The Anti Missionary Riots in China.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 182, 11 December 1886, Page 3

The Anti Missionary Riots in China.

The truth about the origin of the recent anti missionary liots in Chung King, on the Yangtpze Kivei in China, ha? at length been discovei-ed. Man)- buildings were destroyed and native (.-hiietians murdeied, and the missionaries were forced to fly for their lived. It will be remembered that a telegram was received in Paris from the Roman Catholic Bishop ot the province aleging that the indiscreet conduct of the Proteatant missionaries was the cause of the outbreak. This appeaia now to be wholly incorrect. A Roman Catholic cathedral has lately been built in the city in a most prominent position, as almost all the Roman Catholic edifices in China are. When on the roof the bishop persisted, in spite oi repeated and urgent protests and warnings of tho Govornor and othor local authorities, in using yellow tilea for the purpose, Now yellow is a colour <=acred in China to the Emperor, and yellow tiles are used in the Imperial palaces in Pekin The result was that popular annoyauce, which was smouldering for a long time, broke out during the presence in the city of a large number of young men at one of the provincial examinations. The mob soon reduced the cathedral to a heap of ruins, and the bishop's house and other missionaiy residences shared the same fate, The riote s »vent on to attack Europeans, including Protestant missionaries, who had nothing to do wifh the offending edifice.