DR T. Z. KOO.

Otago Witness, Issue 4028, 26 May 1931, Page 22

DR T. Z. KOO.

EMINENT ORIENTAL LEADER ADDRESSES IN DUNEDIN. Spreading the doctrine of international friendship and understanding, Dr T. Z. Koo. vice-chairman of the World Student Christian Federation, and recognised as one of the leaders of modern China, arrived in Dunedin from the north on Friday morning and delivered a number of addresses during the day, starting with an address to training college students in Allen Hail, Otago University, followed by

speeches at a luncheon in, the University Club, a meeting in the Y.W.C.A. Hall in the afternoon, and a public meeting in the Burns Hall in the evening. The luncheon at the University Club was a private function. Dr Koo..is a medium-sized man with an alert’ appearance and a command of the English language that would do -creditto any New Zealand university graduate. He wears the costume of ins'country; a’ long, blue silk gown with wide sleeves and a high collar, and everywhere he carries with him a Chinese flute—a simple, bamboo instrument—on which he plays folk songs of his country at the end of his speeches. He is a keen student of music and takes pains in explaining the meaning of the simple and beautiful little melodies he plays. Dr Koo, who is spending a month in New Zealand at the invitation of the New Zealand Student Christian Movement, has already visited Australia, and will visit Canada before returning to his home in Shanghai.

INTERNATIONAL GOODWILL. DANGERS TO BE FACED. In his address in Allen Hall, Dr Koo dealt with international co-operation. Since the European War, he said, there had been growing up among all the people of the world a desire to find some means of settling disputes other than by war, and there was an increasing desire for international co-operation and understanding. As men and women interested in international understanding they had to realise that there existed in the world to-day many forces which made international co-operation difficult, and as he had travelled he had begun to see that it was not an easy thing at all. First of all, in the political life of the countries there was the existence of a feeling of fear which made understanding almost impossible. “ I first came across that fear in 1921, in the Central States of Europe,” Dr Koo said. “ Moving there, I began to understand what fear means in the life of a people. They were living in mutual dread of one another, and the fear was so real that you could feel it. The mischief of such fear is that it unseats reason. When there is a crisis among nations that fear becomes visible ami you have a strong force against international co-operation.” In the political sphere he had seen another side of the question. In all countries they would find that people created for themselves political slogans—such as * China for the Chinese” and “Asia for the Asiatics.” Italy, the United States, Australia (“White Australia”) also had their public slogans. These slogans arose at a moment in the life of the people when they served-a useful purpose, bu.t as fair-minded people would see, political slogans had a habit of out-living their ■usefulness, and the result was to limit the vision of a nation. When a political slogan outlived its usefulness it became an obstructing force in international understanding. Passing on to the cultural field, Dr Koo Baid that he had visited many universities. and the impression he had was that men and women were so busy building up a cultural wall around themselves that • they hardly took the trouble to climb that wall and look at other people. “ We have a habit of thinking that those people who are different from us are below us in culture,” he said. “We live so closely in our own cultural wall that we hardly see the culture in other people. That again makes international co-operation very difficult.” Dr Koo then dealt with the economic aspect of international relationship, saying that the whole economic structure today was dominated by the idea that economic security as a nation or a group could be secured only- at the expense of •another nation or group. Racial feeling was another factor. The relations between races were often full of injustice, pain, and cruelty, and when those elements existed it was very difficult to create an atmosphere of co-operation. In religion was another group of forces that divided the human race, and he referred to the deep chasm that created emnity between the Moslems and the Hindus, while in Europe there was variance among the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholics, and the Protestant churches. They were

