WHEN CHINA WAKES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 204, 22 May 1908, Page 5

WHEN CHINA WAKES.

Tho Chinese women are taking their part in the boycott of the Japanese. The " Australasian" describes how, recently,- in Cantori,"Chinese women assembled in thousands at'a great public' meeting, which, was deeply stirred by appeals that would have dono no . discredit', to the orators' of th^AVest.' .The female' students of the most- populous' city in the Far East appeared in .mournins.' Miss Lau addressed the gathering, over ; Miss Cheong Wa , Pai presided, and Wept as, she. called,up before"/.the audience a pic- : ture...of ; ;.tho f misery; thit'; would befall her sex succumbed to the Japanese. Another speaker,: Mis's U, was so carried away by her feelings "that she fainted. - Such a display .of-:,earnestness must.have. strongly affected. of whom could -find room 'in the hall.' / Resolutions were passed that every woman should buy * ring,; upon which were engraved the words "National .Disgrace," as a- constant' reminder,; of;' their' country's 'humiliation and an indentivo to have no dealings with Japa-nese.-..'For' • the; object 'of 'the meeting was,. not-to claim,a vote, but to:deplora .and. pro-test-.against'-what ,'qvery-man, and-, woman; in : China rogards ai"a'disgrace"'inflicted on the nationby- the' l islanders'' in connection with the Tatsu Maru affair. ■ There has never before been..witnessed in China, swe may safely Bay,- •or in tho .East, such a remarkable assembly as that held at Canton on April 4. It is the most striking proof yet given to tho world of < the awakening 1 of China, and throws quite a new light on tho capacity of tho Chinese, to absorb Western idca3. ' Tlie spirit of-rofonri ' must. Hp.ve penetrated far into "the nation, when its'women, .who havo hithorto been ikept in Oriental seclusion, come forward, to protest in public meeting against tho subservience of their-rulerß to the island power. . What makes the Chinese boycott so serious'is that it is a spontaneous inanifestar ■tion;,of'feeling-on, tho part of an immense population, in direct .opposition to tho, wishes of, the Government. The consequences of the ■ movement to: Jaipan are: already proving disastrous. -'Chinese merchants are refusing to buy or sell Japanese goods, are removing their accounts from Japanese banks, , and are building ships of their own so that they need not.'be 'dependent on those of the rival nation.' -The-vie<v formerly ;held ,'of -the. Chinese .that they are a sluggish people, not easily moved, is ,by. the present movemerit, , as; it'-was ;in the past'by the Taiping rebellion.' 'Though generally an easj'-going peoplo, who; attend to their,- own business," there are times, when the Chinese are liable to waves of .feeling .that'stir them to the depths, 1 and give riso to-great; changes. Such' y movement. is the anti-Japanese boycott.