The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7. 1911. CHANGED CHINA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 117, 7 November 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7. 1911. CHANGED CHINA.

To the student cf world all'-.iirs. or even to the person \v!io will permit himself a few moments' thought, the situation in China is big with possibilities past all human conception. In examining; the conditions t'he chief fact to be remembered is that the Chinese Empire contains fuiir hundred millions of people, prolilie. aciili- and awakening. These myriads 'of people have never cared much by whom they were governed', whether by u Chinese or a Manchu dynasty. But China has men of powerful intellect and "Trent ambition, wlw, spurred by western ideals, plan to mould the pla stie material to the shape of their thoughts. The Manchu dynasty sit on the throne of China by conquest since the far day when the new rulers ordered every C hinese man to prow a (|Uclle as a sign of his subjection, and have n-ed the power then pained to kept the reality of this subjection before the people. The people as a whole have

been pit; it-n: aiitl iiiK'<>>iitpl:iiniiijjr. not k 1111 \\ i 11 l:' any reason wliy limy should ij<>1 In' 111il!- :■>:<! lacking 1l:r collective ill; 1;! ol' retaliation. There i- no shadow of a tlniilil ilial. tin' inlluence of the inn iguers iii < hina lias spurred its leadiii.lt liiiiikcr- to art,ion for the emancipation of tin 1 hordes of the F.mperor's l subji.t-. The rebel in history lia-s been ever tin' -avioiir of hi~- people. History i- thick wit 11 the names of vivid men who have blown tin l spark of thought alight in the brains of (heir countrymen, and in China the torch uf a new idea smouldering long in tlie hands uf a few eminent, idici- i- hurstin<r into flame throughout the length and breadth of an inexpressibly crowded and downtrodden count r\. At a breath the seemingly impossible lias happened. The Alatichn power has been sw'ept awa\' } the intolerable privileges of thesclf-con--lilnted aristocracy are gone. the painful system of education specifically planned to keep the Chinese ot to-day as he *\a» live t'i ni-iiiiil years si sr.« is no more, ami ive have the menial spectacle of a supremely whipped and degraded people suddenly at the call of great leaders demanding liberty and obtain--in;r it. We have the spectacle of a great

revolution, which is ■.the. direct result of j contact with wcstarn>-> ideas effecting a') sudden change fh.it lifts no parallel in I written histwy;. of Me revolutionaries' display of wisdom-,and finesse; of the rebels' guardianship of the rights of the . foreigners; and of the recognition of their status as a new power by foreign powers. The revolution in China must instil into the conquering people, a longlost feeling of the power of the great body against the .small ruling caste of confidence; a desire to expand and acquire: a desire to conquer, if you like. The new China is an infinitely more, dangerous China than the old Empire, because of this new power and freedom. The intolerable congestion of the. great Empire cannot be relieved' internally, for all habitable China is> cultivated to the last inch. Hungry hordes—million on million of Chinese do not at present know that there is a better world, more food, a plea.s,inter prospect than that to be obtained in their own province, but they will vet know. Any great uprising becomes national not because of any spontaneous desire for freedom but because of great leadership. Once upon a time a great Chinese leader swept through Europe with his hordes and put millions to the sword. * It .-would be; impossible to-day with an old China and a new Europe, but npt impossible with the new China that may be- built on the dead body of Manchu power. We have already been given ah example of the tremendous power of»* assimilation of ideas by the blood relations of the Chinese—the Japs. The Japanese nation is in size to the Chinese what the sheep dog is to the elepliant, and these is no essential superiority in any point, mental or physical, between the two peoples. The Chinese revolution has shown that a people degraded by ages of servitude have a spirit that lies dormant only till an outstanding intellect bids it wake. China may leap into the forefront of the nations by reason of this spirit and the sudden knowledge of hitherto iiuilwuglit-of power. Wlien the people of China reali.se that empty areas i are calling for people they are the people who will call. This is one of the' j inevitable happenings where a prolific J iace cannot find sustenance in its own '(country and where, races that refuse to j be prolific idly" smile at the great upheavals oversea.