CHINA OF TO-DAY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 September 1907, Page 1

CHINA OF TO-DAY.

(Written for the "Mail" by Mr W. S. Strong, of the China Inland Alission.) Only a few months ago the Censor Chao denounced rrince Ching, the most powerful Minister of State, for having received a £15,000 bribe and his son for accepting some singing girls from Governor Chih Kirn, in Manchuria and supposed to be given for the purpose of obtaining his post in that country, with the result that Governor Chih, without further investigation, was excused from taking up his new duty, and was deprived of his brevet rank. The prince's affair was investigated by two high officials, and he was acquitted. His son resigned his position in disgust, and the Censor was sent away to the country -to a nominal post as punishment for having been over-zealous. Prince Ching, it may be noted, is the most trusted minister of the Dowager and one who, no matter how much bribery he might have been guilty of, could not be spared from the Council of the State. If the Dowager had wished to punish the Prince she could easily have deputed a board of inquiry, who could have found the Prince guilty. It was a question of "saving face," henoe two friends of the Prince were appointed with the desired result. Besides such duties, the Censorate serves as a final court of appeal in criminal cases. Its opposition to reform and progress is notorious, and whenever a progressive party at court has lost its influence it can generally be traced to the joined forces of eunuchs and censors. As long as these conditions remain, the politics of China will always remain a very uncertain and unstable quantity. Any movement afloat for the curtailing of their powers have as yet failed, j Hence the longer they are able to keep politics at court in a ferment the longer it will serve their own ends, the good of the country in general not being part of their policy. In the awakening of China the country is naturally restless and impatient, and the day must come when the power of eunueli3 and censors will end, and when the Emperoi' will find out the state of his country through other and more direct channels and even see it for himself. The harem in Japan, with all its accompanying evils, ends with the present Emperor, the Crown Prince having inaugurated a new era by having only one wife. The powers of the viceroys and governors in connection with the Council of Censors has often been used for the welfare of their country, but also, on the other hand, ruthlessly abused. It often happens that for sinister purposes high officials in the East have been denounced by their conferes in the far West, which has resulted in most unpolitic and suicidal shuffles of high officials. It is easily seen that the Censorate ii* the cause" of the ruinous and factious spirit at court, and where there can be no continuity of policy as long as the "eyes and ears of the Emperor' sec nothing except what is to their own advantage. The Dowager has her favourites. Fiom time to time these pay their visits to the court, and while there, finding the ears of the throne, use their powers as censors to the detriment of every advance to the country. One such favourite — in the person of the Viceroy Ten, had lately a short time at the court, which he used in denouncing all hU personal enemies, finding always something that would sound credible to the Empress, with the result that for some time the whole Central Government was disorganised, and high officials throughout the country felt the sting of his lash. Even the Empress Dowager thought him too severe, but in gratitude sent him back to a lucrative post. A shuffle of most, important posts was the result, and fy took some considerable time ere the Central Government found its equilibrium again. It ran truly be said that in Chinese official life "every man is against his brother." Few officials have dared to play such a high game with the Dowager as the official just mentioned has done. He was sent from the far West to KuangTung as being the most able man to deal with the rebellion in that province. After successfully ending this rebellion he made himself most obnoxious to the gentry, and was hated by all his people." Finding that the whole province was in revolt against him, he asked leave to go abroad but this was not granted. He then asked leave to retire on account of (feigned) illness, but this was also denied him ; such an able official could not be spared. He had had for a long time anothor very Important and substantive vice-royalty in view ; but this also was filled at the time when he was occupied with the rebels. This rebellion was ended about two years ago. and, he it noted, t.hat this enlightened official whose praises were sung throughout China finished off his rebel hunt with a cannibal feast, when he himself and his officers in triumph cut up the chief of the rebels whose blood they drank, and whose heart they ate. The reader may judge from this the standard of civilisation in China when a Viceroy can be the chief of such orgies, and with no thought of any remonstrance from the throne. This official had many enemies at Peking, all of whom did their utmost to prevent his visit to Peking. They succeeded (to their sorrow) in having him appointed to a post on the West border of China, where distance would somewhat lessen his power as a censor. Yen, however, was not to be exiled, and simply refused to go. He was then offered the very lucrative appoint- . ment of his former province, but this also being too far away from Peking, he begged to be excused. He instead memorialised the throne for permission to take a trip of inspection up the river Yang-Tsi. To this the whole C-and Council and the Viceroys on ilvt river objected. Nothing would put him off, and to Peking he must go, with the result that the Dowager Empress rt-li-ved him of all appointments in the j-...mi-try, and ho was instead given an in-.(> : *-rtant post in the Central Government, with the sad resuJis as already mentioned. This instance will serve to show how at times favouritism plays havoc in tho Government, and hewoften on account of such factions, real reform has been nullified. Often during the last ten years the tension of reformers has been relieved by edicts pointing to better things for China 1 but as often men like Yen have stepped in and the good intentions of the Government havo gone up in smoke. Hence reform edicts are never believed to h--in earnest by tho country officials, and no notice is taken of them with the exception of cases where tiie local officials can go through the initiatory stages by colecting money for the reform in question, which, however, land in the officials' pockets, at which stage the reform is ended. Evidences, however, are not wanting to show that the true reformers are in earnest ; but also tha tthe party's tension is getting dangerously near breaking point, and the leaders find it almost to be impossible to keep the more radical section in check. Many nistances have occurred lately to show that the extremists are determined to wait no longer, but by means of bombs, assassinations, and rebellions to make their presence felt in the Empire, and awake a sleeping officialdom to the dangers of the Stat* and Dynasty. These incidents have greatly disturbed the blind conservatism, who are at their wits' end as to what to do under the

