FOREIGNERS IN CHINA

Hokitika Guardian, 4 January 1929, Page 2

FOREIGNERS IN CHINA

CONDITIONS HEOOM.ING UNBEARABLE. DOMINION -MAY BENEFIT. AUCKLAND, Dee. 31. Conditions of living for the foreigner in China arc becoming unbearable and it is for this reason that Mr I<. H. Pickwick, an Englishman, who has resided at Tientsin for the past 2< years, has decided to settle in the Dominion. Accompanied by his wile and daughter, he arrived from Sydney by ilie Maiinganui on Monday. Air Pickwick has resigned his position as I’ienisiu manager of the International Saving Society Bank, which is an institution similar to the New Zealand Savings Banks, with branches throughout China. Me visited the Dominion in 1925 on a deep-sea fishing expedition, and was so impressed with the country that lie returned to China determined to settle here eventually. According to Air Pickwick, many “foreigners” in China arc looking towards New Zealand as their future home. "‘There is a .possibility that there will be a settlement of 1 icutsin foreigners at Kcri Keri, in the Bay of Islands,” Air Pickwick stated. The group settlement scheme advocated in China by a prominent resident of Shanghai, who is also well known in New Zealand. Several inquiries have boon made concerning the scheme and some 20 people I know have expressed tlioir intention of coming to New Zealand to settle at Keri Keri.”

Giving his reasons for leaving China ATr Pickwick said that in a short time conditions would bo such that life would not be worth while there. Law and order wore things of the past in China, and the Chinese themselves were becoming unbearable. The system of taxation was squeezing the life out of them. “Tt is really pitiful.” Air Pickwick added. “Afanv of my friends are doctors, and some of them have worked in China for 30 years, probably saving thousands of lives. AA lien the trouble came they found their houses burned over their heads and the work of a lifetime has been washed completely away. He considered strife in China would hover cease. The Chinese now had no loyalty and no gratitude. Perhaps ‘foreign” Governments had made mistakes in allowing China too much freedom, but that could not be helped at this stage. “The pity of the position can be realised when people know that Shanghai, the Chicago of the East, is slowly hut surely drifting back to the Chinese,” he added. “Shanghai, once a swamp, was made a city through the energy and enterprise of ‘foreigners,’ and everything seems to be going. Tientsin also is in the same danger.”