CHAOS IN CHINA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1839, 27 August 1913, Page 7

CHAOS IN CHINA.

TOTTERING REPUBLIC.

A MILLION UNPAID ARMED MEN AT LARGE. . WIDESPREAD MISERY.' . By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec.' August 26, 10.10 p.m.) London, August 26. A Blue Book has been issued dealing with Chinese affairs in 1912- up to November. It emphasises the bitterness of the Nationalist or Sun Yat Sen party against Yuan Shih-kai, and their equal hostility to foreign interference, as shown in tho' persistent agitation against a foreign loan and the attempt to collect native subscriptions instead. Tho BJue Book shows that the failure of the local loan attempt was partly due to patriotic subscribers contributing in tho bad .paper money issued during the revolution, and which was afterwards unnegotiablo. Yuan estimated that a million unpaid and unemployable soldiery were left armed after tho revolution, and distributed'throughout China, with the result that a long series of mutinies, murders, andiootings followed. Tho report of the Senior British Naval Officer at Canton declares that Chinese patrols aro invariably to bo met steaming as fast as possible away from any disturbance in the West River.

The "Daily Chronicle," in commenting 011 the Blue Book remarks, that the sum total of human miser}' in China since the fall of the Manclius is staggering. Although the Chinese are a clever race, tlio Blue Book shows.that they aro so steeped in a tradition of dishonesty and -individualism as to ho almost incapable of organising out of chaos. No substitute has been found for the national unifying principle of religious respect formerly paid to the Manchuo. SITUATION IN THE SOUTH. ("Times"—Sydney "Sun" Special Cables.) (Rec.August 26, 6.40 p.m.) London, August 26. "Tho Times'®" Peking correspondent sa-vs tho situation in China is not cnicouraging. Nanking, 0110 of the most important districts in the south, despite the internal dissensions, is still resists ing Uie Government armies. The llabbiness of tlio 'provincial administration is also encouraging isolated risings elsewhere. . The country is flooded with depreciated notes; and the scramble by foreign firms and syndicates for concessions is beginning again. .Anyone possessing a little cash is able to obtain railway contracts and orders for war material, and British enterprise is suffering.