The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1912. A VAST CHANGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 161, 6 January 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1912. A VAST CHANGE.

The most striking feature about the revolt in China, the results of .which may ultimately affect the whole world and British possessions in the Pacific particularly, is the evident change in the, characteristics of the. people. The bulk of the Chinese people are ordinarily inoffensive, law-abiding and' not ambitious. They have been content to travel the' itoad of their forefathers and to • obey tlie authority of,the Manchus s It is one. of the most surprising features of modern history that practically a whole people notably inoffensive and, quiet should, at'the- instigation of great leaders, suddenly change their whole ideals and outlook. Up to a few years ago even the most eminent Chinese travelled rarely beyond the confines cf the Empire. They disdained the foreigner. Even now the great mass of the Chinese despise and detest the foreigner. There lias never been any reason why they should do otherwise, for the Westerner has almost invariably gorie to' China on a boodling excursion. . Even the business acumen of the ordinary coolie from Canton with whom-New Zealanders are so familiar must be admired, even if disliked. The great revolutionaries are not all conservative Chinese who know of no other form of government than the rigid rule of the Manchus. They are i> many cases travelled men of large experience and unquestioned ability, who in contact with Westerners have learnt much that may be applied in the Chinese Empire. It is worthy of belief that but for the contact of the Chinese with modern nations the revolt against Manchu rule would not have occurred. Steadily for a long period prior to the Empire shaking revolt, there had been a keen disposition to acquire modern knowledge as distinct from the scholarship which had as its base the worship of ancestors. Everywhere ancient beliefs were fractured, new truths learned, new avenues for progress opened. China had before been practically a world to itself, knowing and caring nothing about the •outside world. With the growth of modern education, the great leaders who have so successfully conducted the revolt found plastic material. Although to a Westerner the Chinese character is practically a closed book, the student is bound to believe that the revolt has awakened dormant qualities in a people who have been habitually subjected to obedience to caste. The idea of democracy is wholly new in China, and the democratisation of the huge country under a republican government would be ■ one of the most astonishing transformations of all history. It is not merely the awakening from a sleep of centuries but from a sleep of tens of centuries, and the awakening means that hundreds of thousands of Chinese are equipped with new knowledge and new aspirations and

with new courage. It is inevitable that when China again setths down to its workaday routine, the thoughts of its ! people will turn to expansion. ■ China is intolerably crowded, and some countries in the Pacific are practically empty. This phase is the one of greatest interest to Australians and New Zealanders. There is no reason why China, which has better brains than Japan, sheaid not be as successful in a great conflict as the Japs. The idea that China is poor is a very wrong one. Sir Robert Hart once said that China contained more millionaires than any other country on earth. Tens of millions of her people are exceedingly poor, and have asked for little in the past. There may come a time when they'will 'demand their share of the earth and its wealth. With a sympathetic government eager for enlightenment, progress and conquest, the world—and especially our portion of itwould watch eagerly the doings of the •leaders in the awakened country.