THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1910. THE EXPANSION OF CHINA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10074, 23 August 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1910. THE EXPANSION OF CHINA.

People of New Zealand are probably not aware that China—the vast Empire of tlu East—which has been regarded with pity rather than envy i during recent years, is slowly but surely emerging from its condition of inactivity to a state of commercial ! enterprise. This is largely due to the j fact that the United States is exercising an important influence in the industrial affairs of the .country. At the time that the late Lord Salisbury controlled the Cabinet, it was hoped that the Chinese Empire j would be divided into "spheres of influence," or, rather, protectorates, among England and other European ! countries. This hope was not realised, chiefly through the diplomacy I of Secretary Hay, of the United | States. Since that time, China has / shown a special regard for American enterprise, and has trusted American statesmanship. In an article in a German paper, Dr. Ernst Shultze declares that "the Chinese Government is striving to open the way for the investment of American capital within her provinces to encourage the development of profitable enterprises." The American TofoaScq !Trasfy

it seems, has already erected a large factory in Manchuria, and in South China the Steel Trust is building furnaces for the manufacture of iron and steel. America, therefore, declares this writer, will practically hold the balance of power between China and Japan: "The Government at "Washington may some time perhaps be called upon to interpose in preventing a clash between China and Japan, which would be disastrous to the interests of both parties concerned. In this emergency America could exhibit her diplomatic address in handling the two most powerful nations of East Asia. She would at least have the advantage of China's favour in aiming at the hegemony in the Far East." This writer enumerates the various colleges founded by American money and conducted on American methods

at Pekin and other cities of the Flowery Kingdom. But the real influence of America in China, we are told, ' comes from the Chinese students who have studied in New England and other colleges, remaining from ten to twelve years in the U.S.A. Many of them on returning to their native country have taken high official positions. In the autumn of 1909 there were 600 Chinese ■students in Ajnerican institutions .of learning* we read, 100, of them being sent here by the Government at Pekin. "Naturally in North America every means is resorted to in the treatment of these students to in* crease the influence of Washington in Pekin." It is significant, Dr. Shultze remarks, that Chinese students at Cornell, the universities of Pennsylvania, Columbia, and Harvard, prefer the technical to the literary departments. Nineteen per cent, of them choose railroad engineering as their speciality, 13 per cent, machinery, 16 per cent, take a commercial training, while 9 per cent, become mining engineers, 6 lawyers, and 4 teachers. Art and esthetics are studied by very .few. Thus it happens that when American capital is invested in China, American methods and American machinery actually succeed in almost Americanising the country where "progress in the technical arts is made with much 1 greater rapidity than even in Europe or America."