SHAW IN CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 10

SHAW IN CHINA.

A SERIES OF INSULTS

ADMIRERS DEEPLY OFFENDED

FU3I.IC B3NUNCIATIGN. George Bernard Shaw is not only a fallen itlol, so far as many of his former admirers in China are concerned, but has even brought upon himself a great amount of public condemnation from foreigners and Chinese alike. The great English playwright and his wife, while on their trip around the world, touched at Hongkong. There Mr. Shaw expressed surprise that among the many newspaper men who came for interviews not one represented a Chinese newspaper. He deeply offended the Chinese of South China by publicly asking if they were "'so primitive" that they had never heard of him. Though Mr. Shaw had declared that he would make no public addresses while he was in China, he suddenly changed his mind and gave a lecture for die students of Hongkong University, and advised them to steep themselves in ievolutionary hoiks and to "go in for Communism up to the neck.'' Hough On Rotarians. Now, Hongkong is a British Crown colony; is extremely conservative, and the Hongkong authorities are continually .raiding the headquarters of various radical organisations. Immediately, Mr. Shaw became highly unpopular in Hongkong and was violently denounced by editorials in several English newspapers. On top of this Mr. Shaw refused to accept an invitation to speak at a luncheon given by the Hongkong Rotary Club, and then, in a newspaper interview, explained his refusal by defining the Rotary organisation as "a gang organised by ignorant and unscrupulous merchants who use the club as a means to promote their positions." Meantime, the Shanghai Rotary Club, before it heard of the Hongkong episode, had cabled to Mr. Shaw asking him to speak at a luncheon, but the ornament of Adelphi Terrace declined by cable before the invitation could be withdrawn. "Room For One More." E. F. Ilarriss, an American, who is president of the Shanghai Rotary, commented tartly: "Shaw says Rotarians are over-stlifl'ed monkeys gathered around luncheon tables. I can only say there is always room for one more, and that is why he was invited. In his desperate efforts to achieve publicity Shaw is resorting to cheap jibes, which seem to me merely evidence of senility." The Chinese Press asked Mr. Shaw for a message to the Chinese people, whereupon he remarked cryptically: "I think Japan is quite right not to bother to declare war on China. I have nothing to say in the present emergency except China, heal thyself! With China's people united, who could resist her?" On the day Mr. Shaw was duo to arrive in. Shanghai several large delegations of students, with flags and banners of welcome, waited for him for many hours at the Customs jetty. Later, it was discovered that the distinguished visitor had purposely avoided the students by landing at another dock half a mile down the river.