Revolt in China.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 111, 31 October 1911, Page 5

Revolt in China.

FIGHTING AT HANKAU. THIRTEEN REPUBLICAN GUNS CAPTURED. GUNBOATS SHELLED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Pekin, October 20. Reuter reports that the gunboats supported Yinchang's first army, which captured two Republican positions and advanced within five hundred yards of -trung entrenchments westward of Hankau racecourse. Operations are temporarily suspended. Thirty Republican guns were captured. The Imperialists had three officers killed and 150 wounded; the Republicans had 400 casualties, including the commander of the artillery.

Republicans below Wuchang shelled Imperialist gunboats. The latter's fire was slow and inaccurate. Mutinies have broken out at Nankin and Taiyuanfu.

REPUBLICANS BEATEN. SEVERAL HUNDREDS WOUNDED. CANTON GOING OVER TO THE REPUBLICANS. Received 30, 10.35 p.m. Pekin, October 90. It is officially declared that six thousand rebels westward of Hankau offered little resistance to the ten thousand Imperialists that attacked them, and abandoned their main position at Kilometre Ten with all their guns and camp equipment, retreating utterly demoralised. Several hundreds were wounded.

Sanchengping has notified his intention to bombard WuAang and Hanyang, and requested the foreign shipping to withdraw out of range of the Revolution-

ists' guns. According to Pekin correspondents, Yuan-Shi-Kai's supporters expect him to come to Pekin to assume the Premiership.

The Republicans declare they hold the chief cities in the Hunan Province, and the capitals of Kwingsi and Kiangsi, ensuring the control of the Yangtse Valley, and that they also possess forty war jnnks.

Hwang Chan, of the Imperial Treasury, sent a million taels to the Military Department at Szechuan, whose new Viceroy was ordered, to enlist eight regiments.

A Consular report declares that Canton is turning Red Republi&n. Renter's Canton correspondent says that Canton is practically independent, inasmuch as the Viceroy, alleging it was impossible to find the money, declined the Government's request for a large sum in the shape of a special military contribution.

The merchants decided that Canton should care for itself and not trouble about the other provinces. Manchu residents agreed to abide by the decision of the Cantonese. DISQUIETING NEWS. GENERAL DECLINES TO MOVE. AND MAKES DEMANDS. Received 31. 12..50 a.m. I/Ondon, October 30. The Times' Pekin correspondent reports the most disquieting news of the refusal of the 40th Brigade of the 20th Division at Hankau to proceed south. General Chang-Shack-Beng, commander of the division, in agreement with the men, and acting in concert with the National Assembly, declines to take his division to the front unless the Throne prepares a constitution, only after consultation with the Assembly; secondly, exclusion from the Cabinet of members of the Imperial family: thirdly, an amnesty to all politicals like Kang-Yuivei. The,correspondent adds that Chang-Sehac-Beng receivvd his training in Japan. AN IMPERIAL VICTORY. Received 31. 12.50 a.m. London, October 30. In a skirmish at Hankau. where thirty unmounted pins were seized during a rainstorm, they were paraded by the Government as the fruits of a great victory, accompanied by much slaughter. PEKIN THREATENED. UNLESS POLITICAL CHANGE COMES. Received 31, 12.45 a.m. London, October .'SO. The Daily Mail's IVkin correspondent reports that \ uun-Slii-Kai asks for 120.000 more soldiers. Chang-Shoo-Tseng's soldiers, who nre at Lanehan. and not at Hankau. threaten Pekin unless their demands are ;ieeepted. •Admiral Saho-Hen-Ping informed the Government that the navy will deser! unless tt political change is made.

A I.OA\" FOR CIIIXA. Received 31. 12.30 a ., n _ Tokio. October .10. Tlie newspapers insist that any loan to China mu-t lie made jointly with the great Powers, lest independent action imperil the Empire's integrity. \YIL\T TIIE CHIXESE WAXT. RB? POSSIBLE HOVER XMEXT. '"The Chinese do not want a republic. AJI they want is responsible government, and they are satisfied with the present dynasty so long as they ai'et'allowed to act as the citizens of any other cjviiisei! nation would act in matters of national interest.' said Air. T. .T. Law. ;t prominent Chinese in Australia, and .( leading member of the Chinese Reform Assoeia" tion. ''lt is only a bubble." he said, and it would not last long. The Chinese people realise that so long as the fiovcrnliunt will give them the ordinary privileges of the voter, they will be getting all they can expect, and they do not really mind whether it is Manchu, or any other rule over them. The unrest, so far as I

can gather from what we have heard from China, is not so much anti-Man-clmism. It is due more to matters that more closely affect the personal interests of the people. In the first place, thej want the railways nationalised, and probably that has led to the surmise that they -want republicanism. They do not. want foreign capital to come into the country for the building of the railways, as they argue that if these railways are built with outside money, the outsiders will have a pretext at all times to claim that their rights shall be protected, and in that way may cause internal trouble. The Chinese are of opinion that in this matter it is better to go slowly and build the railways themselves than to let foreign money in. ''Then there is another big trouble over the rice crop. Rice is dear in China today. Through flood and famine the price has gone up to a tremendous height, so much so that the rice guilds have been warned by the. Governmemt that they must not sell more than lOOlbs of rice to each person. The authorities have also promised to come forward and pay the difference in cost on imported rice, so that the people shall have their food at the same figure as before the shortage, and ships are being sent out to Hongkong and Burma and all the Straits Settlements to gel all the cargoes of rice that they can, and these will be disposed of in this way.

"There are very few Chinese in Australia who are antagonistic to the present Manchu dynasty. The late Emperor Kwang Hsu, who was of Manchu origin, in yielding to the wishes of the people by promising them the reforms advocated by Kang Yu Wei, the leader of the Chinese Reform Association, reassured the more intelligent Chinese as to the objects of the ruler of the country, and whatever anti-Manchurian views these men may have had before were entirely swept away.

"My opinion, which is based upon the conclusions come to by learned Chinese who have deeply studied our national questions, is that really the Manchus have readily assimilated Chinese ideas, and in the long period that they have been the ruling race in China have become absolutely Chinese in every detail. Therefore, for the people to fall in with any movement which will be likely to cause serious internal discord would be to the detriment of the nation generally, and would not be tolerated or widely supported. '"lf the present Manchu Dynasty had its royal rights taken away, what rule could we have to take its place? Witl. the "rivalry and jealousy that exists between the different States, it would be difficult to nominate any particular pro vince that should have prior right to choose a ruler who would be acceptable to the people as a whole "There is only this last word. So long as the present dynasty carries out its promise to grant constitutional government, so that, the will of the people shall prevail at all times, it will, I feel sure, continue to rule the destinies of the nation, and China will go on and prosper."