget the feeling that seemed to 
 take possession of me as I rose from my 
 knees on the morning of Friday, October 
 i6th — -a feeling of calmness, hopefulness 
 and confidence, that assured me my 
 prayer was heard, and filled me with 
 hope that all would yet be well. I there- 
 fore resolved to redouble my efforts, and 
 
56 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 made a determined advance to Cole, 
 beseeching him to help me. 
 
 When he came in I asked him : '* Can 
 you do anything for me ? " 
 
 His reply was the question : ** What are 
 you?'^ 
 
 '* A political refugee from China/' I 
 told him. 
 
 As he did net seem to quite grasp my 
 meaning, I asked him if he had heard 
 much about the Armenians. He said he 
 had, so I followed up this line by telling 
 him that just as the Sultan of Turkey 
 wished to kill all the Christians of 
 Armenia, so the Emperor of China 
 wished to kill me because I was a Chris- 
 tian, and one of a party that was striving 
 to secure good government for China. 
 
 **A11 English people,'' I said, ** sym- 
 pathise Vv^ith the Armenians, and I do 
 not doubt they would have the same 
 feeling towards me if they knew my con- 
 dition." 
 
Pleading with My Gaoler s for Life. 57 
 
 He remarked that he did not know 
 whether the English Government would 
 help me, but I replied that they would 
 certainly do so, otherwise the Chinese 
 Legation would not confine me so strictly, 
 but would openly ask the British Govern- 
 ment for my legal extradition. 
 
 ** My life,'' I said to him, ^^is in your 
 hands. If you let the matter be known 
 outside, I shall be saved ; if not, I shall 
 certainly be executed. Is it good to save 
 a life or to take it ? Whether is it more 
 important to regard your duty to God or 
 to your master ? — to honour the just 
 British, or the corrupt Chinese, Govern- 
 ment ? '' 
 
 I pleaded with him to think over what 
 I had said, and to give me an answer 
 next time he came, and tell me truly 
 whether he would help me or not. 
 
 He went away, and I did not see him 
 till next morning. It may well be imagined 
 how eager I was to learn his decision. 
 
58 Kidnapped in London, 
 
 While engaged putting coals on the fire 
 he pointed to a paper he had placed in 
 the coal scuttle. On the contents of that 
 paper my life seemed to depend. Would 
 it prove a messenger of hope, or would 
 the door of hope again be shut in my face ? 
 Immediately he left the room I picked it 
 up and read : 
 
 ^^ I will try to take a letter to your friend. 
 You must not write it at the table, as you 
 can be seen through the keyhole, and the 
 guards outside watch you constantly. You 
 must write it on your bed." 
 
 I then lay down on my bed, with my 
 face to the wall, and wrote on a visiting 
 card to Mr. Cantlie. At noon Cole came 
 in again, and 1 pointed to where my note 
 was. He went and picked it up, and I 
 gave him all the money I had about me — 
 /*2o. Mr. Cantlie's note in reply was 
 placed by Cole behind the coal scuttle, 
 and by a significant glance he indicated 
 there was something there for me. When 
 
Pleading with My Gaolers for Life. 59 
 
 he had gone I anxiously picked it up, and 
 was overjoyed to read the words : ^' Cheer 
 up ! The Government is working on your 
 behalf, and you will be free in a few days.'' 
 Then I knew God had answered my 
 prayer. 
 
 During all this time I had never taken 
 off my clothes. Sleep came but seldom, 
 only in snatches, and these very troubled. 
 Not until I received my friend's cheering 
 news did I get a semblance of real rest. 
 
 My greatest dread was the evil that 
 would befal the cause for which I had 
 been fighting, and the consequences that 
 would ensue were I taken to China and 
 killed. Once the Chinese got me there, 
 they would publish it abroad that I had 
 been given up by the British Government 
 in due legal fashion, and that there was 
 no refuge in British territory for any of the 
 other offenders. The members of ^^ the 
 Party " will remember the part played by 
 England in the Taiping rebellion, and 
 
6o Kidnapped in London. 
 
 how by English interference that great 
 national and Christian revolution was put 
 down. Had I been taken to China to be 
 executed, the people would have once 
 more believed that the revolution was 
 again being fought with the aid of 
 Britain, and all hopes of success would 
 be gone. 
 
 Had the Chinese Legation got my 
 papers from my lodgings, further compli- 
 cations might have resulted to the detri- 
 ment of many friends. This danger, it 
 turned out, had been carefully guarded 
 against by a thoughtful lady. Mrs. 
 Cantlie, on her own responsibility, had 
 gone to my lodgings, carefully collected 
 my papers and correspondence, and within 
 a few hours of her becoming acquainted 
 with my imprisonment, there and then 
 destroyed them. If some of my friends 
 in various parts of the world have had no 
 reply to their letters, they must blame 
 this considerate lady for her wise and 
 
Pleading with My Gaolers for Life, 6i 
 
 prompt action, and forgive my not having 
 answered them, as I am minus their 
 addresses, and in many cases do not even 
 know their names. Should the Chinese 
 authorities again entrap me, they will find 
 no papers whereby my associates can be 
 made known to them. 
 
 I luckily did not think of poison in my 
 food, but my state of mind was such that 
 food was repulsive to me. I could only 
 get down liquid nourishment, such as milk 
 and tea, and occasionally an egg. Only 
 when my friend's note reached me could 
 I either eat or sleep. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PART MY FRIENDS PLAYED. 
 
 OUTSIDE the Legation, I of course 
 knew nothing of what was going on. 
 All my appeals, all my winged scraps I 
 had thrown out at the window, all my 
 letters I had handed officially to Sir 
 Halliday Macartney and Tang, I knew 
 were useless, and worse than useless, for 
 they but increased the closeness of my 
 guard and rendered communication 
 with my friends more and more an 
 impossibility. 
 
 However, my final appeal on Friday 
 morning, October i6th, had made an 
 impression, for it was after that date 
 that Cole began to interest himself in my 
 behalf. Cole's wife had a good deal to 
 
 62 
 
The Part My Friends Played, 63 
 
 do with the initiative, and it was Mrs. 
 Cole who wrote a letter to Mr. Cantlie on 
 Saturday, October 17th, 1896, and so set 
 the machinery going. The note reached 
 Devonshire Street at 11 p.m. Imagine 
 the Doctor's feelings when he read the 
 following : 
 
 ^' There is a friend of yours imprisoned 
 in the Chinese Legation here since last 
 Sunday. They intend sending him out 
 to China, where it is certain they will 
 hang him. It is very sad for the poor 
 man, and unless something is done at 
 once, he will be taken away and no one 
 will know it. I dare not sign my name ; 
 but this is the truth, so believe what I 
 say. Whatever you do must be done at 
 once, or it will be too late. His name is, 
 I believe, Lin Yin Sen." 
 
 No time was evidently to be lost. 
 Late as it was, after ascertaining Sir 
 Halliday Macartney's address, Mr. Cantlie 
 set out to find him. He little knew that 
 
64 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 he was going straight to the head centre 
 of all this disgraceful proceeding. Luckily 
 or unluckily for me, one will never know 
 which, he found the house, 3 Harley Place, 
 shut up. It was 1 1. 1 5 p.m. on Saturday 
 night, and the policeman on duty in 
 the Marylebone Road eyed him rather 
 suspiciously as he emerged from the com- 
 pound in which the house stands. The 
 policeman said that the house was shut 
 up for six months, the family having gone 
 to the country. Mr. Cantlie asked how he 
 knew all this, and the policeman retorted 
 that there had been a burglary attempted 
 three nights previously, which led to 
 close enquiries who the tenants were ; 
 therefore, the information he had, namely 
 a six months' '^anticipated'* absence, 
 was evidently definite and precise. Mr. 
 Cantlie next drove to Marylebone Lane 
 Police Office, and laid the matter before 
 the Inspector on duty. He next went to 
 Scotland Yard and asked to see the officer 
 
The Part My Friends Played. 65 
 
 in charge. A Detective Inspector received 
 him in a private room, and consented to 
 take down his evidence. The difficulty 
 was to get anyone to beheve so improbable 
 a story. The Police authority politely 
 listened to the extraordinary narrative, 
 but declared that it was impossible for 
 Scotland Yard to take the initiative, and 
 Mr. Cantlie found himself in the street 
 about I a.m., in no better plight than 
 when he set out. 
 
 Next morning Mr. Cantlie went to 
 Kensington to consult with a friend as 
 to whether or not there was any good in 
 asking the head of the Chinese Customs 
 in London to approach the Legation 
 privately, and induce them to reconsider 
 their imprudent action and ill-advised 
 step. 
 
 Not receiving encouragement in that 
 direction, he went again to 3 Harley Place, 
 in hopes that at least a caretaker would 
 be in possession, and in a position to at 
 
 5 
 
56 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 least tell where Sir Halliday Macartney 
 could be found or reached by telegram. 
 Beyond the confirmation of the police- 
 man's story that burglary had been 
 attempted, by seeing the evidence of 
 ** jemmies'' used to break open the door, 
 no clue could be found as to where this 
 astute orientalised diplomatist was to be 
 unearthed. 
 
 Mr. Cantlie then proceeded to Dr. 
 Manson's house, and there, at his front 
 door, he saw a man who proved to be 
 Cole, my attendant at the Legation. The 
 poor man had at last summoned up courage 
 to disclose the secret of my imprison- 
 ment, and in fear and trembHng sought out 
 Mr. Cantlie at his house; but being told 
 he had gone to Dr. Manson's, he went on 
 there and met both the doctors together. 
 Cole then presented two cards I had 
 addressed to Mr. Cantlie, stating : 
 
 *^ I was kidnapped on Sunday last by 
 two Chinamen, and forcibly taken into 
 
The Part My Friends Played. 67 
 
 the Chinese Legation. I am imprisoned, 
 and in a day or two I am to be shipped 
 off to China, on board a specially- 
 chartered vessel. I am certain to be 
 beheaded. Oh ! woe is me." 
 
 Dr. Manson heartily joined with his 
 friend in his attempt to rescue me, 
 and proceeded to interrogate Cole. Mr. 
 Cantlie remarked : 
 
 '^Oh, if Sir Halliday Macartney were 
 only in town, it would be all right. It is 
 a pity he is away; where can we find 
 him?" 
 
