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their escape from Hunan, and it is very unlikely that their capture will be effected now.
State of Affairs at Changsha,
During the progress of the rebellion in Liu-yang, the state of affairs in Changsha itself afforded grounds for no little uneasiness. The city was denuded of troops, nearly all of whom had been sent to the front; while those of the soldiery who remained were largely disaffected, and, as usual, counted a number of Secret Society men in their ranks. Besides these, there were a number of revolutionaries, students and others, hiding in the city, who were ready to create a disturbance and make common cause with the rebels at the first favourable opportunity. When subsequently the Hupei troops arrived and left again for Ti-ling, a detachment of them about 200 - strong was left behind at Changsha to assist in protecting the city. Their presence, however, did not afford much additional sense of security. Outside the north gate, where their quarters were situated, their lawless behaviour caused universal exaspera- tion. Daily cases of assault and robbery on their part roused the people in the northern suburb to a high pitch of excitement, and there was at one time some possibility of a riot in consequence.
The officials from first to last exercised the utmost vigilance, which has up till now not been relaxed, and which largely contributed to avert the possibility of a coup by the revolutionaries inside the city. Day and night the city was patrolled by guards of soldiers, and night after night the Governor and the Provincial Judge made the round of the streets in person. This vigilance was rewarded by the discovery, on more than one occasion, of large quantities of weapons and ammunition concealed by the revolutionaries; several conclaves of the Secret Societies were surprised, and a number of the members captured, all of whom were executed after the briefest possible trial.
Even now, when the movement has for the present almost entirely subsided, the official spies are as active as ever; arrests of suspects take place daily, and very few of those arrested escape capital punishment. The authorities still apprehend à recru- descence of the rebellion, unless the most stringent measures are adopted to stamp out the Secret Societies, and in pursuance of this aim they have inaugurated a veritable reign of terror. No one who in the past has given the slightest cause for suspicion appears to be safe.
On the 11th December, when matters first began to look really serious in Changsha, I telegraphed details of the trouble to Hankow, and asked that a gun-boat might be sent up if the state of the water permitted. I informed the Customs Taotai of the step I had taken, pointing out that the presence of a British gun-boat would help to reassure the foreign community, and might possibly not be without its good effect on the general situation, wherein hic cordially agreed with me.
Two days later I received a telegram from the Commander of His Majesty's ship "Teal" at Yochow, who seemed to doubt whether his ship could reach Changsha, but offered to send an armed party of bluejackets up in a junk. I replied asking him to do so, provided the water did not admit of the Teal" herself coming up. However,
on receipt of the more reassuring news from the Customs Taotai on the 14th Decem- ber, I telegraphed again to say that for the present the party of bluejackets was not urgently required; and a few days later I was able to state that the situation was generally satisfactory and that there was no present cause for apprehension.
Besides the "Teal," there were also at Yochow the German gun-boat" Vorwärts and the Japanese gun-boat" Fushimi," standing by to render assistance; but all three left Yochow on hearing of the improved state of affairs.
Secret Societies in Hunan.
The recent rebellion in Liu-yang and the adjacent districts seems to have been. originally planned to form part of a general rising, which was to have taken place as far as possible simultaneously all over China, the aim being to expel the Manchu and to drive them and all other foreigners out of China. It might undoubtedly have proved to be one of the most serious movements the Chinese authorities have had to contend with of late years had it not been for the fact that it appears to have started prematurely before the preparations of the revolutionaries were complete throughout- the Yang-tsze Valley.
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The Secret Society which is responsible for the rising is the Tung-mêng Hui, which is merely the new name adopted to designate the amalgamation of the Ko-lao Hui and the San-ho Hui. The supreme head of the Society and of the revolutionary party generally is, of course, Sun Yat-sen; while the leader of the movement in Hunan is one Tsung Huang, otherwise known as Hsia Ling. The head-quarters of the Tung-mêng Hui are said to be in Changsha, while in Hunan there are in addition three branch lodges at Ch'ên-chou, the head-quarters of the Society for the south of Hunan and Kwangtung; at Li-ling, the head-quarters for the east of Hunan and portions of Kiangsi; and at Hêngehow, the head-quarters for the west of Hunan, Kwangsi, and the Miao-tzu districts.
The Tung-meng Hui is said to have developed an organized system of smuggling, whereby they have managed to introduce into China vast quantities of warlike stores, concealed either in bales of piece-goods or other merchandize, and conveyed into the interior in native craft under the guise of fishing-boats. Popular rumour ascribes to the Society the possession of almost unlimited funds, and even credits it with a balance of 2,000,000 dollars at the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank.
The general rising was originally planned to take place last autumn, at the time when most of the foreign-drilled troops would be engaged in the military manœuvres in Honan. It is of course well known that the non-attendance of the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung at the maneuvres was due to the threatened outbreak, and to the consequent necessity for his continued presence at Wuchang. Owing, however, to the fact that the authorities were keenly on the alert, or else that the preparations of the revolutionaries were at that time not completed, the rising was postponed until the end of the Chinese year, the rebellion at Liu-yang having apparently heen started, though somewhat prematurely, in accordance with the altered arrangements. Now, however, that it has been suppressed, and that the authorities are on the look- out for symptoms of a further outbreak, there seems little chance of the revo- lutionaries organizing another successful movement for the present. But, as stated above, there is every probability that the first favourable opportunity will witness an immediate recrudescence of the troubles.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Extract from Chinan-fu Intelligence Report for the period from October 1906 to January 1907.
(A.)-POLITICAL AND GENERAL,
The Ts'aochou Brigands.
THE fact that the south-western section of Shantung has long been in a disturbed condition has been reported many times to His Majesty's Legation in the course of the last year. The exact conditions in different localities at different times are by no means casy to ascertain, but. in spite of official assurances that the forces of disorder have been broken up, I am strongly under the impression that no real improvement has occurred.
A letter, dated the 18th December, from the Rev. T. N. Thompson, an American missionary at Chining-chou, to the Rev. W. B. Hamilton here, of which some extracts have been passed on to me, describes the situation observed in a recent journey through Ts'aochou Prefecture as even worse than during the summer :----
"The whole district is simply terrorized by the brigands, who rob in the daytime with the same ardour as at night. We were holding service one day, when the cry was heard, Robbers are coming!' whereupon the whole crowd got up and fled like About 2 away were seen thirty men filing down one so many scared sheep. by one to the south. I tried to persuade the people that they were soldiers and all was well, but they were so frightened that they would not stand and look at these I asked why some one men, as they said that the supposed robbers would get angry. would not run to the camp about 8 li away and give word to the soldiers there, but all said that they dared not, as they would surely be put to death and their houses burnt should it ever be discovered that they had informed on the bandits. . . . a place not far away a village was attacked at night, and the villagers resisting sent
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