Evening star., 1900-07-07
PARTIES IN CHINA.
Dfstfngufshed and Described by the
Leader of One of Them

Leader of One of Them.
| From the London Times.
The following extracts from a memoran-
dum prepared last autumn for an English
| friend by the Chinese reformer. Kans Yu
| Wei. will be read with interest at the pres
ent juncture:
In order properly TO comprehend the in
ner affairs OF the Chinese empire. the first
| thing needful is rightly to distinguish the
different parties in china. The empress
| dowager holds on 10 the old WAYS: her par-
ty Is known as the empress party The
emperor and his friends who desire reform
ar" known the 'emperur's party Then
there is a third party. known as the mid
| die party which is chiefly concerned with
its own interests and dares not interfere in
politics. Nine-tenths Of the people and Of
| hcials are comprised in this party
The empress duwager. Notwithstanding
that she Is the head of the ruling party
possesses few or no friends outside of Off
cial circles and the Yamens. Otherwise her
influence is small. Her irtimates are all
Manchus. Yung Lu. appointed by her COM
mander-in-chief; Eangwei special commits
sioner for the collection of additional rev.
enues from the provinces: Prince Tuan
Yum u. Bwai-ta -pu, etc. The only clever
man among them is Yung Lu: the rest are
uenSely ignorant and care for nothing but
wealth and official rank. OF the high mill
tary officials. Tung -Fu-Slang belongs to
the empress party and Yuan-Shi- kai to the
emperors. =. All the remainder NAV he said
to belong to the middle party. Thus / am
| right in saying that the empress party are
few in number. although at the moment
their power is great.
The middle party. on the other hand is
spread throughout the whole empire. The
| majority are in their heart of hearts de-
voted to the emperor, admiring his intelli-
gence and rectitude. and these are alarmed
ana angry at the ernDreSS' nation They
know. how ignorant she is and what a dis
solute life she has led for the last thirty
years. and that the weakness OF China i.
largely due to her misdeeds. But the high
officials are too old: they sit blinking in
the twilight, not daring to act but leaving
success or ruin TO come. as the emperor
the empress gains the upper hand.
Ruined the emperor's party is, vet
they are the real reformers; both officials
and people, they long for reform and new
methods, but while the empress party hold
the power. they are in dread of severe pun
ishment. AT the time OF the coup d'etst the
empress falsely asserted that the emperors
party was planning revolt. She prohibited
newspapers, killed and drove out hundreds
of reformers and -eXiled numbers of high
officials to the frontiers. Six OF the re-
formers executed were high metropolitan
officials, one a member of the grand council
and one whom the emperor had nominated
to be prime minister: all were the en-
peror's personal friends: they were behead-
ed without trial, while hundreds of smaller
pie were prescribed. These measures were
carried out in order to clip the emperor's
wings. Why were all these leading men
willing to associate themselves with the
form party? The answer 10 that they were
loyal subjects. anxious to save their coun-
try and deserve the emperors benevolence.
You have only to read the Chinese news
papers. Ko-wen-pao, published in Tien Tsin;
Su-pao, published in Shanghai; Chi-hsin-
pao. published at Macao: Ching -ni-pao, pub
lished at Yokohama: Tien-nan-pao. pub
lished at Singapore-these are all published
under foreign protection and so are able
to speak the truth; they one and all SYM
pathize with the party of reform. The
japanese newspapers all take the same
view: their criticism is Independent. The
empress dowager is a ncentious old woman.
She is not the emperors real mother, and
she had no hesitation in deposing him 80 as
to retain her power. But she was wrong
in taking Yung LUIS advice to depose the
emperor and place the power in his (Yung
Lu's) hands As soon as he got control Of
the northern troops Yung Lu threw of the
mask and did what he willed. and the en-
press lives in constant dread of treachery
on the part OF her enuchs."