THE BOYCOTT

Evening Star, Issue 20986, 28 December 1931, Page 10

THE BOYCOTT

Boycotts are China’s sharpest weapon and her most ancient one. No one who has not suffered from them can realise their deadlines'! (writes H. Green, in the ‘Daily Telegraph’). From time immemorial, when a magistrate “squeezed ’ his people unduly, they had one invincible retort. They shut them shops and stopped all business, and always the magistrate gave in at once.

But the mere passive resistance to the mandax-iiu lias developed, when turned against foreigners, into the most ferocious attack, when Chinese who venture to deal in the goods of the offending nation aro beaten, and paraded through the streets, with insulting placards on them, and may even be killed. The terrorism exercised by the boycott loaders knows no bounds.

It is only in recent years that boycotts and strikes—the two always go together—have been regularly employed against any foreign nation with which China has a dispute. The first boycott of modern times was against America, in 1905, after the passing of the American Asiatic exclusion laws. But the Chinese Government wanted to keep on good terms'with the United States, and the boycottera were suppressed in a few weeks, though not till they had done much damage. The anti-Japanese boycott of 1919 (due to Japan’s retention, under the Versailles Treaty, of Germany’s rights in Shantung), which dragged on for nearly two years, doing Japan’s trade frightful harm, really set the standard for all subsequent outbreaks. Then for the first tune the body of modern students stood out and claimed to lead the nation, as tho old classically trained scholars had done; and ever since, though most of them are mere boys, they Jiavo been in the forefront of every agitation In tho past ten years strikes and boycotts have become almost endemic To name only the biggest: The Hongkong strike and boycott in 1921, directed by Dr Sun Yat-sen’s Government at Canton, when, as ship after ship arrived in Hongkong, the crews mysteriously vanished, and for many weeks all foreigners had to do their own cooking and cleaning; tho terrific antiBritish boycott in 1923, duo to the shooting of riotous students in Shanghai; tho anti-Japanese boycott, following the clash at Tsinanfu in 1928. which lasted for a year; and innumerable local boycotts Only this (summer Canton has been boycotting German trade all through South China, on the ground that Germany had supplied arms to its enemies in Hanking. Big centres like Shanghai and Hongkong now have ready-made volunteer organisations to meet these emergencies and carry on essential services. But foreigners in small ports aro often in dire straits. Without the Navy the British in Swatow would have starved in 1925. One’s helplessness is almost tho worst part. Without a word, one’s servants walk out, cjffico staffs and labourers

vanish, transport ceases. Few workers really wish to stop work, but Chinese are so timid, so wholly subservient to mass dictation, that they dare not disobey. One can never get in touch with the real boycott leaders, who are away behind the scenes, some of them, un-'-rlly, politicians in high position. The boycott organisation is now so perfect that it can ho set in motion at a touch. Tho Government cannot control it, oven if it would. Ono Important factor is the immense profit made by the agitators, ransacking the Chinese shops for “enemy goods,” and exacting enormous fines from tho owners.

Japan’s investments of £52,000,000 in China proper" include over twenty banks, £23,000,000 in cotton mills, £6,700,000 in shipping, small shops innumerable. I can picture them under tho recent boycott, tho 40,000 mill hands gone, factories silent, ships tied up, banks and business houses deserted and dead, and tho Japanese, brave people though they are, trembling behind barred doors.