DR MORRISON'S CHINESE APPOINTMENT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 501, 18 September 1912, Page 7

DR MORRISON'S CHINESE APPOINTMENT.

Some men in their time play many parts, but few have had a much more varied career than the Australian Dr G. E. Morrison, who since 1897 has acted as correspondent of the London Times in Pekin, and who has now been offered, and has accepted, the position of political adviser to the President oE the Chinese Republic. The position will be no sinecure, but Dr Morrison is an exceptional man, and it would be difficult to give him a role that he could not fill with credit to - himself. In the Australian medico the Chinese G overnmet have secured a man who combines the ability of a statesman with a knowledge of Chinese affairs more intimate probably than any living European. China has been his home for fifteen years, and another Australian journalist who visited him in Pekin some time ago reported, "He thinks in Chinese, but not like a Chinaman."

Dr Morrison, who was born at Geelong in 1862, studied at Melbourne and Edinburgh Universities, graduating M.B. and C.M. at the latter in 1887. At the age of 20 his roving disposition, which had already asserted itself in many directions, had led him to undertake a pioneer expedition to New Guinea, where he was wounded by two native spears. One of the spear heads remained in' his body for nine months ere it was extracted by Professor Cheyne at Edinburgh. The next few years saw him now wandering, now practising medicine, in the United States, the West Indies, Spain Morocco, Paris, Australia, and ultimately in the Far East. His famous walk in 1882 across Australia, from Normanton to his home in Victoria, a distance of 2043 miles, which he covered in 123 days was.rivalled in 1894 by his 3000-mile trip from Shanghai to Rangoon. In 1896 he travelled in Indo-China, and the following year he crossed Manchuria from Stretenak, in Siberia, to Vladivostok. The part Dr Morrison played in 1900 during the siege of the Legations in Pekin is on record, as, too, are his remarkable services during the three critical years that preceded the Boxer outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war. His work in connection with the events which led up to the end of the Manchu Dynasty is wthin recent memory.

Concerning the appointment of Dr Morrison, the Times remaks that it "constitutes a significant development of policy on the part of the Government. At the same time, the names of other foreigners qualified to give valuable advice at the present juncture are mentioned as likely to be employed in similar capacities. There is hope, therefore, that the Chinese will utilise to the full the services of those selected, as the appointments as.e the outcome of the spontaneous desire of the President and the Cabinet to obtain practical advice on points of administrative policy, and should lead to improvement in that sphere as well as in foreign relations, provided the Chinese, even partially, use the oportunity to obtain ideas of foreign efficiency in their conduct of business."