CHINESE CORRUPTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 January 1934, Page 6

CHINESE CORRUPTION

LOOTED TREASURES OF PEKIN. Looting there has been in Pekin, though neither hordes of disbanded Chinese soldiers nor Japanese conquerors have made entry. The greatest looters are the Nanking Government. During my stay in Pe*kin 1 have seen with my own eyes thousands of huge cases containing the wonderful collection of Imperial treasures in the Forbidden City being taken away to Shanghai. The Imperial and Forbidden Cities have been cleared of the accumulations of several hundreds of years (writes a special correspondent in the London “Daily Telegraph.”) No fewer than 3,500 huge boxes, filled with pottery, jades, inkstands, ritual vessels and porcelains, were removed in two speical trains from Pekin to Shanghai. Even the furniture, cabinets, and decorated ceilings and walls have been transported from Pekin to the foreign concessions in Shanghai. The collection removed is valued at £30,000,000. Many of the articles thus taken from the Pekin Museum vary in age from 2000 to 30vTO years. It iw a well-known fact that during recent months there has been at Pekin an unusually large number of German and American antique dealers, hovering about in the Forbidden City in the company of some of the Chinese high officials. Some of the most devoted friends and lovers of China fear that, at least a portion of the cases which were sent to Shanghai may have gone even as far as the U.S.A, and Germany. Some of my friends in Pekin assure me that the removal of these priceless, treasures from the old Imperial City is associated with thievery and corruption.

The romantic and mysterious Forbidden City, once the residence of the Imperial family, the princesses, the concubinec and eunuchs, and last used as the quarters of the Boy Emperor, who to-day is President of Manchukuo, is now deserted, empty, and desolate, its streets filthy. The granite sacrificial stones, upon which sacrifices used to be offered to the mountains and rivers of China, have disappeared. The Temple o£ Heaven itself has nothing left, but its walls and roof. Yet despite its emptiness, it is still the most beautiful edifice in the most wonderful city in the world. Formerly it was in this place that the Chinese Emperors offered their annual prayers for a happy and prosperous year and for a good harvest.

It is still the most imposing and most sacred monument, in China. Its altar fires witness to the prehistoric monotheistic faith of China which preceded Buddhism and Confucianism. It is generally believed by scholars and historians that the Temple of Heaven was always a distinctly Imperial shrine, the place appointed for Emperors’ intercessions to the Great Ruler and grandfather of all the countless gods, demons, and ghosts that have a place in Chinese pantheon—intercessions on behalf of his children, the Chinese people.