CO129-302 - Public Offices - 1900 — Page 686

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is distinctly reactionary.

There are no aspirations

for reform in China which is not to come from Chinese

sources and to be worked on Chinese lines.

The solid-

arity of thought, and feeling in China from one extre-

mity to the other is wonderful, and the Boxers have

sympathisers, associates and followers in every pro-

vince and city of the Empire, oy whatever names they

may locally be known.

3.

The recent outbreak in the North, if not

very speedily suppressed and punished, will be follow-

ed by disturbances in all quarters.

There is unrest

Shanghai is

Mingpo is almost

along the entire valley of the Yangtze.

threatened with a Boxer movement.

on the point of rising.

Kwangtung und wang Si are

only kept down by the presence of Li Fung-chang;

and

both these provinces have, as you know, been in a

troubled state for some years past.

The piracy on

the West River and its tributaries is only a symptom

of the general state of unrest.

4.

It is gratifying to find that, in the face

of