CHINESE SCHOLARS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 20, 20 December 1932, Page 9

CHINESE SCHOLARS.

VISIT TO BRITAIN. (By Oliver Bell.) Aluch is heard of tho disorganisation of China. At the same time, however, sight should not bo lost of the great elforts being made by the Chinese themselves to set their house in order. One of the most hopeful signs of the times has been the way in which Ch'ta has appealed to the League or Nations for help in the reorganisation of her essential services.

Not the least important of these is education. Last year, at the invitation of Nanking, a special mission of educational experts- set out from Europe under the chairmanship of Dr Karl Becker, the ex-Prussian Minister of Education and a noted Orientalist. Its object was to see the Chinese educational system at work and then to make a report on tho way in which it could bo reorganised. The report of the mission, which is published by Alessrs Allen and Unwin, is an admirable document. It shows in what particulars the educational system of China is wrong. Chiefly, the error lies in slavish imitation of American methods. Tho commission recommends that it is not imitation that is required but adaptation. Another point in the report is a recommendation that the Chinese Government should send a few of their expert educationists- to Europe to see for themselves how tho various systems work.

This proposal has been adopted and a mission of Chinese educationists is visiting Europe at the present moment and is due to arrive in England early in December. Whilst there they will he shown as much as is possible of the English system in tho time at their disposal. There is no doubt that this is the one that is most suitable to China. Being a scattered community as it is, tho Chinese nation will benefit more from a system of decentralised education than from any other. And England is the only country in Europe that lias worked out such a system to perfection.

Through the British national committee of intellectual co-operation, a programme is being worked out. It will comprise visits to Oxford and to Cambridge so as to see the part which the older university plays in the life of the community. The following week the mission will visit the Board of Education and the London County Council. Thereafter, it will go to the West Riding of Yorkshire so as to see a rural local education authority at work and finish up with visits- to Reading University and to special educational institutions. The results of tho tour of this mission ought to he great. Whether or no China becomes a nation in the accepted Western sense of the word depends on how far she can organise her education. And upon this in its turn depends the maintenance of good relations with other Powers, and on this indirectly rests the peace of the world.”