THE REBELLION IN CHINA.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1259, 16 October 1911, Page 5

THE REBELLION IN CHINA.

CAREFULLY ENGINEERED. OMINOUS OUTLOOK FOR THE THRONE. TOWNS CAPTURED BY REBELS.

By Telearaph-'Press Association—Copyright (Rec. October 15, 5.5 p.m.) London, October 14. The "Daily Chronicle" publishes Sun Vat Sen's letters to an Anglo-American group of bankers when visiting England in January last. The correspondence reveals that the rising has been carefully engineered. He appealed for ,£500,000 to assist the movement, and declared that the whole of Southern China was ready to rebel. The correspondcnco shows that a Chinese bank, three rice mills at Bangkok, several merchants at Singapore, and three mine-owners in tho Malay Stages, whoso property aggregates two million sterling, made an offer to American capitalists to guarantee Sun Vat Sen's loan. While the capitalists were inquiring, Sun Yat Sen went on a secret mission, and afterwards reported that various divisions of the modern drilled army in South Yangtso were strongly in favour of the revolution, and an understanding was reached whereby they promised to come over when tho revolution had gained a footing. The loyalty of the seven divisions in Peking which Yuan-Shih-ICai created had greatly diminished since Yuan-Shih-Kai's degradation. Sun Yat Sen added that another division in Manchuria, commanded by a revolutionary general could bo depended upon to operate against Peking. Many officers and sailors in the navy were also revolutionists. The report went on to stato that the recent intervention of the Chinese populace in the Makao dispute between China and Portugal showed that tho whole of the south was ready for a general uprising. The present position resembled a forest of dry wood which required only one spark, which was the .£500,000 loan. The leaders were not men of financial standing, but men of ability equal to any in the world. Sun Yat Sen offered tho financiers tho right of appointing nominees to. control tho finances of tho revolution, and tho loan would bo repaid many times over j when a city like Canton was captured. | Tho "Times" Peking correspondent says the sympathies of the immense mass of educated Chinese in Peking are with the revolutionaries. There is little sympathy for the corrupt oud effete Manehu dynasty, and the outlook for tho Throne is ominous.

REFORM GOVERNMENT PROCLAIMED. TREATIES AND LOANS TO BE RESPECTED. IMPERIAL TROOPS ORDERED TO HANKAU. Peking, October 11. A Reform Government has been proclaimed at Hankau. The revolutionists informed the consuls that all treaties and loans already contracted will be respected. Hwang, the civilian leader of tho insurgents, is beliored to bo a former associate of Sun Vat Sen. It is reported that the soldiers at Hupeh have not been paid for a year. Yin Chaug, the Generalissimo of tbo northern army, has been ordered to Hankau with twelve thousand Imperial troops. THE FIGHTING AT WUCHANG. EIGHT HUNDRED MANCHUS KILLED. (Rcc. October 16, 0.25 a.m.) Peking, October 15. Corpses aro strewn about in Wuchang, fifty being found outside one gate. It is estimated that eight hundred Manchus have been killed. Reuter's Wuchang correspondent reports that tho rebel army consists of 26,000 men and that recruiting is proceeding actively, funds being plentifuL

RECALLED. ONE OP CHINA'S ABLEST MEN. (Rec. October lfl, 0.25 a.m.) Peking, October 15. Yuan-Shih-Kai lias been recalled, and appointed Viceroy of tho prortnees of Hupeh and Hunan, and has been ordered to Wuchang, to re-establish the Imperial authority of the Manclius. Rarely has there been a more striking case of tho whirligig of time bringing its revenge than that of Yuan-Shih-Kai, the ox-Viceroy of Pcchili, whose disgrace and banishment at the beginning of 1909 marked tho assumption of powor by tho Priiice Regent on the deaths of the Emperor Kwang Hsu and the Empress Dowager. Yuan was not merely tho most powerful but the ablest official in China. In the crisis of the Boxer movement lie had kept his head and saved his country from partition. Ho was tlio prop of the restored Government of the Empress Dowager. Yet a stroke of the vermilion pencil sufficed to strip him of his posts and honours, and to send him back, a disgraced man, to his native village. Under other circumstances, his life as well as his position would have been forfeit, but tho Prince Regent was warned that Yuan was held in high esteem by the Treaty Powers, and that to murder i him might be perilous. It was stated in Hay last that the Chinese Government was semiofficially negotiating with Yuan-Shih- i Ivai with a view to his reappointment to ofiice. Yuan-Shih-Kai, as a condition of acceptance, stipulated for the complete withdrawal of the opposition of the Dowager Empress. The Government tentatively suggests the Vice-President of the Cabinet as the post to which he should bo appointed, evidently desiring to introduce a new political force as a counterpoise to the rapidly-increasing influence of Shing Kung-nao, ono of the VicePresidents of the Ministry of Posts and Comunications.

capable commander of tho 21st Mixed Brigade, is leading tho Ilupch muineers. Batches of Government troops aro arriving at Hank.m. Tho revolutionaries aro endeavouring to persuado them to rebel. Tho prisoners ia the Hankau gaols have been released. Foreign bluejackets under the Japanese Admiral, Kawashima, axe guarding tho Consulates. An Imperial edict offers a pardon to the mutineers who have boon coerced into joining tho movement if they express their repentance. General Chang Kao has been cashiered. The revolution aims at making Di. Sun Yat Sen's brother Sun Yu, president of the Hupeh Provincial Assembly, which has already disavowed <the Peking Government. Tang Huateng, a noted scholar, is to bo Viceroy of Hupeh. Tho autumn army manoeuvres at Kaiping, 74 miles north-oast of Tientsin, have been cancelled. The sixth division has been ordered to Feng'iai.