seeking the same truth and the same God but were also facing forces which made international co-operation difficult. How were they going to meet some of these forces. When he was quite a young man in China he had, like most young Chinese, been a rabid Nationalist, but after 1921, when he made his first visit to Europe, and had seen a good part of the world that had been actively affected by the war, he had realised that Nationalism as.an end in itself was a very dangerous thing. It was useful if it kd to a broader, theme. If they were to have international co-operation they must first create an. atmosphere of mutual respect. In 1923 he had noticed at a conference of the League of Nations that when certain people of one delegation rose to speak others would show by their attitude that they did not want to listen. Indeed, some made their attitude very marked. What was the reason for that lack of mutual respect? He did not think it was due to pride, but to lack of knowledge of each other. “ Take you, as a group of leaders,” Dr Koo said. “ How much do you know of my life and problems? And how much do the students in my country know of your life and problems? ” He would urge people to try to learn something of one another and through actual knowledge to break down the ignorance they had of their fellows. If they had that attitude of mutual respect then they had the first seed in co-operation. “When we think of other people,” Dr Koo continued, “ we are inclined to think of them in terms of a type and not as individuals. M hen I was on my way to India I thought of the policemen who had been sent from that country to my country, and found instead a highly-cul-tured type represented by men like Tagore, while I learned that the policemen had come from a remote corner of India.” lie added that his experience in the L nited States was that the Chinese were thought of as laundrymen. When they indulged in that attitude of thinking they would find that it was very easj’ to become prejudiced. When they realised that people were not of one type, but were individuals with hearts and minds, they would break down another barrier. Men and women who had any faith in international co-operation had to cut through many superficial things which they thought divided them to rise to a common understanding of the fundamental unity of the human race. These divisions were very much like the longitudes and latitudes into which we divided the world. They were imaginary divisions, there for c.onvenience. . When they came to 'think ot it. the So-called differences that divided people were merely superficial. Dr Koo said that he had met many men and women in many countries who believed in international co-operation, but whose belief did not go beyond an expression of goodwill. They were not prepared to pay the price of making goodwill real, they found that people were willing to take the Cross, as it were, and go into that international field, running risks, they would never attain their objective. M hat a sorry spectacle the Disarmament Conference had been! Why? One fundamental reason was that every nation went with the idea of working on a margin of safety. That was the wrong spirit. If they went with the idea of seeing how much .they could give up, even at a risk of annihilation, the result would be very different. „ T I a pacifist?” Dr Koo concluded. lam not. If you are a pacifist there is a great price to pay for it. Suppose my nation goes to war with Japan. Am Ito fight or am I not to fight?” He said that the world wanted to-day seers and prophets who were prepared to pay the price in individual or national life, i • n “ 00 Played two Chinese airs on his flute, a mellow instrument ,of purple bamboo, which, he said, could be bought m China for lid in English money. His rendering of these songs was highly appreciated, and the function concluded with an enthusiastic vote of thanks. The gathering was presided over by Mr W. H. Simmers, president of the Students' Lnion, nho introduced the speaker.

THE WOMEN OF CHINA. DAYS OF EMANCIPATION. In the afternoon Dr Koo gave an address m the Y.W.C.A. hall, taking for his subject The Life of Women in China 10-day The chair was occupied by Mrs K. Nicolson, and the hall was packed to the door. Dr Koo asked his audience to bear in mind that the present was a period when one saw the new and the old existing side by side. Some of the oid ideas concerning women were still current. Confucius had laid down certain regulations for women which deprived them of their own personality, and women were cramped politically, legally, socially, and religiously. Movements in the interests of women’s rights began with the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912, the aim being to give to women a more equal status with men. This movement did not succeed, but a second movement was commenced in 1919, the object being to break down the social conventions that bound or cramped women’s lives. Marriage was one of the questions taken in hand. In the old days it was the custom for the wedded pair to see each other for the first time after the marriage ceremony. This practice was disappearing. Efforts were also being made to permit a wider social intercourse between men and women, in place of confining it to the members of single families. The power of the past in thought was still very strong, but an intellectual revolution had come, and the Chinese people were adapting themselves to scientific ways of thought and learning. Another movement was started in 1924 with women demanding the right to work and to receive equal wages with men. As a result women were found to-day at the head of colleges, in banks, i n the medical profession—in fact, every avenue of work and of learning was open to women. In this way women were earning their own living, which was a great stride for the women of China. Further; .women had a right to hold their own property. This change in the satus of Chinese women was remarkable, as they had gained their freedom much later than their Western sisters, and the reason for their sudden emergence, he thought, was to be found

