CHINA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 54, 18 October 1911, Page 3

CHINA.

CAUSES OF THE TROUBLE

The Young China Party, the revolutionary element among the intellectual classes, is bent upon hastening the transformation of the country and its people into some semblance of Western civilisation. The prejudice against the Manchu dynasty, wi.ic.u has so long tyrannised over the. Chinese, is almost universal in the southern provinces,'' ■ And there seems to be little doubt that tiie loaders of the Young , China Party arc making use of the popular discontent, accentuated by the disasters wrought by Jlood and famine, >to organise a revolt against tiie Manchus on a largescale, with the object of lidding China once for all of- her foreign masters, and carrying on for themselves the civilising process which was initiated in tiie closing years of the EmpressDowager’s reign. 1 Writing in the middle of September, the Shanghai correspondent of the Sydney ‘‘Daily Telegraph” explains that the .winter rains started the floods, and .the rivers were further swollen by the melting of the snow. “As most;of the central provinces are below the level of the river, the destruction of the protecting embankments caused innumerable yillages and mfuny -iLiiige-sGStieis ; tf>, he- e-ntiiAly wiped out; The rising' waters AvJishfed refugees froih.'mounds, or sent them to increase the millions on '-the hills, where the conditions are such as to absolutely defy description. Hundreds of thousands live like pigs in the open, others are only sheltered from the, torrential downpour by rough matting. Their food at first consisted of grain saved by individuals; hut this being consumed, the hark and leaves of trees, roots, and weeds were devoured by the starving.” And when we add to all this the horror of pestilence that in the East always keeps pace with flood and famine, we can hardly lie surprised to learn that, even close to Shanghai, these starving thousands are already marching in dos perate hands over the country pillaging and burning on every side. The efforts of the Government to keep order in the famine-stricken districts lias aroused fierce indignation among the poorer country people; and the official classes are indignant at the declared intention of the. Imperial authorities to nationalise the railways and other public services—a policy which will deprive the mandarins and other local authorities of their chief source of revenue. Under such conditions it is not, difficult to organise opposition to Peking. For in the southern and central provinces the Manchus are still detested as aliens and usurpers 1 , and the people would gladly drive them from the country. Writing some time ago from Tuonan Fu, in Western China, a correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” said': 1 “Wherever one moves the absorbing topic' of conversation is hostility to the Manchu dynasty. It is beyond doubt that in the event of an uprising thc'wholo of Yunnan a fid a largo faction of Szechuan would entirely withhold support from the Government,, and many of the mandarins would ‘readily join the antidynastic movement. Tt is probable that in the whole of the Empire no province more than Yunnan has a greater proportion of population constantly in rebellion. The feeling now takes a dual form-—first, against the Manchus; second, against the foreigners. At the present time sanction to travel on the main road from the city eastward to the Yangtsc Valley is still withheld, and it is clear that the viceregal authorities of Yunnan are anxious that no foreigners should take advantage of their passports alone and travel in the danger zone. As a matter.,of fact, protection is refused until sanction to move is given, passport or no passport.”