The San Francisco call., 1898-12-04
Special to The Sunday Call.

~ NLY yesterday the news came
 that China, the sleeping giant
 of the East, had at last aroused O herself and was shaking off the
 shackling superstitions of cen turies. Hardly had the news been pub- lished when, by one of those intrigues which appear in these modern days like page from the Arabian Nights" the hapless young Emperor was dethroned, all his well-meant efforts at reform were scattered to the winds, and that remarkable woman, the Dowager Elm press, was again in control. >No one can question the gravity of the crisis which this event has created. It Is of especial consequence to countries like the United States and Japan, whose great interests in China may at any moment be imperiled.
 Yet, notwithstanding this crisis, which seems so like the beginning of the end, there are optimists who believe that China will escape from this ordeal as she has from others, practically un- harmed. There Is a power of passive resistance in this behemoth of nations, they argue, which offsets its unwieldi- ness and the apparent lack of the fac- ulty of coherent action between its various parts. China before this has been in peril of dismemberment from without and disruption from within, but at the critical moment the danger has been averted and no irreparable damage has been inflicted.
 In the talk of Chinas dismember- ment or partition no account appears fo ho taL nf nnccihlQ action nr the part of the Chinese people them selves. It seems to be the general un- derstanding that foreign control will be substituted for Chinese rule. and that the people will remain quiescent, offering no objection or resistance. An empire with a population of over 40O.- 900, 900 inhabitants; with a territory covering several million square miles, comprising productive alluvial plains traversed by great waterways, fertile valleys and mountains and hills rich in minerals, 1t Is apparently thought, will be yielded up without a murmur.
 The idea is preposterous. To gain even a reasonably complete control of any one of China's great productive provinces, to make it foreign territory in fact as we'll as in name, lines of rail- Wdy IlQSI DS OQile, SOoSAJ N&~~~ civil establishments must be main tained; in a word, many things must be done which cannot be speedily com pleted In the meantime armed resist ance may be expected, and with 1t chaos, so far as the poor people of the coveted regions are concerned.
 Of course, we know that strange things are done by Christian nations in the name of commerce, but China is not Africa and the Chinese are not savage tribes. A foreign ruler Is re- ported recently to have said that the extension of his country's commerce with China was tantamount to the spread of the blessings of civilization ..a among the victims of misrule unique in the worlds history" That is the good old way of putting it. The diff ficulty is that when commerce is ac- companied by Maxim guns and repeat ing rifles the blessings of civilization are apt to appear obscure-to the .'vic- tims'' at all events.
 The Chinese are a peaceful people, disinclined to war, but not towards. In many of those rich and populous provinces toward which foreign na- tions are now looking longingly no for eign armed force has ever set foot The people, although they may not care to enter the military service of their coun- try, where low pay goes with degrad-
 
 ing arms efficiently. In many parts of China there are brave and hardy. sol diers. The French found it so in Ton kin, as their loss of 30,000 soldiers shows. Japan did not find victory so difficult but here was a war against the mandarins who represented and controlled an obsolete and worthless system. A war of resistance to the partition of the country would be a different thing. 1t might not be suc- cessful, nor even protracted, but 1t would entail consequences which even the most ardent advocates of the ex- tension of commerce by the acquisition of territory could not view with indif- ference Every vestige of law and order would disappear. and no mans life or property would be safe. The secret societies, the bane of China, would not be slow to take control, and the braves" of whom they are largely composed, would hold high revel. Even the final restoration of order, with whatever of profit or of power 1t might bring, could not make this overture to the introduction of the blessings of civilization" a pleasant memory.
 If I may venture the opinion, how ever, prophecies regarding the partition of China whether immediaate or in the remote future, must be taken with a certain grain of allowance. In the first place, how could such partition be practically effected? Who would deliminate the metes and bounds, and how would mutual jealousies be recon ciled and satisfied? So, also, as re- gards spheres of influence except where the term is used in the broadest sense How can such spheres be de- .aA ovo pflN