CHINA OF TO-DAY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, 10 August 1907, Page 1

CHINA OF TO-DAY.

(Continued.) Prince Kung, though in seclusion, had a strong faction at Court, and his influence helped considerably to keep ihe temper of the Court anything but sweet. His death in 1898 relieved the Government machinery of a troublesome and very ill-fitting wheel. The war with Japan laid bare to the world the internal corruption of the country. "The China. Bubble" was picked, and her best friends were grievously disappointed. China appeared to the outer world in a most hopeless condition. Her unpaid, ill-fed, and badly led troops were forest; forward to war only to flee at the v<?iy site of the enemy, following their" swift leaders, who were not disposed to sacrifice their lives in the rear. Even the renowned Hunan soldiers prove da failure, mostly on account of disloyal officers. At the death of Prince Ch'cn at this juncture the Dowager-Empress came forward once more for a : short period, and the young Emperor was again hampered, and-, .his edicts were all carefully amended-: by. herself and her party, and all. liberal tendencies of the Emperor wero thus unknown to his subjects. The war with Japan created a temporal ripple upon, the stagnant pool of Conservatism, but once the peace proctocol was signed all thoughts of reform were dropped and the past to all appearances practically forgotten. Her friends both in China and other lands looked tin vain for any signs pointing to a brighter future for Empire. Reactionaries and hangere-on among

el princes and higher officials.' retained ; d their power at Court, Sni many of IC J were quite prepared toseliX'their coune- try piecemeal to foreign • Powers for id personal, gain. The axiom ''eVery man id for himself" has been aX curse to the d- country for centuries. Millions, of her re best young men have drilled-yearly and se for centuries,': -but only for' the selfish et honour of shoeing: a crass? button in S£ their cap. None of these could condeuij ?seend'to";take>_p -anai for. their counn- try. Loyalty and patriotism •is no ie incentive to the youth of Chiria. No to wonder jthat the ship of state took the ;h wrong channel, and 'found herself in Id 1897 in a "desperate cori-ition. On the ie- 7th of of' that year the iy young Emperor was coronated and thus t, nominally ended the. regency. .That a ie Manchu • womair, void of '^oportunities s- to acquaint! herself' witfi an outer ;o world should -for a whole.^iifetime re--11 tain such a firm grasp of f government d and never, suffer a single defeat by the it .many opposing- forces "which 1 from time n to time shook -the very foundations of it the Empire can only be due to the treit mendous personal power.-i)f '.this semia' barbarian "ruler "It was inevitable that ;s Western ideas 'sjiould enter' the Iml perial Palace imd both 'the,: Imperial i personages seemed to be very fond of c Western innovations, hence, in", the Imb perial parks and on their lakes, we find a railways, steamboats,- oil launches, moe tor-cars, etc, and their palaces are also r well furnished 'with, articles made by ?Jthe despised Westerner > " . j j The Emperor was fortunate in havl|ing for his tutor the- loyal andX liberal .1 Weng-Fung-Hd, a man,," who ,in his 1 neutral posrc&n " ooulir; • unofficially j probe the feelings of -the "Court, and J on the_ other hand could acquaint- him- ' self with matters outside He could thus from time to time show the Emperor the great" difference v ._etween, the distorted version ac given ''in 'an Imperial audience by the higher dignitaries of State, the kreal. position of the political game as it 'was played by would-be advisers The Emperor was able thus to learn the true "(character of the men who were most "welcome by the Empress, biitf falsetto the best interests of the Empire . Weng-Fung-Hp was a. Chinese scholar of highest rank, but an open and unprejudiced -mind had tdught him that, although,, he existedsin his present position for- tlie 'purpose of teaching the Emperor the ethics of the great sages and the histories of past dynasties, yet he was assured that the Emperor needed something else in these days than those ' dry-as-dust series .. _ - -.-■ ..'V'""-' The life'of reformers in China is not safe, but this man moved unostentatiously, freely about, watching calmly the high political game played, but he himself having his hand oh the most important piece which, was. kept in the background, only waiting for the right moment of action' This man could not- always have had an easy time, as the Emperor at times when almost unable' to bear his forced inactivity, got inter fite of temper, when it is told that he smashed up everything within reach ere he could be subdued by his quiet tutor, who knew that everything depended upon patience ' * Although the Empress '„ nominally retired in February, 1897, yet, to all appearance it must have taken her fully 12 months, to wean herself from the pleasures of power, and we find that it was only in the beginning of 1898 that' the Emperor and bis reform party was free to move That a silent revolution must have gone on at Court for a considerable 'time is very evident, but how it could go on unknown to the Dowajger Empress is very hard to; understand. She retired to I-Ho-Park, where she . amused herself with her flowers and boats, and it" would have been well for China had her retirement proved permanent. j ; Her name, when once mastered, will not easily be forgotten, viz., Tszehi Toanyu Kangi Chaoin Chuangcheng Shukung Chinhien Chungsih. . (To be continued. ) :