THE CHINESE TROOPS MUTINY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1468, 17 June 1912, Page 5

THE CHINESE TROOPS MUTINY.

HAVOC AT TSINAN.FU.

to Telegraph-Press ABsociation-Oopyrlsiit. (Eec. June 16, 6.5 p.m.) Peking, June 15. Two thousand old-style soldiers, fearing iheir dUbandment without pay, mutinied at Tsinan-fu and began looting, shooting, find burning. The Governor of the province took refuge in the Roman Catholic Mission. Three Japanese houses were looted, but the foreign residents wer< uninjured. Tho Republican troops quelled the toutiny. A LAWLESS ARMY, The London "Times" is of opinion that the lawless condition of the Chinese troops, which has been demonstrated from time to time, is partly due to deeper causes than mere temporary arrears of pay. It has to be remembered that at the beginning of March Peking saw the spectacle of Yuan-Shih-Kai, the President of the Republic, deserted by his trusted men of the Third Division, who sacked portions of the capital_ and went on a marauding expedition in stolen trains. There was then a proposal to bring forces from' the Yang-tsze to keep the Peking garrison in order. Now it would seem that the southern army is equally untrustworthy. Huatig-Hsing was left at Nanking as "Chief of the General Staff for the special purpose of preventing indiscipline among the troops, hut he seems to have failed to do so. There is more in these successive deplorable occurrences than a deficiency at the pay ofhces. China is in any case not absolutely penniless. The trouble is, adds The Times, that the. revolutionary process has been destructive, but shows few present signs of becoming constructive. A system of authority which, though in reality weak and corrupt, was still invested with vast prestige, has been overturned. The new pystem. carries little weight so far, and it is becoming clearer that those who represent it are divided among themselves.