“CHINA TO-DAY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 124, 16 August 1927, Page 16

“CHINA TO-DAY”

IMPROVED CONDITIONS ADDRESS AT LYCEUM CLUB At a meeting of the Lyceum Club yesterday, Mrs. Harold Anderson, who has spent over ten years in Y.W.C.A. work in China, spoke on the present conditions of that country. Mrs. J. C. Dickinson, vice-president, introduced the speaker. “There are nearly as many different opinions about China as there are people,” said Mrs. Anderson. “Viewpoints always differ with circumstances.” People in New Zealand, she stated, are puzzled by the apparently contradictory reports that are published. However, they forget that China is large enough for all to be true. Some of the trouble is due directly to Russia; but by far the larger portion has been caused by the changed labour conditions in the country. The oldtime almost feudal system has been broken up, and the modern factory system introduced within the last few years* Mrs. Anderson deplored the fact that workers have to live under similar conditions to those in England before the Factory Acts came into force. It is only since the seamen’s strike a few years ago that the labouring class has found out the power it has in the weapon of strikes. It is not surprising, then, if for a time the Chinese workers lose their self-control and fancy themselves all-important. China has made great strides in the matter of education during the last 15 years, the speaker said. There are now schools ranging from the kindergarten to the university standard all over the country. Between eight and ten million students are being educated there to-day. This huge system of schools and teachers is a credit to a country so lately westernised. The Chinese are a gentle, courteous race, whose future depends on strong leaders. The man who will lead China to a better era, concluded Mrs. Anderson, will have as a task beside which those of Napoleon and Mussolini appear easy.