DOWAGER EMPRESS OF CHINA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 75

DOWAGER EMPRESS OF CHINA.

"LEST WE FORGET."

(London Daily Telegraph, February 1.)

On the walls of tiiat portion of the British Legation at Pekin -which sustained the heaviest of the Boxer attacks appears in large letters the retrain of Kipling's .Recessional hymn. It has a double significance, r^d the second of these Sir Kobert K. Douglas yesterday afternoon pointed out in the course of a most deeply interesting lecture on the "Dowager hmpre-ss of China." This, was delivered betore the Central Asian Society, and in t*ae course of his "remarks the speaker gave a quaint picture of the great lady m her early career. " bargaining for commodities" with peripatetic hucksters for "the requirements of her nariow lousehold." By an unwritten law established by the present dynasty, only Manchus are eligible lor the Imperial "harem. At the proper time she j.o esented herself as a membei of the ruling i-ace for inspection, was selected, and soon became a favourite with the then Emperor. Astute, ambitious, and persevering, attractive and entertaining, she possessed, with, the addition of unserupulousness, all the essentials for greatness in th. Celestial Empire. And greatness she soon attained. Murder md intrigue were the ladders up m hich she climbed. Briefly the process »vas sketched by which, in the long lun, this lemarkable woman even grasped from the weak hands of the Emperor the reins of power. 'Fifty-three of the Emperor's eunuchs who were supposed to favour retorai were beaten to death in the courtyard of the palace; other aiders and abettors of his Majesty were beheaded, and prices were put on the heads of those who had escaped Following these atrocities, the dowager issued a number of edicts reversing all that the Emperor had done, or had intended) to do, and punishing all who had had a hand in the recent progressive measures -n ith a revengeful spite which reminded one of the furies of Greek tragedy. And things were in this pailous condition when, at the following New Year, the dowager invited the ladies of the Foreign Legations tc an audience. They went, and, according to Sir Claude Macdouald, the potent dame "made a most favourable impression by her courtesy and affability. " To eacb oi her guests she gavo a present, murrnui'ing at the same tim« in + heir ears, "All one family, ail one family." "It is this habit of dissimulation which makes her so dangerous." declared Sir Robert. "Xo confidence can be placed for five minutes in her changing moods. She can be all things lo all men, and. while kissing and paying compliments to the ladies of the legations, she may be devising mischief in her heart even against those she now fondles." At the New Year of 1900 she again received her "whits sisters," and yet "five months later she was issuing edicts^ which ordered her troops to throw Krupp shells and fire Mauser and Mannlicher bullets into the dwelling places of these same ladies from the West, with ;i view to their speedy extinction, thus leaving only the Chinese contingent of the "one family' surviving." Doubtless it was regarded as unfortunate by the good lady that the other members of the world-household had a good deal more to say in tihe matter tha.n she expected, and tlytt after a hasty flight she was compelled to come back to Pekir under quitf different circumstances from those in ■"hich she had pictured herself triumphantly entering the capital. Still, she was equal to "smiling and bowing," and without difficulty she "carries on the same old game.'* "Fate has decreed that she should have already enjoy,ed ten more years of power ihan those which fell to the lot of Catharine of Russia. But time must shortly place a limit t,o her reign, and she may esteem herself fortunate if she escapes unscathed during the difficult times which are before the nation. There can be no doubt that at the conclusion of the war in the Far East efforts will be made by the Japanese to introduce reforms into the antique civilisation of China. They will meet with many ardent converts to their doctrines, for the leaven of reform is undoubtedly working in China, though how it has leavened the "mass remains to be seen. Certain it is that without that native leaven any attempt to introduce informs from outside must be doomed to failure, for. as has been truly said, ''Who would be free themselves must strike the blow."