The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-08-13
REFoRMERs' PROSPECTS.

The Chinese Reform party has evil |
IDENTIFY made up it's mind to play a |
strong card in the South of the Empire |
The formation of provisional govern |
ment in Shanghai will be an aggression
which will declare civil war, and may
lead to the disruption of the present
Chinese fabric. However it is one
thing proclaimlning a provisional gov
eminent and quite another thing car
rying it out.
of course the reformers claim to
have very great power in South China, |
but the question is have they retained |
that power during the present up
heaval. 1t has been stated that quite |
an army of Boxers had started South, /
and the reports are common that the
people Of South China are intensely
restless and intensely anti-foreign.
The Boxers, moreover rule through
fear, and many southern Chinese would
he constrained to join them to save
their lives.
We must however, disabuse our
minds of the idea that the Reformers
are not patriotic, or that they view
any attempt by the foreigners to dis
member China with satisfaction. They
are intensely patriotic and upon a
question of the partition Of China
among the Western nations would
throw their weight against the West.
What they want to do is to introduce
Western methods into the country, as
Japan has done, grating the progress
of the West upon the conservatism of
the East. They want to educate their
countrymen and bring them up mental
ly from their present condition of ig-
norance about everything save their
own immediate surroundings.
The Reformers are by no means fol-
lowers of Christianity, though they
would not actively oppose its introduce
ton. Upon this point they would oc-
cupy the position of Japan and grant
perfect liberation. Tolerance is the
mark of advancement and enlighten-
ment We Westerners We're fearfully
intolerant sixty or a hundred years
ago, but we have improved Of late,
though some Western nations remain
intolerant to the present day.
On the other hand the Reformers
reprobate the cruelties of the Boxers
and the entire retrogressive action of
the Picking Government, and they are
quite willing to see the Pekingese
punished for their share in such cruel
ties and the Picking Government over
thrown.
If thirty years ago a united effort
DO 10 feI,
authorities for the massacre of French
missionaries at Tientsin, the present
outbreak might have been averted, but
France was at that time in the midst
of the German war, and was in no con-
dition to send military expeditions to
the Far East. But that was a case
which might have been regarded by the
other powers as an offence against
Western civilization and as much their
quarrel as it was that of France AS
it was there was vicarious punishment
of some officials, an indemnity paid,
which was squeezed out of people who
had probably nothing to do with the
outbreak, and the lesson remained in the
Chinese mind that it was perfectly
safe to murder European missionaries,
and the authorities need not trouble
about giving protection, as no reprisals
would be made.
AS long as the Chinese government
maintains its air of superiority and ex-
clusiveness towards the foreigner so
long will there be difficulty in inter-
course with the Empire. There is still
the fiction that our ambassadors are
representatives of tributary nations.
This fiction should be swept away, but
it will not be swept away until our
ambassadors, as representatives of
sovereign and Independent powers are
put on an equality with the Emperor,
and have the right of entree into the
palace at all reasonable times, as they
have with European sovereigns
The time has come when a thorough
lesson can be taught to China. 1t is
to be hoped that no disagreement
among the powers may mitigate the
force of instruction, and only leave an
open sore which will break out in muir
der and destruction some few years
later.