THE CRISIS IN CHINA.

Mataura Ensign, 25 January 1912, Page 5

THE CRISIS IN CHINA.

FEARS FOR EUROPEANS. JL DELICATE SITUATION. CX MJRCmiC TKL-KGRA! h.— coPYßiuwr. PEE UNITED PBESB ASSOCIATION Received January 25, 9.30 a.m. LONDON, Jan. 24. A correspondent has written that tb« iforce of 2000 foreign troops in Pekm is insufficient and if the Europeans axe seriously attacked the .result will be disastrous. The situation is very delicate and tne Powers are reluctant to provoke an outbreak which might follow the reinforcement of the Legation guards.

.REPUBLICANS SHORT OF FUNDS.

AN ARBITRARY DEMAND

Received January 25, 11 a.m. PEKIN, Jan. 24

In view of the shortness of funds i>he Republican Minister for Works demanded from the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company ten million taels, otherwise the company's ships will be commandeered and sold.

A fairly clear idea of the main outline of the present situation in vhma may be gathered from the picture drawn by the special correspondent ot the Sydney 'Daily Telegraph' at* Shanghai. The adoption by the Revo.uaonary leaders of the proposal to hold a National Convention, whose decision shall be final as to whether China is to have a Republic or a Constitutional Monarchy, can only be reeofleuuu with rthe view that they regard the \oidict fiof the Convention as a foregone conclusion. Dr Sun-Yat-Sen, the provisional president of the interim Republic that has already been erected, has sworn to depose tfie Manchu oynasty and inaugurate a Republic, oifering to retire wheu that work is compieieu and to leave someone else to carry on the government. General Yuan-Shi h-Kai, on the other hand, who now as the protector of the Manchus, iias declared against a Republic ana lias refused to accept office under it J it is constituted. But Yuan-Shih-Kai's whole career is that of an opportunist, and both in China and out ot it he is credited with a firm resolve to work for the interests of Yuan-Shih-Kai first and of China afterwards. His first diffi-

culty was to finance the Imperialist » causej and after the Revolutionary chiefs had carefully warned all possible lenders, including Mr Carnegie, not to advance any money to the Imperialists, lest retribution should come upon them hereafter, Yuan-Shih-Kai, as the cable has told us, suddenly produced 3,000,000 taels, which he had induced

the Manchu dynasty to unearth from a secret hoard. While all the Powers are . holding aloof from the struggle with scrupulous exactitude at present, there is np knowing how long that attitude of benevolent neutrality will continue, especially if, as seems to be 'feared in the above telegram, there is any possibility of a dreadful massacre ■of European subjects. It can hardly be 'hoped that treaties will save the situation'in China. The issue must be settled by the tone and temper of the Chinese people themselves and by the capacity and patriotism of their lead-

«rs. Foreign intervention, bringing A., with it the likelihood of friction and - '.-conflict between the intervening Powers <m. Chinese soil, will be as unwelcome to some of the foreigners as to the 'Chinese. Hence the all-important decision of the National Convention will he awaited with the keenest interest. A stable Government of some kind in Ohina is the only safeguard against worse evils than have yet befallen the ■countrv.