241
2
Newchwang, Corca, and Vladivostock in search of work. Riots took place in the east of the province at Laiyang and Haiyang, as reported in despatch No. 250 of the 29th July. The autumn crops in this province, and indeed in most parts of China, promise well, and thus one of the main causes of unrest is likely to be removed for a time.
South of the Yang-tsze unrest has been prevalent during the past quarter all over the province of Chekiang, where His Majesty's consular officers at Hangchow and Ningpo report there were riots in early spring at a dozen places besides those at Hangehow itself above referred to. The causes of trouble at the various places have been dear rice, school taxes, the taking of the census, the suppression of poppy cultivation, li-kin exactions, the tyranny of minor officials, and anti-foreign agitation.
Reports from the southern ports of Amoy, Swatow, Canton, Pakhoi, and Kiungehow show that the rice crops were ruined by drought. His Majesty's consul- general at Canton states that considerable anxiety was felt during the quarter lest famine should visit Kuangtung, and some 400,000 taels' worth of rice was bought from Siam and Saigon by official and charitable institutions and sold at low prices in and around Canton, the inferior quality of the rice saving the institutions from loss. For twenty years the rainfall has never been so low for the first six months of the year at Pakhoi, and it is the third bad harvest in succession reported from Kiungehow. Both Kiungehow and Pakhoi were visited by plague in April, which created a panic. The ports were declared plague infected at Singapore, and that, combined with the flight of merchants, contributed to the stagnation of trade. No steps were taken to check the outbreak in Pakhoi, and the people fled and spread the disease in the surrounding district. It is estimated that there were over 1,000 deaths at Pakhoi alone out of a population of 15,000. His Majesty's consul for these two ports states that there has been the usual outbreaks of Loi tribes and abortive punitive expeditions of Chinese troops to Hainan, and that the country round Pakloi is in a serious state of unrest. In the Kaochan prefecture the drought was very severe, and a large part of the population fled on the approach of plague. Robber bands have not missed their opportunity, and have joined forces with the Kuanghsi banditti, with whom they have commenced pillaging and killing. Troops have been sent from Lien Chou, but they are likely to have considerable difficulty in subduing the brigands. His Majesty's consul at Wuchow reports a rising 40 miles below Nanning on the West River on account of a small additional tax on wine, sugar, and oil. Several people were killed, and eventually the Nanning taotai and commander-in-chief of Kuanghsi took the field, with the result that sixty men were killed and forty made prisoners. A secret society known as the Chien Tzu Hui is becoming notorious. It is a kind of robber guild, and appears to organise bands. His Majesty's consul at Swatow reports numerous cases of piracy on the inland waters, even official boats having been the object of attacks. Apart from the agrarian aspect of the situation, the outlook in the south is not devoid of political dangers. His Majesty's consul-general at Canton reports the existence of a strong and widely prevalent revolutionary movement of an anti-dynastic kind. The strongholds of the revolutionaries are in the district of Yingtê, on the North River, and Canton city. There is no doubt that sedition is rampant, and the Manchus in Canton are uneasy, as in the event of trouble they would be the first to suffer. In April the Viceroy issued orders prohibiting the admission and circulation in the province of Kuangtung of all Chinese newspapers published in Hong Kong, on the ground that their tone was seditious and revolutionary.
Writing from Yunnan at the end of April, His Majesty's consul-general reported that the price of food had been rising since the beginning of the year, and owing to a census and heavy taxation, disturbances began in March in the Chaotung prefecture. European missionaries fled from the fury of the people to Chaotung, where they were efficiently protected. The officials behaved with commendable energy, and by the middle of April the rising was suppressed and most of the ringleaders captured, but the provincial Government desired that missionaries should not travel until the hostility of the rural population against foreigners had subsided. Towards the end of March, Mr. W. F. Collins, a British mining engineer, and one of the directors of the "Syndicat du Yüunan," arrived at Yunnan-fu, and negotiated an agreement for the Anglo-French Company with the provincial Government, and proceeded to carry out prospecting operations. Towards the end of July rumours were abroad of an impending anti-foreign rising, and the French Minister made representations to the Wai-wn Pu. Mr. O'Brien Butler reported that at a theatrical performance held at the Yunnan military school, in the presence of the Commissioner of Education and some foreigners, a rickshaw appeared on the stage drawn by an exhausted Annamite
)(
3
coolie under the blows of an irate French passenger, and Indian native troops were also represented being maltreated by British officers.
