Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-10
A CRISIS In
THE CHINESE REPUBLIC

The state or violence and disorder tnat
reisns supreme in Picking il the culmina-
ton OF the policy OF
Yuans Policy that most peculiar Of
u>:,,. all Cinnamon. Yuan
esPonsipie. Shi Kai. The unin-
terrupted successes OF the revolutionary
armies ana the government, at Marking
forced the Manchu to abdicate. despite
the support of the redoubtable Yuan. who
swore to the empress dowager that he
would maintain the constitutional mon
archy' against the republic.
When Yuan's emissary and faithful
Achates, Tang Shao VI. who has served
Yuan as pilot these many years. reported
from Shanghai that 1t was time to drop
in order to give the abdicated a proper
send on The next move indicated by
Tang, who is the profound thinker Of the
Yuan and Tang combination. was: Get
on, the republic wagon and assume tn !.
presidency OF the northern republic at
Picking" AS Tang ordered. 1t has been
done, and now IL there is truth in the
dispatches, Yuan has assumed the title Of
"reconstructor of the republic by order
Of the Manchu. who has disappeared from
the scene as II by magic.
The representatives OF foreign nations
Yuan lis surely based upon something
else than either his civic or military vir-
tues must have had finally some percep-
ton of the danger to China, as well as to
themselves, in permitting Yuan to be-
come the dictator under the seal Of their
united sympathy and authority.
The representatives OF foreign nations
have really encouraged this same Yuan
in his efforts to baffle the coming of the
republic. At the last moment they are
seen clearly by all Hberty-loving Chinese.
A4
The Manchu bogy can no longer be In
voked. for the foreign representatives
have seen with their own eyes
Hanchu that the authors of the mas
sacre in Picking are not the
0VSy' Manchus, but Yuan's Chinese
soldiers. who.. they were told, and the
world was told in the many dispatches
from Picking. sent by Yuan himself, per-
haps. were the proper defenders of law
and order. Has Yuan lost control OF
this much vaunted soldiery whose creation
and training has given him the reputa-
ton of a great commander? Have
ing been opened? 1t would SO appear, In
deed, from the dispatches from Peking
Of March the Jth instant. In substance
they announce:
In an effort to restore order and in
augurate q stable government as soon as
possible DR.. Sun Vat Sen and his ad-
visers have been asked to go to Peking
and make that city for the present the
capital Of the. new republic. The officials
are to be guarded by 1000 veteran troops
and picked bodyguard.
This prevention against surSrise on the
part of Yuan or any other badly disposed
toward the Hawking government is well
taken. Besides 1t shows that while d.
Sun Vat Sen has not abandoned his pow
ers to Yuan, ne is ready and willing to
do all in his power to restore order. 1t
is not possible, however, to think that he
will hand over his authority to any one,
least Of all to Yuan, who for q fact Is
responsible for the havoc wrought these
days in Picking.
AS read the dispatches which reported
that headless .corpses were lying In the
streets of Picking L recalled like horror
in the streets of Seoul, Korea, where in
1885 Yuan Shi Kai was the Chinese resi-
dent.
At that time the American missionaries
strangely enough had been misled as to
Americas policy in Korea by
Yuan in the astute charge d'affaires Of
Russia. Yuan Shi Kai was
AoAos' greatly wrought up over Rus
sia ascendency over the Korean king.
Rumor attributed to Yuan the following
serio-comedy. the object Of which was to
incite the Korean coolies to mutiny
against the missionaries. Unknown agents
charged that missionaries We're stealing
~ xt,,~ hnp
all but the eyes, which were reserved to
make films for photograph plates TO
render the runner realistic infants were
stolen. killed and their bodies thrown
into the streets. The eyes of the victims
had been extracted. Moreover. photograph
plates on which there We're images OF
Korean children had been stolen from
my dark room and then had been circu-
lated among the coolies as proof of the
black art Of the missionary. There was
mutiny, but the massacre was averted by
the timely arrival from the seaport of a
detachment of United States sailors
and marines, commanded by Lieut.. VAIN
wright, now rear admiral. United states
Navy. retired
Yuan belongs in no sense to new China,
but to the old. His reformed army is
largely imaginative. He Is really a ban
ner'' man and believes in the methods
and tactics of the banner troops of
which formerly employed hideous masks
and horrid noise of gongs to brighten the
enemy.
The latest dispatches declare that Yuan
has lost control of his devoted soldiers.
But this is very lame pretext and
should not be accepted.
X \
Now, Yuan Shi kai has been enga ged
since February u in demonstrating the
republic" with the
Yuan'S Ruin0uS result that Picking
nA has been half bur-
AsCs0AosA "SsAVA' led in ashes and
half drowned in the blood of the slaugh-
tered The Manchu rule, despicable as it
has been, never committed such destruc-
ton and f1endish crime as has marked the
few days Of Yuan's reign Of ''reconstruc-
tion.''
February Is telegram from Shanghai
reported that the two modest chiefs Of
the real republican Chinese at Marking.
while glad OF Yuan's announcement that
he would stand for the republic, never
theless regarded his edicts with suspi-
cion. 1t was suggested that any recog
milton of his cooperation should be pre-
coded. by a note demanding that Yuan