CHINA'S CIVIL WAR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1315, 19 December 1911, Page 5

CHINA'S CIVIL WAR.

INTERVENTION RUMOURS. REPORTED ACTION BY BRITAIN AND JAPANTOKIO VERSIONS. By TclecraDh—Press Association-Oopyrlsbl U<cv\ December IS, 10.5 p.m.) Tokio, Drmiil/er 18. The newspapers assert that Grc.it Britain and ilnpun ore. combining to secure pcaco in China. The Foreign Ofiico declares that the report is premature. A message from Shanghai states that tho rebels have been notified that Great Britain and Japan are prepared to guaranteo certain terms of peace. Tho Japanese newspaper "Jiji Shimpo" announces that both countries will lake decisivo measures if their terms are refused. (Rec. December 18, 11.10 p.m.) London, December 18. The Foreign Office states that Japanese reports of intervention in China are unauthorised. It is impDssible to issue a statement on the matter at present pending negotiations. SUCCESSES ON BOTH SIDES. MANCHUS DEMAND ARREARS OF PAY. (Rcc. December 18, 10.5 p.m.) Peking, December 18. Four thousand rebels attacked Kingchau, and the Jlanchu garrison surrendered, but their lives were spared by the interuesiun of' a lioman Catholic missionary. The lebols in Shan-shi are demoralised and poorly armed, and are .Jeoing. During their, flight-four locomotives drawing tho retreating troops blew up. The occupants at' the trains 'led to the hills. The Manclui soldiery have demanded their arrears of pay, and stipulate that their future remuneration shall bo in the nature of pay and not a Manchu bounty. They also demand the opening: of nil colleges and the compulsory attendance of students, , nd tho suppression of opiumsriioking and gambling. The British and Japanese Consul-Gen-erals at Shanghai will act as mediators in the forthcoming negotiations between the Imperialists and the revolutionaries. The Import ilists now control Taiyuanfu, the capital of Shanei, which is on the main road'leading from the central provinces to Northern China. AUSTRALIAN MISSIONARIES DEPORTED. (Rcc. December IS, 10.5 p.m.) Peking, December 18. Misses Sears and Molloy, two Australian missionaries, have been conveyed to Hankan, whence they were deported to Australia,-for disobeying the British Consul's orders to leave. • HOW WILL IT END? SOAJE MEWS OF CHINA'S FUTURE. Nothing like this Westernising movement in China, writes the Kev. Lord Uil lam Gaseoyne-Cecil in the "Daily Mail, has been since the Reformation altered tho whole history of Europe V I few; years ago if you had'told an old China hand that China -,vas going to follow Western and not Confucian teaching he would have- laughed. Then it ramed as improbable as it now seems that a .Mohammedan should eat pork chops or a bikh should shav« his beard, or a cranium should embrace an outcast Yet the improbable has once more come to pass in the history of the world. I told an American missionary that in the university scheme (which, I honv, will shortly be an actuality) Confucian learning would be encouraged as not inconsistent with Christianity. He answered that I might say Umt in England, but anion? .Hie joung Chinese "Confucius cuts no What is going to bo the end? iftei having just pointed out how wrong till prophets have been, I am not going to prophesy but we can'bee what others poets that a V, ostern nation will bo born m a day, and that China will bo able to Westernise with as much ease as a Chinaman can cut off his queue and put on a Western dress; that his country is to be a Republic, Western fashion, with a arasna "Charter," a declaration of i, dependence, a summoning of tho States.lγ""' iacl ; , - Wlt!l a " the. incidents ot \\ estorn constitutional history that all W; China ins learnt: to admire and to confuse in the Western collet. His future ideal is to have a Prfsident or a i rime Minister whoso efforts will be neutralised by a leader of Opposition I tl. \u Hi can V n , thc government with all the loquacity that modern dc(hat this W esternised China will defeat Julian and Russia, y<..;, ;,,„! cven rm and Germany, too, till China shall a"atn belong to the ChiW y olln7 j m %™ the other hand, 1 will not ~jv i X p«ct" IOH or other Japan will fi m > her«lf.mistress of a large part of China if not of all, with a purse big enough to buy a ; vb,cl, ; ri " mak <> the Pacific Ocean her lake and make Australia and New /faland. rather anxious and very loval to England. Ihe German Colonial l'nrtv «ow expects Shantung to be the fonnwtion of a German Chinese Empire Rus sia perhaps thinks that Tientsin would do merle *" f ° r Sibcrian com ° A Factor in Western Civilisation, These and many other contingencies seem possible. But it seems certain thtt China in one way or another will become m, HiV l f "i? 5 " mako mistakes, she lmy. la under the complete or partial domination of other countries, but she ;v,ll never again bo the Oriental country to whom the West was a matter of inch Iferonce and who had no effect on Western life, except to tench them to make porcelain and to drink tea. New liistorj .o Western civilisation for good or for evil, and it is certain she willX a factor for evil if M lO t B O , n ' d '» stand its if she regards a telephone #» or an aeroplane as its most beautiful Production or the invention of doalh ti ln V ho " s . a sits greatest benefit to humanity, ,f she looks on sweated industry as a necessary and healthy feature of commercial development, sho will depress the world by her mighty weight and to avoid such misunderstandimr \\k must bo effleientlv taught. A rai",ndw standing .will produce a mongrel civili« a - Vvv"t ving ° ykcs o! tb ' e East aad What China needs at the present criti. Ml juncture of her history i s a univcrMl} when' her youth may i.ttnin to a thorough knowledge of Western thought Ironi that university will p o, ou |. light to tho Chinese, but the frschors must thraiselves lirst learn. The moment is im. portunl for the whole world: the yellow mail is cnlering inlo the white mau'< civilisation; what has begun in Japan is lieing romploU'd in China, tt is in llm interest nf all nations that at Uii, cri-ia I" "I°. 'iislorr »f civilisation Chinese thought shall receive everv enlightenment. " When Japaf, accepted_\Tftsteni civilisation Ihi> world was incredulous. Russia greeted her action with scornful laughter. Russia does not Iburli now; neither will Europe be indifferent to what is happening in China in a decade or so. I