Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-05-29
Some Things You Want to Know
Trouble in China. The Anti-F oreign Riot

The seriousness, of the present apti-for-
eign agitation in China. recalling the
Boxer rebellion of a decade ago, is at
tested by the fact that the United States
minister in Picking has made formal re-
quest for a naval vessel to be sent up the
Yang-tse River to protect American in
terests. This. taken together with the Of
fer of Secretary Knox to aid the Chinese
government, brings the Chinese situation
again into general notice.
The center of the actual disturbances
has been Changsha, the capital of the
province of Human. Anti-foreign rioters in
Chsngsha burned the settlements of the
Christian missions and when the mission
aries took refuge in the governors yamen,
or palace, the rioters also burned that
building ind wounded the governor. The
Trouble was stopped only when two British
gunboats steamed up the Yang-tse Kiang
from Hankow, 200 miles below. Hankow
and Changsha are the two great cities of
Central China, and they dominate the
Yang-tse valley.
The Chinese empire is so vast in area
and so great in population that there is
always some disturbances somewhere in
China. 1t would be as manifestly unfair
" lahC INC NAa1AbShd AlOl0 aS a OdolS LOE
q statement that there is a general anti
foreign uprising in China as 1t would be
to say that the recent street railway strike
in Philadelphia indicated a general con-
dition of anarchy throughout the United
States.
But fortunately the Changsha riots do
not stand alone. The ant-foreign feeling in
Canton, the metropolis Of South China, has
been increasing steadily for two years
past and is now almost as intense as It
was a decade ago in the time Of the Boxer
rebellion and the American boycott. The
present anti-foreign agitation In Canton
began with popular dissatisfaction. caused
by the efforts OF the Portuguese government
to encroach upon Chinese territory in de-
Eliminating the boundaries Of the Portuguese
colony Of Macao. This was aggravated
greatly when a Portuguese on the British
steamship Fatshan kicked a coolie to
death.
And now, as the latest development, the
consuls OF the various nations stationed at
Marking, on the lower Yang-tse, have re-
ported to the diplomatic corps at Picking
that the situation in that section of China
IL very disquieting, and that there is
Evidence of an organized anti-dynastic and
anu-foreign movement.
Taken together, these reports indicate
that anti-foreign agitators are making
Nniemselves felt in every section of China
except the northern provinces. 1t was in
these that the Boxer rebellion reached its
high tide, and II was In these that the
punishment dealt by the allied troops of
the great powers was severely felt 1t
is the hopelessness of resistance rather
than love for the foreigner which keeps the
northern Chinese quiet.
The people OF the upper Yang-tse valley
have suffered for two years on account OF
a rice famine. They have been starving,
and the political notions OF starving
Chinaman do not differ essentially from
"A revolutionary idea OF a starving white
naS.R lis difficult for the Chinese TO un-
Aerks-ad Why the viceroys. governors and