The Star. TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1911. THE OUTBREAK IN CHINA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10142, 2 May 1911, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1911. THE OUTBREAK IN CHINA.

Revolutionary movements are quite a standing dish in China. As Mr E. J- Dinglo explained in the article we published the other day, every province in the vast empire had experience of riots and rebellions last year. There is always unrest in China, and of late there have been special causes of diecontent in the prevalence of famine end disease, and in the suppression of the opium trade. "In spite of all the progress that China is speedily realising," Mr Dingle wrote, "a feeling of deep gloom overcomes one at intervals in the interior—the fear of impending trouble. This is true to some extent in the coast' ports, but is carried off greatly by the whirl of life and the presence of British men-o'-war. But in the interior things are different. First one smiles at the rumours, but when the local bubble bursts and instructions come from the city mandarins that you are not to move from your premises—a message brought by armed soldiers sent to protect you and your house from the mob—you realise that it is not after all mere moonshine." There has been a good deal of trouble in the southern provinces of late. A notorious.—or famous—reformer is said to have been actively agitating in Yunnan during the past roar, and there have been many minor outbreaks, causing uneasiness to Europeans in the neighbourhood and to the French across the frontier. Now the trouble has reached Canton itself, and jf course the outbreak at once takes on all tiie importance of a regular rebellion, although it may be in reality no more serious than a score of other riots that have occurred away from the coast. The rebellion is said to be directed against the reigning dynasty—a common explanation of the madness that so frequently possesses the Chinese. The Cantonese have little in common with the Chinese of the north-' em provinces, and nothing in common with the Manchus, but they are not so virulently anti-Manchu as tho reports would lead us to suppose. Apart from the always-existing undercurrent of discontent against the Manchus, there is little justification for the oftrepeated promises of a general rising against the dynasty. A general rising against the foreigners is a much more likely contingency. A rebellion against the Government, however, is probable enough, and at any moment local discontent against the provincial administration may spread until it affects the neighbouring provinces and so becomes a rising against the Imperial Government. That is apparently Avhat is happening or is feared in Canton, where the so-called reformers have always been active and where- many discontented officials have gathered in recent years. The trouble is serious because it has extended rapidly until it has passed beyond the control of tho provincial authorities, and is endangering the property and lives of foreigners in Canton city and the neighbouring towns.