NEW ZEALAND AND CHINA

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 35, 10 August 1933, Page 10

NEW ZEALAND AND CHINA

(To the Editor.)

fcsir. —I have been keenly interested by the number and value of recent articles and letters in the Wellington Press oil the subject o£ trade, between " New Zealand and China. A residence, of over, twenty years in that great country, and an intimate knowledge of the housekeeping • ot all classes of .society, have, impressed me also with the valuable possibilities for both parties, in rightly-ordered trade relations; a7)d I venture to hope that you will allow me a few words in your columns on this subject. Yesterday's mail brought news that the South Manchurian Kailway is already planning to expedite tho shipment of North Slanchurian milk, cheese, and butter to Shanghai and other ports." I£ the butter is aa good as Siberian butter was before the Great War, -it is as good as the best New Zealand—(£■ can give it no higher praise)—and, of.course,'so near to the place of production, can- be sold much cheaper. As there is no nationwide demand for butter-jit is an acquired taste with the Chinese—it seems probable that it would hardly be worth while for Kew Zealand to attempt to work up ■ a trade in this product. But there is a nation-wide demand for milk and wool. Manchuria can hardly for some time produce enough to satisfy that demand for milk; and as for wool, she has not begun to produce it. To satisfy the Chinese need and desire for wool would take far more than all that New Zealand could export. But the Chinese people have no money to .pay for what they want so much! So long as the present chaos continues, there is no hope of peace and prosperity for them ( such as will enable them to buy from us. -What then can we do? I might quote bishops, statesmen, business men to explain what I mean, but the testimony will come with strongest force from a "newspaper man," a man moreover of the Jewish faith. Here is a, paragraph from Sokolsky, of the "New York Times," the wellknown authority on Far Eastern affairs: "It is the role that Christianity has played in the creation of a distinctive personality that has made the missions so attractive to me. . . . China will not be saved by multitudes or by buildings. She requires leaders, and the Christian mission has done more than its share in the reorientation of the Chinese rnirid to a social consciousness,, as evidenced by the increasingly large number of _. Christian men and women who serve their China in a modern manner." . • '.■":.: One hundred years ago our country did not hesitate to make the greatest sacrifices for the abolition of slavery and the uplift of the negroes in West Africa; because the conscience of England was guided by Christian principles. Her reward was not delayed till some , far-distani future—it is open and evident now for all to see who have followed the history of the matter. Do not mistake me! I am not suggesting that we should "Christianise the Chinese in order to exploit them. Kather I might say: "Had we set ourselves in the past, as a nation, to share our highest knowledge with that great nation, we might now have a strong and prosperous China, able by her trade to help us in our economic need"—and I might ask: is it too late?"—l am, etc., " A. M. D. DINNEEN, Or. Sec, Anglican Board of Missions.;