in the centuries of family life they had had. A woman, by dealing with a mother-in-law, a father-in-law, and the many relatives in a Chinese family soon learned tact. — (Laughter.) Put shortly, as far as opportunities were concerned the women bad had everything granted to them, and the only limitation still in existence was the lack of facilities for education and training. For instance, the profession of medicine was open to women, but there were not sufficient schools for the training of women in that profession. This lack also applied to men. At present there were only 1339 secondary schools, or one school to every 309,000 of the population. Many of the women who were coming forward were women of marked ability. There was a bank in Shanghai which was run entirely by women, with their own capital. Carrying this matter into the home, it was often found that the finances of a family were managed by the woman. For himself he always turned his salary over to his wife, and that was the last he saw of it. — (Laughter.) A 20-year aducational plan had been drawn up, and a great number of new schools and new educational schemes were in the planning. In addition, many voluntary institutions were at work. Then, the clan system of living was losing its hold, with the result that conditions were becoming much freer, and a sense of patriotic service was developing along constructional lines. And whence, he would like to ask, had come the initial move to kindle the spirit of progress in the women in China? If they studied the emancipation of women in China they would find that the motive power, the greater part of the leadership, had come largely from the Christian Church, and the most extensive and useful women’s or ganisation in China was to be found in the Y.W.C.A.— (Applause.) A warm vote of thanks was accorded to Dr Koo for his address and his musical selections.

PROBLEMS OF MODERN CHINA. A STATE OF TRANSITION. At Burns Hall on Friday evening Dr Koo addressed a full house on “ Problems of Modern China,” speaking under the auspices of the League of Nations Union and the Dunedin group of the Institute of Pacific Relations. Sir James Allen occupied the chair. Dr Koo said he wished to give a comprehensive picture of developments in China. People outside found it difficult to understand China’s problems, for the reason that they were in the position of a man attempting to get hold of an elephant. To take’ hold' of the animal’s tail would be a difficult task, but to grasp the huge beast by the trunk was much easier, and he would ask students of Chinese problems to tackle the elephant at.the trunk. — (Laughter.) The best way. it seemed , to him, to look at China was to regard it as a picture, with great events in the foreground, the past as a background, and rational life as the perspective. Many changes were taking place in China to-day in its transformation from the ohl to the new. The first change was in political life. The monarchial system had been left behind, and the country was groping along the path of democracy. There was a spirit of national consciousness, replacing the old idea of the family as the unit of political thought. “ At first,” said Dr Koo, “I thought that democracy would solve all our problems Since coming to Western countries, 1 have altered my opinion.”—(Laughter.) There was also a change in thought life, and it was a tremendous step the nation was taking to move from old forms and beliefs to the new. As a result of this, there was considerable confusion of thought in the minds of young Chinese. A problem that was prominent in China was that of preparing the people for the democratic form of government, and a period of 10 years had been set apart in which they were to be trained, as it were, for their new citizenship. Also, the Government was estab lishing schools all over China to provide for the needs of the people. At the same time, the Government realised that the people must experimnt in locil self-gov-ernment, and to that end they were placing people in different areas in which they would try out local self-government for themselves. Then, a new industrial order was coming into China, and the people were facing one of the most difficult changes, because when a people were changing in that way it was found that the economic future was quite uncertain. The earning capacity of the people, it had to be noted, had only risen by half compared with the increased cost of living. Therefore, the masses of China were living very close to the hunger line, and masses in that condition, said Dr Koo, were very susceptible to all kinds of popaganda. That was why the Communists had a chance to spread their views among the discontented people. The status of women was changing, and the women were leaving their domestic sphere to come into the public life. Women were not contented with life in the domestic sphere, and now took part in government, in the professions, and in education, working side by side with men. Another change in the life of the women was their relation in social intercourse with men. In former days men and women did not associate, but that was a convention that the people were now breaking away from. To-daj’ the women were coming out into society, meeting men on a social standing, as was the custom in the West. The economic side of Chinese life was a very difficult question. In the past there were two units —the little farm and the tiny industry, usually a home factory of some kind. Now they were aiming at an industrial revolution, and machinery and mass production, and at present the old and the new stood side by side. Also, the old clan system was losing its hold on the people, who were forming homes of their own, as in other lands, instead of settling down in the clan. Another remarkable change had been in the ethical life, with the result that its former standards of moral conduct were rapidly falling away. In the past the Chinese were great loyalists towards personal objects—the Emperor or the head of the clan, or whoever it might be —but now these figureheads had vanished, and had not been replaced, and the younger generation was placed in a very difficult position. Stress was being placed now on loyalty towards political groups and the necessity for co-operation between

