El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-05-30
China Is Torn By Internal
Discord; Anti-Foreign Riots
SOME PAST AND PRESENT HISTORY
No. Trouble in China.

/
IT. seriousness OF the present
AGITATION in China.
recalling the Boxer rebellion of
a decade ago, is attested by the Tact
| that the United states minister in
! Pekin has made a formal request
! for a naval vessel to be sent up
! the Yang-ste river to protect Ameri-
/ can interests. This, taken together
with the offer 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-foTeign riot
ers in Changsha burned the settlements
| of the Christian missions ard when
the missionaries took refuge in the
| governors yamen, or palace, the riot
ers also burned that building and
| wounded the governor. The trouble
! was stopped only when two British
gunboats steamed up the Yang-ste
klang from HankOw, two hundred
miles below. HankOw and Changsha
| are the two great cities of central
J emma, and they dominate the Yang-tse
valley.
/ Always Disturbance
! The Chinese empire is so vast in
area and 50 great in population that
there is always some disturbance
somewhere in China. 1t would ,e as
Inanifestly unfair to take the Chang
sha riots as a basis for q statement
| mat there is general anti-foreign up-
! rising in China as it would be to say
| mat the recent street railway strike in
Philadelphia indicated a general condi-
llon OF anarchy throughout the United
States.
But unfortunately the Changsha riots
do not stand alone. The anti-foreign
feeling in Canton, the metropolis of
! south China, has been increasing stead
! lily for two years past and is now al
I most as intense as it was a decade
! ago In the time of the Boxer rebel
/ non and the American boycott The
/ present anti-foreign agitation in Can
! ton began with popular dissatisfaction
| caused by the efforts Of the Portuguese
government TO encrOach upon Chinese
territory IN dominating the boundar-
les OF the Portuguese colony of Macao.
ms was aggravated greatly when a
Portugese on the British steamship
Fatshan kicked coolie to death
ConsuIs Take a Hand
And now. the latest development,
the consuls of the various nations sta
TONED at Marking, on the lower Yang
ste nave reported to the diplomatic
corps at Peking that the situation in
that section of China is very disoujet-
ing and that there is evidence of an
organized anti-dynastic and anti-for-
eign movement.
Taken together, these reports indi-
cate that anti-foreign agitators are
making themselves felt in every sec
tlcn OF China except the northern prov
lnces- 1t was in these that the Boxer
1t was in these that the punishment
dealt by the allied troops of the great
powers was severely felt 1t is the
nopelessness of resistance rather than
love for the foreigner which keeps the
northern Chinese quiet
Rice Famine
The people of the upper Yang-ste
valley have suffered for two years on
account of a rice famine They have
been starving, and the political no
tons of starving Chinaman do not
differ essentially from the revolution
airy Ideas of a starving white man.
1t is difficult for the Chinese 10 under
stand why the vicerOys, governors and
other public officials should continue
|" gatner the taxes, which are paid
in rice, and should continue to hold
vast stores of this tribute rice for
the use of the government when the
people are starving The government
ordered the ceSSa tion OF exports of
rice from the province. but foreign
influence was sufficiently powerful. In
me interest of trade, to cause several
PosI9ohements of this prohibition. The
STOCK OF rice was thus depleted by
reason Of foreign commercial activ-
ity and foreign political influence
The Willy Chinee.
The people have no direct means of
attacking the government but they
have found by experience that foreign
governments are quick 10 resent the
destruction of foreign property, and
they know that the foreign powers
Will hold the government officials to
strict accountability. Therefore. 1t oc-
ours 20 the Chinese mind thst the
quickest way TO get rid of an objec-
uonabIe official who is stingy with his
stores of rice, is to destroy foreign |
property in that officials Jurisdiction.
Hence the burning of missions and the /
attacks on the property of foreigners.
mus far, the riots this year have been
attacks upon property only. and not
upon life.
The danger is, however. that the la /
tent animosi-y for an foreigners thus
awakened by purely local conditions |
cannot be curbed even by the leaders /
OF the movement 1t is natural for the !
Chinese, when dissatisfied with the |
government administration, TO give ear |
TO the arguments of those agitators |
VINO oppose the continuation Of the /
rule OF the Manchu dynasty. II is
equally natural for the Manchus. which
Is TO say the imperial government. to /
to divert an anti-dynastic
movement into an anti-foreign out
break.
The Boxer Rebellion.
The great Boxer rebellion began as
an organized movement for the over
throw Of the Manchu dynasty. The
late Empress DOwager, as the head of
the Manchus. cleverly captured the
movement and changed it into an
open war on foreigners in behalf Of the
imperial throne The disastrous results
OF the Boxer rebellion. including the
sacking of Picking and the violation
OF the Forbidden City, worked a great
change in the attitude of the Chinese
mind toward the Western civilization.
but it did not increase the Chinese re-
gard for Occidentals
Since the Boxer war hundreds of
Chinese newspapers have been estab-
lishcd in all parts of the empire The |