THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1881. THE CHINESE QUESTION.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2230, 26 May 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1881. THE CHINESE QUESTION.

The advent to our shores of late of a considerable number of Chinese, and the possibility of more arriving, has just, drawn attention to a question which is, perhaps, viewed in more lights than any other question of the day. And not only in Now Zealand but in Australia is the matter creating much interest. The coal miners in Newcastle are commencing to raise their voices against the immigration, and contemplate taking steps to prevent the employment of Chinese in the mines. Queensland and Victoria have already legislated in the matter, and consequently the Mongolians are entering Now South Wales and the Territory as tho only available fields for their labors.

Perhaps it would be impossible for any Government to bo placed in a more uncomfortable position than is the British Government on the Chinese question. The Queenslanders and Yictorians have set at naught principles which the British Government have enforced at the cannon’s mouth and vindicated by the destruction of the Summer Palace at Pekin. The right of the Chinese Government to exclude foreigners was challenged by England. It was declared to bo barbarous and against the comity of nations, and these high-sounding moral principles were backed by an army on more than one occasion. And yet the British Government has found itself compelled to acquiesce in the regulations passed by two of its colonies to almost completely stop Chinese immigration. The two colonies have declared this stop to be necessary, and international law has gone to the wall. In America the Chinese question has brought even greater difficulties on the Government. Their position has not only partaken of the anomalous but the ridiculous. They have eaten their national leek with many grimaces and no one can contemplate their action with regard to the restriction of Chinese immigration without a smile. About twelve years ago Mr Burlingame and two Chinese envoys visited the United States and the chief countries of Europe on what was known as the Burlingame mission. The Americans were all enthusiasm. The youngest nation and the oldest nation, they said, were about to enter into bonds of eternal amity and peace. The two nations, metaphorically speaking, rubbed noses and shook hands with a vigor and gush known only in America when a popular and picturesque subject has been tapped. A treaty was drawn up subject to the approval of the Chinese Government, the two principle articles of which ran as follows : “ Article s—The United States and the Emperor of China cordially recognise the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage of the free migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects respectively from the one country to the other for purposes of curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents. "Article 6—Citizens of the United States visiting or residing in China shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, or exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation. And, reciprocally, Chinese subjects visiting or residing in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, and exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation.”

The Chinese Government, however, wore by no means so eager in the matter as were the Americans. They were naturally suspieious and slow-moving, and it was only after Mr. Burlingame had sent his secretary, an eminent Chinese scholar, to urge the affair, that the ratification was obtained. Then there was more joy in the States, and more rubbing of noses and shaking of hands. But the question of cheap labor in California soon began to crop up. Mining stocks went down in the market, and work was scarce. Capital was frightened out of the country by communistic agitation. Many of those who had once been independent wore thrown on the labor market, and the Chinaman, who had practically done so much for the State, and without whom the construction of the trans-continental railway would have been almost an impossibility, was looked upon with suspicion. Since that date the United States have been hard at work undoing the Burlingame Treaty, and have been endeavoring to prove to the Emperor of China that the gorgeous principles enunciated in 1868 have lost their force at the present time. Surely there is something decidedly ludicrous in this undignified attitude.

As regards the position forced on the British Government it appears to trouble the Australian colonies but little. Their trade with China is infinitesimal, and the hope of reciprocal advantages to be gained by a mutual understanding is at present but small. They build their opposition on the grounds that it is advantageous to keep up the cost of labor, and that it will never do to have our civilization swamped by a nation which has no sympathy with our form of culture. There are between 300,000,000 and 400,000,000 people in China, the groat bulk of whom are little above starvation point, and nations in those seas and in America are threatened with an invasion which, although it may bo peacefully carried out is not for that reason the less dangerous. Now, it is on the latter account that most thinking men object to the introduction of Chinese in largo numbers. Chinese labour is often most useful. In California it has proved to be eminently so. Moreover, the Chinese have specialities in the direction of labor which are not affected by Europeans. About the labour question there may bo two opinions, although it has been used by politicians as a catch cry with great effect. On the other point there can bo no question. It will never do to have our civilisation crowded out by one that is incompatible with it. And Chinese civilisation is incompatible with ours. In Shanghai, whore a larger number of foreigners live than at any other port, and whore they have resided for at least thirty-five years, there

are no signs of assimilation oven in the slightest degree of the two forms of civilisatien. It would seem, therefore, that the real question for New Zealanders to find out is the point at which the increase in the numbers of Chinese would justify them in saying that their civilsation was in danger of being injured. It cannot bo said that that point has yet been in any way arrived at. Between the two censuses previous to the one just taken, the Chinese had not increased, and it is but of late that they have arrived in any numbers. Penny-a-lining politicians are apt to get up the anti-Chinese cry because the platform is an easy one to work, and admits of much vague declamation. But Chinese in moderate numbers have their uses, and it would be a shortsighted policy to ignore that fact.