The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News,Morning News and The Echo. ANOTHER PROBLEM FOR BRITAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 12, 15 January 1926, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

ANOTHER PROBLEM FOR BRITAIN.

For the came ihat lacks assistant*, for the wrong that needs re.iistanae, For the future in the distance, And the good that toe can do. FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1020.

The description given in our news to-day of the plight of British residents and British trade in Southern China is a sharp reminder that though China has not been so prominent in the newspapers as it was si.x months ago, the Chinese problem, in all its immensity and complexity, remains. Of all the European Powers Britain 13 the one most interested in China. She has great interests there. A large amount of British capital is employed in China, and in 1924 exports of British goods to China were valued at twenty millions. In .Southern China tbo feeling against Britain is so strong that trade at Hongkong is said to be at 1 ' standstill, and the British colony at Swatow is kept going only by the help of naval ratings. These boycotts are the result of the disturbances of last year and the growing anti-European feelina among the student class. The use of force against rioters was laid at . the door of the British, who were singled out not only because it was a British officer who gave the order to fire at Shanghai, but because, in the words of the "Round Table." "we have always played a leading part in China's affaire and because our interests are highly conspicuous." Most of the weight of the anti-foreign movement, which was given so great an impetus by the Shanghai incident, has fallen on British interests, and the resultant loss is described by the "Round Table" as incalculable. The task of breaking down this Chinese prejudice, however. gouM not, be more difficult. Britain's record in China is against her. She wishes China well, but the Chinese remember nineteenth century history. The easing of the restrictions which European Powers have placed on Chinese independence is made difficult by the political chaos in the country, but resentment against these restrictions feeds the antiforeign movement. Western ideas of nationalism have filtered into China, and "China for the Chinese" ia the cry. The Russian Bolsheviks, only too eager to injure Europe in general and Britain in particular, are encouraging the boycotts and hatred of the foreigner. Experiene? has shown thai a trade boycott in China is a. formidable weapon. What is to be done? It is all very well to say that British diplomacy is ''too timid and lacking in initiative." It may be, but the use of stronger measures might make the situation worse instead of better. Fore* is no longer the weapon it was in the East. These Chinese are using in the trade boycott a weapon against which thefe is really no defence. The only way to turn it is to change the feeling of the User. That is, no doubt, what the British Government is trying to do, though it may be doubted whether it is going the best way about it. The "Rdund Table" said some months ago that it was our duty to see that tha great opportunity of making friends with. China was not "frittered away in the casuistries of diplomatic negotiation," and that success would only be achieved if the British, case was entrusted to a real leader, a statesman "with theirision to realise the greatness of the issue, the courage to face the issue, and the gift of leadership necessary to carry through a i-eadjustment of our relations -with Chiiia on broad and generous lines/ Yet, at the time of writing, Britain was the only great Power that had not. made "some gesture of friendship" to China, and in the meanwhile Britain was carrying "the whole burden of the trouble, the immense material losses arising from the boycott, and the accumulating bitterness of misunderstanding." It is reasonable to ■believe that since then Britain has done something to better her position, but it is clear that the task of reconciliation will be long and arduous, and that infinite patience will be required.