THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1912. DR. SUN-YAT-SEN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10589, 22 March 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1912. DR. SUN-YAT-SEN.

The special correspondent in China of the Sydney Daily '.telegraph lias supplied his journal with some interesting information touching Sun-Yat-Sen, the head patriot of the newest Republic. After almost twenty years of buffeting about the world, dogged by, the emissaries of the Manchus, always with a sufficiently attractive price upon his head to tempt the assassin, he came back to China ill December, and was unanimously elected President of China on Xew Year's Day, without any resplendent ceremony. Ho settled down to presidential work without misgiving, full of confidence, even during the days when Yuan-Shi-kai plotted to overthrow both Manchus and Republicans for •his own ends. Fie has superb confidence, and would say often, ''All will be well. You see we will prevail despite every obstacle, because our cause is. just." Sun-Yat-Sen never permitted' any desire for personal gain to deflect him from the purpose lie had in view. According to all the rules of

the game, the Presidency of the Ro-| public should have boon his just toward. But ho promised to withdraw as soon as the fight was won, and lie lost no time in doing so when the belated ediot of abdication reached him _ from Peking- While he was Presid- . ( cut he drew a salary of twenty dollars | per month, about the wage of a serv- ; ■ ant who fetches and carries little 1 thinefi. His administration was clean and'lks Cabinet, bring imbued with J hi?, fine spirit, did l::s work honestly, j Most of the Ministers drew no pay at | all and others merely out-of-pocket | expenses, whloh seldom to twenty dollars per month. Sun-Yat-Scn set an example in chivalry that must have staggered the officials of the old regime. While many declare that the patriot d'ld no more than make a virtue of necessity, the correspondent i,s sure he was prompted only by a sincere desire to do the best that b*e could for his country. Yet per•haips it was well for his land iha.t he resigned, as lie was not an ideal l ,ie " sidemt. He cannot separate the ideal from the practical. He constantly sees before him gilded. towers and minarets, gloaming in the sunshine of IWopia, and he has no time for the petty, shadowy details and unwelcome conditions that lie before him in the middle d/istanee. "Finance," lie said once, "is the thing I think of last. Yet the Treasury was bankrupt. Ihere I was no money to be had anywhere. ' The .soldiers were clamouring for their I pay, and lack of it meant disaster to ! the movement. The Minister for Fin- ) nnee was left to h-S own device, and I the generals were left to theirs.