Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1906 — ALARM OVER CHINA. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALARM OVER CHINA.

ARMY OFFICIALS FEAR CRISIS IN FAR EAST. v ._-..j-.-. • . —————t~— Preparation* for Outbreak Being Made by General Staff-—Mission-aries Advised to Keep in Touch with Treaty Ports. Reports have come to members of the general staff of the army from China that are more alarming than are the reports which have become public property, writes a Washington correspondent. Staff members are bending every energy to the study of the Chinese situation and are making preparations for a crisis in the eastern empire. ~ ” Notwithstanding the disinclination shown thus far by Congress to provide for the proper quartering of more troops in the Philippines, it is almost unquestionably the intention of the army chiefs to re-bnfor'ce the island garrison with regiments in addition to those now on the high seas on the way to Manila. The general staff has had its hand on the pulse of China for months. Several army officers recently returned from that country, and their reports of conditions have not relieved the tension of mind of the chiefs. One of the members of the general staff •who recently arrived from China, and who visited Shanghai, Canton and Peking and made trips through various parts of the country, says that in his opinion there is only one thing which can prevent immediate trouble in the Flowery Kingdom. He declares that the natives are ready to rise against the foreigner at the present time, but that they are held in check by the jnore intelligent leaders, who tell them

to wait a while and that then they can kill not only the foreigners at hand, but those who are sent to avenge their deaths. The people of the United States do not as yet fully realize the significance of the government’s action in collecting troops in the Philippines with a view to the possible outbreak of hostilities in China. The growing antiforeign sentiment in the latter country ,is too threatening to be ignored. Attacks on missionaries in the interior and dangerous riots in Shanghai and elsewhere, to say nothing of the persistent boycotting of American goods and of individual Americans, indicate that a ferment throughout large sections of the empire has profoundly influenced the masses of the Chinese. China is a vast enigma which no foreigner can even pretend wholly to understand. However, something like a real patriotic movement is growing up there, the leaders being students and merchants in treaty ports, who believe that it Is necessary to overthrow the old regime, and, white asserting the dignity of the ancient race to which they belong, draw all its elements together by making common cause against the supercilious foreigner. Owing to prejudice, superstition and other dangerous offshoots of ignorance, the Chinese are capable of dreadful outrages when stirred up by designing persons. Fortunately the central government of China Is In abler hands than It was nt the time of the Boxer rebellion. There Is reason to hope that it now has the power as well as the desire to restrain the masses from making any concerted attack upon foreigners. Military spirit in China has had a great growth since the beginning of the war between Russia and Japan. “Young China,'’ as represented by the student class, Is mnd with desire to prove its prowess in battle. Meanwhile, official China has gone to work methodically to overcome it«' historic Impotence. Under the direction of its greatest administrator, Viceroy Yuan Bhih-kai of Chill province, a powerful, well-equipped and well-drilled army has been brought Into existence. Intelligent observers who witnessed the recent army maneuvers near Pekin report that the effectiveness of these yellow soldiers to astonishing.

If the “yellow peril” should make It necessary to send troops into bhlna, the invading army from thei United

States would be Gth e ral Leonard Wood, the commander of the army in the Philippines. General Wood is ) not a West Point f graduate. His military training was s ecu red through fighting Indians on

western plains and in the American invasion of Cuba. He was educated -as a physician and entered the army in 1886 as a contract surgeon. In thb, battles with the Apaches he performed distinguished services. When war broke out with Spain Wood, aided by Theodore Roosevelt, organized the famous rough riders and was made its colonel. General Wood commanded his brigade at. the battles of Las Animas and San Juan. When Santiago surrendered he was appointed military governor of,that city. Later he was assigned to the command of the department of Santiago and also civil governor of the provinces of Santiago. On Dec. 20, 1899, he was appointed military governor of Culyi and governed the island until he turned it over to President Palma.

GEN. WOOD.