 Cole immediately retorted : 
 
 *^ Sir Halliday is in town, he comes 
 to the Legation every day ; it was Sir 
 Halliday who locked Sun in his room, 
 and placed me in charge, with directions 
 to keep a strict guard over the door, that 
 he should have no means of escape." 
 
 This information was startling, and 
 placed the difficulty of release on 
 a still more precarious footing. The 
 
 5 * 
 
68 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 proceedings would have to be still more 
 carefully undertaken, and the highest 
 authorities would have to be called in, 
 were these crafty and masterful men to 
 be outwitted. 
 
 Cole, in answer to further interroga- 
 tions, said that it was given out in the 
 Legation that I was a lunatic ; that I was 
 to be removed to China on the following 
 Tuesday (that was in two days more) ; 
 that he did not know by what line of 
 ships I was going, but a man of the name 
 of McGregor, in the City, had something 
 to do with it. It also came out that two 
 or three men dressed as Chinese sailors 
 had been to the Legation during the 
 week, and Cole had no doubt their visit 
 had something to do with my removal, as 
 he had never seen men of that description 
 in the house before. 
 
 Cole left, taking a card with the names 
 of my two friends upon it to deliver to 
 me, in the hopes that its advent would 
 
The Part My Friends Played. 6g 
 
 allay my fears, and serve as a guarantee 
 that Cole was actually working on my 
 behalf at last. The two doctors then set 
 out to Scotland Yard to try the effects of 
 a further appeal in that direction. The 
 Inspector on duty remarked : ^' You were 
 here at 12.30 a.m. this morning. I am 
 afraid it is no use your coming here again 
 so soon." The paramount difficulty was to 
 know where to go to represent the fact that 
 a man's life was in danger ; that the laws 
 of the country were being outraged ; that 
 a man was to be practically given over, 
 in the Metropohs of the British Empire, 
 to be murdered. 
 
 On quitting the premises they took 
 counsel together, and decided to invade 
 the precincts of the Foreign Office. 
 They were told the resident clerk would 
 see them at five p.m. At that hour they 
 were received, and delivered their romantic 
 tale to the willing ears of the courteous 
 official. Being Sunday^ of course nothing 
 
70 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 further could be done, but they were told 
 that the statement would be laid before 
 a higher authority on the following day. 
 But time was pressing, and what was to 
 be done ? That night might see the 
 tragedy completed and the prisoner re- 
 moved on board a vessel bound for 
 China. What was most dreaded was 
 that a foreign ship would be selected ; 
 and under a foreign flag the British 
 authorities were powerless. The last 
 hope was that, if I were removed before 
 they succeeded in rousing the authorities 
 and the vessel actually got away, that it 
 might be stopped and searched in the 
 Suez Canal ; but, were I shipped on 
 board a vessel under a flag other than 
 British, this hope would prove a delusion. 
 With this dread upon them, they decided 
 to take the decisive step of going to the 
 Legation, and telHng the Chinese that 
 they were acquainted with the fact that 
 Sun was a prisoner in their hands, and 
 
The Part My Friends Played. 71 
 
 that the British Government and the 
 poUce knew of their intention to remove 
 him to China for execution. Dr. Manson 
 decided he should go alone, as Mr. 
 Cantlie's name in connection with Sun's 
 was well known at the Legation. 
 
 Accordingly Dr. Manson called alone 
 at 49 Portland Place. The powdered 
 footman at the door was asked to call 
 one of the English-speaking Chinamen. 
 Presently the Chinese interpreter, my 
 captor and tormentor. Tang himself, 
 appeared. Dr. Manson said he wanted 
 to see Sun Yat Sen. A puzzled expression 
 fell o'er Tang's face, as though seeking 
 to recall such a name. *^ Sun ! — Sun ! 
 there is no such person here." Dr. 
 Manson then proceeded to inform him 
 that he was quite well aware that Sun 
 was here ; that he wished to inform the 
 Legation that the Foreign Office had 
 been made cognisant of the fact ; and 
 that Scotland Yard was posted in the 
 
72 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 matter of Sun's detention. But a Chinese 
 diplomatist is nothing if not a capable 
 liar, and Tang's opportunity of lying 
 must have satisfied even his Oriental 
 liking for the role. With the semblance 
 of truth in his every word and action, 
 Tang assured his interrogator that the 
 whole thing was nonsense, and that no 
 such person was there. His openness 
 and frankness partly shook Dr. Hanson's 
 belief in my condition, and when he got 
 back to Mr. Cantlie's he was so impressed 
 with the apparent truthfulness of. Tang s 
 statement, that he even suggested that 
 the tale of my imprisonment might be a 
 trick by myself to some end — he knew 
 not what. Thus can my countrymen lie ; 
 Tang even shook the behef of a man 
 like Dr. Manson, who had Hved in China 
 twenty-two years ; who spoke the Amoy 
 dialect fluently ; and was thereby more 
 intimately acquainted with the Chinese 
 and their ways than nine-tenths of the 
 
The Part My Friends Played. 73 
 
 people who visit the Far East. How- 
 ever, he had to dismiss the thought, as 
 no ulterior object could be seen in a trick 
 of the kind. Tang is sure to rise high in 
 the service of his country ; a liar like 
 that is sure to get his reward amongst 
 a governing class who exist and thrive 
 upon it. 
 
 It was seven o'clock on Sunday evening 
 when the two doctors desisted from their 
 labours, parted company, and considered 
 they had done their duty. But they 
 were still not satisfied that I was safe. 
 The danger was that I might be removed 
 that very night, especially since the 
 Legation knew the British Government 
 were now aware of the fact, and that 
 if immediate embarkation were not pos- 
 sible, a change of residence of their 
 victim might be contemplated. This 
 was a very probable step indeed, and, if 
 it had been possible, there is no doubt it 
 would have been accomplished. Luckily 
 
74 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 for me, the Marquis Tseng, as he is called, 
 had shortly before left London for China, 
 and given up his residence. Had it not 
 been so, it is quite possible the plan of 
 removal to his house would have recom- 
 mended itself to my clever countryman ; 
 and when it was accomplished, they 
 would have thrown themselves upon the 
 confidence and good friendship of the 
 British, and asked them to search the 
 house. That ruse could not be carried 
 out ; but the removal to the docks was 
 quite feasible. It was expected I was to 
 sail on Tuesday, and, as the ship must 
 be now in dock, there was nothing more 
 likely than that the 'Munatic" passenger 
 should be taken on board at night, to 
 escape the excitement and noise of the 
 daily traffic in the streets. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SEARCH FOR A DETECTIVE. 
 
 WITH all this in his mind Mr. Cantlie 
 set forth again, this time to search 
 out some means of having the Legation 
 watched. He called at a friend's house 
 and obtained the address of Slater's firm 
 of private detectives in the City. Hither 
 he went ; but Slater's office was closed. 
 
 On Sunday it would seem no detectives 
 are required. Can no trouble arise on 
 Sunday in England ? It must be remem- 
 bered that the division of the month is 
 but an artificial and mundane convenience, 
 and crime does not always accommodate 
 itself to such vagaries of the calendar 
 as the portioning the month into weeks. 
 However, there was the hard fact, Slater's 
 
 IS 
 
70 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 office was shut, and neither shouting, bell- 
 ringing, nor hard knocks could elicit any 
 response from the granite buildings in 
 Basinghall Street. 
 
 A consultation in the street with a 
 policeman and the friendly cabman, who 
 was taken into the secret of my detention, 
 ended in a call at the nearest poHce sta- 
 tion. Here the tale had to be unfolded 
 again, and all the doubts as to the doctor's 
 soberness and sanity set at rest before 
 anything further could be attempted. 
 
 '* Where was the place V 
 
 '' Portland Place, West.'' 
 
 '* Oh ! it is no good coming here, you 
 must go back to the West End ; we belong 
 to the City police." 
 
 To the doctor's mind neither eastern 
 nor western police were of any avail. 
 
 ^* However," he persisted, '* could a 
 detective not be obtained to watch the 
 house ?" 
 
 ** No. It was out of the power of the 
 
The Search for a Detective, 77 
 
 City police to interfere in the West End 
 work.'' 
 
 '^ Have you not some old police con- 
 stable, a reserve man, who would be 
 willing to earn a little money at a job of 
 the kind ? '' Mr. Cantlie asked. 
 
 *^ Well, there might be — let us see." 
 
 And here a number of men fell good- 
 naturedly to discussing whom they could 
 recall to memory. Well, yes ; they thought 
 So-and-so would do. 
 
 - ' Where does he live ? " 
 
 *^0h! he lives in Leytonstone. You 
 could not get him to-night : this is Sun- 
 day, you know." 
 
 Sunday I should think it was, and my 
 head in the balance. After a long dis- 
 cussion a man's name was suggested, and 
 they got rid of the persistent doctor. The 
 man's address was Gibston Square, Isling- 
 ton. 
 
 But before starting thence, Mr. Cantlie 
 thought he would give the newspapers 
 
78 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 the whole tale, so he drove to the Times 
 Office and asked for the sub-editor. A 
 card to fill in was handed him as to the 
 nature of his business ; and he wrote : 
 
 ^^ Case of Kidnapping at the Chinese 
 Legation ! '' 
 
 This was 9 p.m., and he was told no 
 one would be in until 10 p.m. 
 
 Away then he went to Islington in search 
 of his ^^ man." After a time the darkly-lit 
 square was found, and the number proving 
 correct, the abode was entered. But again 
 disappointment followed; for *^he could 
 not go, but he thought he knew a man that 
 would.'' Well, there was no help for it ; 
 but where did this man live ? He was a 
 wonderful chap ; but the card bearing his 
 address could not be found. High and 
 low was it looked for : drawers and boxes, 
 old packets of letters and unused waist- 
 coats were searched and turned out. At 
 last, however, it was unearthed, and then 
 it was known that the man was not at 
 
The Search for a Detective. 79 
 
 home, but was watching a public-house in 
 the City. 
 
