WHO LEADS THE CHINESE REVOLUTION?

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 428, 6 January 1912, Page 3

WHO LEADS THE CHINESE REVOLUTION?

The swift and remarkable success which has attended the Chinese rising, sudden as it appears, has come about only after a long period o£ what may be called incubation. There has long existed a revolutionary propoganHa in South China, which is very different from North China. At first it insisted on reforms, then it became anti-dynastic, on the ground that re forms were impossible under the Manchu Government. Its headquarters were at Canton, and its chief leader Dr Sun Yat-Sen. WHO IS DR SUN YAT-SEN?

Sun Yat-Sen is » reformer well known in England owing to his being kidnapppd, some, years ago, by missaries of the Chinese Legation in London, in whose residence he was kept a prisoner until, having succeeded in communicating with his friend, Dr Cantlie, of Harley street, he was released bv Lord Salisbury's command.

On November 22nd the cables reported that Dr Sun Yat-Sen has left London for China, so that he has been directing the revolution by cable from overseas. He speaks and writes English well, and has often been in London. A writer in the Daily Maii supplies the following interview with the leader of the revolution: — "I found Dr Sun Yat-Sen to be a charming and highly cultured gentleman. He has a spare figure, without the slouch which is so frequently noticed in Chinamen. He is modest and extremely reserved, and gives, neither in his appearance nor in his speech, the impression of a leader of men. His influence is not due to personal magnetism and great oratorical power, but to his strong common sense and to his great devotion to his country and his countrymen. I had the opportunity of listening to a Chinese address of Dr Sun Yat-Sen. I did not understand a word, but I noticed that he disdained the little oratorical tricks dear to ordinary agitators. He simply gave to his audience, exactly as he gave to me, a long, well-reasoned, and carefully thoughtout statement of China's sufferings, and then added his proposals for reform. The Chinaman is not very emotional. One can do very little by appealing to his imagination. He appreciates common sense and logic. His interest is in plain facts put in the plainest language. Dr Sun YatSen told me that sometimes his addresses took up three or four hours, and that his audience never got tired of hearing his accounts of the sufferings of their countrymen and of the progress of the revolutionary movement.

"Dr Sun Yat-Sen told me that many Chinamen had given their entire fortunes to the funds of the Revolutionary Society, and that many business men had crippled themselves by their subscriptions. The revolution, he urged, is caused by the injustice and oppression from which China suffers. The law is a farce. Justice is bought and sold. Corruption and oppression are almost unbearable. If a business man introduces improved machinery, all the benefit derived from that machinery is immediately taken away from him, either by the Government or by corrupt officials. Progress in China is non-eixstent, not because the people are unprogressive, but because official rapacity kills all progress. THE ARMY AND THE REVOLUTION.

"The Revolutionary Party, I was assured, is no small secret society. It has several million adherents, and, if Dr Sun Yat-Sen has informed me correctly, practically the whole of the modern Birny is on the side of the revolutionaries. The Government knows the power of the Revolutionary Party, and it knows that the modern army is practically solid for revolution. There-, fore it relies for its protection on the old troops, which obey blindly the men who pay them. These are provided with cartridges, but the modern troops are kept without ammunition. For practice only five cartridges are allowed per man in the modern army, and only small parties are given firing practice at a time, in ordfr to prevent a rising. Dr Sun Yat-Sen told me that their greatest difficulty was to obtain the control of an arsenal. "The object of the revolutionaries is not to replace the present monarchy by another one. Dynasty has followed dynasty, yet tyranny and corruption have remained. Therefore, the revolutionaries are determined to change the form of government, and to introduce a republic. The doctor tolJ me that the Chinese were so highly educated, so law-abiding, so easily led, and so much given to cooperation that there would be no difficulty in establishing a republic. His idea is a form of government similar to that of the United States. There are to be representative Chambers for every one of the Chinese provinces, with a central Chamber representing the whole empire. "Dr Sun Yat-Sen told ma that the central Government and various provincial Governments had put prices on his head which amounted in the aggregate to 700,000 tales, or about £50,000. There must be a great temptation for a Chinaman to murder Dr Sun Yat-Sen. The greatness of the reward explained to me why I was carefully watched when knocking at the doctor's door in the morning and when talking to him. We dined together, and chatted about the future of China till midnight. I wanted to accompany him to his hotel, a distance of three-quarters of a mile, partly from courtesy, partly in order to protect him in case he should be attacked. But the doctor absolutely declined my repeated offer, and when I said to him, 'You must spare yourself for the sake of your cause; you must not go at night unaccompanied through the streets of a strange town' he smiled and quietly said: 'lf they had killed me some years ago it would have bsen a pity for the cause. I was indispensable then. Now my life doeß not matter. There are plenty of China-? men to take my place. It does not matter if they kill me,' "