DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 88, 5 July 1927, Page 16

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

THE ROOT OF THE CHINESE TROUBLE (Copyright. 1927. j rpHERE is a tremendous uproar in China. Armies are marching and countermarching, battles are being fought and riots are general. Everybody is agreed that one of the difficulties of this matter is the hatred of the Chinese for foreigners, and probably they are right. There is a disposition in all nations to have bad blood toward foreigners. The word enemy and foreigner seems to be synonymous. The root of most difficulties with nations is a simple one. It can be found in the reactions of human nature and traced ultimately to purely natural causes. The foundation of the difficulty with the Chinese is largely the contempt with which they have been treated by foreigners. Any one who has travelled in the East has noted the supercilious contempt which Englishmen and other foreigners have for the native Chinese. They will not let them enter their clubs, they frown upon all inter-mar-riages. They do not receive them as equals in society. The better class of Chinese resent it. There is a better class as well as a lower class of Chinese, and it is needless to say that the better class regard themselves as equals to, if not the superior of, other peoples. They refer to their kingdom as celestial, and look with contempt upon the West. Naturally this egotism is wounded when they are regarded by Westerners superciliously. The French Revolution of the late seventies was largely due doubtless to the disdain of the higher classes for the lower. None of the humanitarian efforts of the missionaries nor the official protestations of the governments can do away with the contempt which the Westerners have always shown toward the Chinese. This rebellion is largely a reaction of that contempt.