The Stone Dragon

by Peter Watt

  ‘Will the incident at the university have repercussions for you?’ Tung Li asked as they walked.

  ‘I was exercising my right to control the crowd,’ Tung Han replied bluntly. ‘Nothing more.’

  Tung Li knew that his brother had risked much in rescuing him. In many circles of the Party he was considered suspect on account of his Western contacts and that was not good for his half-brother’s career. ‘What will you do with me?’ Tung Li asked.

  ‘You will be sent to a little village in the north of the country until this insanity abates,’ Tung Han answered. ‘There, you will work as a stonemason until it is safe for you to return. I cannot understand why you did not comply with my earlier suggestions to flee.’

  ‘It was the stone dragon,’ Tung Li said. ‘I had to wait for the results to be confirmed. And now it has all been a waste of time. The evidence has been completely obliterated.’

  ‘What was so important about the rock?’ Tung Han asked.

  ‘It was confirmed as coming from the planet Mars, and thus the fossil had to be a creature originating from that world. It would have answered one of mankind’s most asked questions, about whether life existed beyond our own world.’

  Tung Han ceased walking and turned to his brother. ‘I am sorry that you have lost the stone dragon,’ he said sympathetically. ‘But you are alive, as I swore to our mother to protect you. I cannot mourn for your loss, as I am a soldier who has fought for my country. We need to find peace among ourselves before we find the answer to mankind’s philosophical questions. It will pass.’

  Tung Li gazed down the cold street. Maybe his brother was right, he mused. What good was the answer to the question of life on other worlds when on his own there was no peace. Ah, but at least he’d had the opportunity to gaze upon the little stone dragon and, for a brief moment, wondered who else had seen the creature from another world. That was a question to which he would not have an answer. For now his country was a sleeping dragon, awakening to make the world tremble.

  Author’s Notes

  I had originally set out to write of the Australian colonial involvement in the Boxer Rebellion but soon learned that, as with the Suakin Campaign of 1885, Australian forces arrived just a little too late to see the bulk of the military action in the advance to Peking.

  However, in the list of pre-Federation wars that saw Australians committed to fighting in foreign disputes, the Boxer rebellion is counted among our ventures. At least we did make an impression on some observers once our various naval brigades arrived. A British officer remarked in passing upon the arrival of the American soldiers: ‘the men of the American Army were equalled in physique only by the Australian Contingent and our Royal Horse Artillery.’

  Bob Nicholls has comprehensively detailed our service in China in his excellent book, Bluejackets and Boxers: Australia’s Naval Expedition to the Boxer Uprising (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1986). However, as the main source of information for this novel I was fortunate to come across Diana Preston’s The Boxer Rebellion (Walker & Co., New York, 1999). Never before had I read such an interesting account of any historical event as I did in the pages of her book and I am indebted to her, as she has provided the canvas upon which I have detailed the fictional story of John Wong and his family. I would thoroughly recommend her book to any reader with an interest in history as it details so many interesting incidents I did not have the room to include in my story. Her account is a page turner to those with even a mild interest in such historical matters.

  The Boxer Rebellion in the middle of 1900 also included the siege of the European legations in the city of Tientsin and the advance of the allied army and naval forces fighting their way towards Peking. Never before or since in modern history did so many European nations combine to attack a single nation. German, British, Austrian, Italian, French, Dutch, Belgian, Russian, Japanese and American marines stood shoulder to shoulder against the Boxers and Imperial Chinese land and naval forces. Fourteen years later these same nations would be split into two warring camps. And again, forty-two years later, American marines would find themselves fighting Japanese marines in bloody campaigns in the Pacific.

  The Boxer Rebellion was a complex saga with so many events and plots unfolding that my fictional account has only explored one, comparatively small aspect. It was not within the scope of this novel to describe the engagements between the Chinese navy and the Allied navies, nor the vicious battles fought on the advance to free Tientsin and Peking. Again, I would recommend Diana Preston’s work on the subject to learn more of what occurred during the Rebellion and after the Chinese were crushed.

  Needless to say, today the nation of China is the emerging world superpower and Australia’s foreign relations with that nation are of great importance to our economy.