 Well, even this was overcome, for the 
 Doctor suggested that one of the numerous 
 children that crowded the parlour should 
 be sent with a note to the home address 
 of the detective, whilst the father of the 
 flock should accompany the Doctor to the 
 City in search of the watcher. At last 
 the hansom cab drew up at a little 
 distance from a public-house, somewhere 
 in the neighbourhood of the Barbican, 
 and the place was reconnoitred. But no 
 watcher could be seen around, and a 
 futile search was settled in this way : that 
 the pubhc-house should be watched until 
 eleven o'clock, when the house closed, at 
 which time in all probability the ^^ man " 
 would be forthcoming. Mr. Cantlie left 
 his erstwhile friend outside the house 
 and set off again for the Times Office. 
 There he was received in ^' audience '' 
 and his statement was taken down, and 
 
8o Kidnapped in London. 
 
 the publication of the tale was left to the 
 Times' discretion. By this time it was 
 11.30 p.m. on Sunday, and at last the 
 restless Doctor sought his home. He was 
 somewhat chagrined to find that at 12 
 midnight his expected detective had not 
 yet appeared, but, nothing daunted, he 
 prepared to keep watch himself. He said 
 good-night to his wife, and set out to 
 observe the Legation, ready to interfere 
 actively if need be. 
 
 However, as he strode forth with 
 valiant intent, the Doctor encountered his 
 expected ^^man'' in the street, and im- 
 mediately posted him. His Gibston 
 Square friend had proved himself reliable 
 and sent his deputy. The windows of 
 the Legation, late as it was, — past twelve 
 at night, — were still lit up, indicating a 
 commotion within, the result, no doubt, 
 of Dr. Hanson's intimation that their 
 evil ways were no longer unknown. The 
 '^man" was placed in a hansom cab in 
 
The Search for a Detective, 8i 
 
 Weymouth Street, under the shadow of 
 a house on the south side of the street, 
 between Portland Place and Portland 
 Road. It was a beautiful moonlight night, 
 and both the Legation entrances could 
 be clearly seen. The hansom cab was 
 a necessary part of the sentinel on duty, 
 as, supposing I had been hurried from 
 the house across the pavement and into 
 a carriage, I should have been carried 
 beyond the reach of a person on foot in 
 a few minutes. Cabs cannot be had at 
 any moment in the early morning hours ; 
 hence the necessary precaution of having 
 the watchman in a position by which he 
 could follow in pursuit, if he were required 
 so to do. The newspapers had it, that 
 the cab was intended to carry me off when 
 the rescue party had freed me, but this 
 is another part of the story which I will 
 relate later on. 
 
 At 2 a.m. the Doctor got to bed, and 
 having informed the Government, told 
 
82 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 the police, given the tale to the news- 
 papers, posted private detectives for the 
 night, his day's work was finished and 
 practically my life was saved, although I 
 did not know it. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENE. 
 
 ON Monday, October 19th, Slater's 
 office was again asked for detectives, 
 and, when they came, they were posted 
 with instructions to watch the Legation 
 night and day. 
 
 At 12 noon J by appointment at the 
 Foreign Office, Mr. CantHe submitted his 
 statement in writing. The Foreign Office 
 were evidently anxious that some less 
 official plan of release should be effected 
 than by their active interference, in the 
 hopes that international complications 
 might be averted. 
 
 Moreover, the proofs of my detention 
 were mere hearsay, and it was unwise to 
 
 raise a question which seemed to be 
 
 6 * 
 83 
 
84 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 founded on an improbable statement. 
 As a step in the evidence, enquiry was 
 made at the ^^Glen" Line Office, and 
 when it was found that a passage had 
 been asked for, the Government then 
 knew by direct evidence that the tale was 
 not only true, but that actual steps for 
 its execution had been carefully laid. 
 From this moment the affair passed into 
 Government hands, and my friends were 
 relieved of their responsibility. 
 
 Six detectives were told off by Govern- 
 ment for duty outside the Legation, and 
 the police in the neighbourhood were 
 made cognisant of the facts and apprised 
 to be vigilant. 
 
 The police had, moreover, my photo- 
 graph, which I had had taken in America 
 in my European dress. To the eye of the 
 foreigner, who has not travelled in China, 
 all Chinese are alike, so that an ordinary 
 photograph was not likely to be of much 
 assistance ; but in this photograph I wore 
 
The Government Intervene, 85 
 
 a moustache and had my hair ^' European 
 fashion." 
 
 No Chinaman wears a moustache until 
 he has attained the '^rank'' of grand- 
 father; but even in the country of early 
 marriages, I, who have not yet attained 
 the age of thirty, can scarcely aspire to 
 the ^'distinction." 
 
 On Thursday^ October 22nd ^ a writ of 
 Habeas Corpus was made out against either 
 the Legation or Sir HalHday Macartney, 
 I know not which, but the Judge at the 
 Old Bailey would not agree to the action, 
 and it fell through. 
 
 On the afternoon of the same day a 
 special correspondent of the Globe called 
 at Mr. Cantlie's house and asked him if 
 he knew anything about a Chinaman 
 that had been kidnapped by the Chinese 
 Legation. Well, he thought he did ; 
 what did the Globe know about it ? The 
 Doctor said he had given the information 
 to the Times on Sunday, October i8th, 
 
86 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 five days before, and further supple- 
 mented it by additional information on 
 Monday, October 19th, and that he felt 
 bound to let the Times make it public 
 first. However, Mr. Cantlie said, '^ Read 
 over what you have written about the 
 circumstance, and I will tell you if it is 
 correct.'' The information the Globe had 
 received proving correct, the Doctor en- 
 dorsed it, but requested his name not to 
 be mentioned. 
 
 Of course many persons were acquainted 
 with the circumstances long before they 
 appeared in print. Some two or three 
 hundred people knew of my imprisonment 
 by Tuesday morning, and it was a wonder 
 that the ever eager correspondents did 
 not know of it before Thursday afternoon. 
 However, once it got wind there was no 
 hushing the matter up, for from the 
 moment the Globe published the starthng 
 news, there was no more peace at 46 
 Devonshire Street, W. 
 
The Government Intervene. 87 
 
 Within two hours after the issue of the 
 fifth edition of the Globe, Mr. Cantlie was 
 interviewed by a Central News and a 
 Daily Mail reporter. He was too reticent 
 to please them, but the main outlines 
 were extracted from him. 
 
 The two searchers after truth next 
 called at the Chinese Legation and asked 
 to see Sun. They were met by the ever- 
 ready and omnipresent Tang, who denied 
 all knowledge of such a man. Tang was 
 shown the report in the Globe, at which 
 he laughed merrily and said the whole 
 thing was a huge imposition. The Cen- 
 tral News reporter, however, said it was 
 no good denying it, and that if Sun was 
 not given up, he might expect 10,000 
 men here to-morrow to pull the place 
 about his ears. Nothing, however, 
 moved Tang, and he lied harder than 
 ever. 
 
 Sir Halliday Macartney was next un- 
 earthed at the Midland Hotel and inter- 
 
88 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 viewed. His statements are best gathered 
 from the Press reports. 
 
 INTEHVIEWS WITH SIR HALLIDAY MACARTNEY. 
 
 Sir Halliday Macartney, Counsellor of the 
 Chinese Legation, visited the Foreign OfSce at 
 3.30 yesterday afternoon. In conversation with a 
 press representative. Sir Halliday said: I am 
 unable to give you any information about the man 
 detained at the Legation, beyond what has already 
 appeared in print. On being informed that the 
 Foreign Office had just issued an announcement 
 to the effect that Lord Salisbury had requested 
 the Chinese Minister to release the prisoner. Sir 
 Halliday admitted that this was so, and in answer 
 to a further question as to what would be the 
 result of the request, replied : ** The man will be 
 released, but this will be done strictly without 
 prejudice to the rights of the Legation involved." 
 
 In course of a later conversation with a repre- 
 sentative of the press, Sir Halliday Macartney 
 said : Sun Yat Sen is not the name of the man 
 whom we have in detention upstairs. We have 
 no doubt of his real identity, and have been from 
 time to time fully informed of all his movements 
 since he set foot in England. He came of his own 
 free will to the Legation, and was certainly not 
 kidnapped or forced or inveigled into the premises. 
 It is quite a usual thing for solitary Chinamen in 
 London to call here to make casual inquiries, or 
 
The Government Intervene. 8g 
 
 to have a chat with a countryman. There appears, 
 moreover, to be some ground for suspecting that 
 this peculiar visitor, beheving himself unknown, 
 came with some idea of spying on us and getting 
 some information. Nobody knew him by sight. 
 When he called he got into conversation with one 
 of our staff, and was afterwards introduced to me. 
 We chatted for awhile, and some remarks he made 
 led me after he had gone to suspect he might be 
 the person we were having watched. These sus- 
 picions being confirmed, he was, on returning the 
 following da}', detained, and he is still under 
 detention pending instructions from the Chinese 
 Government. 
 
 Speaking on the international side of the matter. 
 Sir Halliday said : The man is not a British, but 
 a Chinese, subject. We contend that for certain 
 purposes the Legation is Chinese territory, where 
 the Chinese Minister alone has jurisdiction. If a 
 Chinaman comes here voluntarily, and if there are 
 charges or suspicions against him, we contend 
 that no one outside has any right to interfere with 
 his detention. It would be quite different if he 
 were outside this building, for then he would be 
 on British territory, and we could not arrest him 
 without a warrant. 
 
 Answering further questions. Sir Halliday men- 
 tioned that the man was not treated like a prisoner, 
 and every consideration had been paid to his 
 comfort. Sir Halliday ridiculed the statement 
 which has appeared that the captive might be 
 
QO . Kidnapped in London. 
 
 subjected to torture or undue pressure. He added 
 a statement that a letter of inquiry had been 
 received from the Foreign Office on the subject, 
 which would receive immediate attention. 
 
 The Central News says : Sir Halliday Macart- 
 ney, on his return to the Chinese Legation from 
 the Foreign Office, proceeded to the bedside of the 
 Minister Kung Ta Jen, and explained to him that 
 Lord Salisbury had insisted upon the release of 
 Sun Yat Sen. 
 
