HLI Chronicle 1915 - The Royal Highland Fusiliers

HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY CHRONICLE.
133
position of Acting Agent and Consul-General
at Zanzibar.
SERVICES IN WEST AFRICA.
Just before the year closed the Prime
Minister appointed Macdonald Commissioner
on the West Coast of Africa, and within a few
months he was busily engaged in settling the
difficulties that had arisen in the Niger Territories.
His knowledge of foreign languages
had been of special service to him more than
once in his diplomatic career, and his acquaintance
with German was particularly valuable
during the negotiations which he conducted
at Berlin with reference to the delimitation
of boundary between the Oil Rivers Protectorate
and the Colony of Cameroons. Major
Macdonald's tact and grasp of the situation
in West Africa marked him out for further
preferment, and Lord Salisbury showed his
appreciation of the young officer's services
by appointing him, in 1891, Commissioner
and Consul-General in the Oil Rivers (now
Nigeria) Protectorate and adjoining Native
Territories, with the subsidiary posts of
Consul to the Island of Fernando Po and
Consul in the Cameroons. Both the officials
at the Foreign Office and the officials at the
Colonial Office praise the wofk done by Major
Macdonald in West Africa, and he well earned
the K.C.M.G. which Lord Salisbury advised
the King to bestow on him in 1892 for distinguished
services in that part of the Empire.
WORK IN CHINA.
When Sir Nicholas O'Conor left Peking in
1895 to become our Ambassador at St. Petersburg
affairs in China were in anything but a
quiescent state. The Shimonoseki Treaty
had been cunningly evaded by the Tsung-li­
Yamen, and Japan was despoiled of the rights
of victory in order, as it afterwards transpired,
to hand over Manchuria and Port Arthur to
Russia, and to give lesser advantages to
France and Germany, The political horizon
in the Far East was dark indeed, while on the
Chinese Throne sat an Emperor who even at
that time was subject to dictation ·from the
Dowager Empress. Great issues hung in the
balance, and the eyes of the entire diplomatic
world were focussed on Downing Street.
Whom would Lord Salisbury send to Peking?
was the one question on everyone's lips, and,
curiously enough, no one nominated Sir
Claude Macdonald. 'When, therefore, it became
known that the choice of the Cabinet
had fa.llen on the able Administrator of the
Niger Coast Protectorate there was a general
pause. Diplomatists looked to each other in
vain for an answer to the question" Why 1 ..
and a certain prominent daily journal did not
hesitate to condemn the appointment as an
indiscretion on the part of the Prime Minister.
It was an exceedingly rare thing for the commercial
community at Shanghai to be satisfied
with the British Minister at Peking. It has
been said that Sir Claude's diplomacy was not
of the strong order, but when the difficulties
that surrounded his work at Peking from first •
to last are remembered it is not too much to
say that all through his trying period of office
at the Chinese capital he performed his work
conscientiously and with singular ability,
while his conciliatory manner was often the
means of securing harmony among the Foreign
Powers when a disruption might have plunged
this country into a war the magnitude of which
could not be foreseen. If, perhaps, Sir Claude
was scarcely able to cope with the overwhelming
power of Russia in the north of China,
he managed to secure for Great Britain, at
anyrate on paper, the paramount position
in the Yang-tse Valley.
PEKING AND TOKYO.
Sir Claude was in Peking during the Boxer
disturbances in the summer of 1900, and it
was reported that he and Lady Macdonald
and all the other occupants of the Legations
had been massacred by the rebels~a report
which, to the great relief of the nation, proved
false. Sir Claude received the China Medal
and Clasp for the Defence of the Legations,
and in October, 1900, was transferred to Tokyo
as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
to the Emperor of Japan. He was
in November promoted to the rank of colonel
in the Reserve of Officers, and made a K.C.B.
in recognition of his services in China, while in
1902 he was one of the recipients of the
Coronation Medal. Sir Claude remained at
Tokyo throughout the Russo-Japanese War,
and in November, 1905, was promoted to be
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
to the Emperor. In February, 1906,
he was made a G.C.V.O., and was sworn a
Privy Councillor ten months later. He remained
in Tokyo till 1912.
Sir Claude married in 1892 Ethel, daughter
of Major W. Cairns Armstrong, of the 15th
Regiment. He is survived by Lady Macdonald
and two daughters.
-Morning Post, Sept. 11, 1915.
FUNERAL OF SIR CLAUDE MACDONALD.
The first part of the funeral service was held
on the afternoon of September 14th at Mar~-