Yuan Shih-kai, the man, when he came out of retirement in 1911,
was in many ways a wonderful Chinese: he was a fount of energy and
of a physical sturdiness rare in a country whose governing classes
have hitherto been recruited from attenuated men, pale from study
and the lotus life. He had a certain task to which to put his
hand, a huge task, indeed, since the reformation of four hundred
millions was involved, yet one which was not beyond him if wisely
advised. He was an ignorant man in certain matters, but he had had
much political experience and apparently possessed a marvellous
aptitude for learning. The people needed a leader to guide them
through the great gateway of the West, to help them to acquire
those jewels of wisdom and experience which are a common heritage.
An almost Elizabethan eagerness rilled them, as if a New World
they had never dreamed of had been suddenly discovered for them
and lay open to their endeavours. China, hitherto derided as a
decaying land, had been born anew; and in single massive gesture
had proclaimed that she, too, would belong to the elect and be
governed accordingly.
What was the foreign response--the official response? In every
transaction into which it was possible to import them, reaction
and obscurantism were not only commonly employed but heartily
recommended. Not one trace of genuine statesmanship, not one flash
of altruism, was ever seen save the American flash in the pan of
1913, when President Wilson refused to allow American
participation in the great Reorganization Loan because he held
that the terms on which it was to be granted infringed upon
China's sovereign rights.
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