CHINA.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 12, 1 September 1900, Page 961

CHINA.

Li Hung Chang is a typical Chinamau. Like the rest of his race all the world over, he has an inordinate belief in the excessive gullibility of those with whom he comes into contact, and his almighty ability to do the gulling. The innocent guilelessness of the peace proposals to the Allies at the present stage of affairs is, however, . undoubtedly a pronounced example of this characteristic. That he and his Government generally should dream for one moment that the thinly-veiled pretext of the Boxers having originated the trouble in China, and the Government's inability to deal with them, would be taken for gospel by the rest of the world, would seem the wildest impossibility to any one ignorant of this characteristic. If nothing else stood in the way of the often | u-opounded theory of the over-running of the earth by the yellow race, this prevailing creed of theirs would be sufficient to do it. Until their whole nature is changed, and they are capable of believing their opponents to be gifted with, at all events, an equal amount of ordinary intelligence to that which they believe they themselves, possess there is not the remotest chance of their success in any attempt to make themselves masters of the world. The situation in China is at present as complicated as ever. The relief of the Legations certainly came as a pleasant surprise after the many conflicting cables anent their fate, but that and the capture of Pekin are the only good results which have been yet achieved by the Allies. What the next moves in this complex game are to be is not yet

very clear. The question of the occupation of the Forbidden City in Pekin, the Holiest of Holies as It were, by the Allies, haw not yet been decided. The importance oh" respecting this time-honoured institution in boiii" 1 weighed against the necessity of inflicting ;i punishment on the rebels commensurate with their offence, and will most probably bo found wanting.