The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) FRIDAY, APRIL 11th, 1924. CHINA.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 April 1924, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) FRIDAY, APRIL 11th, 1924. CHINA.

$> From “China in tho Family of Nag tions,” a recent publication by Dr. § H, T. Hodgkin, the reader gathers that 8 the reports of special correspondents | and the like, though inijocent of any g intention to mislead, convey rather a “ false idea of condition in the Republic. | They tell chiefly of revolution and civil I war, of brigandage and piracy on a ■ wholesale scale, and perpetual conflict 1 between north and south. We assume, | therefore, that China is in a state of ! complete anarchy. But she is not. These things are but surface ripples; the deeper currents of national life are scarcely disturbed. The “vis inertiae” of China is immense, and China is not easily moved. The majority of her 100 million inhabitants go their way, cultivating the soil, working at their crafts, I being born, marrying, and dying, as I they have done from time immemorial. In a Western community, with a population not only smaller, but educated and interested in politics, such events would imply that the land was convulsed from end to end. But in China these alarms and excursions touch only the few; the great mass of the people is unaffected. Dr. Hodgkin, who for some time filled a post at a Chinese University, believes that China should be allowed to work out her own destiny with as little interference from the West as possible. He does not pretend that China has nothing to learn from the West. The arm of au-' thorny must be strengthened. Education must be more widely diffused. The standard of morality in public life must lie improved. In his private affairs the average Chinese is scrupulously honest, but in politics and administration corruption prevails. Dr Hodgkin, however, .a.rgues that the Chinese should take from Western civilisation only so much as suits their national etljjp, Wf! that ni a y not be

nearly as much as we suppose. The great war and its sequel have left the Chinese with rather an unfavourable impression of the West. They have made them wonder whether the vaunted Western civilisation is such a desirable thing after all. The Chinese bitterly resented their treatment at the Peace table in the matter of Shantung. Chinese interests were sacrificed to those of Japan, and in return for the accommodation, the latter forebore to press her “racial equality” claims. It is true that amends have since been made at tho Washington Conference and by Japan. But it will take years to counteract the effect of the original rebuff. China’s orientation, we are told, is now towards Germany. She sympathises with Germany as a fellow victim at Versailles, and the cancellation of the Boxer indemnity has removed a long-standing grievance which China had against Germany. But the second part of the explanation is rather naive. The Boxer indemnity was cancelled by China shortly after the outbreak of war. But any debtor would feel well disposed, towards his creditor after wiping out a debt which the other was not in a position to enforce. What the creditor thinks about it is a different question.