MANCHU DYNASTY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 19, 19 December 1932, Page 8

MANCHU DYNASTY.

RESTORATION TALK REVIVED. NOTABLE MOVES IN PEKING. ’ Speculation on the possible restorar tion of Mr Henry Pu to the Dragon Throne, which hitherto seemed unsubstantial, has been quickened by the simultaneous presence in Pekin of Mr Ariyoshi, the Japanese Minister to China, Mr Komai, Japanese Member of the Manchukuo Privy Council, and several prominent opponents of the Nanking Government, including Tuan Clii-jui, the former Chief Executive of China, who received Japanese support during General Terauchi’s administration, Wu Pei-fu, Yen Hsi-shan, Sun Chuan-fang, and others (says the London Times of October 27). For some time Ivlanchu courtiers and Chinese royalists at Changehun have been predicting an Imperial restoration, to come about peacefully by the transference on the part of the Northern Chinese leaders of their allegiance to Mr Henry Pu, while retaining provincial autonomy. By the simple adhesion of the Northern Provinces, always unsympathetic to Nanking, they believed that Mr Pu’s rule might in a. few years extend to the Yangtze valley. JAPANESE ATTITUDE. Japanese officials both in Manchukuo and Tokio have dismissed restoration as a dream, but have suggested that it would not be surprising if the Chinese Northern Provinces declared their independence of Nanking and opened relations with Manchukuo. It is difficult to say what importance should bo attached to these moves in Pekin. Restoration talk appears at least premature. If Mr Henry Pu were chief of Northern China as well as of Manchukuo, the question of the sovereignty of Manchukuo, to which the Lytto'n Report attached importance, would be simply solved. Henry Pu-yi wns born in 1906, the son of Prince Chun, whose wife was the daughter of Jung Lu, the favourite of the Dowager Empress. He became Emperor of China in 1908 with the title of Hsuan Tung, his father being a.ppointed Regent. In 1912 he was forced to abdicate by Yuan Shih-kai, but was permitted to retain his titles and reside in the Imperial City, with an allowance of 4,000,000 dollars a yeai\ He was restored to the Throne in 1917 bv the coup d’Etat of General Chang Hsun, but after nine days he had to retire. In 1.924 Feng Yu-hsiang drove the “Boy Emperor” from the palace, and lie fled to Tientsin, where lie resided in the Japanese Concession till November last year, when he went to Mukden. He installed as Chief Executive of the Manchukuo State on March 9 Inst.