To the Editor of the "NonrmOuma Datty News."
8m,—The present revolutionary rising in the southwest has apparently evoked little interest and lee sympathy in the minds of most foreigners. This is no doubt attributable to the distance which separates us from the present theatre of operations, and to. the fact that the commercially inclined westerner has no sympathy with any political agitation likely to hinder his trade.
To that of us who take an interest in China and the Chinese for other than commercial reasons, the present insurrection hae " deep significance, Bland's Spencerian theory I political risings in China are indirectly due to economic pressure, the result of over-population. is undoubtedly true, and the improvement of existing social conditions would in all probability result in @ more settled state of the country.
So much for indirect causes. One has not far to seek for the more immediate osusee of the present unrest. To those who have watched the gradual introduction of military despotism into the country they are close at hand. Yuan Shih-kai is at heart a soldier rather then statesman, and the creation of the monarchy due to the influence of the military party desirous of greater power. The country as a whole had no wish for it, and had it not been for its crying injustice the farcical "election" might have been turned to account by some enterprising writer of comic opera.
This country at present must surely appreciate the reasons for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.