Political Chaos Threatens China

From the New York Times, December 5, 1911. News of the Independence Struggle in China. Note the author's assessment of the attitude towards suspected attrocities between Eastern and Western cultures. The same Western culture that would wage chemical warfare in a few short years.

POLITICAL CHAOS THREATENS CHINA

Insurgents Unable to Agree - Hope That Sun Yat Sen Will Prove Able to Lead Them.

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Cost of Struggle Terrible

Famine and Poverty in Most of the Country - Foreigners No Longer Safe - Industry Crippled.

SHANGHAI, Dec. 5 - Each day brings keener apprehension that China is drifting into political chaos. Although the fundamental aims of the revolutionary movement are worthy, they are brought to naught by lack of cohesion, lack of funds, and lack of a real leader. The situation inspires most pessimistic forebodings.
   The revolutionary juntas here are now marking time, awaiting the arrival of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, who is expected at any mmoment. It is hoped that he may prove to be the leader that every one is seeking.
   The fall of Han-Yang last week proves to have been due entirely to the wholesale desertions of rebel troops enrolled in the Hu-Nan Province. Some say that the soldiers were bought by Yuan Shi-Kai, but most attribute the jealousies between the people of Hu-Nan and Hu-Pe.

China 1911

   The breathing spell following the facical termination of the Nanking campaign, coupled with the armistice at Hankow, affords an opportunity to look at the whole situation. The complete collapse of the Imperial Governement is regarded here as imminent, and there is nothing yet stable to take its place. The revolutionists have thus far been incapable of affecting any cohesion among themselves, and unless Sun Yat Sen proves to be the man of the hour, they will be found far less efficient if called upon to take on the responsibility of a national Government.
   The cost of the struggle thus far has been far greater than is easily realized. Apart from the losses of the battlefield, it has plunged a majority of the provinces into poverty and famine, it has stopped all commerce and trade, crippled agriculture and industry, and diverted almost every penny of tax revenue from the purpose of peace.
   The moral effect upon the people is another serious matter. Reports from the interior indicate the that conditions everywhere are growing worse. Briganage is almost the only profitable profession left to a people hitherto peaceable and orderly. Millions are starving within a radius of a few hundred miles of Shanghai. In increasing number there come to this city accounts of robberies and violence, and even the killing of Europeans has ceased to be exceptional. Close observers are more and more uneasy regarding the safety of foreigners in the immediate future.
   The situation is complex. Facts are hard to get at. Both sides are financially close to bankruptcy and realize that their first need is to establish credit. In the hope of obtaining assistance abroad they are unsparing in the use of legitimate and illegitimate means to influence opinion. News is sensored and colored to suit the purposes of those in control. Some of the accounts of barbarities and atrocities have been exaggerated, but it must be remembered that many things which make the Occidental shudder cause no disturbance to the nerves of the Oriental.
   A group of reformers is now holding a convention here, claiming to represent the entire country. The delegates assert that they are authorized by fourteen provinces to act as a provisional legislative body. The convention has accomplished little so far, owing mainly to the lack of cohesion which has been evidence at Wu-Change and Nanking. The begging attitude of the Peking Government elicits only sneers from the delegates, who have devoted much of their time to the selction of a capital city for the proposed republic.
   Wu Ting-Fang, who was formerly Minister at Washington, and has allied himself with the rebels, says that all existing differences between the factions will be reconciled. He declares that the final meeting of the National Convention will be held at Nanking, which has beenselected as the future capital of the Republic of China.