PROGRESS IN CHINA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7731, 26 February 1909, Page 1

PROGRESS IN CHINA.

.———...in "■-—eg^i^ -~-" '"" '» m China at the present time a great reform movement is going on. Mr Id. E. Fullford, the British Consul at Mukden, Manchuria, imparted 6ome information respecting this and other matters when seen upon hie arrival m Sydney. . This reform movement, winch includes military drilling, has, he says, been m progress from the time of the ivar m 1860, when the combination of British and French troops took Pekin. j It, however, received an impetus approaching vitality following the war , with Japan m 1894. The country, he chinks, is quite peaceful, and since certain other Powers have entered into an agreement among themselves to preserve the integrity of- the Empire (and have notified China of it) he does not incliiin- to the opinion that the drilling has any special significance. No system approaching conscription is m vogue, there, nor is there what one ! might, rail » standing army. Each of the province.; hns its own troops, and its own viceroy. The drilling is, he says*, aiter the style of that, adopted hv the Japanese, the instructors being rhemw-ivfvi Japanese. Manchuria is treated ;\>s a province, and its army is subjected to the same form of training which obtains m China proper. The Consul referred to the opinion of Sir Robert Hart that the Chinese were essentially a peace-loving people, ;ind never likely to be aggressive even though they might themselves become powerful. Manchuria, Mr Fullford added, is a very fine country, and one that is iikely to develop rapidly. He looks largely to the railways as being factors m this development/ There is a railway right through it, built by the Russians. The southern half of this line was, after the recent Russo-Japa-nese- war. taken .over by the Japanese, the northern half of it being still under the Russians. A railway from Pekin joins it at Mukden. There arc not many Europeans at Mukden, the tendency being to congregate at Shanghai. The business of the interior is, he says, done chiefly by Chinese, the Europeans being unable to compete with_ them. A lair trade is, however, done m Manchuria m piece goods. There is a ro'/ular service m coastal boats from Shanghai. They go as far as Newehang. At Dalny there is a regular service of Japanese steamers. Mr Suttor, the New South \Yales Commissioner of the East, lias visited Mukden, but Mr Fullford says there are no great possibilities of extending Australian trade to Manchuria, unless perhaps m flour. At present, most of the flour is obtained from America, but he does not see why Australian flour .should not go there. Tho --npulation of Manchuria is an uncertain quantity, varying from ten to fifteen millions, Though Chinese from the north went to South Africa, "eneraliy speaking the northerners do not emigrate: hcnce_ it i«. he s;tvs, that we m Australia- receive chiefly Cantonese.