TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1173, 7 July 1911, Page 2

TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC

[By the Favour of tho Editor of Tm Dominion.] We learn that your honourable Got. eminent is being a.sked by the whilo grocers to order all grocers' shops to close at six o'clock, and the people who are bringing this about say that the shops ought to close at that hour, because soino Chinese shopkeepers keep open their shops for the eonveiiitt'iee of working men and women, who have no time during Lhe day to buy goods. They do not say that tho working men should not be allowed to buy tea, sugar, and tobacco while they aro not at work, but they say that,the Chinesc must not be allowed to do business after six o'clock. Why are the people of tho West so angry with tho Chinese? In China wo were (jitito happy as a nation living by ourselves and tor ourselves; we lmd our language, our literature, our customs, and our moral law handed down to us from our ancestors, who lived three thousand years and more ago. A few hundred years ago the Western people began to learn something about us, and traded with us, but tho manners and customs of the Western people were not to our liking, because they did not act in harmony with our moral law, so wo did not encourage then) to come into our country. But the Weslern peoplo were greedy for gain by buying and selling, and tried to take possession of our country by forco of arms. They did not succeed in doing this, but some of them obtained a foothold, and for centuries purchased or kid- ' napped the poor and ignorant labourers in tho southern part of our country, aud took them away to plantations iu foreign countries, and sold them as slaves. Many and many of our peoplo were deluded and robbed by Western rogues, and were prevented from observing the most noble precept which was the mainstay of lifo in China, long and long before tho Western peoplo beoaine wliat they eall" civilissd. Among tho first lessons a child learns in China is that: "The first duty of a son is to pay a careful attention to every want of his parents. Tho next is to servo his Government loyally; and tho last to establish a good linrno for himself." Thus, when a Chinaman has been torn away from home, and east into slavery, and has died in a foreign, land, he has been unable to find food and shelter for his parents in their old age, and has lived in the knowlcdgo that he has been forced to disregard tho most, sacred obligation, which the moral law bas cast upon him. Can wo wonder then that our people did not look upon tho Western peoplo with favour? But the Western peoplo were greedy for gain, and were not content to carry on a trado by means of ships alone. They said they must have land and stores, and, after bloodshed and pillage, they forced China to allow foreign traders to have land and houses in the important trading ports, and instead of calling theso ports ravished ports, they called them treaty ports, as if to say to tho rest of tho world that they liani obtained what they wanted by agreement instead of by bloodshed. When tha Western people came among us wo began to learn.their history, and wo felt that wo had lost face when wo found out' that the peoplo who made tho hardest bargain with us, and who insisted on tho legalisation of the opium traffic, that those psople were the descendants of men who only a few hundred years ago clothed themselves with skins, and stained themselves with wood, whilo wo wcro able to put our words into writing, to put our thoughts into poetry, and to read the records of those who had died thousands of years before. The Western people have taught ua their religion, and have taught us that ill the eye of morality nil men arc equal. Wo trusted' the Western teochcrs,_ and believed that as we allowed the Western peoplo to trado with us, eo they would allow us to trade with them. Wo aro ! taught: "In private lifo show self-re-spect; in the management of affairs bo attentive and thorough; in your dealings with'others be honest and conscientious. Never, these principles oven among httfptgtsA «We- haVe come to Now Zealand, and 'wo ..have not abandoned these, principles, but what do we find? Wo cannot land without pacing'£loo;.we cannot bring a wifo hero without paying iioo. Wo caunot work as long as no like, so we cannot-make enough money to payback the .£IOO and keep our parents from poverty... Wo grew vegetable*, and supplied you with them wheu your own people either did not:know how to grow them, or-were 100 lazy to grow them, or if they did grow them they wanted to grow fat all at onco in selling them. For years and years you havo been dependent upon the' Chinaman for vegetables at a reasonable price, and now you say to the Chinaman you must not work so hard, you must charge more for, your vegetables, and the poor people who want to cat vegetables havo no spirit but sit silent, although tliey know that if tho : Chinaman did not grow vegetables they would have to go without, because they ' could not,afford to pay for thoni. Your working man likes to put on a clean collar on Sunday, but you will not allow a Chinaman to wash it for him, because by working early and late the Chinaman. 1 can do it"cheaper than tho steam laundry, but you allow tho 'Western man to make a slave of liis wife, and she may stand over a wasli-tub till midnight, ana your law will not interfere. And now be- ■ cause the Chinese shopkeeper is honest and attentivo to his customers' and keeps his shop open to suit their convenience, and so gets a little trade which enables him to send money to his parents, you think he is setting a bad example, and he must bo stopped, so you want to mako him shut his shop at 0 p.m. Your missionary tells tho Chinaman that he is a brother, but, when the Chinaman conies here, you say to him—you aro a yellow man, yon must not vote, you must not wash clothes, you must not open 6hop alter fi p.m. Wo then think with our teacher Confucius, who said: "Hot-head-ednoss without honesty; ignorance_without ingenuousness; simplicity without sincerity; such characters 1 do not understand."—! am, etc., YANG KWI3L