RAPACIOUS CHINESE OFFICIAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 255, 21 July 1908, Page 8

RAPACIOUS CHINESE OFFICIAL.

IMPERIAL GRACE " OP SUICIDE. - Writing; on May 0, . the " Standard's"Shanghai ■correspondent states': For some 'years" past thai'.Chinese Government hare boen interested in a land reclamation scheme f in Eastern and Central Mongolia. Tho offi- ' cial charged with this work was '/one Yi Ko, a Tartar, general, and-it appears that he' has collected .'some, four million taels for ! 'thopurpose; ,'pf,which only .'..two millions, have, been,disbursed for tho work. In conse-' quence of.. his,' conduct Yi Ko was'recently donounced to tho Throne, with tho result -that most of his subordinates . have been , !cashiored; and ' : Yi himself has been ordered ,to refund| the, moftey ho has misapplied, and [. 'to, come .'up to, Peking for trial. It is ; .believed'that Yi>will bo .sentenced i to. death,, but, owing to his high rank, he . will not- be,/ decapitatedbut by extra Imper■J' ial grace will bo permitted to strangle himi self. ,-:.Ghina is probably tho only country in tho . world where, a criminal, official is ordered to . commit suicide.: He is sent a silken rope by the ; :Throne-,and ordered-'to stranglo himself with i ,it'.t To< a'.European.,or American it matters I little liojv he. is executed; to a Chinaman, 1 on '.the-contrary, -it matters a very groat deal. If decapitated-and buried withont his F, .head be may have .to wander for ages in the ' dnfernal-regions trying to find a head that t will fit; ;anf thus .any form of death that in--5 volves : no'dismemberment of'the body is 3 preferable -in ■ his eyes.