groups. All these problems of change were facing China to-day, and were giving her peoples trouble and difficulty. They were the background of the life, and the fundamental causes of all the unrest and ail the development that had occurred in the last 16 years. In the first 15 years of the Chinese Republic the task of the leaders of the revolution had been to remove all traces of the old imperial system. Now the National Government was beginning to build a new China. Steps had been taken to frame a constitution which defined the relationships between national and central governments. A people’s convention, selected from vocational groups, such as representatives of law and medicine, was at present engaged in reviewing the Constitution. Touching on the material side of China, Dr Koo said that the country was largely undeveloped. For example, in only a few of the larger cities was there electric light, and there was enormous room for a tremendous development in industry, this would help to draw China nearer to the rest of the world, because China needed raw materials. The other nations were realising this, and recognising the wonderful market that China would be for their products as soon as her political reconstruction was completed. “ China will be one of tile great markets of the future,” said Dr Koo. So far as the international situation • was concerned, China demanded that what were known as the “Unequal Treaties” should be done away with. These treaties were a ease of “Heads I win, tails you lose.” in favour of the foreigners, and the Chinaman got it in the neck every time. Now, however, all had agreed that the principle of these treaties was wrong, and it required only negotiation to replace them Dr Koo also spoke on the question of personal relations. Why. in an hotel in Shanghai, kept by an Englishman, should it be said, “ Chinese people are not allowed to enter this hotel by the main door? ” That was a side of the international question that was not a matter of treaties but a matter of personal division between the East and the West, and he asked bis audience to remember that they as individuals could do a great deal by fair and right thinking to do away with the cruelty and injustice that these personal divisions ; caused. In conclusion, said the speaker, one could compare China to the Israelites, wandering in the wilderness and seeking her Canaan, the promised land of New China.— (Applafise.) The Rev. R. E. Bellhouse said they had listened to an illuminating and informing address. He moved a very hearty vote of thanks to the lecturer. • Dr Benson seconded the rhotion, which was carried with great heartiness. SOME ASPECTS OF RELIGION. THE LOVE OF GOD. The address at Knox Church on Sunday evening was delivered by Dr T. Z. Koo, vice-president of the World Christian Student Movement, who is at present in Dunedin in the course of a tour covering the four chief centres of the Dominion, to a congregation which occupied every inch of the seating space available, while many were turned away. Dr Koo said that in religion generally there were three aspects embodied—a certain knowledge by man of God, a personal attitude on the part of man toward God and an attitude toward other men, which resulted from the knowledge of God and the relationship towards Him. These were not isolated one from another, and when they thought in terms of religion they must consider all three aspects. He would like to give some insight into the first two aspects. When they came to speak of the knowledge of God they realised that the Christian teaching was that they knew God through Christ and through Him God became real. They might the n go a step further and ask what kind of a god had Christ revealed. They came to another great teaching of the Church —that God was love. This was revealed by Christ in two ways—in His words and in His life. When Christ spoke about God, being an Oriental, he spoke more in pictures than by philosophic statements. The Gospels were full of pictures giving an insight into the love of God. and when these were pieced together it was possible to get some idea of the height and depth of that love. The picture which he desired to take was that of the Prodigal Son. The striking part of that parable to him was not the attitude of the son who wasted bis substance in riotous living, and then wandered back to his father’s home. The remarkable part came in the picture of the father. In China when they referred to a father they spoke of him as “ The Severe One,” and of the mother as “ The Merciful One.” If Jesus had spoken of the father as being one of great dignity, ready to reprove, the picture would have been familiar to the Chinese, but as they contrasted this attitude of the Chinese father with that described by Christ, then they realised that He was painting a very great picture of the love of God. Dr Koo recounted the story of the parable, of the absence of the son, of his return and of his welcome by his father. The great fact of the parable, he said, was that the son was received as a real son, and not as an outcast or a servant. "What was the attitude of the. son? He would 1 think how unworthy he had been, and he would feel that it would be necessary to live all his life anew to be worthy of that love. There was the beginning of the redemptive power of love. From the actions of Christ also they would see what He showed of the love of God. The incident he would take was the death of Jesus on the Cross. When they pictured Jesus on the Cross they were looking on at a very deep and difficult human experience—that of One Who was seeing the men and women for whom He had worked and sacrificed turning against Him. When they realised that they understood the significance of the Cross in human life. Christ could have taken up the attitude that if the mob was so ungrateful for what He had done then it was undeserving of further love, hut if He had done that it would have meant that the mob had overcome Him, because they would have made Him one like themselves. But this was not His reaction, His love still endured, and in His last conscious moments He had offered a prayer for the forgiveness of His enemies. The victory was not with the mob, for