circumstances. Tliey fail to see that true reform is the sole remedy. instead of taking warning, they have from time to time put forth the plea to their friends and well-wishers, both foreign and native, that with the present disturbd state of the country they ' are unable to apply themselves to true ' reform. In the endeavour to suppress ' riots, rebellions, and the many signs 1 throughout the Empire which show [ clearly that a new spirit is pervading even the masses — which, if rightly ' guided, would carry through the era cf ' transition in peace^ — the Government ' are using their most obsolete methods J in trying to quell disturbances in their judicial dealings with the guilty, whole ' clans and even friends of such are apt ' to suffer, thus revealing to the world j their utter unfitness at this juncture to 1 rule China, and their incapacity for ' guiding their troublous and tumultuous ' Empire into still waters, ..; ... . A v . -- -. ' In connection with such incidents as ' the bomb outrage at the.. departure of ' the Travelling Commission from Peking ; the revolt of Chinese students in Japan, who have almost en masse, gone over to the Reform party, and especially that part who have joined the most dangerous class of Reformers ; the antiDynastic and Reform rebellions in the South, headed by a foreign educated gentleman (Dr. Sun Yai-Sen), who has shown great skill and tact in arousing the lethargy of the masses, but whom the Government have unsuccessfully hunted for a considerable time ; and lately in the instance of the assassination of a Manchu Governor, the Government has laid bare the utter hopelessness of a country governed by a Mandaiinate who is inexcusably ignorant of the perils of the Empire. They still believe that by using measures in vogue 2000 or more years ago they will be able to stamp out the Spirit of Reform which now in eveiy quarter has reached a stage where the Government, and are thus forced to act independently. The incident which we will quote gives a many-sided picture of Old-China-of-To-day, and shows also how reform has its advocates and its emissaries in high places. As reform in army and navy cannot possibly be carried out without foreign educated men ; they have thus been forced to employ such men, who, however, cannot l;>iip tolerate the ignorance and stupidity of their proud and conceited chiefs, who are generally of Ihe old school, put there in order to keep a brake on the forward tendencies of their indispensable but hated inferiors, and secondly for the sake of the loaves and fishes, which in such cases are golden, and sufficient to enrich themselves as well as a great community of relatives, who have nothing to do except to "hang on." The outrage alluded to was perpetrated on the Governor, En-Min, of An-Hun, only a few months ago by no less a man than the Acting-Director of th» Gendarmerie School in the capital. This demonstrates the fact that the Government, but more especially in departments like the army, navy, and schools, are dangerously honeycombed with a kind of reformers who believe that they will be able to do in. a day what other countries have taken" centuries to accomplish. It is to be resretted that the revolutionists have begun a policy of assassination, and it will be a sad day for the^progress and reform of China when the leaders in exasperation resort to methods so much in vogue in Russia. The Governor En Mm appeared one morning (6th July. 1907) on the drill ground of the Gendarmerie School to witness the foreign drill of the students. While viewing the pleasant sight before him several shots were fired at him, killing his aide-de-camp, injuring another official near * the Vice-Royal chair, and wounding mortally the Governor. The Governor j was hurried off the ground, and all his i attendants and life-guard fled in wild ; confusion. The Governor succumbed i the following day. The perpetrator. 1 Hsu-Hsi-Lin, the Assistant Director of 1 the School, with Taotai rank, did not < even try to escape. When eventually t some gathered courage enough to arrest < him, he declared himself ready. He ! stated that he "was only one out of the 1 many, ajid was a revolutionist. With- < out much trial he was executed, and his heart was cut out, to be offered in sacrifice to the dead Governor's manes, after which it was eaten by his bodyguard. The officials throughout the province and neighbouring provinces lost their heads, and begun wholesale arrests of the kith and kin of the assas-' sin and his accomplices, and all Who in any way at all had any intercourse with them. Hu-Hsi-Lin's father,'. who lived some hundreds of miles &<say, was arrested, and had to suffer terribly, whilst his property was confiscated. Many others suffered in 'the same way. The saddest sequel, however, was the execution of one of the most brilliant and loyal women in China, who had for years devoted herself personally and her money for the advance of true re- : form, and this without anything that could under any license be called a trial. The only evidence was that she had years ago corresponded with the issassin. This sad sequel happened in another province altogether. What can one expect from the officials ii" cieneral when a Governor of a province became so panic-stricken that amonp other butcheries he gees to the length of executing the foundress and directress of the most flourishing and up-to-date educational institution in the city by wh'ch she has now the hearing of the people.' The Governor closed this and other schools which to him were infections institutions, and scattered the students who, thus disgiisted, returning to their homes will, without their leader, join the first party they come across opposed to the Government. China is in a troubled state, and the administrators are helping with all their might to make it worse by such actions ; but they can at this time ill afford the 111-will and hatred which will be heaped upon them by an incensed populace for such a dastardly act as the execution without trial of the true and loyal Mrs Tsin Ching and others equally guiltleas of charges made by a cowardly liiandArinai?- Tho Covernment has by allowing such obsolete machinery tc do its deadly work kindled a flame in those regions which they will never, under tbeir present policy, bo able t<* overcome. Through the efforts of Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai, Prince Ching and Su, the policy of "wiping out" all and everyone connected with Hsu Hsi Lin, a proclamation was finally issued putt'ng a stop to further bloodshed and indiscriminate arrests. These, humane officials had from the first tried lo stop the "wiping out" policy, but it took them three weeks before the. Empress Dowager principally could be persuaded to give ear to such new fahgled ideas, and only after many innocent lives had been sacrificed.