 It is not for me to discuss the behaviour 
 of Sir HaUiday Macartney ; I leave that 
 to pubHc opinion and to hisovs^n conscience. 
 In his own mind, I have no doubt, he has 
 reasons for his action ; but they seem 
 scarcely consistent v^ith those of a sane 
 man, let alone the importance of the 
 position he occupies. I expect Tang 
 expressed the position pretty exactly 
 when he told me that ^^ the Minister is 
 but a figure-head here. Macartney is the 
 ruler.'' 
 
 Various reports of an intended rescue 
 crept into the newspapers. The follow- 
 ing is an example : 
 
The Government Intervene. 91 
 
 AN INTENDED EESCUE. 
 
 In reference to the arrest of Sun Yat Sen, it has 
 been ascertained that his friends had arranged a 
 bold scheme to bring about his rescue. Had they 
 not been definitely assured by the Foreign Office 
 and Scotland Yard that no harm whatever should 
 come to him, his rescue was to be effected by 
 means of breaking the window of his room, and 
 descending from the roof of No. 51 Portland Place, 
 the residence of Viscount Powerscourt. His 
 friends had succeeded in informing him of the plan 
 they intended to pursue, and although information 
 which was subsequently obtained pointed to the 
 fact that Sun Yat Sen was being kept handcuffed, 
 a promise of inside assistance in opening the win- 
 dow satisfied his friends of the feasibility of the 
 plan. Indeed, so far matured was the scheme, 
 that a cab was held in waiting to convey Sun Yat 
 Sen to the home of a friend. By the prisoner's 
 friends it is declared that Long, the interpreter at 
 the Legation, was one of the Chinamen who 
 actually decoyed Sun into the Legation, though 
 he was invariably the most positive subsequently 
 in denying that such a man had ever been inside 
 the Legation walls. His friends declare that Sun 
 was dressed in English clothes, and so far from 
 his being a typical Oriental, when dressed accord- 
 ing to Western fashion was invariably taken for 
 an Englishman. He is declared to be a man of 
 unbounded good nature and of the gentlest dispo- 
 
92 Kidnapped in London, 
 
 sition in Hongkong, and the various places where 
 he practised medicine he obtained a reputation for 
 skill and benevolence towards the poor. He is 
 believed to have been in a great extent the tool 
 of the Canton conspirators, though he never 
 hesitated to condemn the cruel and oppressive 
 Government of the Viceroy of Canton. He is 
 said to have journeyed throughout Canton in 
 the interests of his society, and the plot itself 
 is declared to be the most widespread and for- 
 midable since the present Emperor commenced 
 to reign. 
 
 The real facts are these. Cole sent the 
 following communication to ^Ir. Cantlie 
 on October igth, 1896: ^- I shall have a 
 good opportunity to let Mr. Sun out on to 
 the roof of the next house in Portland 
 Place to-night. If you think it advisable, 
 get permission from the occupants of the 
 house to have someone waiting there to 
 receive him. If I am to do it, find means 
 to let me know.'^ Mr. Cantlie went with 
 this letter to Scotland Yard and requested 
 that a constable be posted with himself on 
 the roof of the house in question ; but the 
 
 I 
 
The Government Intervene. 93 
 
 Scotland Yard authorities, thinking it was 
 an undignified proceeding, dissuaded him 
 from his purpose, and gave it as their 
 firm conviction that I should walk out by 
 the front door in a day or two. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RELEASED, 
 
 ON October 22nd Cole directed my 
 attention to the coal scuttle, and 
 when he left the room I picked up a 
 clipping from a newspaper, which proved 
 to be the Globe. There I read the 
 account of my detention, under the head- 
 ing : ^' Startling Story ! Conspirator Kid- 
 napped in London! Imprisonment at the 
 Chinese Embassy ! " And then followed a 
 long and detailed account of my position. 
 At last the Press had interfered, and I 
 felt that I was really safe. It came as a 
 reprieve to a condemned man, and my 
 heart was full of thankfulness. 
 
 Friday, October 23rd, dawned, and the 
 day wore on, and still I was in durance. 
 
 94 
 
Released. 95 
 
 At 4.30 p.m., however, on that day, my 
 Enghsh and Chinese guards came into 
 the room and said ^^ Macartney wants 
 to see you downstairs." I was told to 
 put on my boots and hat and overcoat. 
 I accordingly did so, not knowing whither 
 I was going. I descended the stairs, and as 
 it was to the basement I was being con- 
 ducted, I believed I was to be hidden in 
 a cellar whilst the house was being searched 
 by the command of the British Govern- 
 ment. I was not told I was to be released, 
 and I thought I was to enter another place 
 of imprisonment or punishment. It seemed 
 too good to be true that I was actually to 
 be released. However, Mr. Cantlie pre- 
 sently appeared on the scene in company 
 with two other men, who turned out to be 
 Inspector Jarvis from Scotland Yard, and 
 an old man, the messenger from the 
 Foreign Office. 
 
 Sir Halliday Macartney then, in the 
 presence of these gentlemen, handed 
 
96 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 me over the various effects that had 
 been taken from me, and addressed the 
 Government officials to the following 
 effect : — 
 
 '^ I hand this man over to you, and I do 
 so on condition that neither the preroga- 
 tive nor the diplomatic rights of the 
 Legation are interfered with," or words to 
 that effect. I was too excited to commit 
 them to memory, but they seemed to me 
 then, as they do now, senseless and 
 childish. 
 
 The meeting related above took place in 
 a passage in the basement of the house, 
 and I was told I was a free man. Sir 
 Halliday then shook hands with us all, 
 a post -Judas salutation, and we were 
 shown out by a side-door leading to the 
 area. From thence we ascended the area 
 steps, and issued into Weymouth Street 
 from the back door of the Legation. 
 
 It will perhaps escape observation and 
 pass out of mind as but a minor circum- 
 
 i 
 
Released. 0,7 
 
 stance that we were sent out by the back 
 door of the Legation. 
 
 The fact of the rescue was the all im- 
 portant measure in the minds of the little 
 group of Enghshmen present ; not so, 
 however, with my astute countryman ; 
 not so especially with Sir Halliday 
 Macartney, that embodiment of retrograde 
 orientalism. 
 
 The fact that the representatives of the 
 British Government were shown out by 
 the back door, as common carrion, will 
 redound to the credit of the Minister and 
 his clientelle in the high courts of their 
 country. It was intended as a slight and 
 insult, and it was carried out as only one 
 versed in the Chinese methods of dealing 
 with foreigners can appreciate. The 
 excuse, no doubt, was that the hall was 
 crowded with reporters ; that a consider- 
 able throng of people had assembled in 
 the street outside the building; that the 
 Foreign Office was anxious that the affair 
 
 7 
 
g8 Kidnapped m London, 
 
 should be conducted quietly without 
 demonstration. These, no doubt, were 
 the reasons present in the ever-ready 
 minds of these Manchurian rapscallions 
 and their caretaker Macartney. 
 
 To EngHsh ways of looking at things, 
 the fact of my release was all that was 
 cared for ; but to the Chinese the manner 
 of the release wiped out all the triumph 
 of British diplomacy in obtaining it. Both 
 had their triumph, and no doubt it brought 
 them equal gratification. 
 
 It was not an imposing party that 
 proceeded to the Chinese Legation that 
 Friday afternoon in October ; but one 
 member of it, the venerable old messenger 
 from the Foreign Office, had a small 
 note concealed in the depths of his 
 great-coat pocket that seemed to bear 
 great weight. It must have been short 
 andrto the| point, for it took Macartney 
 but two or three seconds to master its 
 contents. Short it may have been, but it 
 
Released. 
 
 bore the sweet message of freedom for m^e, 
 and an escape from death, and what I 
 dreaded more, the customary exquisite 
 tbrture to which pohtical prisoners in 
 China are submitted to procure confession 
 of the names of accomphces. 
 
 In Weymouth Street a considerable 
 crowd had assembled, and the ever- 
 present newspaper reporter tried to in- 
 veigle me there and then into a confession. 
 I was, however, speedily put into a four- 
 wheeled cab, and, in company with Mr. 
 Cantlie, Inspector Jarvis, and the mes- 
 senger, driven off towards Scotland Yard. 
 On the way thither Inspector Jarvis 
 gravely lectured me on my delinquencies, 
 and scolded me as a bad boy, and advised 
 me to have nothing to do any more 
 with revolutions. Instead of stopping at 
 Scotland Yard, however, the cab drew up 
 at the door of a restaurant in Whitehall, 
 and we got out on the pavement. Im- 
 mediately the newspaper men surrounded 
 
100 Kidnapped in London, 
 
 me ; where they came from I could not 
 tell. We had left them a mile away in 
 Portland Place, and here they were again 
 the moment my cab stopped. There is 
 no repressing them ; one man had ac- 
 tually, unknown to us, climbed up on the 
 seat beside the driver. He it was that 
 stayed the cab at the restaurant, knowing 
 well that if once I was within the precincts 
 of Scotland Yard they could not get at 
 me for some time. Unless the others — 
 some dozen in number — were on the roof 
 of my cab, I cannot understand where 
 they sprang from. I was hustled from 
 the pavement into the back premises of 
 the hostelry with much more violence than 
 ever was expended upon me when origin- 
 ally taken within the Chinese Legation, 
 and surrounded by a crowd thirsting for 
 knowledge as eagerly as my countrymen 
 thirsted for my head. Pencils .executed 
 wonderful hieroglyphics which I had never 
 seen before, and I did not know until that 
 
Released. loi 
 
 moment that English could be written in 
 what seemed to me cuneiform characters. 
 I found out afterwards it was in shorthand 
 they were writing. 
 
 I spoke until I could speak no more, 
 and it was only when Mr. Cantlie called 
 out ^^Time, gentlemen!" that I was 
 forcibly rescued from their midst and 
 carried off to Scotland Yard. At the 
 Yard I was evidently regarded as a child 
 of their own delivery, and Jarvis's honest 
 face was a picture to behold. However, 
 the difficult labour was over, and here I 
 was free to make my own confession. I 
 was detained there for an hour, during 
 which time I made a full statement of the 
 circumstances of my capture and deten- 
 tion. This was all taken down and read 
 over to me, and I appended my signature 
 and bade a cordial adieu to my friends in 
 the police force. Mr. Cantlie and myself 
 then hied ourselves homewards, where a 
 hospitable welcome was accorded me, and 
 
I02 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 over an appetising dinner, a toast to my 
 *' head " was drunk with enthusiasm. 
 