when it had put Him on the Cross it had done its worst, and as men and women watched Him die there must have been some who said: “This must be a good man. In this way already love was beginning to triumph. The only power which could hope to overcome the character in the mob of hatred and spite was that love which could endure the Cross itself. ’When they referred to the omnipotence of God it was not the power - of a mighty king of which they spoke but tho power of a great love. What should their attitude be toward that love? The only thing that appealed to him was to surrender his will and take that Jove into nm life. A moment came when selfcentredness broke up, and then God came in and made a new thing of life. Spiritual T ‘l e .. was - a ,V ays disciplined by obedience. If ,\ e l fol \°wed the life of Christ they would rind that His act of surrender when tie was baptised on the banks of the Jordan was continued throughout his life a !?d , f °! lnd its culmination in the Garden Oi Gethsemane in the prayer, “Not My I will, but Thine.” Obedience, however, was not all, for when they looked into the life of Christ they found it one of power and joy. When people dared to trust the love of God as Jesus did, they experienced that calm and assured joy a | so - )' hen they coupled these two phases ot religion knowledge of God and the correct relationship to Him—that would immediately commence to redeem life, no matter what side it touched.

THE YOUTH OF CHINA. CHRISTIANITY AND THE NATION. _O'er 3000 people assembled in the Town Hall on Sunday afternoon, where Dr T. Z. Koo addressed a rally of Christian youth movements within the city. By the time the speaker took the platform practically every available seat was occueven the top gallery being completely tilled Dr Koo was introduced by the chairman (the Rev. H. J. Ryburn), who said that their guest had come to New Zealand at the invitation of the Student Christian Movement, which, in combination with similar bodies from other countries, constituted a world movement of which Dr Koo was the' vice-president. They welcomed him as such, as a scholar from a country whose culture was more ancient than their own, as a representative of a nation within whose midst great movements were at the present moment taking place,, and as the .Christian gentleman which they knew him to be. Dr Koo said that, the subject which fie had chosen might be termed “ Christ and the Youth of China.” In that title they would see two words which stood for a great deal in China to-day—youth and Christ. In youth might be summed up the years of struggle which the country had gone through; in Christ might be seen the other side of the picture. He represented faith, a companion to all who followed Him in moments of disappointment and a friend in time of victory He wished for a short, while to lift the veil from the heart of China’s youth, so that they might look into its inmost beings and know something qf how’ the youth of that country’ was feeling. The first thing to be explained was that within the last 10 or 20. years a generation had grown up within whose heart was developing a steady love of its country. Old China with all her institutions was mumbling. It had been found that these had been insufficient to meet the demands and strain of the new life which was being brought to the country through contact with the West. Youth was seeing that on it lay the responsibility of building a new China. Together with this loyalty it was impossible not to be aware that there was on all sides a sense of the urgency of the task of reshaping the nation. Life was moving rapidly to-day, and youth was afraid that it might yet be too late with its recreative work. There was also evident a kind of strain—a tension of wanting to express this patriotism in some unselfish way of life. The men and women who were growing up in China to-day would not be content merely to amass wealth or to gain power and position. They realised that that alone would not satisfy their desires, and so they were looking for new channels of service. There was another aspect of life in China to which he would like to refer, and that was the position of youth engaged in the various industries and in the farming districts. A striking fact about the student section of the nation was that in addition to its love of country it had a passion to identify itself with the working youth of China. The-students of other countries were, generally speaking, in a fairly comfortable position, and as a rule they were not inclined to worry about the needs and desires of other classes, but in China to-day the opposite was the case, and the student class was endeavouring in every way to understand the viewpoint of the workers and to aid them in their upward struggle. Youth in China was in many cases being strongly drawn by the Communists, who placed before them a great programme of national reconstruction, and that spoke very directly to one of the interests of their hearts.

