The Chinese Rebellion.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 26, 1913:
    The outlook in China is dubious if the later reports indicating a revolt of seven of the southern provinces, with a population of 150,000,000, against the Provisional Government are confirmed. Thus far, however, the forces of Yuan Shih-kai have been generally successful in repulsing the rebels, and we need not accept without verification the statement that the troops under Gen. Lung, in the Province of Kwang-si, are in sympathy with the movement against Peking. Washington has information that the merchants in Canton oppose the rebellion, while the navy is loyal to the Provisional President.
    Latterly the rule of Yuan Shih-kai has been unsatisfactory to Sun Tat-sen and his followers, who fomented the original rebellion. Sun Tat-sen is an aggressive as well as a progressive Chinaman, and the modernization of China has not gone forward rapidly enough to suit him. If he has succeeded in stirring up seven provinces against the Peking Government he may cause its overthrow, but it is doubtful if all China can produce another statesman with the gift of organization and the personal influence of Yuan Shih-kai. He is charged with high-handed methods, but the country has been in a very unsettled state and the Chinese are not yet ripe for perfect self-government; he is charged with postponing the framing of a Constitution, with borrowing money without Parliamentary sanction, and with handing over the Governorship of Kiang-si, where the present rebellion began, without legal warrant. In other words, he has been administering the Government in his own way and not in Sun Yat-sen's, and his way may be the wiser and safer. But it has plunged the country into a new civil war which may have disastrous results.
    With the Provisional Government destroyed, a long period of sectional warfare might ensue, and the cherished dream of a Chinese republic might at length be dissolved by the advent of a new imperial dynasty. In the circumstances the victory of Yuan Shih-kai seems to be desirable for the peace of the world.