As far back as June 3, 1910, a year and four months before the
revolution, the Shanghai _News_ printed the following article: “All
the legations and consuls have received anonymous letters from
friendly revolutionaries in Shanghai containing the warning that an
extensive anti-dynastic uprising is imminent. If they do not assist
the Manchus, foreigners are not to be harmed.” In August, 1911, a
rebellion broke out at Sining, in far western Kansu province. The
stores were raided for every bolt of foreign cotton to make uniforms.
A boy of fifteen was named leader and he was given the significantly
fanciful name of “Savior of his country” (Chiu Shih Wang). Rich men
cornered the rice supply in the flooded Yangtze valley, and food
riots broke out all along the river in August, 1911. On August 23,
1911, rebels boarded a Chinese gunboat on the romantic Si Kiang (West
River) near Canton, shooting the commander and seizing the arms and
ammunition. On September first the Navy Department strengthened the
patrol of Kwangtung province waters so as to stop the smuggling of
arms, and the army board required miners to get permits to import
dynamite, as they feared that the “anarchists” were importing the
explosive. The awful floods and famines of 1910–11 in the basins of
the Yangtze River, the Hwei River and Grand Canal had created much
criticism of the government, which failed to alleviate suffering;
and the famine-stricken were willing to fight, because an army has a
commissariat, at least. “Every one that was in distress, and every
one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, escaped to
the cave of Adullam.” Newspapers, such as the oldest reform journal,
the _Shen Pao_, of Shanghai, related horrible illegal tortures of the
“third degree” used by Manchuized officials, which I have quoted in the
chapter on “Legal Practise.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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