CHINESE INVASION OF THE WEST.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2546, 3 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHINESE INVASION OF THE WEST.

A kkokst nu nber of a Parisian magazine contains an article very pessimistic in tone, under the title of " The Probabilities of .vChinese Invasion in the West." The writer refers to the extraordinary developments which hue taken place daring the last hundred year*, and believes that the new century to which we are approaching, will be signalised beyond anything preceding it by ''the appearance of the ytllow race on the scene of the civilised world." He quotes the words of Baron Hnbner, in his work " Across the British Empire," who says, "The last wars against China have had to my eyes an incalculable range. We wished to open China to the Europeans, but it is to the Chinese that we have opened the World'' ; and he maintains that in consequence of this the civilised word is on the eve of a great invasion of the yellow race. He points out two possible invasions, a military and a commercial. As to the former it is well known that China is industriously re-organising her military and naval forces, and in anv great conflict she has the advantage in a comparatively unlimited supply of "the most important of war materialmen. As to tho possibility of a commercial invasion we quote the summary of the article given by a contemporary: — The intelligence and savoir faire of tho Chinese worker, the commercial genius which that people possesses, the facility with which they have accommodated themselves to all the mysteries of banking, tho extraordinary rapidity with which Chinese merchants are substituting themselves for English, American, and German merchants, in their own over-ocean trade, tho facility which they have for picking up the lansruage or jargon of commerce, their capacity for all the finesse of stockbroking and speculation of every kind, all indicate their readiness for usurping the enterprises in which European peoples have considered themselves the loaders of men; while the remarkable growth of Chinese-owned shipping is equally significant. The tonnage going in and out of the open ports of China even nine years ago was, under the Chinese flag, over four and a-lialf million tons, as against eight millions under ths British flag, while it was three times as much as that of all other nations together.

But while commerce has thus been extended, industrial enterprises within China, and owned and chiefly conducted by Chinese, have been equally expanding. At Tiensin there is an arsenal covering a surface of 250 hectares, where they manufacture firearms and projectiles of every kind. At Shanghai they have a cotton factory, tanneries, and factories of various kinds modelled on the methods of the West; while at Canton and at Fatchun they manufacture for the internal trade" of the Empire tools of all kinds—ornaments, watches, clocks, and all other of household requirements. When we consider that at Cauton, Pekin, Shanghai and all other great centres, the wages of workmen range from od to lOd a day, while tho cost of living does not exceed 4d, it is easy to see that in the development of the internal industries of China there is a serious menace of Europeans in the markets of the world. Nor are the prospects of such growth of enterprise diminished by the supply of that basis of manufacturing industry, coal. The Geographical Review says that the basin of one single river in China could furnish coal sufficient for the whole world for thousands of years; and it is difficult to gainsay the assertion of our author, that when the Panama Canal is opened the Chinese will very quickly grasp the idea that the European consumer is capable of being exploited. "The middle empire would then be furnished with a network of railways, which, while revolutionising it may be Chinese Society, will overturn at a stroke the economic conditions of tho old world." It must be admitted that the prospect is not a pleasant one, and that it takes in a ranjre of objectionable possibilities far greater than is usually contemplated in their efforts to stem the stream of Chinamen coming into the colonies. The military danger will probably he obviated by the advance in development of the resources of civilisation ; the invasion of workmen may be arrested by treaty arrangements; but in the development of manufactures and industries of every kind, within the confines of China itself, with her hundreds of millions of docile and quick and industrious workers, satisfied with a wage on which Europeans would starve, there are potentialities that seem to threaten in tho near future a commercial revolution throughout the whole world.