GERMAN INTRIGUES IN CHINA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 258, 19 July 1918, Page 6

GERMAN INTRIGUES IN CHINA

Sir—Perhaps many of the readers of this paper would like to hear about German intrigues in China 'during the past decade. Many Chinese newspapers were hought by-Germans, and these were filled with news and exhortations of Gorman origin, but were suppressed by the Chineso Government when they overstepped the bounds of Chinese censorship. A notable example of Teutonic propaganda to enlist sympathy was in the representation of the Kaiser a* a great believer in the- precepts of Confucius. As the great Chinese sage taught, the upholding of peace, and that there was no glory in war, the Chineso saw the inconsistency of the Kaiser's announcement. They (the Chinese) also remembered the Boxer rebellion (which was primarily caused bv the Germans), and the exhortations of the Kaiser to his brother Prince Henry, who commanded the German Far Bust squadron, to inflict the severest punishment-on the Chineso with his "mailed fist," in take no prisoners, and spare no quarter in suppressing the trouble. The mandate was effectively carried out, as Chinese women and children were treated in as ■brutal.a manner as were Belgian womrn and children in tho present war. The destroyers nf Reims and Louvain on that occasion also desecrated the grave of Confucius and ruthlessly destroyed Chinese sacred edifices. In view of . the above, China has nothing to be grateful to Germany for in tjie past, and no

favours to hope for from Germany in the future. From time to time during the past 18 mouths rumours have been current as to the possibility of China espousing the cause of the Allies, but as the Chinese Government had never received any proposal for participation in the war, it never opened negotiations on Hie subject with any of the Powers, and never considered the abandonment of neutrality' until a few months ago. when China voluntarily opposed Germany's submarine blockade, which imperilled the lives of Chinese seamen and passengers. The Allied Ministers in Peking have sympathised with China's attitude.—l am, etc., . THOMAS C. TING.