The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-07
WHO'S WHO IN CHINA.
The. Different Parties Distinguished
and Described by the Leader of
One of Them,
From the London Times.

From the London Times.
The following extracts from a memo
randum prepared last autumn for an Eng
lish friend by the Chinese reformer. Kang
Yu Wei, will be read with interest as the
present juncture:
In order properly 10 comprehend the
inner affairs of the Chinese empire. the
first thing needful is rightly to distn-
guish the different parties in China. The
Emperor Dowager holds on to the old
ways; her party is known as the EN-
press party The Emperor and his
friends who desire reform are known as
the 'Emperors party Then there is a
third party, known as the Middle party
which is chiefly concerned with It's own
interests and dares not interfere in poll
tics. Nineteenths of the people and Off
Gals are comprised in this party.
The Empress Dowager notwithstand-
ing that she is the head of the ruling
party, possesses few or no friends outside
OF ofhcial circles and the Yamens Other
wise her Influence is small. Her init
mates are all Manchus. Yung Lu, ap-
pointed by her commander-in-chief;
kangwei. special commissioner for the
collection of additional revenues from the
provinces; Prince Tuan, Yum Yu. Bwai-
ta-pu, etc. The only clever man among
them is Yung Lu; the rest are densely
ignorant and care for nothing but wealth
and official rank. OF the high military
officials, Tung- Fu-Siang belongs 60 the
Empress party and Yuan-shi-Kai to the
Emperors All the remainder may be
said 10 belong to the Middle party. Thus
l 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 intelH-
gence and rectitude, and these are alarm
Ell and angry al she Empress usurpation.
They know how ignorant she is and what
dissolute life she has led for the last
thirty years, and THAI the weakness of
emma is 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 20 come. as
the Emperor or the Empress gains the
upper hand.
Ruined as the Emperors 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 Sc
we're punishment. At the time of the cou0
detat the Empress falsely asserted thar
the Dmperor's Party We're planning re-
volt. She prohibited newspapers. killed
and drove out hundreds of reformers. ana
exiled numbers of high officials 10 the
frontiers. Six of the reformers executed
were high metropolitan officials. one a
member of the Grand Council and one
whom the Emperor had nominated 70 no
Prime Minister; all were the Bmpero,'s
personal friends; they were beheadod
without trial while hundreds of smaller
ofhcials and thousands of the common
people were prescribed. These measures
were carried out in order to clip the EN-
peror's wings. Why were all these lead
Ing men willing to associate themselves
with the reform party? The answer Is
that they were loyal subjects. anxious
10 save their country and deserve the EN-
peror's benevolence. You have only tn
read the Chinese newspapers. Ko-wen
pao' published in Tien Tsin; Su-pao. pub
hshed IN Shanghai; Chi-hsin-pao publish
ed az Macao; Ching -ni-pao. published ar
1okohoma' I1en-nars-pao, published q,
Singapore-these are all published ,,nds,
foreign protection. and so are ahIe ~
speak the truth; they one and all svmn,-
thize with the party of reform. The Ian
ancse newspapers all take the Same
view; their criticism is independent Tn
Empress Dowager is a licentious old WON
an. She is not the Emperor's real motn-
er, and she had no hesitation in deposin.y
him so as to retain her power Bur hbe
was wrong in taking Yung LUIS advice to
depose the Emperor and place the mower
IN his Nung Lu's) hands. As soon as ne
got control of the Northern troops Yum,
Lu threw of the mask and did what he
wli'ed' ana the Empress lives in constant
dread Of treachery on the part ~ Re-
eunuchs." "e'