CHINESE REBELLION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 196, 16 February 1912, Page 6

CHINESE REBELLION.

A- QUIET ANNEXATION.

Among the recent arrivals from China is Mr. 0. R. Graham, now of Wellington, who has been stationed in Shanghai for the past eleven years as departmental manager for a big English firm. Mr. Graham left Shanghai as late as November last, and is fairly well posted as to : the broader issues involved in the present anti-Manchu trouble in China. "The revolutionaries had no trouble to speak of in gaining a footing in Shanghai," said Mr. Graham. "In fact, you wouldn't know anything was on at all if it were not. for the excitement of the natives. Shanghai is an international port, and there was no trouble in the foreign part of the city at all. The Woosung forts, fourteen miles away down the river, were taken after a breeze, but j there was no fighting' in the city. The I Manchu Government officials quietly dis- ! appeared, and were replaced by the Republican party. "For months before the outbreak the natives had been simmering with excitement, and there never seemed to be any doubt but that the revolution would succeed. They all appeared to be very bitter against the Manchu dynasty, and were ripe for any change that would push them from the throne of China. j "There is a good chance now of the | eapital being, changed from pekin to Nanking—the centre of the revolutionary movement. If that is brought about it will be. a good thing for Shanghai, which is only a six-hours ride in the train from Nanking. ''The trouble has grea,tly upset business'amongst the Chinese. 1 A year ago j there were eighty native banks doing j business in the Chinese quarter of Shanghai (where there are from 150,000 to 200,000 natives), now there are onlv 25." J

Where are the others? "Gone smash—unable to meet their liabilities; when the trouble came, and a rush set in, they went under, until only the solid cpncerns were left."

Mr. Graham describes life at Shanghai as very pleasant. There were about 10,000 foreigners, including 6000 English, resident in the city, and as coolie labor is very cheap, the Englishman is able to take things very easy in everything save his own business responsibilities. They were a bright, pleasure-loving people, with golf links, racecourse and cricket ground, practically in the centre of the city. Living was fairly cheap, though one could not say rents were, and there was a distinct fascination about the life in the big city of the East.~ Dominion.

DRIVEN FROM CHINA.

Interesting sidelights on the troubles in China are! furnished by an interview which was given to a reporter in Sydney last week by the Rev. H. I. Houden and his wife. Mr. Houden is a missionary, and has been stationed in the city of Anshien, but was driven from his home a few weeks ago. He explained that the revolution had afforded an opportunity for bandits to commit all kinds of excesses. They followed in the train of the revolutionaries," and in Anshien they looted the public buildings, opened the prisons, paralysed business and even attacked foreigners. The mischief was not done by the revolutionaries, but by bandits and members of powerful secret societies. "A friend of mine," said Mr. [ Houden, "received a blow on the head, and when the magistrate enquired about it and discovered who were the instigators of the mischief he dropped the matter, because he was afraid for his own life ,if he interfered with the secret societies." The missionary was ordered by the mandarin to leave Anshien with his wife and family, and when he reached Chongking the British Consul tpld him to hasten to the coast. The journey by river was eventful, the two boats in which the missionary and other refugees travelled being stopped three times by revolutionaries, and who suspected that there were Chinese officials among the party. Mr. Houden remarked that most of the missiDnaries in Szechuan had been sent to the coast, as their lives were endangered by the excesses of the robbers. Mrs. Houden added that there were still in Anshien Boxers who were more or less active at all times, and they had taken advantage of the disturbed state of the country. The Boxers were anti-foreign and anti-church, but the revolutionaries had respected foreigners. The mandarin at Anshien was a Mohammedan, but he was very friendly to the Christian missionaries and did not' hesitate to risk his own life in helping them to get away from the city. The visitors remarked philosophically that they had had to begin their furlough twelve months sooner than they had expected. When it is over they will he glad, no doubt, to take up their burden again.