her great statesman, John Hay, succeeded temporarily in preserving the integrity of the country by his splendid policy of the "open door."

Never shall I forget that winter at Ching Wan Tao, following the war, where detachments of the allied army were gathered awaiting the fate of China. They reminded me of a pack of hungry wolves around the carcass of a dead animal -each fearing to set his fangs in the carcass, lest while so engaged his neighbor might do the same with him. And so during the long negotiations that finally led to the declaration of peace, the situation continued.

Four years later I again visited that scene, and there, in smaller numbers, were found the troops of many of the nations still waiting, ready to seize the first opportunity to partition the country and to secure their share of the spoil. But more pressing engagements were then imminent, involving the attention of some of the powers. The RussoJapanese struggle was on, and China was given a temporary respite. From that time until the outbreak of the revolution which led to the establishment of the Republic, China paid the indemnity claims with such regularity that no opportunity was found for interference.

For more than three-quarters of a century, beginning with the unrighteous Opium War of England, down to the equally unrighteous Boxer War of 1900, and even later, China has been subjected to a series of squeezes and despoilment of her territory to an extent unequaled in history. The iniquitous indemnities wrung from her as the result of the Boxer campaign would have been reversed, and the countries now receiving them would be paying for the outrages committed, had right, instead of might, prevailed. The powerful governments and financial institutions doing business in the Orient have become obsessed with the idea that it is legitimate business to "squeeze" the country, regardless of right or justice, and in the present instance they are continuing that policy. The six-power group of bankers, backed by the diplomacy of the countries they represent, before advocating the joint recognition of the Republic, demand first, an excessive rate of interest for money advanced, and second, terms,

as to its distribution and expenditure, so humiliating that no proud nation could grant them without loss of selfrespect. If these conditions are not complied with, the hidden threat is intimated that the intervention of foreign powers and dismemberment of the country may ensue.

The effect upon China of the spoliation of her territory and finances created among the leading minds of her people an appreciation of her weakness, and of the necessity for the adoption of Occidental methods for self-protection. They saw the absolute imbecility of continuing the policy of the Manchu dynasty, and the necessity for a change of government. The efforts of her scholars and statesmen were for a long time foiled by the opposition of the Empress Dowager, who never hesitated to decapitate those who presented too radical programmes for reform. But despite all opposition, the new spirit grew and spread all over the country, propagated by Dr. Sun Yat Sen and other reformers, until the revolution followed, and the Republic became a reality.

The Chinese Republic deserves formal recognition because of the character of the revolution which made it possible. It obtained the maximum of liberty with the minimum of blood-shed. It was an evolution rather than a revolution, the most potent factors of which were those of peace, and not of war. They were the results of trade with foreign nations, the importation of modern inventions, railroads, telegraphs, newspapers; the work of Christian missionaries, schools and colleges established by them; but, most of all, the influence of Chinese students who had been educated in foreign universities, and who carried back to their native land the high ideals of Occidental government. In comparison with the epoch-making wars for freedom in Occidental lands -the French Revolution, England's fight for Magna Charta, or our own great seven years' struggle for Independencethe Chinese Revolution was almost bloodless. It is stated that the total mortality of the war which secured the emancipation of 400,000,000 of people, was less than the number lost in the battle of the Wilderness, or in single conflicts in the war now raging in the Balkans.

The moderation shown by the successful leaders to their

late rulers was another striking characteristic. Instead of the guillotine or exile, they were retired with liberal pensions, and allowed to retain their empty titles. The leaders enjoined upon their followers the protection of life and property, both commercial and missionary, and these orders were strictly obeyed.

A people who carried to a successful termination such a revolution, deserve the respect and recognition of the world. There are many qualities inherent in the Chinese nature which entitle the present government to immediate recognition. The enemies of China today forget the traditions of the race that China was old when Chaldea and Babylon were young, that she saw the rise and fall of Grecian and Roman civilization, and that she has maintained the integrity of her government and territory ever since; that her scholars discovered the compass and invented the intellectual game of chess, when our ancestors in Europe were groveling in the darkness of mediaevalism; that she produced her own science, literature, art, philosophy and religion, whose founder, Confucius, five hundred years before the birth of Christ, expounded the doctrine of Christianity in the saying: "Do not do unto others what you would not have others do unto you." They forget that for nearly a thousand years China has been nearer a democracy in many features of its government than any other government then in existence. The fundamental unit of democracy, the foundation upon which our own government rests, is embodied in the principle of the New England town meeting. All authorities on democracy, De Tocqueville, Bryce and the Compte de Paris, agree in this.

