The Holly chieftain., 1900-09-28
PARTIES IN CHINA
Interesting Faets from Q Nets1
chisAse Leader.
Inner Aaaiss - eAS DosAassaa 0ab-
Diss Communicated ~ 0aS -
the kiaGAoa's Pre-
0Fsssgve As0.

creative AsA.
The following extracts from . mem
orandum prepared last autumn for 40
English friend by the Chinese reform
er, kang iu Wei. will be read with
interest at the present juncsure, says
the London Times.
In order properly to comprehend
the inner affairs Of the Chinese EN-
pire, the first thing heedful is rightly
to distinguish the different parties in
China. The empress dowager holds
on to the old ways; her party L.
known as the empress party The
emperor and his friends who desire
reform are known as the 'emperos's
party Then there IN third party,
known as the middle party which 10
chiefly concerned with its own in
terests and dares not interfere In
politics. Nine-tenths OF the people
and officials are comprised in this
party.
The empreas dowsger. notwith-
standing that she is the head OF tho
ruling party, Possesses few or 10
friends outside of official circles and
the Yamens. Otherwise her influence
is small. Her intimates are all Man.
chus. Yung Lu, appointed by her
commander in chief; Kangwei. special
commissioner for the collection OF ad-
ditional revenues from the provinces;
Prince Tuan. Yum Yn, Bwai-t -pu, etc.
The only clever man among them 10
7 ~
rant and care for nothing but wealth
and official rank. OF the high mih-
tsry officials, TungFu-Siang belongs
to the empress party and Yuan-Shi-
kai to the emperor's. AL the re-
mainder may be said to belong to the
middle party. Thus 1 am right in
saying that the empress party are
few in number, although At the mo-
ment their power 10 great.
The middle party, on the other
hand. n spread throughout the whoAe
empire. The majority are In their
heart of hearts devoted to the en-
peror. admiring his intelligence and
rectitude, and these are alarmed and
angry at the empress usurpation.
They know how ignorant she is and
what q dissolute life she has led for
the last 30 years. and that the weak
ness of China is largely due to her
misdeeds. But the high officials arc
too old; they sit blinking in the twi.
light, not daring to act, but leaving
success or ruin to come, as the en-
peror or the empress gains tho upper
hand.
Ruined as the emperor's party ID.
yet they are the real reformers: both
officials and people, they long for re.
form and new methods, but while tho
empress party hold the power. they
are in dread Of severe punishment.
At the time of the coup d'etat the
empress falsely Inserted that the en-
peror's 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 reformers ex-
ecuted were high metropolitan on
cials. one n member Of the grand
council and one whom the emperor
Ind nominated to be prime minister;
oil were the emperor's personal
friends; they were behesded without
trial. while hundreds Of smaller of
ficials and thousands of the commoa
people were prescribed. These meas
ures were carried out in order 70 clip
the emperor's wings. Why were all
these leading men willing to associ-
ate themselves with the reform par
ty? The answer 10 that they were
loyal subjects. anxious to save theif
country and deserve the emperor's
benevolencc. You have only TO read
the Chinese newspapers, Ko-wen-pao.
published in Tientsin; Su-pao. pub
lished in Shanghai; Chi-hsin-pso, pub.
lished in Macao: Ching-ni-pso. pub
lished at Yokohama: Tien-nan-poo
published at Singapore-these are all
published under foreign protection
and SO are able to speak the truth;
they one and all sympathizs with the
party of reform. The Japsnese news
papers all take the same view; their
criticism ia independent. The em-
press dowager is q licentious old wom-
an. She is not the cmperor's real
mother. and she had no hesitation in
deposing him 30 as to retain her pow.
er. But she was wrong In taking
Yung LUIS advice to depose the en-
peror md place the power in his
(Yung Lu's) hands. AS soon as he
got control Of the northern troops
Yung Lu threw of the mack and did
what he willed. and the empress lives
in constant dread Of treachery on tho
part of her enuchs." -