CHINA AND HER NAVY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9144, 21 July 1908, Page 5

CHINA AND HER NAVY.

LEAGUE FORMED IN SYDNEY. Received July 20, 9.56 a.m. SYDNEY, July 20. Chinese merchants have formed a Navy League to support the formation of a navy in China on modern lines and the establishment of naval colleges. The sum of £1,200 has been subscribed here. The money will be retained until constitutional government is granted to China.

"The awakening of China has so long been talked of that now it is really taking place it is in danger of being overlooked," a London "Daily Express" representative was recentl.v Cold by an authority on Chinese affairs. "Within the last three or four years—from soon after the Boxer rising—what may be described as a peaceful revolution has been getting under way in China. Since the close of the war in the Far East it has begun to develop more rapidly, and there is little doubt that a new China will face the world in the next 15 or 20 years." A Chinese gentleman of Western education, who is visiting London, stated the other day that one of the most remarkable features of China at present is the birth of a new national spirit, bringing with it an irresistible demand for modern kno>vled?e and the strengthening of the position of China among the nations. The system of education was being revolutionised. New schools were v being opened, and knowledge as understood in Europe was bung taught instead of the mere teaching of the Bid Chinese classic. Thousands of students were going to Japan, and they woul J help to spiead the demand for modem education all over China. The Chinese newspapers were becomii g real organs of public opinion. Few people have so good an opportunity of seeing what is re:lly going on in j China as the missionaries who are at work among the people, and the missionaries bear the same testimony to the new spirit in China. The Rev. B. baring-Gould says:--" Assuredly no prophetic vision is required to reveal the wonderful resJfci which must sneydily follow ui o:i China's awakeiiig. What Western scier.ee and education have effected it, Japan, unless a strong reaction sets in, will, at no distant date, be witnessed in China. In 1901 there were 176 post offices in China; in 1905 there were 1,625. In r.))t. 10.03J.00D letters were posted; in 1905, 76,000,000. There are now 9,000 miles of railway, and steamers o-i almost every river." It has been decided, Mr Baring-Gould says, ; that cveiy province is to have its university, every prefecture its high school, and every village its primary school, and 250,000 teachers are required at once to meet the sudden demand for Wertern knowledge. Girls' schools, with gymnasia and playing-ground?, are about to be established.