TALK WITH YUAN SHIH KAI.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12707, 9 March 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

TALK WITH YUAN SHIH KAI.

The special correspondent of the London Telegraph in Peking has had a. private audience with Yuan Shih Kai.

"I was my own interpreter, and facts, not fancies, wem dealt iu during this interview;- 'and as "we were speaking Cliineso no misunderstanding v.'as likely or possible, : :■■■-,** ",^na.n Sliih Kai sat directly opposite mfe in the vast Wai-Wu-Pu (foreign Dffice) reception room. The celebrated Viceroy/ a, strong, burly man, answered every question 1 put to him in a frank and bluff manner.

"Aftex* the capture of Hanyang I, appointed a Peace Commission, because I have recognised from the beginning that force is- no solvent for the radical arid racial differences between the- ,. inhabitants of Northei'n and Southern China, which can only be fused by a compromise. ■ "

"'I seized upon the referendum, which was read as meaning a • National Convention. I proposed- it = because then tha entire nation, and not simply a handful of Revolutionary leaders, r would bo givfen the opportunity to 1 decide once for all the Empire's =future.v 'l obtained what is absolutely unprecedented in. the history of mankind, namely, the Imperial sanction for the summoning of a Convention/ A^hich can, if it likes, vote the-dynasty out. of existence' and legally institute, a. .Republic. But instead - 6t" accepting thifs ixiost remarkable proposal the Revolutionary leaders believed that they^'dould jockey me into accepting- immediatelyi'a packed Revolutionary convention, whic{v I will never do so long as. iin t y breath romains. :

" T am not fighting to retain the Manchusjj' but to ' maintain law and order, which must be the first basis of any Government. My : military plan's are temporarily purely defensive. How long the Imperial offer above referred to for a National Convention remains open is a. moot question, but? we in Peking have funds for a longer period than is suspected.

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