"'My father wanted reform. I remember hearing him talk about it ever since I was four or five years old. The first thing he wanted us to study was English. We were living at Shasi on the Yangtze River, and afterwards at Hankow, and he sent us to the missionary school. All his friends protested against it and said he was progressive, and wanted to sell his country to the foreign people, that was why he wanted his children to have a foreign education. The people called him at that time "a rebel." He was very progressive. It didn't bother him a bit. He wanted us to study and we did.
"'The Government was not fair. It was all for itself. It didn't have good ministers. The heads of different Boards in Peking were corrupt. First the Empress-Dowager, when she was alive—just as she did—everybody did. They squeezed. Every position was bought in China, every official position—all the Viceroys and Taotais. It was like this. If you are the Prime Minister I come to you with so much money and want this job. You say "All right." You take the money from me and another person gives a little more and you accept my money just the same, and his too. They left the good men without jobs, and put in the crooked people. That is the reason of the Revolution. They wanted to be treated fairly. Everybody has an opportunity or should have, but so long as the Manchu rules, the Regent rules—in fact, no one can get a chance except those who pay their money.'
"'Why are the Manchu princes and high officials so inefficient?'
"'The Manchus do not want to study. They are so grand, they lose their heads—they think they are, any way. The old Manchus were not like that—that is, the Manchus got bad about eighty years ago. Before that they were all capable men and fair in their judgment. They do not want to know anything at all now; they are so conceited, and you cannot talk to them.'
"'What is the chief source of their inefficiency—does it lie in their characters, training, or habits?'
"'Training, of course. Everybody praises them, you see. All they want is pleasure. The young princes in the Royal family think only of pleasure. The Regent did not want to study when he was a boy, nor his brothers. His father used to be very furious, but, of course, his mother took his part, and instead of sending him to school she sent him to play. Another thing, of course, the Regent himself is weak-minded. He has not any character at all. I say this from personal experience. I have talked many times with him.'
"'How are they brought up in the palace and what is the influence of this upon their views about government?'
"'That is the great mistake in China, the way the Emperor is brought up. The late Emperor Kwang Hsu deserved a lot of credit. He was brought up in the Forbidden City so exclusively that he could not see anybody who had any education at all, and played all day long with the eunuchs. The eunuchs are of the commonest people in China. In that way the Emperor could not have any chance to talk to people with experience so he could make a good governor. But Emperor Kwang Hsu was brought up that way and still had the idea of reform and I think he deserved a lot of credit. The Manchu law is very strict that children have to be polite to their parents' servants, so the little Emperor must be polite to the eunuchs; otherwise they could report to the Empress-Dowager. That is a very bad custom. If this little Emperor is brought up that way, he will not amount to anything. The present Empress-Dowager is a very nice woman. She, of course, has some Chinese education. That would have been all right some years ago, but we want something new now, something different. There is no use to stick to the old books written thousands of years ago. We want new civilisation now. Of course they had the idea at that time to shut the door and shut out all foreigners so they could not bother us. They cannot do that now; we must have something new.'
"'Will you be kind enough to trace and describe the influence of the Empress-Dowager at the Court, and tell why this personage cuts such an important figure.'
"'That is according to the Manchu law. If the Emperor is young and she rules for him, she has all the power. He is only the figurehead. Even if she retires, like the old Empress-Dowager did, the Emperor has to go to her and consult with her regarding the affairs. The outside world thought the Edicts were from the Emperor, but really they were from her. In case of something important he had to go to the Summer Palace and ask her questions. The late Empress-Dowager wanted power. She is the only famous Empress-Dowager in the history of the Manchu Dynasty. The present one does not care. She knows she cannot run those things and she does not care.'