THE CHINESE REVOLUTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 156, 30 December 1911, Page 10 (Supplement)

THE CHINESE REVOLUTION

STIRRING CAREER OF THE "GARIBALDI OF.CHINA." • _ The most striking!nd dramatic figure in the stirring news from China is Sun Yat Sen, the leader of the movement among educated Chinese which has at last shown itself in open revolt against the Manchu rulers. He is the man who is said to have been selected at the 1 resident of a Chinese Republic. His life story proves that the spirit' of romance and adventure is not dead, tor this man, who was kidnapped in Loudon, imprisoned in the Chinese Legation m constant fear of execution till the British Government sternl/ ordered his release, and on whose head a price of £IO,OOO has been placed; has yet spent most of his time in Oliina in disguise, though discovery meant torture and death, educationg the people in preparation for the day which mow appears to have dawned. •]

Horn forty-nine years ago, of Christian parents, in Canton, he studied medicine at the Anglo-American mission there for a time. Then in 1887 ho went to Hong Kong to become the flrj't student in a college of medicine which Dr. James Cantile, now a well-known medical man in Barley street, London, Sad founded. This association, with Dr. Oantile is an important incident in life life, for it was through the doctor's; efforts that the Chinese Legation was; some years later, forced to release him from "a bondage that seemed inevitably to lead to the scaffold.

In 1892, as a duly qualified man, he began to practise in Macao, and there come into sympathetic contact with that desire for reform that has shaped his whole- life. "There," he wrote, "I first learned of the existence of a political movement which I might best describe as the formation of a "Young China' party. Its objects were so wise, so modest, and so hopeful that my sympathies were lit once enlisted on'its behalf, and I believed I was doing my best to further the interests of my country by joining it. The idea was to bring about a r peaceful reformation, and we hoped, by forward modest schemes of reform to the throne, to initiate a form of government more consistent with modern requirements. The prime essence of the movement was the establishment of a form of government to supplement the old fashioned, corrupt and worn-out system under which China is groaning." The Government of China, Sun Ya Sen explains, is carried on chiefly by the Viceroys, who have entire charge of a province, raising an army and a navy, levying taxes and administering such justice as they choose, their only responsibility to the Court at Pekin being to s<nd in reports and money. Yet the Viceroy of Canton—ruling a country with a population greater than that of Great Britain—is allowed a salary of only £6O a year. Tn order to live and maintain his office, and accumulate wealth, he, therefore, resorts to extortions and the sale of justice. At last things came to a head, and an armed rising was planned for October, 185)5. But the authorities got news of the movement. Many of the leaders were arrested and executed, and Sun Yat Sen, who was at Canton, escaped over the city wall in a basket and made his way in a steam launch to Macao, after hair-breadth escapes. Then, on the advice of his European friends, he put on European clothes, removed his pigtail, grew a moustache, and made his way to Honolulu.

Sim Yat Son first came prominently before the British public in ISOfi, when he was imprisoned in the Chinese Legation in Lcmclon from October II to October 23, .and eventually released on very strong representations being made by Lord Salisbury.

"I was walking near the Chinese Embassy," he explained afterwards, "when I met one of my countrymen. He asked me wliat my native province was. and I said it was Canton. He said. T belong there also.' He took a walk with me a short way. and then another Chinaman appeared. The first said, 'This is a countryman of ours,' and I shook hands. As ■we walked slowly past the Legation, iluse two Chinamen asked me to go in. and, before I could reply, they pushed me inside the door. The door was immediately shut, and the two then forced me in a room, and locked the door."

Continuing his story, Sun Yat Sen said one of the Chinamen afterwards said to him, ''We are going to extradite you. We are going to tie. you up and block your mouth, and carry you at night on board some ship that we have chartered. We have four men to keep guard and liick you up on board ship. If we cannot smuggle you away we can kill you here, because this is China." "He told me that I would have no chance of escape." added Sun Yat Sen. "T asked him what they would do if they failed to get me off in that way. He said they would have me killed here and embalm my body and send it back to China for execution, for the Chinese punishment extends to the dead. He added that the Chinese Government wanted me to be captured at any price, dead or alive.

"I wrote two notes to send to Dr. Cantile and Dr. Mans en, but they were not delivered. Finding no reply came 1 attempted to throw a note from the window to the, next house. It appears it was picked up by one of the men at the Embassy, and the next day the window was screwed up." The sote thus flung from the window read: "This will inform the public that I, Sun Yat Sen. was kidnapped by the Chinese Legation, and shall be smuggled out of England into China for execution. Whoever picks up this paper please show to Dr. James Cantile, 40 Devonshire «trect for his rescue."

Eventually, on October 17, Dr. Cantile got »ews of his friend's imprisonment. Means were soon contrived to communicate with him, a servant at the Legation being persuaded to pass notes to Sun Yat Sen in a coal scuttle. In this way an evening paper containing an account of the kidnapping was also smuggled to the prisoner, and he was thus assured that his friends were working io save him from a terrible fate.