He wished his audience to see into another corner of the heart of China’s youth, and see there the religious struggle which was going on—a continuous struggle which was not yet decided. The first issue was that which lay between materialism and the things of the spirit. Each had its appeal, and what the ultimate result would be it could not yet be said. Another question which was greatly exercising the minds of youth was, What should be the dominating principle of life, force or love? If it was to be force then they felt they should go ahead and build big navies and maintain a strong army, but if love was to be tho guiding influence China should develop peaceably. The mind of youth was being torn between these two ideas, and there was the uncertainty as to whether China should follow the traditional line of peace and friendship or strike out in a new aggressive policy. The other word which was having such an influence in Chinese life to-day was “ Christ,” and he wished to describe in some way how Christ was speaking to the youth of his country, faced with the problems which he had just explained. He was not going to paint an ideal picture of how Christ was appealing to youth, but as he actually knew Jesus had reached the hearts of youth in China.

The first way was through the channel of hope. When people came to know of Christ they lost their sense of despair, and began to feel hope eternal spring up within them. As an example Dr Koo Mentioned the case of a student, who, after six months of fighting in the revolutionary war, had seen so much selfish Striving after wealth and position that he had lost faith in men, and. lost also his sense of responsibility to his fellows. That youth, he had heard later, had become interested in the life of Christ, as shown in the Gospels, and had completely changed in his outlook. He had come back to his former state of hope and faith, and had now expressed a desire to serve his country as a secretary in the student movement. Another way in which Christ was calling to China was through His life. In the record of that life the people saw One who had lived’ not for Himself but for others. This spoke directly to the heart of youth which wanted to express itself in service to its fellows. The speaker told of a Communist leader, a complete Atheist, who had said to his followers: “How I wish that in the veins of overv one of you flowed the blood of Jesus Christ." The Communist realised that Christ had lived for others. There was another point of contact between Christ and Chinese life. Dr Koo said he had come to see that Christ was the answer to the hunger in the heart of youth. He told of a young student in one of the Christian colleges, a follower of Confucius, who wanted to live a serene, joyous life. He studied the Christian religion, but did not find the thing he wanted there, and so he turned to Buddhism. He went to an old Buddhist monk, who. telling him that a monastic life would satisfy his cravings, urged him to go back to the world and there fight and strive for that which he desired. .The student went back, and finally coming to know Christ, had found in Him and His way of life all his needs supplied, and was now engaged in definite Christion work. Christ spoke also to China because He gave what the people needed —power to struggle and carry on the fight of life. Chinese youth was feeling that Christ only’ could give it what it needed most. His ability to make life creative was something which was exercising a very real appeal on behalf of Christ to China. This was important because, as the history of the country showed, the Chinese in the past had been a great creative people in every branch of human endeavour. However, that creative instinct had died, and China had for the last 1000 years lived on her past. Christianity was reviving that power, and they found that to-day, although there were roughly only 1,000.000 Christians out of a population of 400,000,000 a great many of the leaders in all walks of life were Christians. The president of the republic had last year been baptised, and out of eight leaders in the Cabinet no fewer than six were Christians. What was the reason? The answer was that when they came to know Christ He imbued them with creative capacity. In the old life China was like a man sitting on a chair and trying to lift himself up by lifting his chair as he sat. When the people came to know God they found that He took their hands and lifted them. That was the difference between the ethical and the spiritual life, and life in China was once more beginning to lift up and go ahead. The appeal of Christ as Saviour did not come on first contact with Him. but when the Chinese began to know Him more personally they began to sense and realise the great love in the heart of God and their own unworthiness. But when they- felt that they came also to know the forgiveness of God, and to see Jesus as their Saviour. Dr Koo closed his address with an appeal to the young men and women who were Bible class members to help China. When he had left his own country, he said, he had been asked to find out if he could influence some people in New Zealand, either men or women, to go to China and work there as secretaries of the Student Christian Movement in nonChristian student circles. The workers were few and the need yvas great. In the history of missions they had not seen a gift of that kind from the youth of one country to that of another. He felt confident his appeal would not fall on. barren ground.— (Loud applause.) At the conclusion of the address Dr Galway played three Confucian chants on the organ, and Dr Koo rendered three selections, which he explained belonged to the folk songs of his land and came, therefore, direct from the heart of the people, upon his flute.

