3-074-570 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Chinese torpedo corps, 1883. '...the naval and military forces of the Chinese Empire have of late years been improved by the adoption of modern scientific methods and appliances, especially for defensive warfare, calculated to resist the attack even of a Great European Power...One of our Illustrations is that representing some officers of rank, and...students...The fat old Chinese gentleman on the right is Lo-Yung-Kwang, a military Mandarin of high eminence, who served under Li-Hung-Chang, against the Tai-Ping rebels, and who is commandant of the Taku Forts. Next him sits Liu-Han-Fang, Chief Secretary for Military Affairs, and specially intrusted, as a member of the Imperial Defence Commission, with the coast defence north of the Yang-Tze-Kiang. At the other side of the small table, with the interpreter, Tseng-dai-Sun, is seated the only European of the party - namely, Mr. J. A. Betts, Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, who was chief engineer of the Torpedo Department of the Chinese Government for some years...his principal work has been at Taku, where a complete system of torpedo service, both offensive and defensive, has been provided'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.