 During the evening I was frequently- 
 interviewed, and it was not until a late 
 hour that I was allowed to rest. Oh ! 
 that first night's sleep ! Shall I ever 
 forget it? For nine hours did it last, and 
 when I awoke it was to the noise of 
 children romping on the floor above me. 
 It was evident by their loud, penetrating 
 voices some excitement was on hand, and 
 as I listened I could hear the cause of it. 
 '^Now, Colin, you be Sun Yat Sen, and 
 Neil will be Sir Halliday Macartney, 
 and I will rescue Sun.'' Then followed a 
 turmoil ; Sir Halliday was knocked end- 
 ways, and a crash on the floor made me 
 believe that my little friend Neil was no 
 more. Sun was brought out in triumph 
 by Keith, the eldest boy, and a general 
 amnesty was declared by the beating of 
 drums, the piercing notes of a tin whistle, 
 and the singing of "^The British Grena- 
 
Released. 103 
 
 diers." This was home and safety, 
 indeed ; for it was evident my youthful 
 friends were prepared to shed the last 
 drop of their blood on my behalf. 
 
 During Saturday, October 24th, I was 
 interviewing all day. The one question 
 put was, *' How did you let the doctors 
 know ? " and the same question was 
 addressed to Mr. Cantlie many scores of 
 times. We felt, however, that our tongues 
 were tied ; as, by answering the query, we 
 should be incriminating those who, within 
 the Legation walls, had acted as my 
 friends, and they would lose their positions. 
 However, when Cole resolved to resign 
 his appointment, so that none of the 
 others should be wrongly suspected, there 
 was no object in hiding who had been the 
 informant. It is all very well to say that 
 I bribed him ; that is not the case. He 
 did not understand that I gave him the 
 money by way of fee at all ; he believed I 
 gave it him to keep for me ; he told Mr. 
 
104 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 Cantlie he had the ;^20 the day he got it, 
 and offered to give it to him for safe 
 keeping. When I came out Cole handed 
 the money back to me, but it was the 
 least I could do to urge him to keep it. I 
 wish it had been more, but it was all the 
 ready money I had. Cole had many 
 frights during this time, but perhaps the 
 worst scare he got was at the very first 
 start. On the Sunday afternoon, October 
 1 8th, when he had made up his mind to 
 help me practically, he took my notes 
 to Mr. Cantlie, in his pocket, at 46 
 Devonshire Street. The door was opened 
 and he was admitted within the hall. 
 The doctor was not at home, so he asked 
 to see his wife. Whilst the servant was 
 gone to fetch her mistress, Cole became 
 conscious of the presence of a Chinaman 
 watching him from the far end of the hall. 
 He immediately suspected that he had 
 been followed or rather anticipated, for 
 here was a Chinaman, pigtail and all. 
 
Released. 105 
 
 earnestly scrutinising him from a recess. 
 When Mrs. Canthe came down she beheld 
 a man, trembling with fear and pale from 
 terror, who could hardly speak. The 
 cause of this alarm was a model of a 
 Chinaman, of most life-like appearance, 
 which Mr. Cantlie had brought home with 
 him amongst his curios from Hong Kong. 
 It has frightened many other visitors with 
 less tender consciences than Cole's, whose 
 overwrought nerves actually endowed the 
 figure with a halo of terrible reality. 
 Mrs. Cantlie relieved Cole's mind from 
 his fear and sent him in to find her 
 husband at Dr. Manson's. My part of 
 the tale is nearly ended ; what further 
 complications in connection with this affair 
 may arise I cannot say. There is not 
 time, as yet, to hear how the papers in 
 other English-speaking countries will deal 
 with the subject, and as ParHament has 
 not yet assembled I cannot say what 
 questions appertaining to the event may 
 
io6 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 be forthcoming. I have, however, found 
 many friends since my release. I have 
 paid several pleasant visits to the country. 
 I have been dined and feasted, and run a 
 good chance of being permanently spoiled 
 by my well-wishers in and around London. 
 
Hppenbiy* 
 
 I APPEND a few of the numerous 
 articles called forth by my arrest. 
 The first is a letter from Professor 
 Holland to The Times ^ and is headed : 
 
 THE CASE OF SITN YAT SEN. 
 To the Editor of The Times. 
 
 Sir, — The questions raised by the imprisonment 
 of Sun Yat Sen are two in number. First, was 
 the act of the Chinese Minister in detaining him 
 an unlawful act ? And secondly, if so, what steps 
 could properly have been taken to obtain his release 
 had it been refused ? 
 
 The reply to the former question is not far to 
 seek. The claim of an Ambassador to exercise 
 any sort of domestic jurisdiction, even over mem- 
 bers of his suite, is now little heard of, although, 
 in 1603, Sully, when French Ambassador, went so 
 far as to sentence one of his attaches to death, 
 
 107 
 
io8 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 handing him over to the Lord Mayor for execution. 
 I can recall but one instance of an attempt on the 
 part of a Minister to exercise constraint against a 
 person unconnected with his mission. In 1642, 
 Leitao, Portuguese Minister at the Hague, de- 
 tained in his house a horse-dealer who had cheated 
 him. The result was a riot, in which the hotel 
 was plundered, and Wicquefort remarks upon the 
 transaction that Leitao, who had given public 
 lectures on the Law of Nations, ought to have 
 known qii'il ne ltd estoit pas permis de faive line prison 
 de sa maison. Sun Yat Sen, while on British soil 
 as a siihdiUis femporarius, was under the protection 
 of our Laws, and his confinement in the Chinese 
 Legation was a high offence against the rights of 
 the British Crown. 
 
 The second question, though not so simple, 
 presents no serious difficulty. A refusal on the 
 part of the Chinese Minister to release his prisoner 
 would have been a sufficient ground for requesting 
 him to leave the country. If this mode of pro- 
 ceeding would have been too dilatory for the 
 exigencies of the case, it can hardly be doubted 
 that the circumstances would have justified an 
 entry upon the Legation premises by the London 
 police. An Ambassador's hotel is said to be 
 " extra-territorial," but this too compendious 
 phrase means no more than that the hotel is for 
 certain purposes inaccessible to the ordinary juris- 
 diction of the country in which it stands. The 
 exemptions thus enjoyed are, hov;ever, strictly 
 
Appendix. 109 
 
 defined by usage, and new exemptions cannot be 
 deduced from a metaphor. The case of Gyllen- 
 burg, in 171 7, showed that if a Minister is suspected 
 of conspiring against the Government to which he 
 is accredited he may be arrested and his cabinets 
 may be ransacked. The case of the coachman 
 of Mr. Gallatin, in 1827, establishes that, after 
 courteous notice, the police may enter a Legation 
 in order to take into custody one of its servants 
 who has been guilty of an offence elsewhere. 
 There is also a general agreement that, except 
 possibly in Spain and in the South American 
 Republics, the hotel is no longer an asylum for 
 even political offenders. Still less can it be sup- 
 posed that an illegal imprisonment in a Minister's 
 residence will not be put an end to by such action 
 of the local police as may be necessary. 
 
 It seems needless to inquire into the responsi- 
 bility which would rest upon the Chinese autho- 
 rities if Sun Yat Sen was, as he alleges, kidnapped 
 in the open street, or would have rested upon them 
 had they removed him through the streets, with a 
 view to shipping him off to China. Acts of this 
 kind find no defenders. What is admitted to have 
 occurred is sufficiently serious, and was doubtless 
 due to excess of zeal on the part of the subordi- 
 nates of the Chinese Legation. International law 
 has long been ably taught by Dr. Martin at the 
 Tung-wen College of Peking, and the Imperial 
 Government cannot be supposed to be indifferent 
 to a strict conformity to the precepts of the 
 
no Kidnapped in London, 
 
 science on the part of its representatives at foreign 
 Courts. 
 
 I am, Sir, j^our obedient servant, 
 
 T. E. Holland. , 
 Oxford, October 24th, 
 
 Another legal opinion is referred to 
 below : 
 
 LEGAL OPINION. 
 
 Mr. Cavendish, one of the best authorities on 
 the law of extradition, informed an interviewer at 
 Bow Street yesterday that, speaking from memory, 
 he could cite no case at all parallel with the case 
 of Sun Yat Sen. The case of the Zanzibar Pre- 
 tender was, of course, in no way parallel, for he 
 took refuge in the German Consulate. He threw 
 himself on the hospitality of the German Govern- 
 ment, which, following the procedure sanctioned 
 by International Law, refuses to give him up, 
 and conveyed him to German territory on the 
 mainland. Sun Yat Sen's case was that of an 
 alleged Chinese subject, having come within the 
 walls of the Legation of his own country, was 
 arrested by representatives of his own Govern- 
 ment for an offence against that Government. 
 Mr. Cavendish assumed that if the facts were as 
 stated, the case could only be dealt with by diplo- 
 matic representation on the part of our Foreign 
 Office, and not by any known legal rule. 
 
Appendix, iii 
 
 The next is a letter from Mr. James G. 
 Wood to the same paper discussirxg some 
 of the points of law raised in Professor 
 Holland's letter : 
 
 To the Editor of The Times. 
 
 Sir, — The second question proposed by Pro- 
 fessor Holland, though fortunately, under the 
 circumstances, not of present importance, is 
 deserving of careful consideration. I venture to 
 think his answer to it unsatisfactory. 
 
 It is suggested that on a refusal by the Chinese 
 Minister to release his prisoner, ** it can hardly be 
 doubted that the circumstances would have justi- 
 fied an entry on the Legation premises by the 
 London police." But why there should not be 
 such a doubt is not explained. This is not solving 
 the question but guessing at its solution. The 
 London police have no roving commission to 
 release persons unlawfully detained in London 
 houses ; and anyone attempting to enter for 
 such a purpose could be lawfully resisted by 
 force. 
 
 The only process known to the law as applicable 
 to a case of unlawful detention is a writ of habeas 
 corpus^ and this is where the real difficulty lies. 
 Could such a writ be addressed to an Ambassador 
 or any member of the Legation ? Or if it were, 
 and it were disregarded, could process of contempt 
 
112 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 follow ? I venture to think not ; and I know of 
 no precedent for such proceeding. 
 
