To the Editor of the "Nonru-CHINA Datty News"
Sim—I have just received my copy of the "Peking.& Tientsin Times" for May 18, in which there jis printed an article taken from "NE, D. N,," written by a Shand Correspondent, dealing with the present condition of the Provine of Shansi. The date when the original "article appeared in your columns is not stated; but one naturally assumes that the SP. aT, T." has correctly reproduce Such an article may not be Jowed go pass without a strong pro test against its unfair distortion of the present situation, not to say its. auppressio veri.
"Your contributor stated that in March this year the whole of the taxes for the current year were demanded of the Shansi people. That is correct. But when he pro-coeds to assert that the farmers were unable to pay without bor. yowing money at ruinous rates of interest, he makes a statement which hard to. believe when one re~ calls the fact that last year's har-verts were extraordinarily good in Shansi, and that in some districts the farmers rejoiced in the fact that the year's yield was enough to last them for about three years! need, There may have been individual cases of hardship due to this early call for taxes, but it can hardly have been general. As 40 the Super-tax, which your cone tributer states_has been, imposed in certain districts, T have asked landowner of my acquaintance what this tax is, and he knows nothing about it, He has been called upon to pay no such tax, If. it has been levied by some District Magistrate, for his own ends, can hardly be laid to the blame of the central administration of the Province.
"Your contributor refers, to the time when the Shansi armies were in "eastern (sic) Chili" along the Kin-Han tine, and when the Shansi people were ' required to provide wheat flour nnd bread steamed to sent to the armies in the field His knowledge of geography seems to be on a footing with his acquain" tance with facts. For he entirely emits to mention that these supplies were paid for by the Shansi Government, Also the carts and ance mals which wore requisitioned for transport, were paid for at official yates (which isan sold custom). The Governor has been particularly careful, by the issuing of proclamations and by statements in the Shansi press to let it be known that military supplies were to be paid for. And Inspectors were sent out, to sco that this was done, The writer heard only the other day, of a case in which ® soldier who had been convicted by Court Martial of withholding 100,000 cash that was due to some villagers, was sentenced to death, and shot a warning.
If the people do have to pay heavy. taxer, Shanti is still a heaven of prosperity compared with adjoining, provinces, Plentiful harvests in mest counties during the last year two, with high prices for grains increase of business owing to peace-Jol conditions; the entire ubscnee of brigandage and of extortions by the soldiery, have made the province more prosperous that its neighbours. The general income is much higher than in the days of the Manchus, end consequently ineveased taxation Wears far less heavily than it may appear to on the people.
With regard to student activity ses, and anti-Christian propagands, found a mere. Incrative appointment in another town. It is news that he was "forced" to leave the city. The book-shop, of which he is the proprietor, is still being carried on in his name, and is patronized almost entirely by students in the colleges and schools of Taiyuanfu.
Your correspondent proceeds to deal with matters connected with, social reform, and refers to gamble ig, opium ete. Is gambling at fairs and theatres a new. development, due to the degeneration of the Shansi Government? Is it not something that occurs in every province, and may be seen almost anywhere by one who goes about with his eyes open?—Is it confined to Chinese territory? The reference to opium is particularly unfair, and one is forced to infer that your correspondent has allowed himself to become the mouthpiece of someone who wishes to make mischief. For years there has been no production of opium in Shansi; and the smuggling of this drug from adjacent) provinces, and along the Cheng-'Tai railway, is the sole reason for. its being obtainable in the province. The Anti-Narcotie Society obtains the greater part of its income from the contributions of the Governor, who has done all in his power to bring about the entire suppression of this evil in the territory under his jurisdiction.
Your correspondent's summing up of the intentions and accomplish-_ ments of Governor Yen was ungenerous in the extreme. That. Shansi has suffered from the effects of continued civil wars, is beyond question, But it still remains the tone province where the common. people may pursue their ordinary vocations in peace and quietness. The difficulties with which the Shansi Tupan has been faced must taken into account. Menaced on all his borders, and desirous of preserving the province from the horrors of war, Yen Hsi-shan has deen forced by' events to take a course that is deplored as much by his admirers as by his critics. For years he has bought off his opnents by heavy payments of Danegeld." For years he has sat fon the fence. The time came when this was no longer possible. The measures necessary to preserve Shansi from being over-run by invading armies, involving the increase of the Shansi armies, well as alliance with other Com manders, and resulting in meres expenditure, have involved heavy increase in taxation, even then, the taxation Imposed on the Shansi people is a mere fraction of the exactions and extort tions wrung from the poor people of adjacent provinees, by cruelty and torture in many' cases. All well-informed observers, whether Chinese or foreign, are perfectly. aware that any change would simply be a jump from the frying-pan into the fire. And in view of all the difficulties by which Governor Yen has been faced, it is not so much a.matter for despair that his ambitious programme of reforms and progress is not being carried out as in peaceful days; but rather is it an occasion for profound thankfulness that the province has been, 10 far, preserved from bloodshed, rapine and devastation.
Tam, ete.,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.