Modern China.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 60, 12 March 1914, Page 5

Modern China.

STORY OF HER PROGRESS

AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW.

[Per Press x\ssociation.]

\\ eiungton, .March 11

There arrived in Wellington by the Manuka to-day a visitor from China, who was able to give at first hand a story of the evolution, of things in ika* troubled eastern land. Ho is Mr \Ym. E. Soutor, who has represented tho National Bible Society of Scotland at Chungking, West China, tor tho last live years, and who has I come out to tho Dominion on a holiday, it will surprise many people ;to learn, as Mr Soutor assures us, that many of China's inland towns lure quite as up-to-date as the towns in New Zealand or Australia. Indeed, lie goes further, and says that somo of tfie cities in the interior of China, are even more up-to-date than towns upon which New Zealanders sometimes look with pride. Mr Soutor says there is. now a good postal service throughout the whole of China, and last year 421. millions of letters and parcels were dealt with. One missionary residing at Siningfu, on the western border of Kansu, now has his daily mail, whereas when he first went into tho province there were only four deliveries a year. The telegraph service has now more than 87.000 miles of lino, and just before Mr Souter left, Lliassa, the capital of Thibet, had been linked up with Pekin, and so with'the rest of the world At present China has (5000 miles in railways in constant use, with mora than 2000 miles under construction. Telephone systems in the cities are common, and large numbers of tho towns are electrically lit. In all coastal cities as far up as Tien Tsin there are tramway systems of modern construction.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing which Mr Souter lias to tell of new China is what may be. termed the personal Europeanising el' China;men. All the students at the ni'ijversities dress in English fashion, and the old style of wide-brimmed tapering crowned Chinese hat is rarely seen anywhere.

Mr Souter says a thing about the modernising of China which w'll touch the quick of Australasians' pude. Four or five years ago, before the Hammonds and Hawkers and Sea-lands were here, China was havhg her own aeroplane flights at Sheng Tn, tie capital of western China. A Chinese constructed a machine himself and made a flight in it. That was four years ago, and there was a decided interest in aviation in the country which was growing as: western developments in flying, took place..

IN PURSUIT OF 'WHITE WOLVES'

[1 vr Electric Telegraph—Copyright] Times ,\nt> Sydney Sun Services. ■(Received 8.0 a.m.) Peking," March 11.

There is anxiety for the safety of the missionaries in Hupeh Province, owing to the depredations of the. White. Wolves. Thirty thousand troops? accompanied by aeroplanes, are operating against, but are unable to capture the bandits. •MURDERED BY BRIGANDS. [By Eleotriu Telegraph—Copyright! [Tj ,'TTTW PhF«B AfIHOOTATTON.j (Received 9.15 a.m.) Pekin, March 11. Brigands sacked Lohokou. They murdered Frayland, a Norwegian missionary, and seriously wounded another missionary.