Tae moroileas exposure of Chang P'eilan by forty Fakioneso officials at Peking contains a lesson of grave ig to the mandariue and people of this Empire. Ever since the beginning of the Tongain trouble, and all through the period during which the forces of Franco and China have boon and on the Chinese corists, the telegrams sent by the mandarins at the scone of action have been of a fever as uniform as we, they, and everybody, know it to inva we fent, impossible to acquit the officials of wilfully misrepresenting facts, and of telling not only the people, but the governing body ut Peking, things which are utterly unfree. Of course, a telegram in such cases as we ate considering can scarcely be otherwise than coloured. It is permissible to conclude that even the French commander, in communicating that which be knows will alm immediately be made pablic, makes the best of the situation, and does not lay unnecessary stress upon the disadvantages that his forces have incurred. That is a characteristic of every war telegram, perhaps, ever sent anywhere by any one, except in such cases as an over-defeat or an absolute and ry, where no colouring process is possible, Had the Chinese done no more than this we should not quarrel with them. But they have done far more. They have sent telegrams from Tonquin, from Canton, from Foochow, and from Formosa, which are cynical and deliberate fabrications, Daring the first onmpaign in Tonquin, they telegraphed that Baoninh hind boon reonplured over and over again, state ment for which there was never the slightest shadow of foundation. They have sine glossed over the most crasliwe knew perfectly their forces had been rented without striking a blow, they have tallied airily about feigned refronts, and informed the Government that the French had fallen victims to their strategy. We know of a recent instance in which a most important telegram from a military commander was deliberately falsified, and the characters employed in it hanged for others of different siguifiontion, by the mandarins through whose bunds it passed on its way to the Empress at Peking. To this very day, again, the Empress writes about the three French men-of-war which were captured by the Chinese at Foochow, Hor Mnjeaty being purposely kept in ignorance of the fact that the only loss than sustained by the French was that of small torpedo bent, A general Inugh went round, it is true, at the discomé- taro of the cowardly braggart Chang P*ei-lun even before the exposure which has since followed; bat had the Empress only known the whole truth about that person's conduct at Foo. chow in the firat instance it is possible that his head, and not his button merely, would have paid the forfeit, We do not sny that every telegram sent by the officials in the South has been absolutely false, There has sometimes been a substrate of truth at the bottom of even the most misleading intelligence. But the fact romains that when any Chinese telegram, announc. ing anytt © disaster to the Frenol, proves to be only partially true, the natural result la an expression of sur prise, and we suppose nobody will deny that from first to last the telegrams emanating from official source in the South have been generally discredited, Now that we want to point out is the utterly mistaken nature of this policy. Does it not occur to these purveyors of false nows to the Throne that they are guilty of actual disloyalty, and Unt they are doing that which cannot but compli+ cate the embarrassments of the Empire toa very grave extent? Are they aware that, Lowevor the Chinese people may have been imposed upon at first by these shallow fabrications, their utter untrustworthiness is now being found out, and the more intelligent of the public are beginning to be indignant at the deception so long practised upon them We can assure them that such is the fact, and that the foolish and short~ sighted policy of falsifying news will no longer serve their tarn, Chang Peel-lan, the loud-voiced patriot, is now discredited in the eyes of ovary mau in the Empire who can rend, The Chinese public have already taken
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.