THE REVOLT OF YOUTH. TREND OF MODERN LIFE. A keen and logcal analysis of modern life and its trends formed the theme of a powerful and thought-pro-voking address which was delivered by Dr T. Z. Koo, the eminent Oriental leader and orator, to a large assemblage of University students in Allen Hall on Saturday evening. Dr R. Bell occupied the chair, and, on taking his seat on the platform, Dr Koo was accorded a unique greeting in the shape of a song of welcome sqpg in Chinese by the gathering. Modern life, Dr Koo said in opening his address, was a complicated affair, and from what he had seen in recent years in different parts of the world one outstanding impression on his mind •was that modern life was characterised by a feverish struggle for power and an unsatiable craving for excitement, pleasurable or otherwise, coupled with an underlying current of despair at the chaotic futility of the whole business. For a proper understanding of modern life it would be necessary to see it against the background of mediaeval life and thought. Modern life was not an isolated development unrelated to man’s past experience. It sprang from the past, and its present characteristics and trends could be appreciated to the fully only when its connection with the past was clearly seen. If they began with the Dark Aagcs in Europe, they would see that the fall of the Roman Empire deprived the

Western world of a unifying factor in life, and a period of confusion and disintegration known in European history as the Dark Ages, set in—a period in which men found themselves caught in a whirlpool of chaos and conflict that seemed to deprive human life of any order, unity, or purpose. It was characteristic of human life that it found chaos intolerable, and when caught in that kind of situation, it must needs struggle through to some unity and order that would make living purposeful and creative. During the Middle Aages—the period which succeeded the Dark Ages—man made a valiant attempt to evolve some order out of the chaos which overwhelmed him on the fall of the Roman Empire. This attempt could be discerned in two great movements of the Middle Ages. The first was the result of the Roman Church conceiving the brilliant idea of the churc’ universal—with an infallible head—the personal representative of Christ on earth—giving to the world through her rule the unity and coherence so essential in the practical affairs of man. This idea played a dominating part in the lives of the great popes of that time. The same movement in the intellectual sphere was developed by the scholastic philosophers who undertook the gigantic task of organising the whole field of human knowledge into »separate provinces, each with its own boundaries, and placing them all under the dominion of Thus, for a number of years, men attempted to re-establish a unity in human life by making the Church supreme in the realm of man’s practical life and theology paramount in the domain of knowledge.

