THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8283, 10 November 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1906.

The name oi Yuan Shi Kai has appeared several times in our cables in the last few months. He is nominally Viceroy of Ohi-li, but he is really the most powerful man in China. The story of his rise is like a atory from Roman history. . It was in 1898 that he first made his mark. The young Emperor, listening to the counsels of the reformers, wished to give effect to the teachings of the West, and promulgated ediots which astounded official China. For the protection of his person ; and the execution of bis commands, he looked to the Honanese soldier, Yuan Shi Kai. JSow, while Li Hong Chang had been content to send an army of undisciplined, ragged, and unpaid coolies to meet the Japanese, Yuan trained ins foroe of 5,000 according to Western'methods, and saw that they were properly fed and clothed, and received their paj. So, when the Dowager-Empress arranged her coup d'etat of September 22nd, 1898, the fate of the Emperor depended on Yuan and his forue of trained men. To them the Emperor looked for

support, but Yuan bad measured the weakness of the son of Heaven, and realised the strength of the Dowager-Empress, so be threw in his lot with tbe Empress and made the doom of the Kwang Su certain. Since then the Do wager-Empress has given Yuan her support, but should the Emperor ever regain power it may go hard with the man who deserted him. Two years later Yuan had to make another momentous ohoioe, whether to advanoe and attack tbe foreigners at Tientsin, as ordered by the Dowager Empress, thereby incurring the sure revenge of the Allies, or to stay where he was and displease bis mistress. He did neither. He advanced his troops at the rate of a mile a day, and avoided a conflict with the foreigners. Later, when the DowagerEmpress realised what Yuan's implication in tbe Boxer rising by her direct command would have meant for bur, she became bis active patron. Since tben Yuan Shi Kai has risen, until now be occupies the first plaoe in the Empire, and wields power never previously wielded by a subject. Ii these few years Yuan Sh Kai has organsied an army that has evoked the wonder and admiration of foreign critios, successfully combated the ariatooracy's caste objections to military service, broken down tbe entire traditional system of education and substituted a modern one, abolished tbe torture of criminals, settled the Tibet ques tion with Great tSritain, over-ruled Viceroys over whom be exercises no nominal control, by sending his own officers to enquire into outrages against missionaries, and taken the control of the Customs from Sir Robert Hart, and given it to his subordinates. His last and most impressive reform was the recent ediot announcing the abolition of tbe use of opium within ten years. He has always been a bilter enemy of the opium trade, and has refused to allow anyone attached to [his person to take opium, and has dismissed officers of tbe army and officials whom he Has found indulging in the habit. Early this year he made au interesting test ofgbia power In a tussle with the Palace officials. Finding himself seriously obstruoted by their machinations, he removed Li, the unscrupulous chief eunuch, his principal enemy. Yuan Shi Eat is Li Hung Chang's successor in plaoe and power, but that statesman's very antithesis in charaoter and aims. Yuan Shi Kai] is a reformer, honest according to Chinese ideas, and essentially practical, concerned with the material progress as opposed to the academic conservatism of his nation. What is to be the £uture~of this man? He may very possibly seek Imperial power as the price of his services when the Dowager-Empress die*. In the meantime be baa to guard against attempts on his life—for there are anarchists in China—and the subtle intrigues of the reactionary bureaucracy, which hates him with a deadly hatred.