LIFTING THE CURTAIN. THE REFORM MOVEMENT. HISTORIC BLOOD-STAINED PETITION. Dr. E. J. Dillon, in tho July issue of the "Contemporary Review," brings together the main tacts in the extraordinary present-day situation in China. "China is waking up," he says. "Hei peoplo are becoming alert aud active. As soon as the ethnic torrent, penned in for ages is in movement, elements may be brought to the surface which we, in Europe, had no knowledge. Surprises of a serious natura may also bo in store for us. One thing, however, we may rest absolutely assured of: what will eventually tako place will differ 'toto ooclo* from what the best European authorities anticipated. Already the curtain ha 9 been lilted, and the prologue to the play is beginning. "Constitutionalism, aud the acute nationalism whicli is so often one of its concomitants, are sprea/ling throughout the Empire. The .central government is pithjess and can make no si and against the 'reform' movement, which, in one of its aspects, is also an anti-foreign movement. "The Peking authorities promised to convoke a constitutional Chamber not later than tlio year 1917, and meanwhile thoy created in every province a special consultative Diet. But ono of the firat acts of this body was to petition the Throne to summon the representatives of the nation at an earlier date. The reply was negative. Nothing''daunted, the reformers inaugurated on elaborate propaganda throughout the_ country in favour of their demands. Vast numbers joined the movement. In June last a new petition was drafted, presentod, and rejected as before. Moved to Frenzy. "Fjory speeches inflamed the passions ol the 'relormists,' which manifested themselves in weird forms. A third petition was drawn up, and while speeches on the subject were being delivered- the delegates of students' organisations broke into the Hall of Deliberations and addressed those present in the wild language of passion. By way of enhancing the impression produced, they resorted to the aid of self-mutilation; the first of the students cut olf ono of his fingers; the second drovo a dagger through the palm of his hand; a third was about to shco open his abdomen, but was hindered. He contrived, however, to cut out a piece of musclo from his forearm. His blood spurted out on the floor and besploshed the petition. Tho assembly was moved to frenzj. A resolution was unanimously passed to present the petition to tlio Regent at once, and to present it with tho stains of human goro upon it. Radicalism in China. "The provincial delegates thereupon wended towards the Palace in a body, lhe licgeni happened just then to bo in th°. inner apartments to which access is stringently prohibited. But' tho petitioners cried out tumultuously for somo person in authority, causing such an uproar and keeping it up so persistently all night, camping in the Palace, that at last an official to whom the name of Home Secretary is given, volunteered to deliver the petition to tho Regent. Aftci a repetition of scenes which are compared to thoso that were enacted at' Versailles at tlio outset of the French Revolution, the Pnnco Regent caved in. Ho promised to pass on the document to the Senafo and ask, that' body to report to him on the subject. "Now tlio Senate, which was convoked for the first tirno about seven months ago, is tho most conservative public body in tho China of to-day. One-half of its members were nominated by the Princo Regent, who selected them from among I ; a f,° dignitaries, trusty officials, princes ot the blood, and men eminent in science and letters. Tho other half consists of individuals chosen by tho provincial councils, whoso members havo to possess a very high property qualification. Yet •i i £ onscrvativ c assembly inaugurated its labours last year by complaining of tho inadequacy of th© rights it possesses and asking for more. Chinese Nationalism, "in oonsequenco of its Radical propensities and subversive influence, tho Regant dissolved it at the i .? f , 0 mouths > but tho Senate evaded thn law by appointing a permanent committee of a number of its own members to sit in Peking in the intervals of the sessions. In the matter of this petitiou tlio Senate, in lieu of supporting the I government, upheld the demands of the ! reformists, and tho Regent felt constraini ed to issue an edict promising to convoke a constitutional Chamber in the rear 1913* ' instead of 1017, but ho declared as an offset that it* would bo absolutely impossible r i ? lnc law and obtain a J? ers , ous to vote before 1913. With the recent esamplo of ftussia. LuTkcy, and even Persia before our eves. 1 i lo assumo that whatever , else tho Chinese Parliament may be. it . will .-assuredly be patriotic. And Chinese patriotism will bo interpreted by Euro--1 poans to mean the persecution of'/oreijrn- . ers. Tho cultured nations of the world want a people of customers in the Far , s .v. no * J people of competitors. Competition of trade and industry, even in China itself, will bn set down—nay, is bsn ? K .,- !iot t . d< "™-as a Mime against, civilisation. No wondor ; Chinese are indignant. But the culnations havo, only themsehes to blame lor what' is coming, II was they who insisted peremptorih- on China joining tho ranks of civilised naticns, and it was they who at the same time systematically put upon her indignities which even barbarians would not brook. Having seen these things with my own eyes in China, I can speak of them at first hand.

REBEL VICTORIES.

TWO TOWNS CAPTURED. revolutionaries strongly ENTRENCHED. Peking, October 13. Tho Chinese Cabinet admits that tho garrisons at Paoting-fu and Tientsin, and even Peking, axe honeycombed with revolutionaries. The rebels have captured Ichang (on the left bank of tho Yangtsc) and Yochaufu, and isolated Chungking-fu (a city 832 miles above Ilankau, and situated on a rocky promontory at the confluence of tho Killing with the Yangtsc). Chungkingfu is beyond tho reach of foreign gunboats. Tho rebels are strongly entronchcd at Wuchang and Hanyang, where guns ha.ve been mounted. Ample ammunition has been taken from the arsenal. • General Ti Quan Heng, who TM til© _