The Dowager of China's Victims

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6713, 4 June 1900, Page 4

The Dowager of China's Victims

♦ •-.■. Hongkong, March 10. The Empress Dowager is on the track of all reformers with a vengeance, and has just managed to set King Lien Bhan seized at Macao. He is a reformer \i of rather advanced views, was head of ' the Imperial Chinese telegraphs at Tientsin, and was noted amongst foreigners as one of the most straightforward and conscientious of Chinese * pflicials. His advanced views, how- j fever, brought him into the black books of the Dowager, and so she looked , round for some charge to make against _ him in order to get him within her - power. King, however, got an in-line -.*- oi what waß ln the wiud- and uo made I ■f; good his escape, Heeiug to Macao I .Then came an edict ftom the Empress '

«^«l!d^Ppfe fofiimded, the telegram asking Tor the rei«Bt|^tioti.of th&Em- ' peror, but whetfrft'^at^d that the map had fled toMia#p^^ as . geeniihat another charge" hatvto he made," aid Li HuDg-Ohang, Vicferoy of the* Two KwanifTapplied for his rendition upon the plea tbat he had made away with a large sum fiom the" funds under his I charge. Nowarrantwagj?j»Berited, howI ever, and althoagtrthe Portuguese tamthoritieß have arrested Kin?, they 1-fiave refused to give him up pending proof, and the mjrmjapns iof the Empress are not? busy-coileetirig their evidence fronapfar and wide. In the meantime it has been thought prudent te- confine King in a fort. We greatly regret that Kins; did not take refuge in Hong Kong, as there are grave doubts entertained as to whether or no the Portuguese will consent to give him up. I hear that he applied for permission to employ counsel from Hong Kong for his defence, but that the Governor of Macao refused his request. But it is not only King that the-1 Empress Dowager is seeking to destroy, She has demanded the arres/of the Emperor's tutor and many^her reformers, and it was even s^d that orders have been issued to seize three well-known Chinese gentlemen from ' Shanghai. Needless to say the Empress* is getting herself much disliked amongst the progressive party, and I am fully convinced that were capable leaders forthcoming a great revolution could be put in motion to-morrow, f Ui t lfc mS In this point that the Chinese tail. They could do much if properly led, but without a head they are as helpless as a flock of lambs.