To the Editor of the *Norru-Cutsa Darty N
Sm,—Among the higher officials of China' there ix' not a man that T have so ardently desired to see as H-E, Tuan Fang (BHF), the present Governor of Hupeh and the late Governor of Shensi. His kindness to the Shensi missionaries and their converts, during the troubles of last year, has endeared "his name to us all. Tt was not easy for him to take the stand which he took as the friend and protector of the hated and doomed foreigners. Had he not been a strong man, and a genuinely humane man also, he could not have done at such a time and in such circumstances. We owe it to this noble-hearted Manchu official that the horrible barbarities perpetrated in Shansi were not_matched by deeds equally atrocious in Shensi. But for his friendliness not a missionary would have escaped unhurt, if at all, and most of the Christians would, in all' probability, have been cruelly massacred.
On the 9th inst., I wrote him a letter, expressing my appreciation of the great' kindness which he had shown to my brethren last year, and telling him that it would give me much pleasure to come and thank him in person. T also told him that I had been in China 46 years, and lived at Hankow 40 years. On the following day there came from HE. a very courteous reply, and a warm invitation to come and see him on the 13th, He seemed impressed with the fact that a foreigner could have spent so many years in his country. Qn Monday, punctually at the hour appointed, I was at the yamen, H.E. gave me a very cordial reception, and we had more than an hour's talk together. It did not take two minutes to make us feel quite at home with each other, and our long conversation was a delightful tete-t-tete right through. I essayed to take my leave more than once; but he pressed ne hard to prolong my stay, and when I actually did get up to' go, he took mo by the haaf and expressed a hope that I would come again and come often.
When speaking of last year, and its awful deeds, he suid: Last year we, the Chinese, disgraced ourselves in the eyes of the whole civilised world. I feel as if Tcould not look you in the face." Speaking of his own doings, he made the remark:
simply did my duty as an official and a Confucianist. It was my duty to protect, and cherish the strangers in my jurisdiction. 1 did what I could.-4 wish T could have done more." He made ' reference to the looting of his house in Peking last year, and added: But I feel sure that the foreign soldiers did not know that the house was mine; had they known that it was my house they would not have touched it." He has no sympathy with the reactionary party, and spoke of its doings last year, and of the whole Boxer movements, in' the severest terms. His face is set on reform but he has no sympathy with sudden and violent changes. His son, of 17, speaks a little English and French. 'It is his father's intention to send him to England next year to perfect his: education, It is not easy to get the higher officials to talk But he' believes the Court will return to alities, and H.E. Tuan is no exception ited without permission.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.