CASE FOR THE CHINESE REBELS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 185, 3 February 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

CASE FOR THE CHINESE REBELS.

MANDARINS A MASS OF CORRUPT OFFICIALS; Dr. Somervillc, head- of the London Missionary Society's Hospital at Wuchang (a city on the Yangtse, opposite Hankow, which was recaptured by the Imperialists), is in England on eighteen months' furlough, and to a Daily Chronicle correspondent he gave the following story of the* rebellion:— "The cause of the revolution haye been put into the mouth of the little Emperor of five: 'When I urge reform the officials and gentry (who are largely retired officials) seize the opportunity to embezzle. When old laws are abolished, high officials serve their own ends. Much

of the. people's money has been taken, but nothing to benefit them has been done. , On several occasions laws have been promulgated, but none of them have been obeyed. People are grumbling, yet I do not know; disasters loom ahead, but I do not see.' No, poor baby! Neither he nor his uncle before him has seen, for whenever the Emperors leave the palace great high screens are erected in Pekin so that they neither see nor are seen.

'.'During the recent Canton riots the revolutionaries put the case of the people plainly: We, the Chinese, are governed by foreigners, for the Manehus are foreigners in China. They have not rnled us with justice; they do not hear the groans of the masses; the people's grievances are not redressed; their mandarins are a mass of corrupt officials. Reform has been long overdue. To begin with the officials themselves. In fairness one must'acknowledge they have salaries assigned themjar below their legitimate expenses, and have no security of tenure. Therefore, they make hay while the sun shines; tax the people to the utmost limit—that is, the riot limit, the only protest they mind Justice can be had in the Concessions, at least for foreigners, because they are not subject to Chinese law pure and simple. In police cases occurring with the Concessions, a Consular official and a Chinese magistrate sit on the bench together, and take counsel as to the verdict and punishment. Justice is done, and an excellent object lesson afforded. But in the Chinese courts it is rare, uncertain, much delayed. There must be bribery of scores of underlings, and Valuable presents given to the mandarins. I have known cases i of people not troubling the law courts with their grievances, but going straight to the pawnshops after their stolen goods! When taxation passes the limit of endurance, they do not hold an indignation meeting and pass a resolution, but rush to the court, pull the magistrate out of his chair, and beat him or burn the yamen." "Lynch law once more ?"

We have had to deal with three factors m China for more than a decade. The struggle between them grows keener: (1) The Manchu Court; (2) the Young China party, either educated abroad or in the mission schools; and (3) >an expensive, unjust, corrupt army of officials. The Court should have kept the officials in order, but instead of that good officials have been replaced by most worthless Manchus. Then 'reforms' were promised on paper; but, as the Chinese have remarked to me, 'new clothes, but the old men.' The problem of to-day is where to find honest officials. The Manchu pension or ration money is another crying grievance. Every Manchu male gets a pension at birth of lfldol. (or £1) per month, and in return is supposed to render military service the money being in lieu of rations. Instead, the Manchu pays a substitute, the latter often acting for ever so many at the same time. Hence the Manchus have of late tended more and more to be mere parasites. There are 5,000,000 Manchus, and the last census—perhaps not as accurate as a European one—showed that there are far more than 400,000,000 Chinese. "Perhaps the Chinese are a little too patient witli their rulers, and thus in the end get the kind of government they deserve ?"

"Yet every nation has crises in its history. It is true the Chinese don't complain as long as food and clothing are .cheap and taxation light; but the student class know that the money raised is ample for China's needs without the resource to foreign loans, if only that «. e re properly applied to the work of government. Improvement was promised in 1902 after the Victory of Japan over China. Admission to Government employment is only by examination (apart from purchase, by no means unknown, though expensive). The questions were henceforward not to be solely on Chinese classics, but. to include history, natural science, and other subjects which are styled Western. But in 1906 the Edits went one better. A perfect system (on paper) of Western subjects replaced the old one as the road to office. Nothing practical resulted, no reform was brought about, and that is whv China is in revolution to-day. ' The Reform party requires fresh strength. We have now two revolts—one started at Wuchang, which aims at setting up a Republic on the lines of the United States. You know the city, in which I have been working for seven years, is in the very heart of China, at the junction of the Yangtse and the-Han, anil possesses, with Hankow -and Hanyang, a vast population of one and a-half millions. It is a commercial centre, a seat of provisional government, and a junction of railways and waterways.

"But there is the northern army to be reckoned with, trained on European lines, 27,000 strong, brought into existence by Yuan-Sluh-Kai. I know some look on him as the saviour of the situation, but I have it from a trustworthy Chinese source that Young China does'not trust him. He has twice proved traitor to his masters. Nor does Young China trust the National Assembly. Why should it? One-third of the members are elected by the people, two-thirds nominated by the Manchus. The situation is full of difficulty. The Northern army has presented an ultimatum to the Manchu dynasty, which practically amounts to 'its abdication, but it retains the person of the baby Emperor as figure-head. The Northerners, seeing that China has had Manchu rulers for 260 years, recognise i there is no Chinese claimant for the Throne, and the idea of a Republic seems foreign to Chinese traditions. It is not surprising that there is an inclination | to retain the infant Emperor. But whatever form the Government shall finally assume, the ascendency of the Manchu dynasty is doomed. The Chinese ' mean to rule their own house."