be granted by a vote of Parliament. Imperial bodyguards will be allowed, but must be provided and selected by the Republic. Ancestral sacrifices shall continue as for the Ming Emperors. The Republic shall bear the expense of completing the mausoleum of the Emperor Kwang Hsu. The present Palace staffs shall be retained, and all private property shall be respected, whether belonging to the Emperor or to the Princes – Manchu, Tibetan, or Mongol.
Princes and hereditary nobles shall continue as before, and the order of succession shall be maintained. The seal of the Manchu Emperor shall continue to be affixed to all Manchu patents of nobility. The Imperial clan shall enjoy identical privileges with the remainder of the population, and shall in future be exempt from compulsory military service. Manchus, Mongols, Mahomedans, and Tibetans shall be treated on an equality with Chinese in all matters, including residence, occupation, religious toleration, and retention of hereditary titles.
Regarding the Manchu pensions, the agreement provides that “arrangements shall be made for devising a livelihood for the Manchu Bannermen, but pending the completion of these arrangements the pensions shall continue as before.” This provision is intended to mean that arrangements will be made by the new Parliament.
The foregoing terms are to be communicated by the representatives of both parties to the foreign Legations in Peking.
The agreement contains no reference to the eunuchs.
All the above terms are well understood by all the classes interested. In this respect the delay has been advantageous. Everybody wants peace and an early settlement.
In 1911, a revolution led by Sun-Yat Sen turned China into a republic after two millennia of imperial government, overthrowing the Manchu Qing dynasty that had ruled the majority Han Chinese since 1644. Pu Yi, as the last Emperor became known, was then six.
He had been chosen to succeed his uncle four years earlier and after his enforced abdication was permitted to continue living in the Forbidden City in Beijing with his eunuchs and other servants. Despite the best efforts of his tutor, the Scot Reginald Johnston, he grew up spoiled and erratic, with a taste for Western consumerism.
By the mid-1920s, China was riven by struggles between warlords. Pu Yi fell under the influence of the Japanese and, when they occupied Manchuria, became their puppet emperor. Captured by the Russians at the end of the war, he then spent 10 years in prison in China. He survived the Cultural Revolution, working as a gardener until his death in 1967.
16 April 1912
An ocean disaster, unprecedented in history, has happened in the Atlantic. The White Star liner Titanic on her maiden voyage, carrying nearly 2,400 people, has been lost near Cape Race, and according to the latest messages there is grave reason to fear that less than 700 of the passengers and crew have been saved.
Early yesterday evening the messages gave no indication of a catastrophe of such terrible magnitude, but later they became more and more serious.
As will be seen below, there is much that is conflicting in them, but the news of brighter import – of the possibility of more lives being saved by the vessels which hurried to the rescue – becomes more slender with each succeeding message.
The White Star liner Titanic (46,382 tons), which left Southampton on Wednesday on her maiden voyage to New York, came into collision with an iceberg at a point about 41.46 North and 50.14 West off the North American coast at 10.25 on Sunday night (American time). The vessel was badly damaged and wireless messages were sent out for help. A number of other liners in the neighbourhood hastened to her assistance, but she sank yesterday morning. The number on board the Titanic when she left Queenstown on her voyage, including the Cherbourg passengers, was:–
| First Class ………………… | 350 |
| Second Class……………… | 305 |
| Steerage………………… | 800 |
| Crew……………………… | 903 |
| Total ……………………… | 2,358 |
She had also on board 3,418 sacks of mails. The passengers included Colonel and Mrs. J.J. Astor, Major A.W. Butt, President Taft’s aide-de-camp, Mr. B. Guggenheim, of the well-known banking firm, Mr. C.M. Hays, President of the Grand Trunk Railway, Mr. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, Lady Rothes, Mr. W.T. Stead, Mr. Clarence Moore, Mr. Isidor Straus, Mr. George D. Widener, Mr. Thomas Andrews, jun., of Belfast, one of the managing directors of Messrs. Harland and Wolff, the builders of the Titanic, and Mr. Christopher Head, a former Mayor of Chelsea, director of Henry Head and Co. (Limited), insurance brokers and underwriters.
NEW YORK, APRIL 15.
The Titanic sank at 2.20 this morning. No lives were lost. – Reuter.
NEW YORK, April 15, 8.15 p.m.
It was stated officially at the White Star offices this evening that probably a number of lives had been lost in the Titanic disaster, but that no definite estimate could be made until it was known positively whether the Parisian and Virginian had any rescued passengers on board. – Reuter.
NEW YORK, APRIL 15, 8.20 P.M
The following statement has been given out by the White Star officials: “Captain Haddock, of the Olympic, sends a wireless message that the Titanic sank at 2.20 a.m. on Monday after all the passengers and crew had been lowered into lifeboats and transferred to the Virginian. The steamer Carpathia, with several hundred passengers from the Titanic, is now on her way to New York.” – Reuter.
NEW YORK, APRIL 15, 8.40 P.M
The White Star officials now admit that many lives have been lost. – Reuter.
NEW YORK, APRIL 15, 8.45 P.M.
The following despatch has been received here from Cape Race: “The steamer Olympic reports that the steamer Carpathia reached the Titanic’s position at daybreak, but found boats and wreckage only. She reported that the Titanic foundered about 2.20 a.m. in lat. 4ldeg. 16min., long. 50deg. 14min.”
The message adds: “All the Titanic’s boats are accounted for. About 675 souls have been saved of the crew and passengers. The latter are nearly all women and children.”
‘The disaster that has overtaken the Titanic,’ observed The Times in the wake of her sinking, ‘is a forcible reminder of the existence of natural forces which from time to time upset all our calculations and baffle our precautions’.
Titanic was the embodiment of Britain at the peak of its industrial might. Exactly 200 years before, the first steam engine had been built in the Black Country. In the year that she sank, British textile factories reached their maximum output of 8 billion yards of cloth.
No ship afloat was heavier or, at 882 feet (269 metres), longer. Nor did any have such concern not just for luxury but also for safety.
