CHINA'S AWAKENING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 151, 5 October 1910, Page 5

CHINA'S AWAKENING

IMPERIAL ASSEMBLY OPENED. By Cable —Press Association—Copyright. Received October 4, II p.m. Pekin, October 4. The Regent opened the Imperial Assembly. He declared it represented the verdict of the people. Though only the initial step towards a constitution) it was an emblem of hope, and showed that China is in harmony with the world's progress. A CORRUPT OFFICIAL. Pekin, October 4. The Taetai of Shanghai has been cashiered, for the misappropriation of £400,' 000, which the foreign banks had loaned the city to tide over a crisis, due to the failure of the native banks. TROUBLE AHEAD. In spite of the universal cry of the progress China is making, there is the feeling, writes a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian in China, that a great outbreak is inevitable. Merchant, missionary, traveller and official, all agree that there is trouble ahead, despite the assertions of those men who study the reform movement of the Government and refuse to study the attitude of the common people as well. I have been travelling in Western China for over a year, and have traversed Punnan from one end to the other, and though it is certain that ten years have altered much in the lives of the people, yet one must recognise that Boxerism and the spirit which incites the people to Boxerism have not abated one iota. Mr. Frederick Moore, in the Daily News, says:'—"That China's hatred of the foreigner is due in part, at any rate, to his commerce in opium is incontestable; in spite of the statement of Lord Curaon, when Viceroy of India, that the Chinaman no more dislikes the Briton for 'bringing him better opium than the Briton dislikes the Frenchman for making better brandy. "For half a century the Chinese have been crying out, whether rightly or wrongly, against 'the foreigner' on the score of opium. The very name of the drug, 'Foreign Earth.' is evidence of the association in the Chinese mind. Indeed, the anti-foreign feeling in China has much to do with the remarkable campaign, which those addicted to the use of opium, no less than those for whom it has no temptations, are waging on behalf of their country. The Chinese declare that the 'foreigner' brought this curse upon them (opium probably first came into China overland across the Western borders); they see that by its consumption the foreigner grows rich while they grow poor; and they know that the foreigner's hold upon China, which they desire to break, has, until the present revival, grown tighter every year."