DR. T.Z. KOO

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 103, 4 May 1931, Page 10

DR. T.Z. KOO

LEADER FROM CHINA

OUTSTANDING FIGURE

'ARRIVAL IX AUCKLAND

The arrival in Auckland by the Niagara from Sydney of Dr. T. Z. Koo marks the first stage in a month's visit to the Dominion of one of China's most interesting personalities. The Chinese nation is in the melting pot, and her leaders are preparing her future form. What that form will bo is of tho utmost importance to all other nations, and it ,is men like Dr. Koo who are helping to mould the now China. He, a cultured scholar and a fluent speaker, can and does speak with authority on the affairs of China, and if the addresses ho is to give in the chief centres in the Dominion are of the same substance as those given recently in Australia, Dr. Koo's visit should be of immense value to New Zealand. lie will be arriving in Wellington on Saturday morning next. On Monday he will be tendered a civic reception,- and is duo to give a public address that evening. Other addresses by Dr. Koo have been arranged, both at the beginning of next week and when he returns to Wellington towards the end of the month after a visit to tho South Island. Dv. Koo is an outstanding leader of the Christian Movement, in China, and vice-president .of the World Student Christian Federation. lie is on his way to attend the meeting of the executive of the federation, which is to be held in the" States in July-next. His visit to tho Dominion is at the invitation of the New Zealand Student Christian Movement. Dr. Koo is a graduate of St. John's University, Shanghai, and' has also studied in the States. Tor a number of years he was a .member of tho Administrative Department of the Chinese Railways Service. In 1918 he joined the staff of the National Committee of the V.M.C.A. of China, t and held the position of general secretary of that body. In 1925 he was ono of the three chosen by thirty-four Chinese organisations to represent his country at the second Opium Conference called by the League of Nations. In the following year he was a delegate to the Conference of tho Institute of Pacific Relations. This was held at Honolulu, and at it was Mr. Walter Nash, M.P., one of New Zealand's delegates. Of Dr. Koo Mr. Nash said: "Dr. Koo was one of the most brilliant Christians tfrom China. Clear and able in tho presentation of any case he was talking, on, he brought a viewpoint of thef feelings and outlook of tho people of China that was entirely new to tho people of the Western World." Dr. Koo was a delegate to the. 1927 Conference also, and he is much sought after as a speaker on China and her problems. . . • -. • ■ Dr. Koo whilst in Australia explained why he was no longer associated in an official capacity with the V.M.C.A. in China, of which organisation.he was secretary for eleven years. lie resigned from the position as a paid worker, ho said, in order to engage,, in voluntary religious activity. In China and the Far East the Young Christians had always felt it strange that religious workers, should receive salaries. Buddhist monks were not paid, but existed on alms and on what they could obtain as the i-csult of work in the fields, and it was felt that Christians should also carry out their religious work because they felt an urge to do so rather than- in return for payment. Because of this he had decided to embark upon tho adventure of seeing whether, in 'these modern days, it was possible to live as St. Paul had, spreading the truths of Christianity and existing on what he could earn in his spare time. . ~ . A NEW CHINA. Dr. Koo has played a considerable part in the revolutionary movements in China. Now that the Nanking Government is without a serious rival political organisation —the day of the ambitious war lords being ended —thero is a Constitution to be fabricated and the people to be trained in tho working of democratic institutions, says Dr. Koo.. Important preliminaries were in hand, and the co-operation of other countries was being sought. Dr. Koo very naturally rejoices at the prospect, consequent upon, one Government now being able to speak for the whole of China, of the denunciation of "all those unilateral treaties which have long been an offence to . every self-respecting Chinese citizen. Whatever justification there may or may. not have been in the past for imposing these one-sided treaties on-the Chinese nation, there can.be none now. What nation, unless obsessed, as China is not, by an inferiority complex, could, fail to resent the principle of extra-territoriality, which denies it the right of being mistress of its own house?". CHINESE MUSIC. Although, spending much of his time travelling, lecturing, and writing, Dr. Koo is a'flautist of no mean merit. He is an enthusiastic student of Chinese music, and has ' made a collection of Chinese folk-songs, 'which ho has reduced to Western musical notation and translated into English. Before playing these pieces to other than Chinese audiences, Dr. Koo is wont to ask his hearers to withhold judgment until several pieces have been played. "My reason for doing.so," he says, "is that while travelling on a steamer on one occasion I met an Englishman, and in tho course of conversation I asked him what he thought of Chinese music. -Ho said: 'Well, it rather reminds me of the noise which would bo made if you put nine cats, in 'a bag and then sat on them very hard.' As a ■ matter of fact there is distinct beauty of melody in some of. tho folk-songs, which give expression to the ordinary everyday life of the people and their simple emotions." Jazz, he says, is quite an old form of music in China.