CO129-351 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 500

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In military affairs an almost feverish activity is being displayed. The spacious buildings of the new military school ("Lu chún Hsiao Hsüoh Tang ") are complete; the barracks of the Lu Chün inside the city are being rebuilt and enlarged, and outside the North Gate, at Feng Huang Shan, quarters to accommodate some 5,000 men are finished. The construction of the new arsenal proceeds apace, both at the main establishment and the adjacent powder factory. I am told that the new small-arms nearly factory will be in working order in six months' time; the present factory will then he removed from the old arsenal, which will be devoted to the manufacture of heavy ordnance. Companies of recruits are being brought up from all parts of the province to Chengta for training. They are well clothed in foreign (Japanese) style, apparently well armed, of good physique, and usually well-behaved. They are much in evidence in the city, frequently marching through the streets headed by their bugles and drums.

In the matter of education, the temporary reaction I chronicled a year ago would appear to be arrested, and the tide of Western learning is again running strong. In Chengtu new schools are again springing up in all directions, a technical college ander the auspices of the Bureau of Commerce has lately been opened, and the transformation of the Provincial College from a High School into a University, with advanced courses in science, mathematics, and languages, will soon be an accomplished fact. Almost every issue of the "Chengtu Daily Gazette District reporting the opening or enlargement of a school, the engagement of teachers contains a petition from some Prefecture or with foreign training, or the introduction of new subjects of instruction. gratifying fact that the teaching of English forms a prominent feature in the curriculum It is a of most of the new schools, but one could wish that a portion of the money which is so freely expended on buildings were devoted to securing the services of properly qualified teachers. What discipline can do for the Chinese schoolboy was strikingly exemplified at the primary school sports in October last, when some 4,000 boys, of ages ranging from 7 to 15, exhibited their prowess in athletics and drilling before the Viceroy and a large concourse of interested spectators.

In commercial and industrial affairs great, if often misdirected, energy is being displayed in developing the resources of the province. Associations being formed to encourage and improve the manufacture of tea, the culti One reads in the papers of vation of raw silk and wax, the weaving of cotton and silken fabrics. Szechuanese returned from abroad, chiefly from Japan, ask for permission to open mines and to exploit them by foreign methods. They propose to bore for oil, to apply machinery to the salt wells, to erect steam saw mills and glass factories. Of far greater importance is a practical attempt by the Chinese themselves to grapple with the difficult problem of steam navigation on the Upper Yang-tsze, a project which if it can be successfully carried out will go far to remove the most serious disabilities under which the trade of the province has hitherto suffered. December, the newly formed Upper Yang-tsze Steam Navigation Company have sent As reported in my despatch No. 58 of the 20th Messrs. Yarrow and Co. the order for their first steamer.

It is unfortunate that the patriotic movement of the present day, with its watchword "China for the Chinese," which has reached even this remote part of China, tends to prevent the organizers of new undertakings from availing themselves of foreign capital and foreign assistance, with consequent misdirection of energy and waste of money. Western learning and an experience of foreign countries are at a premium these days, but it is difficult to make any but the most enlightened Chinese understand that a few years residence in Japan, or even in America, or a tour round the world, does not qualify a young Chinese to build a railway, take charge of a mining enterprise, or expound intelligibly the mysteries of modern science.

The Manchu Garrison at Chengtu.

The message from the "Times" correspondent in Peking, published in the "Weekly Times" of the 4th October, might lead one to infer that the disbandment of the Manchu garrisons throughout China was an accomplished fact. This, at any rate as far as Chengtu is concerned, is not so.

The Imperial Edict duly appeared in the "Chengtu Gazette" of the 30th September, but it was not until the 20th November that the Tartar General and Viceroy issued a joint Proclamation on the subject. This Proclamation explained that the Edict did not mean the sudden abolition of the Manchu garrison and the withdrawal of their pensions, but that measures were to be taken, gradually and with due regard to Manchu interests, to break down the existing barriers between Manchu and Chinese by finding industrial and agricultural employment for the former, and providing them with a means of

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livelihood which would make a continuance of the Government 'doles unnecessary. The Proclamation further assured the Chinese that their land would not be forcibly taken from them for the benefit of the Manchus, but purchased at a fair price.

From inquiries I have made I gather that no steps have yet been taken to carry the Edict into effect. I am informed that there are, nominally, 20,000 Manchus in Chengtu, of whom some 2,500 adults are in receipt of Government pay. The Manchu city, situated in the south-west corner of Chengtu, occupies about one-fifth of the whole intra-mural area. It is a standing example of the degradation of the ruling race in China. Quite half of it is waste land and vegetable gardens; the grass grows in the deserted streets, the houses are poor and dilapidated, the garden walls fallen down and not repaired, the temples little better than ruins. Few Chinese, and those only of the lowest class, live there; there are no shops worthy of the name, and, except in the main street which leads to the west gate of Chengtu, a silence, as in a city stricken with the plague, reigns both day and night. There are one or two primary schools, a small police force, and a few hundred troops, who may occasionally be seen engaged in rudimentary drill on the vast parade ground. The remainder of the garrison spend their days within doors or on their doorsteps-smoking, eating, and sleeping. The Tartar General ranks with and before the Viceroy; his influence in the province appears to be nil,

Arrest of Revolutionaries.

During the first days of November rumours were rife of a "Ko Ming Tang" plot to assassinate the Viceroy and other high officials. The authorities apparently attached some importance to these rumours, for it was noticeable that, as the anniversary of the Empress Dowager's birthday drew near, the police patrolled the city in pairs, the city gates were closed early and carefully guarded, and many of the higher officials went about with unusually large escorts. Nothing happened, but on the 17th November the police raided two large inns in the city and captured some thirty students and others alleged to be members of the "Ko Ming Tang." Of these all but six were subsequently released; the six, natives of Szechuan recently returned from Japan, in whose possession incriminating correspondence and literature was found, were tried, and sentenced to banishment for life. I give their names for purposes of record: Chang Chih Hsiang, Li Ching-yü, Huang Fang, Chiang Yung-ching, Yang Wei, and Wang Shu-huai,

The Viceroy, in a Proclamation issued on the 20th December announcing these sentences, stated that the culprits had been leniently dealt with on account of their youth and inexperience. He warned people not to take advantage of this leniency, and in the confidential manner in which even the highest officials discuss the affairs of the nation in Proclamations, went on to explain what steps the Empress Dowager and her advisers were taking to introduce constitutional government into China. He begged the reading public not to be led away by what they read of revolutions in the histories of other countries. Other countries bad, it was true, purchased good government at the price of much bloodshed; in China, conditions were fortunately entirely different, and the movement towards reform was being led and encouraged, not opposed and hindered, by the highest in the land.

The Viceroy's well-timed leniency in this affair has had a good effect. There was, I believe, some muttering and discontent among the students when these men were arrested, and their execution seemed a foregone conclusion, which might easily have been fanned into an outbreak. There appears to be a strong under-current of ill-feeling against the Manchus, especially among the student class, and the death of these men would have afforded the Chinese patriot a fresh cause of grievance against the present Government.

The Anti-Opium Movement.

Such

There is, I regret to say, but little progress to be reported in this direction. information as I have been able to obtain during the past three months will be included in a separate Report.

Missionary travellers inform me that in most places opium smoking is indulged in, as heretofore, openly and without restriction. Beyond the taxing of the opium divans by the officials nothing has been done to regulate the traffic in the drug, and whatever reduction of the area under cultivation there may have been this autumn is not noticeable. In Chengtu the vigorous measures taken six months ago appear to have been almost entirely relaxed, the once clean and tidy official opium divans are relapsing