CHINA’S BRIGHTER SIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1925, Page 4

CHINA’S BRIGHTER SIDE

|] Kit, HEAL .PROGRESS.

China’s record of industrial and commercial progress during the past 12 years makes much more elieeriul loading than does her political store Whilst the politicians and the militarists have been disturbing the peace of the country and doing their best tn ruin it. whilst the pensioners of Moscow have been trying to spread the •‘Red” doctrines, the merchants and traders, and the true lovers of education, have been working away unobtrusively ami with a certain amount of success It will he news to most people to know that China’s imports and exports have doubled themselves during the last 12 years, the total foreign trade being now something like four hundred million pounds, while the tonnage involved in this trade has during the same period increased hv nearly id per cent., being now inst over a hundred and forty million tons of shipping of various nationalities.

Retween 1912 and 1923 the number of foreign firms operating in the country Ims been multiplied threefold, a sure sign of the inward healthiness of China’s trade. There has also been a great increase in pile number ol cotton mills erected in the country, in one centre with which the writer is acquainted, whereas ton years ago there was only one. to-day there are at least half a dozen lilU'ii 11 p with the latest machinery, ami all controlled l>y native capitalists. There are now in China about .>0 of tlieso factories, of which 21 are Clime,so owned. Flour milling is an industry wliicb has made great strides during recent years. In Shanghai, alone, there arc 2,3 flour mills, and it is quite certain that the number will increase enormously all over the country.

There are to-day nearly 309 native cities lighted by electricity, the great majority of the plants having been erected with Chinese capital, whilst there are several hundreds of silk factories dotted up and down the country Another great movement which < annot lmt have far-reaching effects for good is the gradual doing away with ol the old. cumbersome literary style of writing. and the introduction of a simple style, which can he understood by those who have had only an ordinary education. This method of writing is now employed by most ii c v spa pci s and pamphlets, and is even used in a good many school text-books. One of the’ great results of this reform in literature will doubtless he the growth of an intelligent middle-class, which is one of the greatest protections of any civilised country.

If China can only settle down to a state of internal peace. and il she is wise enough to put the professional politicians and paid agitators in their right place, then in time she will he one of the leading Powers. These are two big “ifs”, hut it would he foolish for the nations of the West to regard China’s complete awakening as something which can never take place.