RETURN OF THE CHINESE COURT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7389, 15 February 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

RETURN OF THE CHINESE COURT.

MAGNIFICENT ORIENTAL SPEC-

TACLE.

Despatches from Peking-, January 7, give, an account of the arrival of the Imperial Court at the Forbidden City. It was the most brilliant scene Peking ever witnessed. The procession consisted of a thousand gorgeously-attired noblemen mounted on superbly-caparisoned horses, The Emperor, Empress Dowager, Prince Chun, Empress, and several princesses were uorne in yellow chairs, their escort carrying hundreds of gay banners and umbrellas. The foreign community assembled on the top of the Chiang gate. The Emperor and Einp-veiss entered the temple by the gate and burned incense. The Dowager Empress, upon emerging from the temple, saw foreigners peering down and bowed. A double row of soldiers, kneeling, lined four miles of the route. The cortege was a bewildering, barbaric exhibition of Oriental splendour. Its chief significance was the complete effacement of the traditional deification of Chinese royalty. Foreigners were given greater facilities for witnessing the ceremonial than would have been afforded them at most European courts. The scene at the Chiang gate was nothing else than revolutionary when viewed in the light of all Chinese customs. The horseshoe wall forming the gate was crowded with Europeans, diplomats, army officers, missionaries, ladies, photographers, and correspondents. When the Emperor and Empress arrived at the temple the procession halted, and their majesties alighted from their sable-lined chairs. The Emperor proceeded to the temple of the God of War, with hundreds of foreigners watching from only forty feet above him, and dozens of cameras focused upon the son of heaven. The Dowager Empress in turn bowed low and repeatedly. The expression of the Dowager Empress seemed all mcst appealing as she faced those who had humbled her and brought her down from her former arro--gance, and this confirmed the belief i that she has returned to Peking

with anxiety for her own safety. Although the streets along the line of march from the railway station were kept closed to the people, thousands of natives assembled on elevations, along the line of march — a thing never before permitted. The majority of foreign ministers absented themselves.

A despatch from Peking of January 14 says: — "The first week of the rehabilitation of the Chinese Court has been a season of intense interest for all classes of Chinese and foreigners^ That the Empress Dowager governs as absolutely as berore the attempt to crush progress, and that she recognises that foreign interests and opinions must be respected is apparrent. Two pfowers are gaining ascendency in the councils of the Dowager. The first of these is Yuan Shi Kai, who is pro-foreign to the extent of appreciating the power of foreign nations and the necessity for China's adoption of the instruments by which that strength was attained. The second power is Yung Lv, Imperial Treasurer, the most influential among the advisers of the Empress^ and who is bitterly hostile to foreigners, but temporarily impressed With the necessity of conciliating them. Yuan Shi Kai, Governor of Chi-li province, having ten to twelve thousand of the best troops of the Empire in and about the capital, is a personage the Empress Dowager must consider. It has not yet appeared that the modernisation of the court is more than skin deep. All the old methods of intrigue and cor* ruption, purchase of favours, and bribery to secure audiences, have been resumed with vigour, indicating that officialdom is trying to make up for lost time."