THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 6, 7 February 1901, Page 15

THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.

~* BITS OF CHINA OLD AND NEW.

WESTERN AND EASTERN DIPLOMACY. The Western world, though its armed forces hold the Chinese capital, finds itself foiled by the craft of the Chinese Court. Last week the mi^iotero of Enropo fany» * TTnrnp pxrhaTiefO agreed to amend the terms of the conjoint note, which, it is hoped, will smooth the way to peace. The term" a« nnrmdpH arc a victory for the Empress Dowager. Instead of demanding from her the death penalty on the officials guilty of the recent massacres the Western Governments now content themselves with asking her to inflict ' the most severe punishment befitting the crimes ' of the murderers. No names of the persons guilty are specified. The whole matter, both of persons and punishments, is left in the Empress's hands. Ac she is herself the most guilty of all, we imagine she will find some way of conscientiously escaping the unpleasant duty thus committed to her by outraged Europe. The whole episode shows how difficult it is to deal with the wily Chinese, and it shiuld be sufficient to warn us of the danger of undertaking a work which neither we nor all Europe combined have power and money to bring to a satisfactory conclusion. The 50,000 soldiers now in Pekin might as well be in Timbuctoo for all the influence they exert on the Chinese Court at Singan-fu. FEARFUL SLAUGHTER OP PRIESTS AND NUNS. A special dispatch from China to the Cologne Volk.s Zeitung of December 3 reports a fearful mission slaughter in the Province of Shansi. The first victims, the dispatch says, were a Catholic Bishop and his coadjutor and four European priests, Franciscans, Italian and French The governor invited them to his house, pretending to give them better protection, but when they arrived their hands were tied. Then the governor himself poniarded them all. Next the governor went to the Bishop's residence with a number of soldiers and seized six Marseilles Sisters. He promised them money and distinguished husbands if they would renounce Christianity, which they unanimously rejected. Thereupon the governor stabbed them and also a number of Chinese priests, 30 Chinese Sisters, and 200 orphans from three to 16 years of age. Fifteen seminarists, who hid themselves in a cistern, were, the dispatch adds, tied to stakes and forced to drink the blood of the first victims. They were then killed. A Chinese priest and two Christians who attempted to escape were cut and put in a small hut, where they were burned. AN APPRECIATION OF BISHOP FAVIER Baron Hayashi, the new Japanese Minister to the Court of St James, speaks thus of a Cathohc Bishop whohe name has for some time been very much before the public in connection with the Chinese crisis : ' Bishop Favier, of the Catholic Cathedral, saw that trouble was coming long before it arrived, and often he went to the Legations to impress upon them the necessity of preparing for the storm. He told members of the Tsung Li Yamen a'ao, but no one heeded him. The Bishop had been many, many years in China, and was in charge of the Cathedral that Chinese money and labor had erected. He had been both earnest and tolerant in his labors, and had lived a life of absolute simplicity. He allowed himself lt> shillings a week for his entire personal expenses. Besides this he was a man of profound learning in Chinese classics, so that in every way he appealed to Chinese ideals of what a man should be, and indeed the natives loved and reverenced him.' THE BISHOP OF PEKIN. Monsignor Favier, Bishop of Pekin, will arrive in France in March. The chief object of his journey is to arrange with the Government the question of the special indemnity to be granted to the Congregations in China. It appears that the Italian missionaries, of whom there are great numbers in Mongolia, intend to request M. Delcasse to make a claim also on their behalf. A TRIBUTE TO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES. For some time past newspaper writers and others (says the Catholic Times') have poured torrents of reproaches on the missionaries in China. As a rule those who aro most bitter in their attacks upon the heralds of the Gospel know little or nothing about the work they have been doing or their motives and methods. It is pleasant to contrast with this hostile and unenlightened criticism the tribute which, according to the ' Annals of the Propagation of the Faith,' Mr. Norman, a Protestant, pays to the Catholic missionaries in China. They are, he affirms, the object of much greater regard amongßt the natives as well as amongst foreigners than the Protestant missionaries ; and the result of their labors is undoubtedly more successful. The Catholic priest settles in China once for all, adopts the native costume and the^people's way of looking at things, and inures himself to subsist on'the most modest means. He converts the worship of ancestjrs — the vital point of the belief of every Chinaman — into the honoring of the saints, teaches his converts a prayer for the Emperor, is subject to one authority only, and preaches and practises only one doctrine. Mr. Norman, who cannot be charged with being prejudiced in favor of the Catholic propaganda, feels that he would be wanting in honesty were he not to declare that he has conceived a profound respect for the Catholic missionaries he has met with in China, both as regards their character and their work. Testimony such as this is really valuable because it is that of an experienced investigator.