BITTER FEELINGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 550, 31 December 1928, Page 1

BITTER FEELINGS

EUROPEANS AND CHINESE

“WHITES MUST LEAVE CHINA”

"If things continue as they are going at present Europeans will be entirely forced out of China.” This is the impression of Mr. F. H. Pickwick, a banker of Tientsin, North China, who arrived in Auckland by the Maunganui this morning. Mr. Pickwick is accompanied by his wife and daughter, and it is his intention to establish a home and retire here, though he may have to pay another visit to China yet. “There has been practically continuous civil warfare in China since 1912,” said Mr. Pickwick. “Up to the present it has not had any very serious effect on the Europeans, but the position is rapidly changing, and Europeans are going to be taxed out of the country.” “The wars break out afresh every f/.w months. The war lords have a spell while they assemble fresh groups and amass money by taxation. In the past this money has been raised from the Chinese themselves, but tliey are now taxing the Europeans. At present most of this taxation is on goods being transported. The taxes on a hundred miles of rail might cost more than the freight from England to China. “Having illegally taxed people like this, the war lords are ready for another affray until their funds are exhausted- IX anyone wants to know the real position in China he should read “What is Wrong With China,” by Rodney Gilbert. Gilbert has lived with the Chinese, speaks their language, and reads and writes it—a most unusual accomplishment. ANTI-FOREIGN FEELINGS “As time goes by we can see that the taxes will be on things other than transport, and that will be the end of foreigners in China. There is a very bitter anti-foreign feeling, and the children are instilled with it from babyhood. In addition a lot of trouble is being stirred up by the Bolshevik element, which is becoming more and ntore pronounced. “I know one man who has just come to New Zealand who has been working for the Chinese railways, and helping the country for 30 years, but for tbe past year and a-half he has not received any wages. All the superannuation funds, to which the foreigners have contributed, have disappeared. I tell you it is pathetic. "It is more terrible, however, to see such people as the medical missionaries, some of them having worked, there for 40 years and having saved innumerable lives, with their homes burnt over their heads at a moment’s notice. Even the people they have helped so much are against them. “It is this sort of thing that makes one feel bitter when one sees these Asiatics being allowed into countries like New Zealand.” Mr. Pickwick said a number of his friends in China were looking to New Zealand for their future homes. They had received excellent accounts of the country from others who had been here and had returned. Mr. Pickwick himself was here some years ago, and decided to return. A number of the Europeans in China were almost vitally interested in the group settlement schemes, and on their behalf he proposes to make some further inquiries while he is here.