THE NEW CHINA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 164, 10 January 1912, Page 5

THE NEW CHINA.

FIGHTING TO BE RENEWED. THE HUNGRY RUSSIANS. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 9, 10 p.m. Pekin, January 9. The armistice has not been renewed, and negotiations have reached a deadlock. The Government is in hopes of the Revolutionaries moving northwards, and so afford an opportunity for a pitched battle, as the Government is financially unable to send sufficient troops southwards to secure victory. A Russian Note demands China's recognition of the independence of outer Mongolia as regards internal affairs, and states that Russia will assist Mongolia to maintain order. Russia also intimates that she intends to construct a railway from Kaikta to Urgu, and that China will not be allowed to maintain military or send colonists, but will be permitted to retain control of external affairs. AN EX-MISSIONARY MURDERED. Received 9, 10 p.m. Shanghai, January 9. Robbers murdered Fligate, formerly belonging to the China Inlanl Mission. The body Ivas brought to the British Consulate at Hangchou. i THE WEST TO PAY FOR THE EAST. DANGER TO BRITISH TRADE IN CHINA'S REVOLUTION. (Express Correspondent.) When the stay-at-home Englishman reads about a revolution breaking out somewhere or other, it does not usually seem to him that such events-are likely to affect his private fortunes and affairs, for the fighting is going on a long way off among, alien peoples in whose concerns -he takes but little interest. Recent revolutions, such as the Turkish, Persian and Portuguese troubles, certainly do not affect him particularly, nor do they touch his pocket directly, 'but the long-expected revolution which has :at last broken out in China may possibly do both of theie things. An upheaval in a system of government affecting directly four hundred millions of people'must surely react sooner or later on the rest of the world's inhabitants. Last August England had a dock laborers' strike, and by this time has forgotten about it more or less, but we in China are actively feeling results from .that strike just'now; for. the belated cargo is arriving, a revolution is. in progress, and it is. impossible to get the Chinese to take delivery of the goods ordered,, as • commerce is at a standstill. English merchants have to carry the cargo and- finance it, and the English 'dock strike hits us three months later! 'Conversely, the Lancashire cotton mills are receiving few, if any, orders from China now, and China is one of that country's most important customers. This revolution is going to hit British industry indirectly, just as it hits us here directly. Of course, when it is all over and a stable Government is formed, the China trade will boom like hot cakes,, but the important point to be remembered is that when China develops her own vast resources and seriously start* manufacturing for her own requirements to such an,extent that she will no longer need to buy other goods, the effect on England's industrial affairs will be serious indeed. The significance of . this Chinese revolt is most grave, and marks, in my opinion, the beginning of an epoch which, starting in economic industrial conflict, will eventually merge into a world-wide race conflict. I think that the pendulum of Western racial predominance has swung to its limit, and will now begin is' very slow, but sure and certain, journey- towards the East again. The old, old East, with its teeming myriads, is awake now, and the awakening is ominous for the West. The Chinaman learns easily; he is teachable, can do anything, and go anywhere. And, wherever he goes to live under just rule he has proved himself a good citizen, law-abiding, thrifty, frugal, and industrious.

And now for the revolution. How did its start? The beginning, so far as Hankow and Wuchang are concerned! was dramatic, for a bomb happened to explode accidentally, as bombs sometimes do. Enquiries were made, and arrests followed. It turned out that the house in which the bomb went off was' an important centre of the revolutionary organisation. Uniforms', arms, badges, codes, plans, documents/ and the usual parphernalia of plots and plotters were discovered.

The arrested men were taken across the river ; from-Hankow toxWuchang, where the Viceroy's yamen is, and which is the. seat of the Hupeh Government. Viceroy Jui Cheng interrogated the chief Chinese Guy Fawkes, who happened to be a 'brave man. After answering some questions, he got impatient, and defied the powerful representative of the Son of Heaven, telling him that the Manchu Government were not fit to ask him questions. He was immediately taken out and beheaded at the front gate of the yamen. This started the ball rolling, arid the same evening the trgpps' revolted under their second-m-comniand, General Li Yuan Hung. . The next day the Viceroy's yamen was a smouldering heap of ruins, and the Viceroy a fugitive for his life. He escaped on board a Chinese cruiser, carrying his seal of- office with him, and from this sanctuary he sent the following pitiful story to his Imperial master in Pekin:— "The day before yesterday, when I was seizing the leaders of the revolutionaries, a number of t them made their escape without any fault of mine. They incited the engineer troops and the artillery to mutiny, and the latter succeeded in setting fire to their camps and occupied their arsenals. After negotiating with the commander-in-chief of the Hupeh forces, I called on the police troopi, which, however, were surrounded bv the rebels, whereupon I took refuge on board the cruiser Chuyu. Then 1 telegraphed and asked for reinforcements from Hunan and Pekin." Pekin's reply to this was an -Imperial Edict saying that the whole affair had been badly muddled, because the troops, without Jui Cheng's, knowledge, had made common cause with the revolutionaries a long time ago; "for which reason," it went on, "Wuchang has now been lost by the sole fault and negligence of Jui Cheng. He is therefore punished with immediate removal from his office as Viceroy, the duties of which post he has nevertheless to fulfil for the present, and he is ordered, under penalty of most severe punishment, immediately to recapture the city." . - ' A man rises, and falls quickly in the East. Viceroy Jui Cheng is now a fugitive from the vengeance of Imperialists and Revolutionaries alike, and men say there is a price on his head. As nearly all his troops had mutinied gone over to the revolutionary side,

he could, of course, do nothing, and very wisely took the steamer to 'Shang- ' - hai. He is living here in the seclusion of, • : a British subject's residence, but though • we talked of him a few days ago, events have moved quickly, and Jui is now for- « gotten in the general turmoil. Last night, while I read of 3000 people slaughtered-up at Hankow in the battle which has been going on there for the past few days, my "boy" came in and * said: "Master, largee fire have got Chinese city. My think must belong Taotai's yamen." I went out to see, and found the firemen working under Revolutionary orders—taking the greatest care not to put it out, but to prevent its spreading. The plan is to burn the yamens, for, in very characteristic Chinese fashion, such object lessons serve to emphasise the contempt of the Revolutionaries for the powers that be, by destroying the places from which power is exercised. I may add that the Taotai (Pekin's representative in Shanghai) was ' not,inside his yamen; he prefers to liv*. in the international settlement. The event here to-day has been the capture of the Shanghai Arsenal by local Revolutionaries, and, as it is one of the largest small arms factories in China, and has a cartridge-making plant capable of turning out 50,000 cartridges a day, it is of considerable benefit to the Republican cause, sit was, comparatively, a mild affair, only about ten killed and thirty wounded, and the troops guarding it are now patriots with white bands round their left arms, reminding one of • the massacre of St. Bartholomew; i.: There is no doubt that the Chinese. I . are in earnest, and their leaders really mean to try to improve the system of .. government. It is a gigantic taste; and I think they- will succeed, though it must take time. On! November 1 the ; Throne published an Edict which admits the faults of the Government, and to-day : A the Throne has accepted the 19 proposed regulations put forward as a basis of the new Constitution. The first week in November, 1911, has seen the Chinese . Magna C'harta accepted the Prince Regent on behalf of his son, the baby Emperor, but the question everyone, is asking is whether or not it is 'too late to save the present dynasty. The rebels head their despatches to foreign representatives, "The Military Government of the Chinese people," > and they date them, "Ninth moon of the 4009 th year of the Huang-fi period," and that little matter of date does not augur - well for the Manchu dynasty, which' is only a recent one of the last three hundred years.