  This novel is so closely woven with factual events that I was almost tempted to give up on the adventures of John Wong as he was overshadowed by the real life adventures of men such as Dr George Morrison. Most of the events described in my novel concerning the larger than life Australian were real, such as the rescue of Polly Condit-Smith (who, it appears, had a crush on Dr Morrison, although the feelings were not mutual, according to what was recorded in their respective journals).

  Morrison’s impact following the Boxer Rebellion on Chinese politics still echoes today in China. Tall, handsome and charismatic, his life is the stuff of Hollywood sagas. For further information on the man Cyril Pearl’s Morrison of Peking (Penguin, 1967) provides a comprehensive description of his colourful life. He is, in my opinion, one of the greatest Australians we have ever been able to claim.

  Herbert Hoover is also mentioned and it is interesting that the future thirty-first president of the United States was besieged with his wife, Lou, in the city of Tientsin. As a young mining engineer, Hoover was sent in 1897 to Western Australia to assist develop the gold mine at a little place known as Gwalia. The residence where he stayed is now a bed and breakfast for the intrepid tourist. From Gwalia he was transferred to China and his personal bravery was demonstrated in an incident when he rescued many Chinese children. His wife, Lou, worked in the hospital during the siege and suffered the same dangers with her husband.

  I have used the spelling ‘Pekin’ throughout, rather than ‘Peking’. From my research, the spelling that appears in the novel was used extensively by the real historical characters I have written about.

  Finally, on a more personal note, the story of the Boxer Rebellion touches on my own life. My partner Naomi Howard-Smith’s great grandparents, Thomas and Mary Howard, who were members of the London Bible Society, lost a young daughter, Dorothy, at the end of the siege in Peking, as did many other Australians. I hope this small part of our history with China will be remembered.

  Acknowledgments

  My gratitude and thanks for the production of this book go to my publisher, Cate Paterson, who has listened to my ideas for almost a decade. Cate has had the capable support of Catherine Day, who has done wonderful work editing this novel. Not to be forgotten is the work of Janet Hutchinson, who has had the tedious task of working through every word and sentence to correct grammatical errors. Special thanks to Jane Novak, my publicist, who has stood by me as long as I have been with Pan Macmillan. I would also like to express my thanks to Julie Crisp, whose editing work on my previous novel, The Silent Frontier, was remarkable. I wish her well in her new job in the UK.

  My particular thanks go to my agent, Geoffrey Radford, who is always there for me. Thanks, mate.

  I have recently moved to Maclean in northern New South Wales from the beautiful village of Finch Hatton in Queensland. While living in the Pioneer Valley I worked as a volunteer emergency driver for the Queensland Ambulance Service. In my eighteen months with that organisation I was fortunate to work alongside some of Australia’s finest people, sharing the sometimes heartbreaking situations as well as the occasional highs they experience. To all of you whom I have worked with, my very special thanks for your camaraderie and profess
ionalism.

  My thanks also go to so many people of the Pioneer Valley whom I had the chance to befriend. They are too numerous to mention but know who they are. However, a special thanks to Mel and Alice Lowth and all the family; you will not be forgotten. I would also like to extend a special mention to the wonderful ladies at the Mirani Library who ensured that my supply of research material for this novel was there for me.

  It is here that I also have the opportunity to thank a few friends who have consistently supported me in my work. They are Virginia and Garie Wolfe from Tweed Heads and my old Yankee mate Larry Gilles, who served his country in Vietnam with the USMC. Larry’s comments on aspects of the ongoing manuscript were invaluable. A special thank you to my old mate Kevin Jones and his wife Maureen who have both helped Naomi and me settle into the town. Many years ago Kevin and I served together in the NSW Police and the Army Reserve.

  To my readers who enjoy this style of story, I would strongly recommend fellow Aussie author Tony Park, whose books Far Horizon, Zambezi, African Sky and the soon-to-be-released Safari are well and truly in the tradition of that great author Wilbur Smith.

  Last but not least I want to thank Naomi Howard-Smith for the love and support she has given me over the years in the good and bad times and through the publication of eight books. It is Naomi who points out that romance is essential in any story.