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Show i REBELLION IS FEARED I , Vancouver, B. C, March 7. From all parts of the Chinese empire come re- ( ports that, the people are far from be- ing reconciled to the latest coup d'etat of the dowager empress. Considerable ; excitement, great indignation and pros- t pects of open rebellion 6eem to have j been caused by the news that the Em- j peror Kuang Hsu's legal heirdom to the throne of the late Emperor Tung Chih had been ignored and that an heir had been selected in the person of the 6- jj year-old son of Prince Tuan, the second 4 j son of the Emperor Tao Kwang's fifth brother, commonly known as Prince Tun or the' " fifth prince. Memorials protesting against this violation of the laws of primogeniture and demanding that Kuang Hsu resume the .reins of a government have been sent to the dow- ager empress from various provinces. The Universal' Gazette, a Chinese ver- j nacular. paper, states that the empress dowager ' being afraid of a revolution 2 in Peking, has applied to the Russian I 5 government for help, and that Russian j ! troops ' are expected at Peking. The Japanese government, through its min-ister min-ister at Peking, is said to have pro- jL tested against this action of the dow- ager. . A In effecting the dethronement of Kuang Hsu on Jan. 24, the dowager empress apparently forced that un- jL happy monach to be the author of his own undoing, causing Kuang himself j j to issue decrees renouncing the throne, j proclaiming a new empire, practically ' pronouncing himself an usurper of the 1; throne and making the extraordinary statement that it had been recently fc discovered that his own election as the successor to Tung Chih was illegal. The decree of resignation is as fol- 1 lows: "While yet in our infancy, we were, by grace of the Emperor Tung Chih, chosen to succeed him in the heavy responsibilities of head of the I whole empire. W e were indebted to the empress dowager, who taught and cherished cher-ished us assiduously and to her we owe our safety to the present day. "Now, be it also known, that when selected to the throne, it was then agreed that if ever we should have a son. that son should be proclaimed heir to the throne. But ever since last year we have been constantly sick, and it was for this reason that the empress dowager graciously acceded to our urgent ur-gent prayers and took over the reins of government in order to instruct us in our duties. "A year has now passed and still we find ourselves an Invalid, but ever keeping keep-ing in our mind that we do not belong to the direct line of succession, and that for the sake of safety of the empire em-pire of our ancestors, a legal heir should be selected by the people to the throne, we again prayed the empress dowager to carefully seek among the imperial clans for such a one and this has been done in the person of Pu Chuen. son of Tsai Yii, Prince Tuan, secorld order. We hereby command that Pu Chuen be made heir to late Emperor Em-peror Tung Chih." |