REVOLT IN CHINA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue XLIX, 14 January 1916, Page 7

REVOLT IN CHINA

SERIOUS DEVELOPMENTS

POSSIBLE,

>'JKb2S3 Association. —CcpxuiaHX.)

LONDON, Jan. 12

The "Times" correspondent at Pekin | says the situation lias b<?en obscured iby j the censorship. The Government is moving large bodies Of -troops to strategic points with- the abject of isolating "Sinnnan and preventing the movement spreading to the adjoining provinces. Serious developments are possible; Tai Ao, who is a strong character, and is greatly influential 1 in Yun-nan, where he has an army of 30..CC0 men and ample supplies of arms, has been promised substantial financial support. The mountains render him secure from attack in winter. Therefore Yuan Shih Kai is attempting to- isolate him and negotiate for his surrender. Meanwhile the provinces of Sze-chuan, Kwan-tung, and \ Ivwei-chow are notoriously opposed to Yuan-: Kwim-tuflg Is garrisoned byYunnanese troops. The Government lias a quarter of a million soldiers, reputedly lovial, in the Yang-tse region eagerly awaiting Imperial largesse. The arrival of considerable forces: at Shanghai has restored confidence and trade_ is brisk, but the monarchical proposal has revivified the revolutionary element. The future is dependent on "developments in the south, ~ „ . , ■ "We have not yet seen the fringe ot the great approaching revolt in China," said Mr Sun Johnson.- edator of the"Chinese Herald" (Sydney), to a "Daily Telegraph" reporter, iast week. "The disturbance will assume very,-large proportions before long, and when the intensity of the great unrest falls upon China' it will only be realised in m.uch shedding of blood. The feeling general-' ly is that there will not 15a any domestic ipeace in China until Yuan.,Shih Kai, the present President- and Dictator, has been unseated, if nothing worse befalls him. The revolutionary ■■ spirit in China is aflame,-, and no one knows how long it will take to extinguish it. The power of the Reformers- is a great deal superior to that of" Ynan Shih Kai and his followers. The President lives in a fool's paradise. ■ i'H-e is ensconced behind the idea- that he has the unalloyed fealty of his supposed minions; but the hearts of his generals and soldiers are .set-against him in overwhelming majority. Yuan's 'men' will not show their disaffection until the -moment arrives, when it will be expedient." Mr Johnson reviewed the causes which led to the great revolution of four years ago ; the unselfish, patriotism of Dr. Sun Yat S'cn to depose the Manchu. the waiving of claims to the Presidency in favour of Yuan Shih Kai, the alleged chicanery of the sitting and the means by which Yuan Shih-Kai won votes in the Chinese Parliament to elect him as President for life, with the light to succession by Presidential nomination. The recent escape of some 30 rebels who had boarded a boat in Shanghai harbour, and who had escaped without a scratch being made- upon them, by a, supposedly loyalist crew, while the arsenal at Shanghai was being attacked. spoke louder than words. The chicanery of Yuan Shih Kai. who courted the personal friendship of the more ignorant of-'the ' Chinese.: — among whom he could "operate"—as against association with the educated and westernised clashes, only awaited reprisal at the arrival of the opnortnne mornsnt, according to the view of the supporters of Dt. Sun Yat Sen, who have been almost pvodijj.il in their contributions 'from/ Home aud- abroad.