In China, continued the speaker, where the people had, for the past 30 years, being going through a period very similar to the Dark Ages, they could understand more readily than others what life in Europe in these dark days must have been like. They, too, had been living in an age when life seemed to have lost its unity and its old familiar landmarks, and they had been trying to struggle through to some new unity and purpose in life. The unity worked out in the Middle Ages by the Church and the scholastic philosophers could not last. As long as it did last, it served a very useful purpose, for it kept alive the knowledge and learning of the day and provided the respite needed for intellectual Europe to find itself and strike out on new lines of development. But the unity was founded on the conception of an ideal church ruling men’s consciences by virtue of her own purity and wisdom, qualities that no church on earth had yet possessed to such a degree as to justify her claim to rule over all life. It was also assumed that all knowledge was embraced in the scholastic system so that the system was complete in itself, and that the theology of the day was not open to question, thus shutting out the possibility of the assimilation of new knowledge.

. A revolt against the whole system came in what was known in European history as the Renaissance, which was essentially a. movement directed towards the emancipation of human life from the ecclesiastical rule of the Church and of human knowledge from the controlling influences of theology. First the sover” eignty of the State was proclaimed, and the State itself was declared to be sub ject to no other power. Thus autonomy of the State from the rule of the Church was secured. In the field of human knowledge, art, philosophy, and particularly science, began to assert their autonomy and to insist upon their own right of research and development independent of theology. What was termed modern life and thought was a direct descendant of the Renaissance period. One direct result of the proclamation of the . sovereignty of the- State was the rise of nationalism in the place of Catholicism as a principle of government, but the State’s claim to be independent and sovereign in its own sphere was uncompromising, and divorce between religion and politics became inevitable. To this source could be traced .wo aspects of modern life. The first was rivalry and competition between the naturally exclusive sovereign States, leading to tariff walls, fortified frontiers and competitive armaments. Every nation felt that it must fight against every other nation for its existence, and under those circumstances world war was as inevitable as that night followed day. As long as a higher principle was not evolved for these mutually exclusive sovereign States to come into a larger unity, men’s political life would always be full of international conflict and unrest. The second aspect was the segmentation of modern life. With the revolt of the Renaissance, the separation of religion and polities took place, which was but the beginning of the process of separation between religion and life, until in this modern age religion and become just one compartment of life among many other compartments. On week days, civilised mankind dealt with the compartment of politics, education, economics, etc., and on Sunday they went (or were supposed to go) into the compartment of religion. Thus, they saw the familiar sight of devout church-goers who became tyrants in their economic relations with other men or dishonest politicians in their public life. The principle of unity was gone, and life had become sectionalised and divided into watertight compartments. Humanity could not tolerate this condition much longer, and among youth especially the quest for a unifying principle 'was becoming more and more insistent. a matter of fact, this quest

was a large part of the so-called “ revolt of youth.”

In the revolt of knowledge against the authority of the theology they saw the rise of modern science. This liberated spirit of inquiry and research had given to human life through its scientific discoveries and inventions inestimable benefits and power; but it had also given mankind an inverted view of life, expressed in the antithesis between religion and science. When the different departments of knowledge declared their autonomy from the rule of theology, they revelled in their new-found freedom, and some of the new thinkers must have found special delight in tickling the sensibilities of the theological scholars. Or the part of the theologians, they were put into the position of having to fight a rearguard action for their dogmas. This led to an apparent conflict between the material and spiritual in human life with the spiritual constantly on the retreat, and in modern life the people seemed to have inherited this conflict which had resulted in the exaltation of the material good as the goal and aim in life, to the exclusion of the spiritual good. The question of the primary order of values in life then arose. Life would move forward smoothly and happily only when the right primary order of values was maintained, and it was essential that mankind should have some principle of guidance in their lives that would enable them to determine what should come first and what last. As modern life had developed in all its sectionalism, resulting in spiritual confusion, aesthetic chaos, class warfare, international and interracial strife, men were slowly coming to realise that they had in modern life reverted to the intolerable conditions of life in the Dark Ages. “To me,” said Dr Koo in conclusion, “ the most urgent need to-day is not more knowledge, more wealth, or more power, but the discovery of a principle of unity that will give order and meaning to the knowledge and power which we already possess, or may yet acquire in the future.”

At the close of his address, Dr Koo was accorded a hearty vote of thanks. VISIT TO TAIERI PLAINS.

On Saturday afternoon, Dr Koo was the guest of several friends on a motor car trip around the Taieri Plains.