ROOF OF THE WORLD

Hokitika Guardian, 27 March 1926, Page 4

ROOF OF THE WORLD

GUSTO AIS JN CHINESE TURKESTAN.

A glance at the map of Asia, reveals at once the political and strategical importance of the area known as Turkestan. It is, so to speak, the huh of a wheel, of which Russia, China and India lire the spokes. Through Turkestan. in the old days. Imperial Russia carried out its abortive designs on our Indian Empire. It is through Turkestan and Afghanistan that the Bolshevists hope to reach with their subversive doctrines the masses of India. As long ago as lf)18 a British mission travelled to this mountainous country to counter the Soviet activities. AVith it went Colonel I’. T. Ethertori, and in Chinese Turkestan he remained for several years as II.AI. Consul-General and Political Resident. What lie saw and did in his capacity as sole British representative in an area covering 1(10,000 square miles has provided him. with material for a first-rate book of j travel. 1 fn the Heart of Asia.’ I It was Colonel Ethorton’s business hi work in close association with the! Chinese officials in Turkestan. China ( j was officially opposed to the Bolshevists I ! at the time, and Colonel Etherton acknowledges the valuable help he re-, , reived from the servants of the Peking , Government. There were rogues and frauds among them, hut the old Chinese Civil Service was hv no means a comic organisation. The final tests for these degrees were held in Peking, the Emperor presiding in person at the Examination' Board. ' The candidates comprised all those who had survived the eliminating process at. j the trials held in the various provincial centres. The examination halls | were famous throughout China, lor within those narrow cells the flower ol [Chinese literary talent grappled with abstruse problems and posers from tile ancient classics, of which a profound knowledge down to the smallest detail was demanded. Each cell measured Oft long by ■1 ft wide, and was of corresponding height, light and necessaries being admitted through a narrow grating in the wall. The candidate was thoroughly searched belore entry to ensure that lie possessed nothing I hat might assist him in the coining ordeal. He was then locked in and left there during the week or ten days required for the examination. The questions were such that many of tlie more highly strung went mad under the strain.

Unfortunately, the system has deteriorated under the republic. The officials in Turkestan are some 4,000 miles from Peking, and enjoy a power that is virtually absolute. Colonel Etherton tells some grim stories of Ala Titai. the Chinese Cum-inander-in-('hief in his time: “The TiIni’s rule over his household was as drastic as that in the army. One

morning a girl of fourteen, the maid servant of one of his wives, was brought to him on a complaint from her mistress that she had given some offence. The old tyrant settled the case without further inquiry by having half the poor girl’s tongue cut off.”

Ala Titai’s son, the Hsei Tai, was an even more violent customer: ” Shortly after my visit 1 had reason to complain in a polite note to this official of an unprovoked assault liv one of his men on a Consular orderly. Hetribu-

iion was swift and exacting, for within an hour or two a Chinese cart rumbled into the Consulate and pulled up near the leu.nis court where I was playing singles. From the cart was lifted a soldier with the hack part of both his thighs red. raw and bleeding over a space the size of a dinner plate. Tin’s was the individual who had attacked my man, and the general officer commanding had sent him round so that I might see ho was not amiss in the administration of justice.” MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.

Strange folks, these of tlu: upland", with strange morals and strange customs ! Marriage is. indeed, a somewhat casual affair in Turkestan. "One may marry and divorce with it frequency that is alarming.’’ Arrangements among these Moslems are largely tenir pornry. a divorce being prepared at the same time as tile wedding service. On tlie other hand, thev punish infidelity —among women, at all events —in a very vigorous wav. "The lady is seatid upon a donkey facing its tail, her face is blackened, and she is then led through the bazaar exposed to the jeers of the crowd and the butt for missiles of all kinds, n crier preceding the donkey to proclaim the enormity of her crime.” Nevertheless: "Jealously of their women is not as pronounced as, amongst the more fanatical .Moslem races, whore it can attain large extremes. I remember the ease of a border tribesman who came unawares upon his voting and pretty wife holding converse with a neighbour across the wall. Enraged at lids, lie hacked nil the girl's head and threw it over the wall to the man. with the remark that lie could now have her lor good.-’ PRIMITIVE MEDICINE.

With all this marital irregularity there goes one odd piece of prudery: “ Amongst these conservative people, encompassed by the Moslem rules governing seclusion of women, a doctor’s diagnosis of his feminine patient is no easy task*, mid must necessarily lie open to considerable doubt. A small ivory or metal figure ul a woman is passed throng l !! a curtain : the lady then hands the figure hack, indicating the spot where she feels the pain, and the physician diagnoses accordingly, a delightfully simple method provided no prescribes the right medicine. ’’ There is in the book one particularly amusing story with a medical flavour. Colonel Ktherton had occasion to dismiss an incompetent groom. Later on. passing through the market place of I’okkalik. lie saw the erstwhile groom presiding over a stall well stocked -with herbs and potions. He was doing a roaring trade, and dealing with his patients quite in the European styleexamining tongues and feeling pulses, then gravely consulting a volume in his hand, dealing out medicines as if according to the hook oi the words. Curious to see what that volume was, Colonel Etliei'ton. had it brought to him. It was a copy of a novel hy Guy Roothhv, stolen from his own library!