MISSION TO CHINA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 29, 5 January 1931, Page 6

MISSION TO CHINA.

When the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr It. B. Bennett, was speaking at Regina (Saskatchewan) the other (lay, he made a rather interesting statement of his Government’s proposal to market wheat in China. The Canadian Minister to Japan, Mr Bennett was credited with saying, was en route to China to discuss the sale of millions of bushels of wheat to that country, in payment for which Canada was prepared to provide credit facilities in order to open up a valuable trade channel. The cablegram from Ottawa, which we published on Saturday, makes it appear that Mr Marler’s mission is much more extensive than at first stated. It is designed to place China on her feet so as to become a “huge profitable market for British, Canadian and American goods.” A plan is now being discussed in London, New York, Washington and Ottawa for the rehabilitation of the silver currency in the Orient and for the reorganisation of trade and the markets there. It is a most ambitious undertaking, for it is first of all necessary to win the war lords over to the cause, so that they will cease their internecine strife and combine for the welfare of their country. The Communist is another deadly peril to overcome. If the Chinese armies can be persuaded to return to industrial and agricultural occupations Britain and the United States are to arrange a developmental loan for railways and highways, and generally assist towards securing peace. _ China has so long been rent by civil warfare between the different factions that ordered Government for the country and its vast population seems nothing more than a dream. But, speaking recently in Brisbane, the Chinese Consul-General for Australia was hopeful for the future with the new spirit of nationalism tliat had been awakened in the people. He said the period of military destruction was over, and the second period of political training had been commenced. Nevertheless, the spirit of nationalism is so prejudiced against foreigners and foreign domination that the task of the mission may not be easy to accomplish.