Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/797

 AREA AND POPULATION

745

province, either tinder a Vireroy or depending directly on the central government. There were thus 9 Viceroys and 3 Governors equal in rank to Viceroys. Each Viceroy or Governor was assisted by various other high officials. Each province was subdivided into prefectures ruled by prefects and each prefecture into districts, each with a district magistrate. Two or more prefectures were united into a tao, or circuit, the official at the head of which being called a Taotai. Each town and village had also its unofficial governing body of 'gentry.' An Edict of July 22, 1908, instituted Provincial Assemblies, and the first meetings were held on October 14, 1909. The reforms of the late dynasty also instituted re- presentative legislative assemblies in districts, towns and villages.

At the beginning of the Republic many of the Provinces under the rule of their Military Governors or Tuluhs, who in nearly every instance was a native of the province, were fast slipping from the control of the Central Government. Time, and the collapse of the rebellion in 1913, enabled Peking to regain and strengthen its authority. The President, on Maj 23, 1913, issued mandates fixing and promulgating the official systems of Province, Circuit, and District. In each Province there was to be a supreme Civil Governor appointed by the President, and controlling both the civil officials of the whole Province, as well as the police and militia. Thus an attempt was made to bring the whole provincial and local administration under control, and to make it responsible directly or indirectly to the Central Government. During the last few years the struggle between the " North '" and the "South " again resulted in the loosening of all central control, but since the promulgation of the Unification Mandate on October 30, 1920, the country is gradually being reunited.

Area and Population.

The following table gives a statement of the area and population of the Chinese Republic according to figures published in the Government Gazette, February 27, 1911. In 1912, Mr. Rockhill, formerly American Minister at Peking — a recognised authority — after careful inquiry, came to the conclusion that " this document, though showing complete ignorance of the methods now nearly universally followed in vital statistical reports, throws considerable light on the question of China's population, and seems entitled to more confidence than the enumerations which have heretofore appeared." He believed that the population of China. Manchuria and Chinese Turkestan, i.e., the Chinese Republic exclusive of Tibet and Mongolia, appeared to be in round numbers 325,000,000, new information having continued the opinion reached by him in former studies of the same subject that the population of China " is much smaller than we have been led to believe, and that in the last century it has been increasing vary slo«!y if at all."

The 18 Provinces of China Proper

Area: English square miles

Population (Estimated)

Chihli.

115,800

22.970,000

Shantung

55,970

25,810,000

Shansi.

81,830

9,420,000

Honan.

75,000

Kiangsu

38,600

15,380,000

Anhui.

1 54,810

14,075,000

Kiangsi. Chehkiang.

69,480

16,255,000

1 36,670

13,950,000

Fukien.

46,320

S,56O,O»0

Capital

Tientsin

Tsi-nan

T'ai-yuan

K'ai-feng

Kan king

Anch'ing

Nanch'ang

Hangchow

Foochow