THE DRAGON THRONE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 156, 24 February 1932, Page 2

THE DRAGON THRONE

CHINESE EMPEROR DETHRONED HEIR CENTRE OF INTRIGUE AND PLOTTING. ATTEMPT ON LIFE. While Japan and Chiha are settling their diiferences by the sword, an attempt is being made by Chinese lbyalists to put the young ex-Emperor Hsuan Tung, on the'throne again and restore the Dragon Empii'e of old Mahchuria." It was only a few weeks ago that the last attempt was made on the life of Hsuan Tung, or Mr. Ilenry Pu Yi, or — as-he is still called throughout large areas of the Chinese countryside — the "Boy Emperor." Pu Yi, the last of th'e Manchus, has lived. in Tientsin ever sirice he was forced to flee five or six years ago from the Forbidden City in Pekin and from a horde of raging soldiery and others who beat at the palace gates demanding his life. That flight came as th© climax to a long series of experiences that, for all the traditional seclusion in which he had been brought up, had been marked by extraordinary turbulence. From the moment when, at' the age of twOj he had been crowned emperor with all the pornp and circumstance of what once' was the world's most amazing court, intrigue and turmoil had raged round his tiny figure. The bby ruler, in short, was a prisoner in his own palace, its ornate old courts, and its high-walled gardens. This traditional aloofness remained to hijn even after the dynasty of which he was the head erashed into ruins and he was dethroned. Shut from Society. Despite the fact that he had an Engtish tutor, and had assimilated niuch Western knowledge and many Western ideals, he remained shut off from society. Life changed for him that night when an armed mob surged round the palace clamouring for his head. He stepped over the threshold into adventure, and" in the garb of one of the very rebel soldiers who were searching high and low for him he made his way to the railway-station and b>ok train for Tientsin. He travelled undetected in a thirdclass carriage with countrymen and deserting soldiers. There was sanctuary for him in Tientsin — in an old mansion in the beautiful Chang Gardens of the Japanese Concession. And there he has remained, surrounded by some fourscore retainers and adherents of the Manehu regjme. Although he himself has often stoutly denied any aims in the direction of a restoration of a monarchy, Pu Yi's followers have never given up the dream that the day will dawn when he will again ascend the Dragon Thrnne.

Attempt on Life. Strong reports were in circulation more than a fortnight ago that the Japanese were sponsoring .a plan to convert Manchuria — -which," by the way, has vast natural resources virtually unexploited as yet — into a separate domain ruled over by the young exile from Pekin. Although the Japanese authorities deny any connection with the new administration, the fact remains that a Manchurian Empire again is in the offing and that an ex-monarch is on his way back to the throne. This then is the material from which plots and alarums are made — the material which has just led to one more attempt on the life of Pu Yi. Who was behind that plot has not been discovered, but that it was planned with rare ingenuity and thoroughness is clear from all who know of the secluded life lived by the ex-emperor. Rarely indeed did Mr. Ilenry Pu Yi eyer pass through the little red gate in the h;gh grey wall that communicates between his mansion in the Chang Gardens and the outside world. During the past year, however, he had shown an increasing fondness for journeying now and again down to the principal foreign hotel in Tientsin — 1 a rendezvous for all nationalities and furnished with an up-to-date Western restaurant, a first-class orchestra and a dance floor. 1 The young ex-emperor, who has j found much in his contemplation of Western life to enchant him, pa7'd a number of visits to this hotel, garbed in faultless European evening wear, a quiet, courteous, strangely grave young figure. Always was he closely guarded, though the guardians have remained unobstrusive and uhseen watchers. They are men eharged by the old Court offieials of high rank to protect with their own lives that of the one who, in their sight, is still Emperor of all China. Inflexible Precaution. 'It was to this inflexible precaution that Mr. Henry Pu Yi to-day owes his life. He dined at the hotel one evening and afterwards watched the whirling figures in the ballroom. A message was brought that a present had just. been left for him at the hotel entrance. The gift was carried forward by one of the hotel servants. It was a great baslcet filled with rare and choice fruits and apparently had been sent to the ex-emperor by a Chinese mandarin. As the ex-emperor stretched out his hand to take the basket, however, an old Chinaman quietly pushed himself forward, and with coqrteous apology but amazing swiftness himself took the basket from the servant's hand. And the basket of rare ripe fruit was found to conceal a deadly bomb, which would have exploded the moment any of the contents had been disturbed. To try to traee the servant who delivered the fruit is hopeless. He was but a pawn in the plot, and in all probab'ility has since been "put on the spot" by whatever secret society employed hijn.