CHINESE DISTURBANCES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 75, 19 September 1911, Page 5

CHINESE DISTURBANCES

CHENGTU BESIEGED. 8y Cable—Press Association—Copyright Pekin, September 17. Ten thousand men, armed with matchlocks, are besieging Chengtu. Defective communications delay the possibility of reinforcements. Tsenchunsehu, the former Viceroy of Schechuan and Kwangtung, who ruthlessly suppressed the previous rebellion, has been sent to the disturbed districts. Officials at Chengtu fear that any attempt to raise the siege may send two thousand modern drilled troops, who are outside the walls but neutral, over to the rebels. GOVERNMENT TROOPS' DISPOSITIONS. REBELS' HEADQUARTERS BURNT. A SUCCESSFUL AMBUSH.

Received 18, 11.15 p.m. Pekin, September 18. The Taotai of Luchow reports that the Viceroy has one battalion protecting the Yamen and another outside Chenotu.. Other troops are stationed in the streets inside the city gate, which is opened twice daily to admit food and water. A large village near the city, believed to be the headquarters of the rebels, is reported to have been burnt. The British Consul at Chungking is sending refugees down the river, fearing an extension of the trouble. Rebels, in ambush, defeated a hundred troops near Kienchow, and pursued them to Chengtu by boat. The troops killed a hundred rebels, Troops are re-occupying Kienchow. fireman and French Legation advices state that the Viceroy is successfully controlling the situation. THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT. Mr. Tong Chai Chih, editor of the Tung Wah Times, in Sydney, stated some months ago, in connection willji the revolutionary outbreak in Canton, that for some time past there has been growing uneasiness in China owing to the activity of the revolutionary party. Certain viceroys had been informed that Snn Wen, alias Sun Yat Sen, and Liang Chai Chao, chief and second of the revolutionary party respectively, had been gathering all the rascals of the different districts, and had formed a society called the Tien Ling (Heavenly Dragon), and had sent them through the various provinces with the object of inciting the people to join with them in raising a rebellion. The Chinese Investigation Department had forwarded the names and descriptions of suspected persons, with instructions for their arrest, to the provincial magistrates, but it was apparent that many had eluded the authorities. Mr. Tong Chai Chih stated that the object of the revolutionary party is to sweep away the present Manchu "dynasty and replace the Chinese, and that the revolutionaries aim at abolishing all constitutional government under the guidance of the Manchus. "My party," B said Mr. Tong Chai Chih, "regrets the pre-, sent turmoil. Everything, from our standpoint, was full of promise, having now provisional Parliaments and the promise of a National Assembly in 1013. So long as the present dynasty concedes to the people the right" to discuss the affairs of the nation in open Parliament, the reform party of China will remain loyal."