June 18.
Our Chinese friends have 80} many days of remembrance in those times that it is somewhat} difficult to keep track of them all. That held on Wednesday the 16th instant is of particular, interest to Britons; so much 60, indeed, that it would not have been out of place to have given us an invitation to take part in the celebration. On this day] five years ago Dr, Sun escaped)
om the city of Canton and took refuge on a gunboat moored in the river. He had quarrelled with Chen Chiung-ming and Chen's troops were in command of the city so that Dr. Sun's life was in imminent danger. His} position on the gunboat we still extremely hazardous, gunboats fired on the Chinese bund and the land forces retallated by opening fire on the ships compelling them to shift} their mooring to Whampoa. It, is this narrow escape that _is held in remembrance now, but! Dr. Sun and his _compatriots were, even after this move, still in jeopardy. The—opposing troops captured Whampoa on July 10 and the gunboats had to return to Canton, being subject~ ed to a running fire from the Macao forts during the passage. The Yungfeng, on which Dr. Sun had taken refuge, was hit six times, but anchored safely amongst the foreign gunboats off Shameen, Chen's Gener: intimated that if Sun did not] leave he would be blown up and a floating mine actually exploded near his ship. The position haying become untenable, on August 9 at 4 pin. Sun went on board the British gunboat. Moorhen—this is why ft would have been fitting to have offered us a place in the procession—and was conveyed to Hongkong whence he took passage next day on the Empress of Russia for Shanghi The Chinese press of Wedi day had a half page advert ment, issued by the Cent Executive Committee, recounting the circumstances which led up to this adventure of their hero, Dut no mention was made of the facy that he was indebted for! his escape to the country they have persistently vilified during] the last few years It is fitting to recall that this was not the only occasion on which Dr. Sun owed his life to the British Government.—The wise man said: "He that bloweth not his own trumpet,—his trumpet it shall not be blown." We are not given given to tooting our achievements but sometimes it is necessary to recall past events for the benefit of those whose memories are short.
On October 11, 1896, Dr. Sun was strolling along a certain street in London when he saw two Chinese, dressed in the flowing silk robes of their native land. "He was constrained to speak to them; doubtless because he felt lonesome, being a refugee, with a huge price set on his head by the Manchu Government against which he had been plotting. He was lured into the Chinese Legation and there kept a close prisoner while a ship was being chartered to convey him back to his ungrateful country where swift death awaited his coming. A humble charwoman carried a message from him to_ his life-long friend, Dr. James Cantho, who had extremely hard work to persuade the London Chief of Police that it was possible for a man to be kidnapped in broad daylight in the city of London. "Inquiries! were made at the legation and al suave secretary, with a puzzled Jock. turned up' a book contain. ing a list of the employees in the! Jegation and assured the detective that there was no_ person of the name of Sun on the staff:
When it was suggested that "the person named Stn" was not an employee but a kidnapped pri-
Jsoner the suave secretary laughed, and the detective laughed with him, at the preposterous suggestion, and but for Dr. Cant-lie''s dour, Scottish persistence [the matter would have ended there and Dr. Sun's head would, jin due course, have fallen on the execution ground in Peking. Ultimately, from a building opposite, Dr. Sun was seen through the bars which had been spec-ally fitted to the room in which he was confined. It was not possible to enter, forcibly, the [Legation of a friendly Power and a cordon was drawn round [the building so that the prison-ler could not be conveyed to the waiting ship.—The game being lup the suave secretary, just as suavely, handed over "the per-ison named Sun" to the authorities and the life of the future [President of the Chinese Republic was saved. We respectfully suggest that this deliverance is also worthy of a day of remem-prance for Dr. Sun was never} nearer death than when he was in the power of his smiling and polished countrymen in the London legation.
But we do not press the sugigestion for a precedent once established has habit of perpetuate ing itself, and if all the Chinese leaders whose lives have been wwed by the timely intervention of foreign Powers or who have, at one time or another, sought, and found, refuge fallen lands, for the time being, less inhospitable than their own, or who have found the Concessions in China a very present] help in time of trouble, there would not be enough "red letter Jdays to go round and life would Ibe too short to remember anything else. But we Britons justly pride ourselves that our country has, for hundreds of years, been the one land to which the oppressed of all nations fled for refuge from the intolerance of their own rulers. For the present the Chinese choose to] forget this but we know that} lone day ''the water will fall and the stones appear." And in the meantime we possess our soul in patience.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.