THE MANCHUS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 66, 1 November 1911, Page 2

THE MANCHUS.

Why They arc Hated. To understand Lhc present position in China it is accessary to near in | mind the relations that have existed between the Manchus and the Chinese i within the empire. For thousands j of years the Chinese have inhabited the country where they now dwell. [t is probable that in the prehistoric past they were invaders from the west, who drove an older people (of whom remnants still survive) to southern coastal districts and to some ol | the southern hill country. Their origin is still a matter of dispute, but they have dwelt so long in the land that, for all practical purposes, they may now be considered to be its indigenous inhabitants. In the course of their long history they have again j and again been subjected to the inroads of Tartar barbarians from the north, who sometimes founded reigning dynasties—such, for example, as that established by Genghis Khan and j his Mongols in the 13th century of our era. In the second half of the fol- ] lowing century this alien Mongol dy-

nasty gave way to the last native Chinese dynasty, known as the Ming dvnasty. ' During the reign of the last of' the Ming emperors serious rebellions broke out, and to subdue them the Chinese general commanding the northern frontier invited the chiefs of the Manchus to come to the help of his sovereign. The Manchus, of whom large numbers still remain in Manchuria, were a Tartar race, originally nomad, and near akin in blood to the hordes that followed the standard of Genghis Khan four centuries before. They Came to Stay. : Bands of Manchus came in answer to . the invitation, and the the rebels were subdued, but once within the empire the Tartar warriors refused to leave. They seized Pekin in 1644, and proclaimed a prince of their ruling house emperor. For some time adherents of the Mings kept up a light against them in various parts of the empire, but gradually the Manchus gained possession of .the whole country, and they, were aided by a number of Mongols and Northern Chinese. These .Manchu invaders together with their Mongol and Chinese allies, were ancestors of the present privileged class commonly known as the Manchus. As the new dynasty subdued opposition it planted military settlements, much like the Roman colonies in the principal provincial towns. The members of these settlements were drawn from the "Banner" ccrps or companies of the invading Manchus and their allies. Hence comes their common appellation of "Bannermen." The Bannermen, whether in f-'ekin or in one of the principal cities, were at the outset the armed force which kept the new dynasty upon the tin cue. In return for' their military '■service they received regular pay from the State, and they were not allowed to intermarry with the Chinese. Gradually they .have lost their old fighting spirit, and become mere parasites, drawing pensions and doing nothing for them. It is at Pekin that the Bannermen and clansmen of the Imperial house swarm. The Court is wholly Manchu, and the Pekin Bannermen and clansmen have an enor- j mously disproportionate share of all the higher offices in the bureaucracy and of the spoils of government in gen-I eral. In the provinces it has always j been customary to place a Manchu of equal or "almost equal rank side Inside with a Chinese officer, in order to spy upon him' and hold him in restraint. , The Famous Tzo-Hi. The late Empress Dowager, Tzo-Hi, realised after the Boxer rebellion the degenerate state into which the Manchus had fallen, and perceived that the only hope for the dynasty lay in allying'itself as far as possible with the newly-awakened nationalism of the Chinese 'people. Young China was already threatening the future of the Imperial house, and the astute old Empress promptly called to her counsels the ablest Chinese official then living, Yuan Shih Kai. During the later years of her life he became her principal adviser. Under his guidance she issued a series of edicts providing for immediate institution of elective provincial assemblies, and the ultimate creation in 1917 of a central Parliament. She also sought to unite the two races by permitting intermarriage. The substitution of representative institutions for the bureaucratic regime would sooner or later, in any case, have meant a complete transfer of power from the dominant Manchus to the general body of educated Chinese. Though the Manchus at Pekin understood that they could not run counter to the spirit of the times they were yet lot to let power slip from their hands. Upon the Empress Dowager's death in 1908 the reactionary faction regained control of the. Court. It could not check the constitutional movement which Yuan Shih Kai and his late mistress had set going, but they could, and did, promptly punish Yuan Shih -Kai for the part he had played. Within a few months he was dismissed and degraded. Provincial Assemblies. The first provincial assemblies, however, were elected in 1909, and are now holding their third sessions. In 1910 a Senate, composed of Imperial nominees, representatives of the provincial assemblies, and delegates from the departments'of State, held its f-rst meeting in Pekin. It. was meant to be a stepping-stone towards a itgu-larlv-constituted bicameral central Parliament, which, according to the Regent's promise is to be summoned m three years. While ostensibly carrying on the Empress Dowager's reform policy, the Court has been giving Manchus greater preponderance than ever in appointments, and increasing rather than decreasing the gross corruption in almost s*vory branch of the administration. "Jhat is one of the chief reasons why the populace in the Yangtse provinces became so excited over the transfer of local railways from local owners to Imperial authorities, financed by foreign loans. They felt that the Court ilia its myrmidons would be making ''squeezes'' out of the' railways at the exnonse of the people. The strength of the revolutionaries lies not only in th patriotic Chinese antipithy to the Manchu, who by his aloofness has kept alive the feeling that he is an alien conqueror, but also in the intense distrust which the people feel for any and every form of government dominated by Imperial clansmen and chiefs of the Bannermen. They fear the self-seeking and corrupt Manchus even when they come with constitutional . gifts in thenhands. The Recall of Yuan Shih Kai. Although the hope has failed—the •ir.tute Yuan being' conveniently and opportunely temporarily incapacitated by a sore heel—the Chinese Court did the very best thing to save itself when it recalled Yuan Shih Kai from the obscurity to which it had banished him. Me is piiqbibly the one man who could have saved the dynasty. The pick of the .northern troops are his men, and, as .Sun Yat Sen's correspondent showed, the revolutionaries were relying upon their disaffection as an important fa.'tor in the north. Yuan Shih Kai is a Chinee

land not u Manchu. h r o has 1 ro- , |gn«Miivo ideas, unci yet stands tor the j stability a' the Umpire. The mere fact that lie was thought to be willing to come to the ai I >' the ciynasiy at luicli a crisis, a'ior the treatu cut lie had received, dial m spile "i tue | ungracious manner of his propped reinstatement, .imitates that the Manchu sway is over. If Yuan had undertaken to suppress the revolt, it is almost certain that it would not have been only hy lighting, but injudicious compromises, winch would | hasten a thoroughly constitutional re- | prinio and have brought about the ■ final transfer of power from the .Man-, chu oligarchy to the best elements I among the Chinese population. The rebels arc still in a very strong position on the Ynngtsc, a position that is considerably strengthened by the accession of the Honan troops since that province lies immediately to the north ofHunehand between it and the Chilili Province, in which Pekin is situated. A considerable section of the Pekin-Hankow railway passes through Honan. and disaffectation in tliaV province means additional difficulty in getting troops and supplies from Pekin to the disturbed area. Apparently the financial problem is proving an even greater difficulty to the Imperial Government than to the rebels, and it is very questionable whether the Imperial' clansmen will be willing to disgorge their wealth even for the defence of the dynasty. So , far the Powers seem to be preserving strict neutrality as between the Government and the rebels, and it is worth remembering in this connection that but For foreign help the Manchu regime would almost certainly have fallen at the time of the Taiping rebellion.—" Argus."