The Situation in China.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 June 1910, Page 4

The Situation in China.

(From the Xoitli Cliinia Herald.) Generalisations are rarely satisfactory, and in China they may ho particularly misleading. But 'it is not difficult to 'realise at the present moment that there is a condition of things in the country approximating to a general situation, wlhiiah requires only modification, in degree to ho applicable to the whole Empire. Thait situation is

the steady growth 'of active antagonism to the foreigner on certain welldefined lines. In one way or another Clviiui lias always been hostile to the foreigner, and a certain period of iher biistory was spent in learning the lesson that mat-ions can no longer live entirely to themselves to the rigorous exclusion of all that does not originate within their borders. With the passing of that phase there 'Iras ensued an era of unwilling toleration, amounting in the ease of the simple peasantry to goodwill not uwtinged with humorous curiosity, liable to he broken here and there by more or less serious outbreaks. These culminated m the Boxer cataclysm, and it was hoped that the grave blow then dealt to China's prestige and to her amour propre would have cured her permanently of the worst follv attaching to her dislike of the foreigner, nut the only change to he noticed is a greater readiness to accept what the foreigner has to offer in ■money and goods: the same dislike for the person of the foreigner remains, and within til years the lesson 'of the

BOXER REVOLT x' ,S l f , a W 10 " 1 "the Cliinese memory. .Notably has this been the case during the last eight months, until at the present moment China finds herself nearing a passible crisis. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy or the information from Hunan'. The province was preparing an anti-for-eign outbreak on a considerable scale. .No special comlitiions exist Mi Hnnan that are calculated, to provoke a rising against foreigners aa it,bin its bordors mare readily than elsewhere; and we are forced 1 to infer that the seeds of im res fc to be EL] 1 "" If l ,rovinc « have been 11, + "I the Test " f C,linathalt the temperament of the headstrong Hunan ese offered moro favourable sod for the production nf an early cron). The seeds that have been thus •sown are well known to all observers 0 f contemporary affairs in Uima. \Miorn well germinted they ;have ( taken the form of the 'Wti"on rumours; the people havo heen Avairned that the foreigners ChlnT^^'^rl'"^ 0 ! le P n ftition of batul Vl" 1 i e,V ?' VO boon ' ,n 'K«l to land themselves together, even to practise the pursuits of arms to withstand this aggression. ' The story has not been the fancy of an S r I)rilin :fw 't has been sup- , ted ''- v ''Terences to pelnfectlv harmless movements of Itroops fZ'o? that mided I'as accommnled the wicked purpose of the fabrication. Th its loss

BELLICOSE GARBS thf llfrm 10 / 1 ' 0 ' fol H i £ nei ' t«kon •hnce +Tf •* ,Ve, '- (>r ff alliswl I'esisfrnm ranging from pinpricks m iUK i £ ■Shanghai Settlement and a gene," \ to la - nd I,urchase & laigei antagonism to railway nul other concessions. Officially we'are state of ;g* ui ? th ir vo mtirirvtiicm 5 , 0 ""ssuided k ? * populous nation that is just beginmmg )t,o find itself, and to sympathise with the Government matarr'"nV^ S W as , .^respondent Wio siirmr • " mVl ' ng io supptession 'of opium in Chinn reminds us, the success that has at tended the efforts of the ZSities to eradicate the opium habit must dispose once and for all of £ S £L a n P ° Me T Gove ™ime.nt. The me-ln? f Smokin S of opi'nim blare meant far more to the people of <lisJike ° f Forciigners. bribit fed £ T' b f ° m tha * the naioit ha« to be suppressed and Mysli tt may mean tliM'd 111,0 If the nirt fl ' n - v rpa ' desire on • «f. . the authorities to imnrove Chmn, s relations with foreign tWsFW f l m ' th their 'in is ■ Same . macl i™'erv that bro.illT+ ° pinm colilcl 1)0 f1 J foreigners that there may T>e hi China.