CHINA AND THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

CHINA AND THE WAR.

RECUMBENT GIANTS AWAKEN. FORMING A NEW DIPLOMACY. STIMULUS TO THE MONARCHICAL MOVEMENT. (Auckland Star Correspondent.) Tokio, Sept. 11. The movement for the restoration of the monarchy in China has at first sight very little to do with the struggle in Europe, but in reality there is a very close relation between the two great events. If one talks sufficiently with the Chinese merchant of the first grade —he is a man who has a profound and remarkable political instinct—one sees at once that the aspects of the war are viewed by him in a different way from the rest of the world. To the Chinese the great issue of scraps of paper, the ravishing of helpless women, the slaughter of little children, mean little or nothing. To the Chinese the war is a silly struggle of the Powers, which, if prolonged, will bring their country into jeapardy They know that since the Concert of the Powers in 1900, China has been held delicately in the balance between the rivals, and any change now in the European status must necessarily have its effect upon the Chinese nation. And so one gathers the impression that the monarchical movement, although existing before the war, has received its impetus through the fresh awakening of China to the fact that she must evert herself or be placed in an ignominious position among the Powers for a further period of years. Her neutrality is guaranteed under a much more doubtful form than the instruments which were supposed to neutralise Belgium; her statesmen have been pulled this way and that by the varying influences of the Powers in Peking; meekly she has obeyed the dictates of the foreigner, taking always the line of least resistance. Now she appears as a great recumbent giant stretching himself. She is successfully treating with the United States, and her commerce shows signs of a marvellous revival. Still further is she roused by choosing to regard Japan jealously and with eyes of suspicion. So we see China awaking to her sense of responsibility as a nation, and her foreign policy being moulded on lines more and more Chinese.

PRESIDENT YUAN'S PROBLEM. I have just been presented with an accurate translation of President Yuan's speech to the Chinese Senate, which opened last week in Pekin. The clamoring for a monarchy has been so insistent that all eyes were turned upon the attitude of the President on this occasion, for till then Yuan had consistently refused to say whether he was willing or unwilling to assume the position of Emperor. His declaration is a splendid "yes-no" one; he had to justify his Republicanism and all he had done for it, but he showed, too, that he waß not altogether averse to becoming a monarch.

"It is now nearly four years," he said, "since I was entrusted with the important task of uniting China under a republican regime, and the united efforts of the Government and people so far devoted to this cause are beginning to bear fruit. It is my bounden duty, therefore, to do my best, as hitherto, for the maintenance of the Republican cause. It seems that telegraphic appeals from different localities for the resuscitation of the Imperial regime are daily received by the Chou An Hui and the State Council. The proposed political change, however, is entirely out of season, nor should it hastily be attempted, in view of the grave effect it would have on the administration. Such appeals, however, are not to be ignored, since they are evidently prompted by a sincere desire on the part of the people for the consolidation of the nation aad the popular welfare. I have no objection, therefore, to taking the present opportunity of drafting the Constitution to discuss the best means of satisfying what is dearly the popular desire."

WILL THE POWERS STEP IN? The Japanese newspapers are all agog over this speech. One calls it a slippery masterpiece; another says it merely obviates popular criticism. And then, on top of the ambiguity of Yuan's speech, comes the news from Peking that it is the President's intention of making Manchuria and Mongolia a separate kingdom under the ex-Emperor Hsuan, who is the legitimate successor of the dynasty. Mr. Hioki, the Japanese Minister at Peking, who is over here just now on leave, sums up the position this way, and he sets a pretty problem: "In case the Imperial rule is restored, the ex-Emperor Hsuan is the first person to be enthroned Should the President supersede him on the sole account of popularity, hn will necessarily forfeit his good name. In order to avert it, the President is racking his brains. He wants only justification, and no more, for his ambition However, the intelligent section of both Japan and China are fully aware that there is no.person but the President who will prove himself equal to the task." The events in China during the next few weeks will be intensely interesting. They concern the whole of the Powers, and, although the latter are absorbed in the European struggle, it is thought by most students of Eastern problems that they must step in and assist in bringing China to a decision which will be in the interests of the world generally.