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CHINA

setback to her export trade has been registered during the year under review. While this was due in part to abnormal local causes, and was after all no worse propor- tionately than that suffered by several other great nations, the seriousness of the present trade impasse in relation to Chinese exports certainly ought not to be minimised; for the immoderately low levels reached by prices during the past few years have undoubtedly brought acute distress to the rural population and placed the large agricultural interests of the country in considerable jeopardy. As these and other trade interests appear to require most careful nursing until the arrival of better times, it has been a satisfaction to know that the Government are showing in a most parctical manner their awareness of the important place occupied by agricul ture in the economy of the nation; and that what may be termed the present trade interregnum, or the period of waiting for prosperity, is being taken advantage of in the most suitable manner possibly by a rapid development of China's lines of com- munications.

HISTORICAI.

The year 1900 will ever be memorable in the history of China for the "Boxer" rising. Details of this great social and political upheaval may he found in preceding volumes of this Directory. The object of the rising, which was confined to the North, was the extermination of foreign native Christiaus and people known to be associated with foreigners. The Legation Quarter at Peking was besigned for two months by the Boxer rabble and the Imperial troops, the occupants being reduced to the verge of starvation. Troops were poured into China by all the European Powers, America and Japan, and it was not before 20,000 foreign troops had fought their way to the capital that the siege was raised. Over 250 Europeans were murdered during the rising, and it was estimated that over 10,000 natives perished, most of them being Christians or the kinsmen of Christians.

In November, 1908, occurred the death of the Emperor Kwang Hsu, fol- lowed a day later by the death of the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi. This was unexpected, and there was consequently much suspicion for a time regarding the cause of the dual demise. The public were soon satisfied, however, that the deaths were due to perfectly natural causes. Dying childless, the late Em- peror Kwang Hsu, acting in obedience to "the benign mandate" of the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi, designated as he lay dying a son of Prince Ch'un, his brother, as his successor to the Throne. At the time of his accession the new sovereign was barely three years of age, and Prince Ch'un was appointed to act as Regent during the Sovereign's minority. The events of the past ten years had convinced Tzu Hsi, who had been the virtual ruler since 1895, that the salvation of the country lay in a complete reformation of the Gov- ernment. Accordingly, from being a reactionary of the

of the worst

worst type, she tutional government and took steps to initiate the change. In her valedictory address she directed that the occupant of the Throne should fulfil the pro- mises she had made, and the opening of the new reign was marked by a suc- cession of Reform Edicts giving promise of the fulfilment, at last, of the long-cherished hopes for the country's regeneration. Scarcely two years had passed, however, before the country was swept by a revolution vastly different in its purpose from the abortive Boxer rising just eleven years previously. It developed as if by magic although, for many years, there had been reform propaganda in China. In 1895 the Empress Dowager, alarmed by the Em- peror Kwang-Hsu's reform proclivities, usurped the Throne, made the Em- peror virtually a prisoner in his palace, had many of the leading reformers executed, and put a high price on the heads of all who had escaped out of the country. But notwithstanding the most rigorous measures which were enforced to suppress the movement, the propaganda was secretly and success- fully continued. If hitherto there had been any hesitancy on the part of the Reformers to adopt the abolition of the Manchu monarchy as a plank in their platform, it was now overcome, and a revolutionary campaign was organised in earnest. An upheaval was expected at the time of the infant Emperor's accession to the Throne, and extensive military preparations were made to cope with it. Nothing happened, however. The organisers of the