The Dominion SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1921. THE NEW HOPE FOR CHINA

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 66, 10 December 1921, Page 6

The Dominion SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1921. THE NEW HOPE FOR CHINA

Taking recent reports, from Washington at their face value, the Pacific Powers arc on the point of concluding, an. agreement in' regard to the limitation of naval arma•ments, and satisfactory assurances are given also of good progress in laying down such lines of Pacific and Far Eastern policy as will (end to give permanence to a peaceful understanding. A jarring note is struck, however, by the representatives of China, and it has even been suggested that the Chinese delegation may withdraw from the Conference as a protest againstythe refusal or postponement of what they regard as legitimate demands made ,on behalf of their country. The position 'is not in all respects clearly defined, but it seems fairly obvious that the Chinese representatives have fallen into the error of asking'for more than they can reasonably expect to obtain at the . present juncture in regard to the retrocession of extra-territorial rights andt leasehold privileges exercised or held by foreign Powers'in China. A cablegram which appeared, a day or two ago stated that the European delegations were coming to the conclusion that China was not likely to win complete economic and territorial freedom at the present Conference. As much surely might have been taken for granted at the outset. Each detail question of extra-territorial right in China raises an individual problem, but, looking at the total situation, it is wry plain that an immediate attempt to re-establish Chinese sovereignty at all points would simply accentuate the confusion and disorder to which the Republic is meantime a prey. At present there is no such thing in China as a stable central Government. Riva? Presidents hold sway in North and South, and although the Peking President lias been formally recognised by the Treaty Powers, his claims to be regarded as a constitutional ruler are hardly more convincing than those of his rival in Canton. Although it enjoys a measure of international standing, the Peking Government is manifestly powerless to regulate the proceedings of the filibustering military governors who dominate the various provinces.

It may be supposed that what the Washington Conference really offers China is an opportunity of entering into a new relationship with the nations which exercise extensive, though somewhat ill-defined, powers within her territory—a relationship into which those nations will enter less as competitors than as parties to an agreement to cooperate in forwarding peaceful reconstruction and development and the establishment of stable government in China. Suggestive light is thrown on possibilities in this direction by a recent and timely addition to the literature of Far Eastern questions, The Truth About, China ancl Japan, by Mr. Putnam Weale. Although his book is in great part a. strongly-worded indictment of Japanese policy, Mr. Weale incidentally discusses in an interesting and informative way the steps that might be taken to lift

China out of her present troubles. One of his that much use might be made of financial assistance as a means of enforcing the adoption of constitutional methods. He cites in this connection “the golden opportunity to enforce constitutionalism” that was missed in 1913, when, instead of demanding that Yuan Shih-kai should obtain Parliamentary ratification of a prime financial measure, the representatives of the Powers “deliberately assisted the Dictator to make a coup d'etat by means of foreign money.” Until the Powers send as envoys, to the Chinese capital men who thoroughly understand the necessity of the. supremacy of the Legislature even in China, Me. Whale contends, there will be no great improvement in Peking.

For (he adds) China to-day leans absolutely and entirely on the West . . . and instead .of rebuffing the widespread desire to ’benefit bv z the superior political knowledge of Europe and America, that desire should be stimulated in every possible way, and the fact made perfectly clear by the acts of the accredited foreign representatives that a strong Government, based on constitutionalism. is their one and only concern. After' discussing in detail the reorganisation of Chinese finance and communications, Mr. Wbale observes that the allocation of a portion of the surplus from increased Customs duties to national roadbuilding would in a decade work miracles of education among the people and' strengthen the voice of authority. With credit and currency restored, and with a network of railways and roads covering the twenty-two provinces, republican China might soon become as important a factor in world commerce and world industry as the United States, since the supply of men and’ women is virtually endless, and is now increasing at the rate of several million persons a year. Only by liberating the natural money-making genius of the Chinese people and by giving them reasonable economic guarantees can Western civilisation justify its invasion of Cathay and its remorseless destruction of the old gods. It undoubtedly ought to be the aim of all the Powers concerned to assist in developing such conditions in China as Mil. Whale has pictured, and the vital aim of the Washington Conference, so far as China is concerned, clearly must bo to es 1 tablish conditions in which co-oper-ation to this end will be ensured. The emancipation of the Republic from foreign control is bound, however, to be a gradual process, and evidently cannot be completed until internal order and stable government have been substituted' for its existing political chaos. If the Powers give honest effect to their proclaimed intention of doing the utmost possible to rehabilitate China, her representatives will have no. good reason to cavil at the postponement of some of the detail issues involved.