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Enclosure 8 in No. 1.
Notes by Mr. Davey on Mr. Little's Memorandum.
I HAVE read Mr. Little's report through very carefully, and as far as it concerts this locality I cannot take any exception whatever to it. During the past few weeks I have not had time to visit certain friends to obtain reliable information, but the following remarks are based upon observations of earlier date :-
Purtition. This idea was very much talked about a few months: when several
ago, well-to-do and officially-connected friends asked if it were true; and the impression left upon me was that they were convinced that foreigners intended to partition the country.
Students as Volunteers.--Last year the students requested to be supplied with arms to practice, &c., but the Governor-General thought his own skin might be endangered thereby.
Anti-foreign Placards.----These are so recent here that they do not call for comment. The students Though not done so openly now I am convinced the ferment still exists. have their meeting days.
(Coufidential.)
Some time ago I mentioned that the Governor-General had received information that an attempt was to be made upon his life, and how he had surrounded himself This informa- with a bodyguard of forty men, who are not to leave him day nor night. tion was imparted to me confidentially by a brother of the superintendent of the river police, through whom I believe the information reached the Governor-General.
Peculation has been fruitful. Railway Loans.-The same antagonism exists here.
I have every reason to believe that the late staff of accountants did everything in their power to get the Tungshih Chu (Board of Directors) to state their accounts were correct, and thus throw the onus upon their predecessors. They have a new set now, who will be no better than their predecessors in peculations.
Subsidise a paper, and it will never speak evil of you. Recent publications in this city will prove it.
Devils are Comet. Many superstitious rumours are now in vogue around us. flying everywhere around us, and many affirm that they have heard them running over the roofs.
Finances are bad.---The banks demand high rates of interest; in my opinion not a true sign of real prosperity.
Treasury is said to be all but empty here.
The Provincial Assembly.--Also anti-foreign.
Enclosure 9 in No. 1.
W. J. DAVEY.
Notes by Mr. Hamilton on Mr. Little's Memorandum,
IT is quite apparent that there is some unrest among the Chinese at this time. Especially so may this be said of Chengtu: rumours of various kinds, mostly of a depraved nature, are freely circulated, and these bear fruit in scornful and supercilious glances from the people, especially the semi-educated people, that one daily meets on the streets. These rumours are not quite recent: even last summer the opening of graves, and the stealing of bones-especially the frontal bone-for the purpose of being used in the manufacture of smokeless powder, was very rife. Rumour is always busy in China: how can it be otherwise with a people having little to do, little else to discuss, and mentally drawn to all that is curious, strange, and depraved? But again, they die, especially if the powers that be take steps to contradict and punish the rumour-spreader.
One feels the seriousness of being asked to make any remarks on this question; and again things differ so tremendously, but so far as I can form a judgment on this matter, I should say that there is small likelihood of anything very serious happening. Time after time, especially since the Emperor Kuang-hsu's death and before, it was said that there would be serious, very serious, troubles, and yet events have proved otherwise, especially in this part of Szechuan. Personally, I think there are a good
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number of Chinese who would delight in a row, but they know, and the powers that be know, that such a game cannot be played yet. In fact, over and over again, men in responsible positions have affirmed that another trouble like the Boxer trouble means a partitioned China, and so such tendencies to destroy, to exterminate the foreigner, have to be kept in check, and in the meanwhile we can only hope that constant intercourse that becomes intimate destroys this feeling of antipathy to the foreigner and his ways.
E. A. HAMILTON.
Sir,
Enclosure 10 in No. 1.
Rev. J. Vale to Consul-General Wilkinson,
[Undated.]
IN reply to your request for some notes on the present condition of things in this province, I beg to present the following as being as near as I can judge a fair presentation of the case :-
1st. The Carved Melon Scare.--During the whole of my journey through the province from Hupeh to Chengtu I never heard a word about this, though I mixed freely with all classes.
2nd. Railway Loans.-I should judge from what I heard that the feeling is still strong against contracting any loan for the Szechuan-Hankow line. I gathered, though, that many would favour the employment of foreign engineers to build the line.
3rd. Newspapers.-The following from "Chinese Recorder," March 1910, by the editor of the "Ta-t'ung Pao" (Rev. W. A. Cornaby), fairly represents the newspaper attitude-
"But now (after having reviewed the past anti-foreign crusade) one has to report with pleasure that, yielding to various influences and appeals, the Shanghai papers for the whole of January onwards, and the provincial press in many parts from the middle of January, has been wonderfully mild and moderate as regards foreign policy, and even the Chinchow-Aigun Railway loan scheme (23rd January) evoked no word of criticism, though set forth in the teeth of numerous articles of the previous year, written at white heat ....; a new era of journalistic sanity seems to have dawned."
The Szechuan press has no power in forining public opinion, and the effect of the changed attitude above referred to seems to be that newspaper agitation was ceased.
4th. Officials-anti-Foreign.-This is nothing new; a certain class of these officials always has been, and apparently always will be, anti-foreign, but the majority know too well that to stir up anti-foreign feeling amongst the people is to endanger their own positions and lives. I have heard of no such thing in this province. Many officials are exceedingly pro-Chinese, and sometimes go too far in this line, but because they are pro-Chinese, that does not prove that they are plotting to repeat the Boxer move- ment again.
5th. Voluntary Subscriptions.-The movement seems to have died out. 6th. The Comet.--I have heard no rumours regarding this.
7th. Provincial Assemblies.-These bodies will doubtless be strongly pro-Chinese, and doubtless they will soon come in conflict with the Government.
8th. Loyalty of the Troops.-Herein is, to my mind, the great danger. I have heard of nothing to give one the idea that the troops in this province are in any way disaffected, but the whole army is so under the control of secret society men, that It is almost certain that any movement, their loyalty is not of a very stable nature. whether anti-foreign or anti-dynastic, that showed signs of success, would see the whole army joining its ranks.
Finally, rumours and local uprisings are the usual spring crop of troubles in this province. Anything that has arisen is nothing more than in ordinary years. We have, however, to add this, that undoubtedly there is a strong anti-dynastic movement under the surface of things, and also a desire to use any anti-foreign feeling in the country to get things "moving," in order to further this anti-dynastic movement.
We also must add that the people are almost af the limit of their endurance of taxation, which will, sooner or later, end in a rising. Further, a deep-rooted hatred is growing against the officials, who are openly spoken of as "robbers of the people."
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