THE CHINESE AS MANUFACTURERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9894, 22 January 1895, Page 2

THE CHINESE AS MANUFACTURERS.

In an article on the war between Japan and China a week or two ago we pointed oat that if the success of Japan meant the opening of China to Western civilisation and methods of agriculture and manufacture, therein lay a great menace to the manufacturers and artizans, not only of the colonies, but of the whole outside world. The same idea has occurred to othera. Id a contemporary we find a Bummary of an interview with General Lew Wallace, the wellknown author of "Ben Hur" and "The Princo of India," who has made the Chinese a special study. After speaking on other topics the General Baid : — " There la a grave question ia my mind whether the threatened division of the great Chinese nation should not be discouraged hy the other Powers of the earth, The impetus given to civilisation in China if Japan should prove victorious in the war now being waged, might resnlt in the commercial ruin of the whale world, Ib is well enough for the missionaries to pray for such a result, but I think it ia time for some of us who are not Christian missionaries to pray [ tor the perpetuation of Chinese exclusiveness. Think of the great possibilities that lie in store for the imitative Chinese when they awake from their lethargy to the necessiby of adopting the garb of Weetarn civilisation. Thoy could do the manufacturing for the whole world, and with labor obtainable at 10 cents a day, or, probably more correctly, 6 cents a day, the Chinese could so tar undersell us that our manufactoiles would be rained. From a humanitarian stand" point, civilisation in China may be a thing to be desired, but my own opinion is that the present excluslvoness of the Chinese should be perpetuated through tho influence of all civilised nations. Let the missionary still hang on the ragged edge. Tho Japanese should not) bo permitted to take Pokin. Snob an event, more than anything elee, would glvo a great impotns to the growth of modern civilisation in China, and I do not think that the other nations can afford to see such a consummation." This exactly hoard out tho speculative views we expressed.