China’s Strife Enters Upon New Phase

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 5

China’s Strife Enters Upon New Phase

Internal & External Discord Goes On PUZZLE FOR POWERS China, exhausted by internal warfare, pillaged by its own armies and enervated by the corruption of its own officials, rests at the moment under the Government of the Nationalists from the South. Her rest is only comparatively restful, for, in addition to her internal chaos, she is in a state of friction with her neighbours, the Western concessions in her ports, Japan, and now most seriously with her Eastern neighbour, says an English writer. The Nationalists say that all these troubles and more are attributable directly or indirectly to the “unequal treaties.” They say that, if only Britain and the other Powers would forgo their ex-territorial privileges and the tariff regulations under the treaties, all would be well, and China would enter upon a period of peace and prosperity with the satisfaction of knowing that she had a jurisdiction within her own borders equal to that of any other country. Value of Treaty Ports Any fair-minded person who is ignorant of the history of China will like the sentiment, though he may not see the logic of it. He will not, indeed, find any logic in the argument, for it is not there to find. In all of China’s troubles the treaty ports have been the only places where trade has survived; they have been a refuge for the suffering peoples of the surrounding districts, and the various signatories of the treaties, which are supposed to have brought such misfortune to China, are the very countries which are now striving to save her from the crowning misfortune of war with Soviet Russia. The treaties merely secure for European countries equal rights of trade, and the right to trade directly with any Chinese, and they give ex-territorial privileges to the various concessions. They have brought no material loss and very considerable material gain to China.

The history of China goes to show that foreign trade is essential to China’s welfare, and periods during which the Chinese have succeeded in banishing that trade have invariably been followed by periods during which they have assiduously courted it again. History also shows that whenever the treaties have been relaxed or suspended the rapacious officialdom of China has bled the trade to the point of death. It is not unnatural, therefore, that the European countries should have demanded some security as a basis of trade with China. In the first place, bare trade agreements were considered sufficient, but. as these were violated without warning and in a manner which caused not only loss to the property, but also danger to the life of foreigners, the security of ex-territorial privileges had to be added. The treaties go no further than is absolutely necessary for the protection of trade and the safety of the persons engaged in it. They give some protection against extortion by guarding against a revival of the Hong or Co-Hong system, for by making monopolies impossible they assure to their merchants a fair market, and make bribery and corruption of officials a little more difficult (or, it should be said, a little less easy), and the rights accorded to the treaty towns make it possible for them to guard against the periodic anti-foreign risings. Since this was the cause and the object of the treaties, it might be thought that those who now ask for their repeal would proffer some assurance in their place of the civilised treatment of foreigners and of a clean administration in future. Mr. Gilbert makes it abundantly clear that whatever the Chinese Nationalist may urge as propaganda in Europe, he holds out no promise of such things in China. Corrupt Officials It is curious that a country, the traders of which have made a very fair reputation for commercial honesty, should be notorious all the world over for the corruption of its officialsIt. is estimated that in the middle of the last century, before the employment of Europeans in the Chinese service, out of the sum of T 15.10,000,000 collected Customs more than T 15.9,000,000 went astray, and it seems that the Chinese taste for misappropriating public moneys has not abated at all since that time, for it is not long since an ambitious politician seized the reserve fund of the Tientsin Mint and purchased from Parliament his election to the presidency. Mr. Gilbert gives two more recent examples of Chinese high finance —the borrowing of the sum of 10,000 dollars from the Commissioner of Customs by the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs at the point of the bayonet, and the drawing of the sum of 20,000 dollars from the post office at AVanhsien under similar persuasion by a passing general. Such incidents are naturally damaging to China’s credit in every sense of the word, and an administration under which such practices subsist can hardly expect the confidence of foreign trade. In the matter of personal safety of foreigners in China, the outlook is even less reassuring. Under the expert guidance of Russia the leaders of Nationalism in China have been flooding the country with inflammatory anti-foreign propaganda; they have even, by denouncing the reparations provided for in the Protocol of 1901, done something to rehabilitate in the public mind the propriety of the Boxer outrages, and the fruits of their teaching are to be seen in the atrocities which have been perpetrated in recent years. It maj r safely be assumed that the withdrawal of the armed forces of the Western Powers from China at the present moment, when the Chinese populace has been incited to such a degree of hatred of the foreigner, would be followed by most unpleasant consequences to any Europeans who remained there unprotected. Chinese “Equality.” On practical grounds China nas shown no reason for the repeal of the treaties either in her own interests or in the interests of the Western

countries. Her sympathisers abroad will, therefore, have to rest entirely i upon the appeal to sentiment. The generous principle of giving to China what is enjoyed by every European country—absolute sovereignty within her borders —equality in the family of nations. Mr. Gilbert points out vividly that although this sounds equitable to Western ears it is absolutely foreign to the Chinese conception of international relations. Before the coming of the white races, China held a position which she reasonably considered to be unequalled both in culcure and in arms. Even the Mongols, who had come as conquerors, had recognised her intellectual superiority and had eventually been absorbed in her civilisation. The idea that foreign potentates, whose people had come not as conquerors, but as traders, should claim equality with the Son of Heaven, Emperor of what they believed to be the civilised world, was ridiculous, almost blasphemous. Only by acknowledging in word and deed the superiority of that august ruler could they have any communication with him. They could conceive of only one basis of intercourse and that was Chinese superiorit3’. If China had conformed to the custom of the family of nations, if she had treated the Western nations as equals, respected their citizens as they respected hers, and honoured her agreements with them even as loosely as they respect their own pledges, there could have been no thought of exterritoriality and the “unequal treaties,” but the idea of a contract between China and the “savages” from the West was inconsistent with her superiority. Agreements were made, it is true, to suit the exigency of the moment, but these were blandly | disregarded as soon as the immediate j danger had passed. Unchanging China , has maintained anl still maintains her belief in her superiority, and the claim for equality is made, as Mr. Gilbert demonstrates, solely for the benefit of sympathisers overseas. The propaganda has been effective and St. George, who is a simpleminded fellow, if he has not yet re- I moved the chains, has loosened them j considerably. Whether he will eventu-1 ally release the dragon on the faith ! of its smooth words the future alone will show.