The leading French Roman Catholic missionaries in Sze- chuan, writing
in October last to the Comte de Mun, who has just published their letters in the Croix, confidently predict the outbreak of serious troubles in that province in the spring. They allege that the leaders of the 1900 rising, who are now " official exiles " in Sze-chuan, are overwhelmed with honours and with the full complicity of the provincial authorities— from the Viceroy downward—are organising a new " Boxer " movement. M. de Guebriant, one of the writers, even goes so far as to designate the President of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs in Sze-chuan as the leader of the next insur- rection. The Bishop of Eastern Sze-chuan endorses the statements of his colleague, adding that never since 1650, when the first missionaries arrived, had Roman Catholicism suffered such persecution as it suffered now. As to the truth of their statements, the French Consul has asserted that the Mandarins do not deny them. It is also worthy of note that the writers attribute the reaction, not merely to the return of the Court to Pekin and the restoration to power of the Dowager-Empress, but to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, on the ground that it was based on the maintenance of the integrity of China.
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