CHINA AND THE CHINESE

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 192, 16 August 1927, Page 11

CHINA AND THE CHINESE

THE TURMOIL OF A REBIRTH. "There are as many opinions on Chin?.," said Mrs. Anderson yesterday, "as there are people. There is the pessi.mist, who sits in his club and says things are too awful. Send a gunboat at once." There are those with an historical sense, who see things happening which they know took place in their own country, and there are those who are. optimists and say that things are moving forward towards a successful national life, which was the opinion of the speaker. • Mrs. Harold Anderson, who was briefly introduced by Mrs. Dickenson, laid each jview before the members of the Lyceum Club yesterday. She has lived in China for ten years, and has come in close contact with all classes of opinion. Formerly she was Miss Ella McNeil, of Christchurch, and has been engaged in the work of the Y.W.C.A. in China. She recently retired upon her marriage to Dr. Anderson, also of China. Her opinions were gathered, she said, from the most intelligent, the most patriotic, and the most friendly and sensible people, as all great people are, that she knew.

People were very confused in their outlook on China, said the speaker, and no wonder, by the news which appeared in the papers and magazines. During the last month she had read an article in the "World's Work," "The Truth About China and Russia," saying that China was Red from end to end. In letters from Shanghai received from her friends, they said that it was obvious that Russia had lost ground, and the extremists were losing favour. An American gentleman who was travelling in China had been told such tales about the treatment of missionaries that he was invited to meet fifteen representative people from all over China who could speak as to what was going to happen, and their opinion was that events were working towards the best lor them in the China that was evohing.*ln the cables were reports of two nuns and priests who had fled and said everything was lost, and again there were, letters from two bishops, which she had seen, which said that the church was carrying on in two hip dioceses in western and eastern China, and that no Chinese deacon had, as far as they knew, given up. Another story said that Hankow had gone to the dogs, and another report that the British consul was letting the women go back, which he would not have done if it had not been safe. Again another article in a magazine said that Canton was overrun with robbers, while a woman teacher, writing to her, said that she had never had such peace.

These conflicting accounts showed how little reliance was to be placed on the reports that reached us, from both sides. The actual truth was there was both good and bad on a scale which it was not possible for us to'understand. No country had been called to face such a rebirth us China was going through. Some people had blamed the missionaries, but if there had been no missionaries it still would have happened, for it was the trade contact of the west forcing itself into a people totally different in ideals. China was founded on a feudal system which began with the family, then formed the guild, then the province guild and the small factories. It was truly feudal. Into this came the the West with its desire for cheap labour and brought people from all parts of the country, without making any provision for their housing, so they broke up the family unit, the guild, and the small factory system, and in its place massed great numbers of people in conditions which brought on unrest. Then again the ideals of trade were different under the Chinese system. A gentleman, whom the speaker knew, head of one of the greatest trade houses in China, who had done business tfyere for forty years, with both fathers and sons, described how a Chinese gentleman relied on the individual word. The great banking interests worked on the principle that on no occasion did they ruin their customer, and no contract was necessary. The word of a Chinese gentleman was sufficient. Then came the individual outlook, and a gambling market, and all over the country people were ruined. In her opinion the business would in the future go to those people who best adopted the methods of the people, and this seemed to be Germany, which was making a study of Chinese psychology. The speaker's advice to those present was not to be rapidly censorious, to try and understand what was going on, to take a long view, like the British Government was doing at the present time and to remember that we were dealing with a nation of 400.000,000, which was a civilised nation ten we were painted savages. At the exclusion Mrs. Dickenson gave the speaker a hearty vote of thanks for an unusually interesting and original address.