80th December.
Our French contemporary, the "Bei de C reared very si ria ly in ite I ceudlumns yesterday moming he suh-ct of he evacuation of Siangisi, ae writer begins by snying that the "Rho" hag newt ced ty repeat how premature and impru the, withd-awol of th troops has appeared to it, as being the general opinion, and how many reasons France had to maintain 2 corps of occupation here, eyn if the troops of other nations were withdrawn, The writer continues:—"Tf we know the reason for which the troops came to China, we shall take less account of the reasons for which the withdrawal has b en precipitated, When we examine closely the movement which determined the} Powers to accept the idea of evacuation, to follow it up so quickly, andj finally to realise it, we can find only a question of sentiment. And if we! pursue our enquiry, we soon diseovel that there are causes deeper and more! hidden, but at the same time very; real, und we are forced to admit thai, the evacuation is the corollary of the Anglo-Japanese n'liance.
"he Foreign Governments in tet, to assume the diplomatic velvet, assisted the Emperor of China to suppress the Boxer rebel! The Empire was as much threatened as the Europeans, for, of course, if ix impossible to admit that the Chinese Goverament favoured the hatching anil the development of the risings in 1900.
"Pwo Viceroys of the Yangtze Valley, Liu Kun-yi and Chang Chih-tung, have a right to our gratitude Decause they refrained from: reducing us to pulp at the moment when Tientsin and Peking were desolated by the Boxers, We ought then, according to the English argument, to bend to their slightest desires, and evacuate because they ask for evacuation.
"We will take good care not to lessen the eclat which surrounds two such respected names, The two eminent Viceroys did their duty in according us a protection to which we were entitled by treaty, and for which they were otherwise recom-pend, secing that the allies respect-of the request. of TE. Lin Kun-yi ant Chang Chih-tung, the r quest that no traps shankd b+ lander in pers, Sirenghai not folie tes nqu really come ta estab-the Cui pire, the withdrawal of the troops would seem to indicate that the mest profound peace reigns in China. But, we know that if the straggle is less active an'l lo-s sanguinary, itis at the ame time mure wide-spread, more directly aimed against the imperial authority, and, consequently, indirectly bur alnest immediately menacing al for-ign in eres-s in China.
"The Engtish journals which, to pi-ase the policy of their goverament, have urged the evacuation, are the firs to denounce the new dangers, Tuey ave a most nnrrasonthie in their dwelling on the gravity of the situation, but they easily fal a sufficient motive to reassure the mos: timorous: The Britizh troops are at Hongkong; they can easily return,"
"We think that the evacuation should not have been curried out on the simple request of two Viceroys, well-disposed as they may have been, powerful as they may be. Only the general condition of China could authorise the Powers to take so grave a decision, and we venture to say that if the Powers, as such, had not treated either with the Nanking or the Wuchang Viceroy, but with H. M. Kuang Ash, as such they would not have w deal with the two. eminent Viceroys to arrange a question of evacuation, "We venture to say that at present Chinois in a troubled condition; that the provinces of Yunnan, Kuangtung, Kuangsi, Kueichou, Szechuan, Kansu, and Suansi sre more or less in revolution; thas there are, at least, grave disorders in these six (sic) provinces; which means that the Boxers are more or less afoot in a third of the territory of the Chinese empire.
"Tf it is true that China is capable of gover ing herself, why are not the troops drawn at the same time from Chibli, precisely where the Chinese empire is specially armed to in tain peace and tranquillity me friendship of the two Viceroys towards foreigners has been adinirably exploited by the English statesmen. England formerly believed that she could install herself at her ease in the Yangize Valley. This game has failed. "She does not like such disputed possession. So she asks for the withdrawal of the troops, not because order is restored, but because it is an object to be amiable to Chang Chih-tung and to carry out the fast. wishes of Lin Kan-yi, As-toni-ment. ¢ fest, and then The order is given and the troops g. In six months, peraps life, we shall see the Jas on eer wy beck ty Shinghd, and tels ume, perhaps, they will Do mnyeen a: ms. This is a thought very dear to British poli "We sly conds-ly: evacua ion is wrong, been-e order. is not ye? re= ore, and above all because the demand for evacuation comes from a Power whose political interests are too well known to be so complacently served.
The Japanese alliance has restored to England a boidaes of which her failures in Africa had temporarily deprived her. The evacuation of Shangh li is the fi-s most characteristic result of this alliance. Waat will be the others?
We have quoted our contemporary at v-ry unusual length because there are a great many people who agree with it in thinking hat, the condition of the country being whit it is, and the high authorities who were regponsible for the outbreak in 1900 buying been allowed to resume the government, the withdrawal of the troops is premature. They will agree with a great part of the article, not: including, of course, the childish Anglophobia with which it concludes, but which seems t" please a small section of our French fellow-residents, though it is, we know, most obnoxious to the majority of th There is one misquotation mit; we did not say "the English troops are at Hongkong," but "there are troops close at hand at Hongkong and Tsingtao it is a slight difference, but a very important one, as it shows that we did not contemplate the British troops returning alone.
We have not protested against the withdrawal of the troops for the reasons given in our article last week. It is certainly an exaggeration to say ihat seven provinces in China are in a state of revolution. We know that an English Indy has just travelled right across Szechuan alone in safety from Wanhsien to Chengtu. There is naturally a vast amount of discontent in China; but there is only actual rebellion, as far as our advices go, in Kuangsi, and though there are current reports ofa renewed anti-catholic outbreak in eastern Szechuan, where a foreign priest is reported to be in great jeopardy, we have not heard yet of any general fight of mission aries, even from the provinces named by our contemporary. It was per-focily right that the Powers should accede to Liu Kun-yi's request. when he pointed out that if he had preserved order in 1900, he could certainly be trusted to do it in 1902; and when he died, it would have been an unwarrantable insult to Chang Chih-tung 10 practically tell him that we trasted Liu but could not trust him, It must be admitted that the death of Biron Liu and the appointment of a comparatively unknown successor have made a con-ruble cliff-rence in the situation, We can see, however, na danger near to Shanghai as to demand the presence of a foreign garri-on here, and ce, is mu-t not be fiurgotes thedifficalties of any Viceroy at Nanking, by diminishing his prestige in the eyes of his owa people,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.