The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-28
D0WAGER EMPRESS ID STOP MEETINGS Gives Verbal Orders to Depart
 ment and Police DELEGATES ARE RECEIVED
People of China Are Agitating For Constitutional Rights and Govern ment Is Receiving Delegates
 In a Kindly Spirit.

Pekin, December 27.-The Dowager Elm press has given verbal orders to the in- terior department and to the police to suppress all public meetings in Pekin, and there is reason to believe this order will be extended to the provinces.
 The popular agitation along the lines of recovery of rights" is growing in d phenomenal manner. The question of provincial as against federal sovereignty, enters largely into the matter. Women societies, schools for boys and girls, the family newspapers and the political press are all for participating in the agitation, and for some time past the government Eere has been receiving telegrams in in- creasing numbers expressing the strong desire of the senders that the rights, which have been alienated from them by foreigners, be restored to the Chinese.
 The movement has reached such magnl- tude that the government is now striving to fill a conciliatory position. The peo- pie of Chic Klang province have sent some delegates here to protect their inter ests. These delegates the foreign board has taken into it's confidence, opening It's archives to them and asking them to make a careful examination of the posi- tion of the Chinese government with re- gard to Great Britain and then to recom- mend a solution of the difficulty.
 New Departure.
 The reception accorded the civilian dele gates by the government and the admis- sion of representatives of provincial coun- cils into state affairs at Pekin Is with out precedent and is believed to con stitute what can be called the thin edge of the wedge which Is to give eonstitu- tional rights. It shows also the impor- tance of the agitation which has been going on in Chic Kiang province and which undoubtedly Is the cause of recent edict by the throne
 The agitation embraces the question of the patrol of the West river by great Britain in an effort to put an end to the piracy there, and leading Englishmen here apprehend that the recent popular hostility will result in an inquiry into British trade. The government is relying upon the support of Great Britain, whose insstence upon China's maintenance of her original position has produced an apparent solidarity among the Chinese ministers.
 The pressure of the British government is strengthening the position of Yuan Shi Kai, whose security and influence In Pekin is regarded by the foreigners as essential to the safety and progress of China.
 Foreign Agitation.
 It Is declared here that the foreign agi- tatIon in the matter of the attitude adopt ed by Japan with regard to Manchuria and the warning of Russia concerning the annulment of the telegraph convention have led the British foreign officers to take action, and it Is understood that this has been in the form of representa- tiens to the Tokio government.
 France has consented to the revision of the convention regarding land telegraphs, but she has proposed with China a cable controversy to secure facilities for the extension of the submarine line to Vladi- vostok.
 Japan. it is averred, Is taking advantage of China's complications with Great Britain in order to postpone the negotia- tions regarding Manchuria. She has de- layed drafting the new postal convention which was promised for November
 Travellers arriving here complain of what they call the organized civlllty, and In some cases even brutal conduct of the Japanese trainmen and guards on the Manchurian railway.