In China, local government is, in practically all its features, and for centuries has been, controlled by local authorities. The officials of the central government never interfere with the local administration, except for the collection of revenues allocated to imperial requirements. It is the opinion of many authorities that the government of China has given more happiness and more individual liberty to a greater mass of humanity than any other government in the 、world.

RECOGNITION OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC

55

The Chinese have never sought territorial aggrandize-)

ment, but have loved the paths of peace where the law of moral suasion, and not of might, ruled. They possess qualities of industry, economy, temperance and tranquillity, unsurpassed by any nation on earth. With these qualities they are in the great race of the survival of the fittest to stay. They are to be feared by foreign nations more for their virtues than for their vices; and in their present struggle for the maintenance of liberty, they deserve our earnest sympathy and assistance in the solution of problems, seemingly so different, but inherently so similar to our own.

The noble qualities of the race are illustrated in the leaders of the present movement. President Yuan Shih Kai is a masterful statesman who inspires confidence in all who know him. Few other men in history have had such kaleidoscopic changes of fortune, and few men have met them with greater courage or possessed the transcendent abilities that lift one so high above the common level. The resignation of the provisional presidency of the Republic by Dr. Sun Yat Sen was "an act worthy of the finest traditions of patriotism in any land." The National Assembly in accepting it, said: "His act has afforded the world an example of purity of purpose and self-sacrifice unparalleled in history."

The Republic is an established institution of over a year's standing. An able statesman has been duly elected as president and the other machinery of its government is in operation. It has undertaken to observe all treaties, and to discharge all the international obligations of its predecessor. No one will deny that there are serious military, financial and political problems still to be solved, but they are matters of purely domestic concern. They do not alter the fact, which is involved in recognition by other nations, that China has changed her form of government, and that her representative and duly accredited agent before the world is no longer an emperor, but a president. In the analogous case of the recognition of Brazil in 1890, Senator Turpie said: "The success of a revolutionary movement is in itself a statement to the world that a majority of a nation has chosen a change of government; the following existence of

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the revolutionary government, and under its authority, will come the question of the constitution, laws, statutes and ordinances of the new government, but these questions are wholly internal ones."

Many authorities on international law support the legal status of the present government. Hall says: "So long as a person or a body of persons are indisputably in possession of the required powers, foreign states treat with them as the organ of the state; but so soon as they cease to be the actual organ, foreign states cease dealing with them; and it is usual, if the change is unquestionably final, to open relations with their uccessors, independently of whether it has been effected constitutionally." Wheaton defines a de facto government as "One which is really in possession of the powers of sovereignty, although the possession may be wrongful or precarious." Phillimore states, "That the recognition of a new government should be preceded by an absolute bona fide possession of independence as a separate kingdom, not the enjoyment of perfect and undisturbed internal tranquillity (a test too severe for many of the oldest kingdoms), but there should be the existence of a government—acknowledged by the people over whom it is set, and ready to acknowledge and competent to discharge international obligations." The present conditions in China satisfy these definitions of a de facto government.

But the Republic of China is not only the de facto government, it is also the de jure government. As stated by Dr. Chao-Chu Wu, son of ex-Minister Wu Ting Fang, "the Manchu rulers were not illegally driven from the throne, but they abdicated of themselves, and with their last act legalized the Republic. The abdication edict transfers the sovereignty hitherto vested in the emperor alone, to the people; it legalizes the Republic, and, what is more to the purpose, it constitutes a recognition of the new government by the sovereign power." Hall says: "Recognition by a parent state, by implying an abandonment of all pretensions over the insurgent community, is more conclusive evidence of independence than recognition by a third power, and it removes all doubt from the minds of other governments as to the