CHINA'S AWAKENING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8538, 19 March 1908, Page 3

CHINA'S AWAKENING.

It is interesting, in connection with the statements recently made by Mr Ling, the Chinese Ambassador visiting England, regarding the widespread wave of new life in China, to compare these with the following, written by a Times' correspondent journeying through South China:— During my journey, he says, I was much struck by the improved condition of the soldiers, who are a great improvement on the old "braves." Still more was I struck by the spread of Western education. In every town of any importance, and often in villages, there are schools with foreign fittings for teaching Western learning. Large numbers of temples, often every temple except the city temple and the Confucian temple, are being converted into schools and colleges, while scholars in their eemi-foreign dress are counted by thousands. In Kwei-lin I found classes, taught by a Frenchman and singing English glees to the music of a Japanese harmonium. Everywhere was noticeable the desire to learn English. Any Chinese or Japanese speaking English, however imperfectly, can make a living by teaching. Everywhere are distributed Japanese educational appliances, specially prepared for Chinese use—school books, maps, globes, anatomical and other charts all helping to rescue the people from their ignorance. Outside the metropolitan province I saw no evidence of any attempt to promulgate or enforce the recent opium regulations, but through the native press their nature is well known. It is too eoon yet to determine their effect. Every school is, however, an. important anti-opium agency.