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When Johnston left Weihai, Stewart Lockhart obviously missed him badly. If anything, the place seemed to grow sleepier with Johnston’s absence. Consular officers were seconded to assist the commissioner, and the question of Weihai’s rendition once more raised its head during the negotiations at Versailles after the Great War. Other than that, the place continued in its own slow rhythm. Stewart Lockhart had been in the territory for almost twenty years, having first arrived in China when Johnston was not quite five years old. Even he was aware that the time had come to retire: he finally decided he would leave Weihai forever in April 1921. He gave the Colonial Office almost a year’s notice of his intentions so that they would have a decent length of time in which to appoint his successor. For years, it had of course been assumed in official circles that Johnston would succeed him, but now Johnston was happily stationed in Beijing. Stewart Lockhart did some gentle fishing on behalf of the Colonial Office: would Johnston be prepared to return to Weihai? Johnston was cautious in reply: ‘I should certainly like to be offered it, because it would show that the C.O. thought me worth promoting, and the fact that I had been offered it might be useful to me later on if circumstances made it necessary for me to go to them cap in hand for a billet. Whether I accepted it or not would largely depend on whether they intended to reduce the salary and status: if so, it might not be worth my while to give up my present job, which with extras gives me over $1000 a month.’1 In the summer of 1920, the emperor had upgraded his status to ‘a sort of Imperial Secretary or Adviser’. All in all, Johnston felt that he should therefore ‘much prefer to stay where I am’.2 In the meantime, the Colonial and Foreign Offices in London were arguing about Stewart Lockhart’s replacement. The Colonial Office wanted Johnston: ‘He is probably the best man in the Col. Service for the job—indeed I cannot think of anyone else who wd. be in the running.’3 The Foreign Office was equally clear in its views: ‘I hope there is no intention of giving Mr Johnston the Commissionership at Weihai. Chapter 10 Mandarin of the First Rank (1920–1923) 172 Scottish Mandarin As tutor to the Emperor he is doing valuable work.’4 They also correctly guessed that Johnston would probably not accept the post even if it were offered to him. Indeed, by the end of 1921, Johnston had made up his mind about his future. When he retired he would settle in Cherry Glen, feeling ‘sure that I couldn’t stand a winter in the gloomy British Isles after nearly a quarter of a century in the sunny east’.5 By the time he had made that decision, the Colonial Office had decided that Johnston should not be offered the Weihai posting ‘until he has finished his temporary duty as Tutor to the ex-Emp. of China’.6 Meanwhile, Johnston continued to be rather overwhelmed by the attention given to him in court circles: ‘The whole imperial clan treat me with extraordinary kindness.’7 President Xu, of course, had made his gratitude for Johnston’s services clear with his purchase of Cherry Glen. Prince Cai Tao continued to press gifts on him, too. A third pony had been given to him in 1920, forcing Johnston to give away the horse he had bought in order to make room in his small stables for this newest equine gift. He was even more pressed for space when ‘the Emperor presented me with a pony … As I had a stable of three ponies I gave one away … I could not sell it, as it was a present from Prince Cai Tao.’8 Puyi also continued to give Johnston gifts of money as well as presenting him with a steady stream of objects, from porcelain and precious jades to inscribed tablets. Almost any event of significance resulted in a present, or cumshaw, to Johnston: ‘On his (the Emperor’s) birthday I received from him a cumshaw of $1500; and the periodical cumshaws (about 4 a year) amount to $1000 each time’.9 Johnston was generous with these gifts and distributed bonuses to his own staff each time he received money from the emperor. As he entered his third year of imperial...

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