 I agree that the phrase that an Ambassador's 
 hotel is extra-territorial is so metaphysical as to 
 be misleading. It is, in fact, inaccurate. The 
 more careful writers do not use it. The true 
 proposition is not that the residence is extra- 
 territorial in the sense in which a ship is often 
 said to be so, but the Minister himself is deemed 
 to be so ; and as a consequence he and the 
 members of his family and suite are said to enjoy 
 a complete immunity from all civil process. It is 
 not a question of what may or may not be done in 
 the residence, but what may or may not be done 
 to individuals. That being so, the process I have 
 mentioned appears to involve a breach of the 
 comity of nations. 
 
 To adduce cases where the police have under a 
 warrant entered an Embassy to arrest persons 
 who have committed an offence elsewhere to 
 found the proposition that **the local police may 
 take action to put an end to an illegal imprison- 
 ment," begun and continued within the Embassy, 
 does not land us on safe ground. There is no 
 common feature in the two cases. 
 
 I am. Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 James G. Wood. 
 
 October 27th. 
 
Appendix. 113 
 
 THE SUPPOSED CHINESE REVOLUTIONIST. 
 
 [From the China Mail, Hong Kong, Dec. 3rd, 1896,] 
 
 Sun Yat Sen, who has recently been in trouble 
 in London through the Chinese Minister attempt- 
 ing to kidnap him for execution as a rebel, is not 
 unlikely to become a prominent character in his- 
 tory. Of course, it would not be right to state, 
 until a duly constituted court of law has found, 
 that a man is definitely connected with any illegal 
 movement, or that any movement with which he 
 is connected is definitely anti-dynastic. The only 
 suggestion of Dr. Sun Yat Sen being a rebel in 
 any sense comes from the Chinese Legation in 
 London and the officials of Canton. But without 
 any injury to him it may be safely said that he is 
 a remarkable man, with most enlightened views 
 on the undoubtedly miserable state of China's 
 millions, and that there are many Chinese who 
 feel very strongly on the subject and try now and 
 then to act very strongly. The allegation of the 
 officials is that these people tried to accomplish a 
 revolution in October, 1895, and that Sun Yat Sen 
 was a leader in the conspiracy. Foreigners, even 
 those resident in the Far East, had little know- 
 ledge how near the long-expected break-up of China 
 then was. As it happened, the outbreak missed 
 fire, and what little attention it did attract was of 
 the contemptuous sort. The situation was, how- 
 ever, one of as great danger as any since the Tai 
 Pings were suppressed, and the organisation was 
 
 8 
 
114 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 much more up-to-date and on a more enlightened 
 basis than even that great rebelHon. In fact, it 
 was the intelh'gence of the principal movers that 
 caused the movement to be discountenanced at an 
 early stage as premature, instead of struggling on 
 with a more disastrous failure in view, for the 
 revolution is only postponed, not abandoned for 
 ever. The origin of the movement cannot be 
 specifically traced ; it arose from the general dis- 
 satisfaction of Chinese with Manchu rule, and it 
 came to a head on the outbreak of war between 
 China and Japan. The malcontents saw that the 
 war afforded an opportunity to put their aspira- 
 tions into shape, and they promptly set to work. 
 At first, that is to say before China had been so 
 soundly thrashed all along the line, they had in 
 view purely lawful and constitutional measures, 
 and hoped to effect radical changes without resort 
 to violence. Dr. Sun worked hard and loyally to 
 fuse the inchoate elements of disaffection brought 
 into existence by Manchu misgovernment, and to 
 give the whole reform movement a purely consti- 
 tutional form, in the earnest hope of raising his 
 wretched country out of the Slough of Despond 
 in which it was and is sinking deeper daily. His 
 was the master-mind that strove to subdue the 
 wild uncontrollable spirits always prominent in 
 Chinese reactionary schemes, to harmonise con- 
 flicting interests, not only as between various 
 parties in his own country but also as between 
 Chinese and foreigners, and as between various 
 
Appendix. 115 
 
 foreign Powers. The most difficult problem was 
 to work out the sequel of any upheaval — to an- 
 ticipate and be ready in advance to deal with 
 all the complications bound to ensue as soon as 
 the change took place. Moreover he had to bear 
 in mind that any great reform movement must 
 necessarily depend very largely on the aid of 
 foreigners, of nations and individuals as well, 
 while there is throughout China an immense mass 
 of anti-foreign prejudice which would have to be 
 overcome somehow. The task was stupendous, 
 hopeless in fact, but he recognised that the sal- 
 vation of China depended and still depends on 
 something of the sort being some day rendered 
 possible, and that the only way to accomplish it 
 was to try, try, try again. That is to say, last 
 year's attempt was not likely to succeed, but was 
 likely to bring success a stage nearer, and in that 
 sense it was well worth the effort to an ardent 
 patriot. Dr. Sun was the only man who com- 
 bined a complete grasp of the situation with a 
 reckless bravery of the kind which alone can 
 make a national regeneration. He was born in 
 Honolulu, and had a good English education. 
 He has travelled extensively in Europe and 
 America, and is a young man of remarkable 
 attainments. He was for some time a medical 
 student in Dr. Kerr's School in Tientsin, and 
 afterwards was on the staff of the Alice Memorial 
 Hospital in Hong Kong. He is of average height, 
 thin and wiry, with a keenness of expression and 
 
 8 * 
 
Ii6 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 frankness of feature seldom seen in Chinese. An 
 unassuming manner and an earnestness of speech, 
 combined with a quick perception and resolute 
 judgment, go to impress one with the conviction 
 that he is in every way an exceptional type of his 
 race. Beneath his calm exterior is hidden a person- 
 ality that cannot but be a great influence for good 
 in China sooner or later, if the Fates are fair. In 
 China, any advocate of reform or any foe of cor- 
 ruption and oppression is liable to be regarded as 
 a violent revolutionist, and summarily executed. It 
 has been the same in the history of every country 
 when freedom and enlightenment were in their 
 infancy, or not yet born. The propaganda had 
 therefore to be disseminated with the greatest 
 care, and at imminent peril. First, an able and 
 exhaustive treatise on political matters was pub- 
 lished in Hong Kong, and circulated all over 
 China, especially in the south, where it created 
 a sensation, early in 1895. I^ was most cautiously 
 worded, and the most censorious official could 
 not lay his finger on a word of it and complain ; 
 but it depicted in vivid colours the beauties of 
 enlightened and honest government, contrasted 
 with the horrors of corrupt and tyrannical mis- 
 government. This feeler served to show how 
 much voluntary reform could be expected of 
 Chinese officialdom, for it had as much effect as 
 a volume of sermons thrown among a shoal of 
 sharks. Then it became no longer possible to 
 control the spirits of insurrection. Steps were at 
 
Appendix. 117 
 
 once taken to organise a rebellion, with which it 
 is alleged, but not yet proved, that Dr. Sun Yat 
 Sen was associated. Before the war there had 
 been insurrectionary conspiracies — in fact, such 
 things are chronic in China. The navy was 
 disaffected, because of certain gross injustices 
 and extortions practised on the officers and 
 men by the all-powerful mandarins. The com- 
 manders of land forces and forts were not much 
 different, and many civilian officials were willing 
 to join in a rising. No doubt much of the 
 support accorded to the scheme was prompted 
 by ulterior motives, for there are more of that sort 
 than of any other in China. The rebellion was 
 almost precipitated in March, when funds were 
 supplied from Honolulu, Singapore, Australia, and 
 elsewhere ; but men of the right sort were still 
 wanting, and arms had not been obtained in great 
 quantity, and wiser counsels prevailed. It would 
 have been better perhaps if wiser counsels had 
 prevailed in October, but wisdom cannot come 
 without experience, and for the sake of the expe- 
 rience the leaders of the abortive revolution do 
 not greatly regret their action. Some indeed 
 drew out as soon as it became certain that violent 
 measures were to be adopted ; but the penalty of 
 death would not be obviated by that, and it was 
 at imminent risk of his life that Dr. Sun had been 
 travelling throughout the length and breadth of 
 China, preaching the gospel of good government 
 and gathering recruits for constitutional reform. 
 
ii8 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 His allies, never very confident in pacific methods, 
 planned a bold coup d'etat, which might have gained 
 a momentary success, but made no provision for 
 what would happen in the next few moments. 
 Men were drafted to Hong Kong to be prepared 
 for an attack on Canton ; arms and ammunition 
 were smuggled in cement-casks ; money was sub- 
 scribed lavishly, foreign advisers and commanders 
 were obtained, and attempts were made, without 
 tangible result, to secure the co-operation of the 
 Japanese Government. What would have been 
 the result if the verbal sympathy of Japanese under- 
 officials had been followed by active sympathy in 
 higher quarters, none can tell ; the indemnity, the 
 Liao-tung settlement, the commercial treaty, the 
 whole history of the relations between Japan and 
 China and Europe since the war might have been 
 totally different. Every detail of the plot was 
 arranged, but before the time for striking the blow, 
 treachery stepped in. A prominent Chinese mer- 
 chant of Hong Kong had professed adherence to 
 the reform movement, for he had much to gain by 
 it ; then he concluded that he could gain more by 
 playing into the hands of the official vampires, 
 for he was connected with one of the many syndi- 
 cates formed to compete for railway and mining 
 concessions in China after the war. So he gave 
 information, and the cement was examined, with 
 the result that the whole coup d'etat was nothing 
 more than a flash in the pan. Dr. Sun happened 
 to be in Canton at the time, and was accused of 
 
Appendix. 119 
 
 active participation in the violent section of the 
 reform movement. In China, to be innocent is 
 not to be safe ; an accusation is none the less 
 dangerous for being utterly unfounded. Sun had 
 to fly for his life, without a moment's deliberation 
 as to friends or property or anything else ; and for 
 two or three weeks he was a fugitive hiding in 
 the labyrinthine canals and impenetrable pirate- 
 haunts of the great Kwang-tung Delta. A report 
 has been published that forty or fifty of his sup- 
 posed accomplices were executed, and a reward 
 was offered for his arrest, but he got away to 
 Honolulu and thence to America. The story goes 
 that this indomitable patriot immediately set to 
 work converting the Chinese at the Washington 
 Embassy to the cause of reform, and that after- 
 wards he tried to do the same in London ; that 
 one of the Chinese in the Legation at Washington 
 had professed sympathy with the apostle of en- 
 lightenment, and then thought more money could 
 be made on the other side, and so telegraphed to 
 the London Embassy to arrest Sun and kidnap 
 him back to China by hook or by crook. However 
 that may be, he was captured and confined in a 
 most outrageous manner in the London Legation, 
 whatever plausible pifile may be put forward by 
 Sir Halliday Macartney, or any servile prevari- 
 cator ; and it is due to Dr. Cantlie, Sun's friend 
 and teacher in Hong Kong, that one of the best 
 men China has ever produced was rescued by 
 British justice from the toils of treacherous man- 
 
120 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 darindom. All who know Dr. Cantlie — and he is 
 well known in many parts of the world — agree 
 that a more upright, honourable and devoted bene- 
 factor of humanity has never breathed. Dr. Sun 
 is in good hands, and under the protection of such 
 a man as Dr. Cantlie there can be little doubi 
 that he will pursue his chosen career with single- 
 hearted enthusiasm and most scrupulous straight- 
 forwardness of methods, until at last the good 
 work of humanising the miserable condition of 
 the Chinese Empire is brought to a satisfactory 
 state of perfection. 
 
