THE NEW CHINA

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 May 1931, Page 4

THE NEW CHINA

MOMENTOUS DEVELOPMENTS. “There is no more fascinating subject to-day than the real awakening of China,” said Captain E. T. Pilcher, of the E. and A. steamer Tanda, when in Sydney recently. “For 30 years I have watched the very slow, almos imperceptible movement of incalculable forces, an cl recently I have seen for the first time the beginning of a national momentum which must yet throw the world’s political, industrial and- agricultural alignments into confusion. “It has been enormously difficult to unify and lead hundreds of millions of people living in vanished centuiies, but once the immense inert mass quickens into new life, as it is now doing, even the birth pangs will have stupendous /consequences. “Australians and- New Zealandeis are apt to classify China as a land or sea and river pirates, of costal smugglers in modern motor boats, of warring armies shooting in the air, of demobilised bandits plundering at large, of densely ignorant and incredibly poor millions. In the same way, with perhaps less truth, the Chinese might classify Australia as a land of razor gangs and strikes. We know too little of the new foundations of a really stable Government,, and commercial air services, the building of good roads, the improvement ot ports, the construction of mills and factories, the efforts to improve silk culture and to bring in modern methods of agriculture, the influence of European-trained Chinese and the spread of a national spirit in place of a clan or district allegiance.” , Captain Pilcher emphasised the necessity for Australia and New Zealand to watch developments in a great neighbour which is being brought closer every day by fast steamers' and by aerial progress. • “I am not referring so much to the racial and political effects upon the Commonwealth and Dominion, but to China’s potentialtities as a buyer oi our raw material and to her unsuspected attractions as a magnet tor tourists. In the matter of buying possibilities I should stress one point —care in passing enactments which, by shutting out Chinese products, may in turn close ' China absolutely to everything Australian and New Zealand. “PARIS OF THE FAR EAST.” “The tourist angle is also worth considering because there is no' potent force for goodwill than the knowledge gained by Australians and New Zealanders who visit a world port like Shanghai or use it as a base for excursions into superb scenery. Although the E. and A. Line has only recently made Shanghai a port of call thus fostering not only our trade but our tourists, I have been interested in the reactions among our passengers who thus see China for the first time. .They are shown two great cities, one practically international, and the other completely Chinese, and days of sight-seeing could not exhaust the possibilities of either. “Shanghai has been well described as the Paris of the Far'East. Its magnificent hotels and wide streets, beautiful Bund or shore promenade, costly buildings, carpets, parks, shops, gambling palaces, and safety invariably cause enthusiasm. The innumerable curio and jewellery shops, some built in pagoda style, and nearly all decked out with gilt carvings, etc., offer a paradise for the seeker of bargains in gems, silk, ivory, china, brassware, etc. It is not unusual for a single jewel establishment to employ 200 artisans. “The quaint mingling of races, of costumes, of 1 motors with wheelbarrows, of stately Indian police with Chinese of hare and dog racing with exquisite pony courses, of 'junks from B.C. with oil-burning steamers of 1931, —these and a thousand other contrasts never pall. “Shanghai can be made the jump-ing-off point for Nanking, the national capital, Hankow, Tientsin, Pekin and other centres of interest, and the tourist may choose his own method ot travel —air or motor, or river steamer, or junk, or railway. Probably nothing on earth can equal, or at least surpass, the famous Yangtse gorges? which cau be easily reached by fast steamers. Tourists who read of occasional attacks and shootings on the Yangtse—undoubtedly true to a limited extent —find it hard to reconcile such medievalism with the daily departure from Shanghai of comfortable up,-to-date river steamers. One British company alone has three such vessels.

“Possibly a sea . captain on his bridge may be ruled out as an expert on Chinese affairs, but I am convinced that every year the existence of Shanghai as the great port of the North will bulk more largely in the , minds of Australians and New Zealanders—racially, politically, industrially, and as a pleasure resort.”