Dr. Cantile promptly informed the Foreign Office, and at the same time had detectives posted around the Chinese Legation to prevent any attempt at smuggling Sun Yat Sen away. Before long Scotland \ard took up the task of watching the premises, and. Lord Salisbury made a demand for the release of the'prisoner, which was promptly edJust before, five o'clock on the afternoon of October 23, Detective-Inspector Jarvis, of Scotland Yard, arrived at the Chinese Legation. He had with him a letter bearing the Foreign Office seal, and was accompanied by Dr. Cantile. To Sir Hallidav Macartney, secretary to the Chinese Legation, he presented this letter, and in a few moments Sun walked out with his friends, a free man. After that came a period of constant travel through England and America, with frequent visits in disguise to China. All the tim» he was arranging for the education of his fellow-countrymen in Western ideas, and raising funds for the release of his land from the foreign rule of the Manchu oppressors. His English friends speak of him with enthusiasm. Mrs. Cantile, wife of_ the doctor, who 'has proved so good a friend, speaks of him as "The Garibaldi of

"He visits us almost every year," she told a Lloyds' News representative. "lie was last here in January of this year, and seemed unusually optimistic' and confident. Generally, lie was grave and thoughtful like a man who feels deeply, but this time he was quite gay and lively. On January 11 lie sailed for America, but, contrary to his usual custom, he left no address at which we niijjit communicate with him. lint J feci sure that after a visit to Honolulu, where he was going to see his son, and arrange for his admission to an agricultural college, he went straight to China.

'•Although for years there lias besn a price on his head, and people have <:.iid that he dare not set foot "in China, he lias, as a matter of fact, spent most of his time there. Of course, he has been disguised, but even then he has been .suspected, and has had hair-breadth escapes. Once, he told us, he had to remain in a Chinese bouse for six months be■cause his presence became' known, and finally he was smuggled out to a steamer. But he is absolutely fearless and bent only on his mission of educating his idlon count iymen, and uiging them w throw off the shackles of their Manehu rulers.

'When he was heie in January we Celt confident that he was on the eve of a great coup—he spoke so hopefully of success. 'We have two-thirds of the army,' hi' used to say, and then he would add, 'You will soon hear of me again.' "The impression that great things were coming was curiously confirmed on March 23 last, when a London detective—l do not know whether he was from Scotland Yard or the Chinese Legation—called here and asked whether we knew where Sun Yat Sen was. We were unable to say, and there the incident ended, but we realised that he was causing anxiety to someone, and this further prepared us for the present events. "He is a patriot, and his sole aim is to release his beloved country from the foreign rule of the Manchus. This should not involve any very great change. The rule is really in the hands of the Viceroys, and each province has more freedom than the States in the United States of America. Sun Yat Sen would retain these Viceroys, making them subject to a strong President, and giving the people a Parliament. Apart from this there would be little change in the actual machinery of government. "As for any reform of the Court, he regards that as impossible'. He points out that the Emperor is a child, that the Regent, his uncle, is a weak man, and everything is at the me'rey of intrigues between two Dowager Empresses. "If this report that Sun Yat Sen is to be President of a Chinese Republic suggests that he seeks such a post it quite misrepresents his character. That is not like Sun. He is so inodest, so utterly without ambition, and I am sure he would not accept the Presidency if it_were forced upon him, and he were convinced that the step was 'the only one to secure the welfare of his country.

"We think this must be China's greatest bid for freedom, for we are confident that this time Sun Yat Sen is actually on the spot inspiring and directing it. In previous risings the train has always been fired too soon, before he could be mi the spot. He has never been present before—that is what distinguishes the present rising from all previous efforts, and make 3 it so full of hope." Tfc was reassuring to hear that no anxiety need be felt for Europeans in China.

"Not only is Sun Yat Sen an earnest Christian (ho used to attend church whe» staving with us), and the son of a Christian," said Mrs. Cantile. "but the movement has nothing of the anti-fo-reigner idea about it. He knows full well that if it is sought to set up another Government, all possibility of giving offence to other nations must be avoided. The present rising must not be confused with the Boxer outbreaks, fomented by the Government to get rid of foreigners."

Of Sun Yat Sen's ultimate and even early success his friends have little doubt. He has plenty of money from his supporters among wealthy Chinese merchants in the Straits Settlements and other places, lie counts on two-thirds of the 180,000 well-armed and foreign-drill-ed, troops, and the capture of the arsenal at Wuchang has solved the problem of ammunition.

"When he was here last year," said Mrs. Cantile, "he wrote to Lord Crewe asking permisison to land at Hongkong, as his mother was lying ill there. Lord Crewe refused, on the grounds of Sun Yat Sen's hostility to the Chinese Government and when the reformer arrived off the port his mother's dead body was brought out to sea in order that he might take a last farewell."