His Majesty's consul-general at Chengtu gives a more satisfactory account of Szechuan. Rumours which were rife in April and May have now disappeared, and missionary reports from different parts of the province agree that, though a couple of months earlier the mind of the populace was very unsettled, everything is now tranquil.
Early in July reports were received from His Majesty's consul at Kashgar that, owing to the prohibition of opium cultivation, serious disturbances had arisen at Kucheng, in the Zungarian region of Sinkiang. The Urumchia magistrate, who had beheaded five rebels, was said to be besieged in Kucheng, and was subsequently reported shot by rebels. On the 24th August Mr. Macartney reported that Kucheng was apparently quiet, but that the regular troops had made a disturbance in Urumchia on the 10th August, and burned over a hundred houses.
2. Provincial Assemblies.
As was the case in the last summary of events, few of the quarterly reports from the provinces mention the provincial assemblies. An extraordinary session of the Kuangtung Provincial Assembly was convened in May, and a vote of censure was passed on the late director of the Canton-Kowloon Railway, Liang Ch'eng, now Minister at Berlin, for having failed to explain how so large a sum had been expended on the railway with so little result. The assembly also reiterated its last year's opinion that, whether funds could or could not be found to supplement the deficit in revenue, gambling should be abolished forthwith. An indication that the assembly takes itself seriously was given by the adverse criticism passed on the absence of the Governor- General and other high officials at the opening session, and they apparently admitted the justice of the censure by coming to the next meeting.
The Hankow press continues to advocate the early opening of a national assembly as the one and only remedy for all the evils of the Empire, and on the 1st July the "Eastern Times" published an open letter to the nation lamenting the failure of the prayers of the second deputation to Peking for an early Parliament, and attacking the Regent and his Ministers for thus delaying the salvation of the nation.
3. Anti-Foreign and National Debt Movements.
There is no progress to report under these beadings. Such disorders as have occurred were not dangerous to the lives of foreigners, though there was considerable anti-foreign feeling in Chekiang and Yunnan, and His Majesty's consul at Wuchow mentions that the natives in some way connect the steady rise in the price of grain since the opening of the port with the advent of the foreigners. The agitation against foreigners in Szechuan seems to have died down for the present, but it is to be remembered that the mercantile and agricultural classes are both affected by the suppression of opium cultivation and discontented at the partial treatment of some districts, e.g., Fuchow. It is clear that any internal outbreak owing to excessive taxation or other causes, or any anti-foreign agitations in other parts of China, might bring about disturbances involving danger to foreigners in Szechuan. The agitation in the Hankow native press against foreign loans for railway development has some- what abated during the quarter.
4. Education and Reforms.
Little information has been received from the provinces under these headings, but the extra taxation necessary for the establishment and upkeep of new police and new schools has inclined to render innovations unpopular in many parts. His Majesty's consul at Newchwang says the reform movement in his district appears to have had a set-back, and His Majesty's consul at Chinan reports that the education given is a farce. Backward students are pressed on to advanced work which they cannot assimilate, discipline is lax, and moral tone bad. In fact, the new system promises to be a failure. Better accounts are heard of the education given to Chinese at Tsingtau. Extensive school buildings are being erected at Nanchang, in Kiangsi, for the accom- modation of 1,000 students of law and civil government. There are at present 300 students there.
B 2
[2893 cc-1]
Vov
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.