 A leading article in The Times of 
 Saturday, October 24th, 1896, discusses 
 the question very fully: 
 
 While the '^ Concert of Europe " is supposed to 
 be making steady progress towards the establish- 
 ment of harmony amongst the constituent Powers, 
 the ordinarily smooth course of diplomatic inter- 
 course has been ruffled by a curious violation of 
 law and custom at the Chinese Legation — a 
 violation which might have led to tragic con- 
 sequences, but which has so turned out as to 
 present chiefly a ludicrous side for our con- 
 sideration. Through a communication made on 
 Thursday to our contemporary the GlohCy it 
 became known that a Chinese visitor to England, 
 a doctor named Sun Yat Sen, was imprisoned at 
 
Appendix. 121 
 
 the house of the Chinese Minister, and that it 
 was supposed to be the intention of his captors to 
 send him under restraint to his own country, there 
 to receive such measure of justice as a Chinese 
 tribunal might be expected to extend to an 
 alleged conspirator. Fortunately for the prisoner, 
 he had studied medicine at Hong Kong, where he 
 had made the acquaintance and had won the 
 friendly regard of Mr. Cantlie, the Dean of the 
 Hong Kong Medical College, and of Dr. Manson, 
 both of whom are now residing in London. Sun 
 Yat Sen was sufficiently supplied with money, and 
 he succeeded in finding means of communication 
 with these English friends, who at once took steps 
 to inform the police authorities and the Foreign 
 Office of what was being done, while, at the 
 same time, they employed detectives to watch the 
 Legation, in order to prevent the possibility of 
 the prisoner being secretly conveyed away. Lord 
 Salisbury, as soon as he was informed of what 
 had occurred, made a demand for the immediate 
 release of the prisoner, who was forthwith set at 
 liberty, and was taken away by Mr. Cantlie and 
 Dr. Manson, who attended in order to identify 
 him as the person they had known. He has since 
 furnished representatives of the Press with an 
 account of the circumstances of his capture and 
 detention, an account which differs in important 
 respects from that of the Chinese authorities. If 
 the Chinese had accomplished their supposed 
 object, and had smuggled Sun Yat Sen on ship- 
 
122 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 board, to be tried and probably executed in 
 China, our Foreign Office would have had to deal 
 with an offence against the comity of nations for 
 which it would have been necessary to demand 
 and obtain the punishment of all concerned. The 
 failure of the attempt may perhaps be held to 
 bring it too near the confines of comic opera to 
 furnish a subject for anything more than serious 
 remonstrance. 
 
 The offence alleged against Sun Yat Sen is 
 that his medical character is a mere cloak for 
 other designs, and that he is really Sun Wen, the 
 prime mover in a conspiracy which was dis- 
 covered in 1894, ^^d which had for its object the 
 dethronement of the present reigning dynasty. 
 The first step of the conspirators was to be the 
 capture of the Viceroy of Canton, who was to be 
 kidnapped when inspecting the arsenal ; but the 
 plot, like most plots, leaked out or was betrayed, 
 and fifteen of the ringleaders were arrested and 
 decapitated. Sun Wen saved himself by timely 
 flight, and made his way through Honolulu and 
 America to this country, being all the time 
 carefully watched by detectives. On reaching 
 England, at the beginning of the present month, 
 he called upon his old friends, Mr. Cantlie and 
 Dr. Manson, and prepared to commence a course 
 of medical study in London. A few days later 
 he disappeared, and on the evening of last Saturday 
 Mr. Cantlie was informed of his position. Sun 
 Wen, or Sun Yat Sen, whichever he may be 
 
Appendix. 123 
 
 alleges that he was walking in or near Portland 
 Place on the nth inst., when he was accosted in 
 the street by a fellow-countryman, who asked 
 whether he was Chinese or Japanese; and, being 
 told in reply that he was Chinese and a native of 
 Canton, hailed him as a fellow provincial, and 
 kept him in conversation until a second and then 
 a third Chinaman joined them. One of the three 
 left, while the other two walked slowly on until 
 they reached the Legation, when the others 
 invited Sun to enter, and supported the invitation 
 by the exercise of a certain amount of force. As 
 soon as he was inside, the door was shut and he 
 was conveyed upstairs to a room where, as he 
 alleges, he was seen by Sir Halliday Macartney, 
 and in which he was afterwards kept close prisoner 
 until released by the intervention of Lord Salis- 
 bury. The officials of the Chinese Legation, on 
 the other hand, assert that the man came to the 
 Legation of his own accord on Saturday, the 
 loth, and entered into conversation, talking about 
 Chinese affairs, and appearing to want only a 
 chat with some of his fellow-countrymen, after 
 having which he went away ; and that it was not 
 until after he had gone that suspicion was excited 
 that he might be the notorious Sun Wen, who had 
 fled from justice at home, whose passage through 
 America and departure for England had already 
 been telegraphed to the Legation, and who was 
 actually then being watched by a private detective 
 in the employment of the Chinese Government. 
 
124 Kidnapped in London, 
 
 Sun came to the Legation a second time, on 
 Sunday, the nth, and then, evidence of his 
 identity having been obtained, he was made 
 prisoner. It had been supposed that he was 
 about to return to Hong Kong as to a convenient 
 base for further operations ; and it was the inten- 
 tion of the Chinese Government to ask for his 
 extradition as soon as he arrived there. In the 
 meanwhile the actual presence of the supposed 
 conspirator in the Legation furnished a temptation 
 which it was found impossible to resist, and he 
 was locked up until instructions with regard to 
 him could arrive from Pekin. There can be little 
 doubt that these instructions, if they had been 
 received and could have been acted upon, would 
 have effectually destroyed his power to engage in 
 any further conspiracies ; and it may be assumed 
 that the intervention of Lord Salisbury was not 
 too early. Even as it was Sun appears to have 
 suffered considerable anxiety lest the food supplied 
 to him at the Legation should be unwholesome in 
 its character. 
 
 The simple process of cutting a knot is often 
 preferable to the labour of untying it, and we are 
 not very much surprised that the Chinese Minister 
 or his representative should have authorized the 
 adoption of the course which has happily failed of 
 success. But we cannot conceal our surprise that 
 Sir Halliday Macartney, himself an Englishman, 
 should have taken any part in a transaction mani- 
 festly doomed to failure, and the success of which 
 
Appendix. 125 
 
 would have been ruinous to all engaged in it. 
 The Chinese Minister is said to have surrendered 
 his prisoner " without prejudice,*' as lawyers say, 
 to his assumed rights; but he appears to have 
 claimed a right which is not acknowledged by any 
 civilized country, and which would be intolerable 
 if it were exercised. It would be a somewhat 
 similar proceeding if the Turkish Ambassador 
 were to inveigle some of the leading members of 
 the Armenian colony in London into the Embassy, 
 in order to despatch them, gagged and bound, as 
 an offering to his Imperial Majesty the Sultan, or 
 if Lord Dufferin had in the same way made a 
 private prisoner of Tynan, and had sent him to 
 stand his trial at the Old Bailey. It is well recog- 
 nised that the house of a foreign mission is regarded 
 as a portion of the country from which the mission 
 is sent, and that not only the Minister himself, but 
 also the recognised members of his suite, enjoy an 
 immunity from liability to the laws of the country 
 to which the Ambassador is accredited ; but this 
 hardly entitles the Ambassador to exercise powers 
 of imprisonment or of criminal jurisdiction, and 
 the privileges of the Embassy as a place of refuge 
 for persons unconnected with it are strictly limited 
 to the ground on which it stands. Even if the 
 Chinese Minister could not have been prevented 
 from keeping Sun in custody, he would have been 
 liberated by the police as soon as he was brought 
 over the threshold to be conveyed elsewhere. It 
 is fortunate that he did not suffer from any form 
 
126 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 of illness ; for if he had died during his imprison- 
 ment, it is very difficult to say what could have 
 been done in consequence. Evidence would have 
 been very hard to procure ; and, even if it had 
 been procured, the persons of the Minister and of 
 his servants would have been sacred. Probably 
 the only course would have been to demand that 
 the Minister should be recalled, and that he should 
 be put upon his trial in his own country; a demand 
 which might perhaps have been readily complied 
 with, but which might not improbably have led to 
 what Englishmen would describe as a miscarriage 
 of justice. We think that this country, almost as 
 much as the prisoner, may be congratulated upon 
 the turn of events ; and we have no doubt that 
 the Foreign Office will find ways and means of 
 making the rulers of the Celestial Empire under- 
 stand that they have gone a little too far, and that 
 they must not commit any similar offence in the 
 future. 
 
 This Article called forth a remonstrance 
 from Sir Halliday Macartney, in w^hich 
 he stated his views : 
 
 To the Editor of The Times. 
 
 Sir, — In your leading article of to-day, com- 
 menting on the alleged kidnapping of an individ- 
 ual, a Chinese subject, calling himself, amongst 
 numerous other aliases, by the name of Sun Yat 
 Sen, you make some remarks with regard to me 
 
Appendix, 127 
 
 which I cannot but consider as an exception to 
 the fairness which in general characterises the 
 comments of Ths Times, 
 
 After stating the case as given by the two 
 opposite parties, in the surprise which you express 
 at my conduct, you take it for granted that the 
 statement of Sun Yat Sen is the correct one and 
 that of the Chinese Legation the wrong one. 
 
 I do not know why you make this assumption, 
 for you undoubtedly do so when you say the case 
 is as if the Turkish Ambassador had inveigled 
 some of the members of the Armenian colony of 
 London into the Embassy with a view to making 
 them a present to his Majesty the Sultan. 
 
 Now, I repeat what I have said before — that in 
 this case there was no inveiglement. The state- 
 ment of Sun Yat Sen — or, to call him by his real 
 name, Sun Wen — that he was caught in the 
 street and hustled into the Legation by two 
 sturdy Chinamen is utterly false. 
 
 He came to the Legation unexpectedly and of 
 his own accord, the first time on Saturday, the 
 loth, the second on Sunday, the nth. 
 
 Whatever the pundits of international law may 
 
 think of his detention, they may take it as being 
 
 absolutely certain that there was no kidnapping 
 
 and that he entered the Legation without the 
 
 employment of force or guile. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Halliday Macartney. 
 Richmond House, 
 
 49 Portland Place, W., 
 Oct. 2/^th. 
 
128 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 Sir Halliday Macartney's remarks about 
 my going under various aliases, is no 
 doubt intended to cast a slur upon my 
 character ; but Sir Halliday knows, no 
 one better, that every Chinaman has four 
 names at least to which he is entitled. 
 1st, the name one's parents bestow on 
 their child. 2nd, the name given by the 
 schoolmaster. 3rd, the name a young 
 man wishes to be known by when he goes 
 out into society. 4th, the name he takes 
 when he is married. The only constant 
 part of the name is the first syllable — 
 the surname, really the family name; 
 the other part of the name varies accord- 
 ing as it is the parent, the schoolmaster, 
 etc., chooses. Whilst upon this subject it 
 may not be without interest to know that 
 my accuser has various aliases by which 
 he is known to the Chinese. In addition 
 to the name Ma-Ta-Yen, which means 
 Macartney, His Excellency, he is also 
 known as Ma-Ka-Ni, and as Ma-Tsing- 
 
Appendix. 129 
 
 Shan, showing that no name is constant 
 in China except the family name. 
 
 From The Speaker, October 31st, 1896. 
 
 THE DUNGEONS OF PORTLAND PLACE. 
 
 Sir Halliday Macartney is an official in the 
 service of the Chinese Government. That fact 
 seems to have deprived him of any sense of 
 humour he might otherwise have had, which, we 
 imagine, would in no circumstances have been 
 conspicuous. The Secretary of the Chinese 
 Legation has struck an attitude of injured in- 
 nocence in The Times, He is Hke Woods Pasha, 
 when that undiscerning personage stands up for 
 the Turkish Government in an English newspaper. 
 What in a true Oriental would seem natural and 
 characteristic, in the sham Oriental is merely 
 ridiculous. Sir Halliday Macartney assures the 
 world that the Chinese medical gentleman who 
 was lately released from the Portland Place 
 Bastille was not inveigled into that institution. 
 To the obvious suggestion that Sun Yat Sen 
 would never have walked into the Chinese 
 Embassy of his own accord, had he known the 
 real identity of his entertainers. Sir Halliday 
 vouchsafes no reply. It is unquestionable that he 
 saw the captive, and took no measures to set him 
 at liberty, till a peremptory requisition came from 
 the Foreign Office. If it was not intended to 
 
 9 
 
130 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 deport Sun Yat Sen to China, why was he kept a 
 prisoner ? Sir Halliday Macartney is in the 
 pitiable position of an Englishman who is forced 
 by his official obligations to palliate in London 
 what would be the ordinary course of justice at 
 Canton. A purely Chinese emissary would have 
 said nothing. Having failed in his manoeuvre, 
 he v/ould have accepted the consequences of 
 defeat with the fatalism of his race and native 
 climate. The spectacle of Sir Halliday Macartney 
 fussing and fuming in the Times like an English- 
 man, w^hen he ought to hold his peace like a 
 Chinaman, can only suggest to the authorities at 
 Pekin that their English representative here is a 
 rather incompetent person. 
 
 On the other hand, there is som.ething in this 
 Chinese kidnapping w^hich is irresistibly divert- 
 ing. Englishmen can never take the Chinaman 
 seriousty, in spite of Charles Pearson's prediction 
 that the yellow man will one day eat us up. The 
 personality of Ah Sin, especially when he wears a 
 pigtail and his native costume, is purely comic to 
 the average sightseer. If the men who decoyed 
 Sun Yat Sen were pointed out to a London crowd, 
 they v;ould be greeted not with indignation, but 
 wuth mildly derisive banter. It might go hard 
 with any Europeans who had tried the same 
 game ; but Ah Sin, the childhke and bland, is a 
 traditional joke. His strategy excites no more 
 resentm.ent than the nodding of the ornamental 
 mandarin on the mantelpiece. The popular idea 
 
Appendix. 131 
 
 of Lord Salisbury's intervention in this case is 
 probably that the Chinaman's pigtail has been 
 gently but decisively pulled, and that such a 
 lesson is quite sufficient without any public anger. 
 Had a German or a Frenchman been kidnapped 
 in similar circumstances, the situation would at 
 once have been recognised as extremely serious. 
 The capture and incarceration in Portland Place 
 simply excite a smile. The newspapers have 
 treated the incident as they treat the announce- 
 ment that Li Hung Chang, promoted to be 
 Imperial Chancellor of China, had at the same 
 time been punished for an unauthorised visit to 
 the Empress Dowager. How can you be angry 
 with a people whose solemnities frequently strike 
 the Occidental mind as screaming farce ? It is 
 impossible to pass No. 40 Portland Place with a 
 romantic shudder. That middle-class dwelling, 
 of substantial and comfortable aspect, is now a 
 Bastille poiiv riye, and excites the mirth of trades- 
 men's boys, who must feel strongly tempted, by 
 way of celebrating the Fifth of November, to ring 
 the bell and introduce a Celestial guy to the 
 puzzled servitors of the Embassy, with a fluent 
 tirade in pigeon- English. 
 
 As for Sun Yat Sen, it cannot escape his notice 
 that there is little curiosity to know the precise 
 reason why he is obnoxious to the Chinese Govern- 
 ment. He is said to have taken part in a con- 
 spiracy against the Viceroy of Canton, a statement 
 which conveys no vivid impression to the popular 
 
 9 * 
 
132 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 mind. Political refugees — Italians, Poles, Hun- 
 garians — have commonly inspired a romantic 
 interest in this country. They have figured in 
 our fiction, always a sure criterion of public 
 sympathies. When the storyteller takes the 
 foreign conspirator in hand, you may be sure that 
 the machinations, escapes, and so forth touch a 
 responsive chord in the popular imagination. But 
 no storyteller is likely to turn the adventures of 
 Sun Yat Sen to such account, though they may be 
 really thrilling, and though this worthy Celestial 
 medico may have been quite a formidable person 
 in his native land. Even the realistic descriptions 
 by travellers of Chinese administration, the gentle 
 coercion of witnesses in the courts by smashing 
 their ankles, the slicing of criminals to death, 
 have not given a sinister background to the figure 
 of the Heathen Chinee. The ignominious defeat 
 of the Chinese arms in the late war has 
 strengthened the conception of the yellow man as 
 a rather grotesquely ineffectual object. If Sun 
 Yat Sen were to deliver a lecture on his adven- 
 tures, and paint the tyranny of the Viceroy 
 of Canton in the deepest colours, or if Sir 
 Halliday Macartney were to show that his late 
 prisoner was a monster of ferocity, compared to 
 whom all the Western dynamiters were angels in 
 disguise, we doubt whether either story would 
 command the gravity of the public. The Chinese 
 have their virtues ; they are a frugal, thrifty, and 
 abstemious people; they practise a greater respect 
 
Appendix. 133 
 
 for family ties than Western nations. The 
 custom of worshipping their ancestors, though 
 one of the chief stumbhng-blocks to the Christian 
 missionaries, probably exercises a greater moral 
 influence than the reverence for genealogy here. 
 But no audience in England or America would 
 accept these virtues as rebukes to the short- 
 comings of the Anglo-Saxon civilisation. So deep 
 is the gulf between Occident and Orient that the 
 pride of neither will learn from the other, and 
 both are indiiferent to the warnings of prophets 
 who foretell the triumph of the Caucasian in the 
 Flowery Land or the submergement of Europe by 
 the yellow flood of immigration. All Western 
 notions are regarded in China with a contempt 
 which even the travels of Li are not likely to 
 dispel ; and No. 40 Portland Place can never 
 recover that prestige of harmless nonentity it 
 enjoyed before the pranks of the Chinese Embassy 
 made it a centre of the ludicrous. 
 
 The follov^ing is a copy of the letter 
 I sent to the nev^spapers thanking the 
 Government and the Press for what they 
 had done for me : 
 
 To the Editor of the 
 
 Sir, — Will you kindly express through your 
 columns my keen appreciation of the action of 
 the British Government in eflecting my release 
 
134 Kidnapped in London. 
 
 from the Chinese Legation ? I have also to thank 
 the Press generally for their timely help and 
 sympathy. If anything were needed to convince 
 me of the generous public spirit which pervades 
 Great Britain, and the love of justice which 
 distinguishes its people, the recent acts of the last 
 few days have conclusively done so. 
 
 Knowing and feeling more keenly than ever 
 what a constitutional Government and an enlight- 
 ened people mean, I am prompted still more 
 actively to pursue the cause of advancement, 
 education, and civilisation in my own well-beloved 
 but oppressed country. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Sun Yat Sen. 
 
 46 Devonshire Street, 
 Portland Place, W., 
 Oct. 24. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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