AWAKENING OF CHINA.

Northern Advocate, 17 June 1920, Page 6

AWAKENING OF CHINA.

OPPOSITION TO FOREIGN IN

ROADS,

NATIONAL -MOVEMENT

Public opinion in China is unanimous in its thorough and absouiutu resistance to all further inroads on the part of foreign Powers, said Dr. J. fc>. Reinsch, former Minister to China, at a luncheon at New York of the League of Free Nations' Association, at which "the awakening of China" was discussed.

"There has been a national movement in China for some time," said Dr. Reinsch, '' but only within the past year has it become a strong, well-defin-ed, well-organised, popular movement, due to the impetus given by tho Shantung decision, which profoundly affected the Chinese people. The essential thing about the •Shantung matter is the railroad situation. The return of about 50 square miles of territory would be immaterial if there wore no means of connection with ports and other parts of the country. The Chinese want the lailroad passing through the Shantung territory to be a part of their national system; they do not want it controlled by a foreign Government. I fool that unless some arrangement can be made for this road to become a part of tho Chinese national railroad system, it will be a permanent source of irritation and friction which will disturb relations between China and Japan."

It was the students who first organised in revolt against the decision of the Peace Conference which was such a tremendous blow to China. With them joined the merchants, who, for the first time in history, recognised the necessity of joining in national affairs, Dr. Reinsch explained. Together, tho students and boards of trade joined in a movement not of hostility, but of protest against Japan, reinforced by strikes and boycotts. They demanded and effected the dismissal of three Government officials believed to have connived with or yielded supinely to Japan. The merchants simply closed their shops, according to the old Chinese method of inertia, and sat down to await events. But this boycott, which was negative and non-punishable, because no one could force individuals to buy, was merely a starting point. They realised that they themselves were to blame, because they had not taken more interest in their Government. The result was, however, a perfectly natural and enthusiastic development of home industries. In this connection Dr. Reinsch spoke of the many cotton mills being established throughout China, aud said that, one American firm alone had sold £5,000,000 worth of cotton machinery in that country.

'' China is one of the most democratic nations in the world,'' Dr. Reinsch continued, "and has a strong feeling for equity, allowing no act of injustice to go unreprimanded. One of the,difficulties in which she finds herself at present is how to preserve the virtue of the old system of personal contact in government and adapt it to a modern system. The universities are the nuclei of national life, students feel themslves not provincial, but Chinese. This is tho time, I feel, for educational and economic development, rather than political, and the time to spread education throughout all classes."

Mr. P. C. Chang, secretary of the Chinese Education Commission touring America, said the commission felt thai through education alone the new day would come, but that new inspiration must be connected with the old tradition, that progress must spring out of China's own experience and thought. Tho history of modern China must be written according to her literary revolutions. A literary revolution was going on at present, and the literati were writing of everyday experiences in terms of everyday life, that is, in the veranculsir, so that all who could read could also understand. This indicated the willingness of the educated class to try to pull the masses up. Not only is there an innovation in the style of writing, but in tho ideas presented; new ideas being fostered and old ones revived. And the young liberals of China are writing letters to young Liberals of Japan, ho said, advising them to try to help their Government.

Mr. Chang said in reply to a question that public opinion in China was decidedly back of the proposed four-power loan, and that, if it wore successful, it would be of the greatest help toward China's political freedom. However, they did not want loans for political purposes, but only for use in tho nationalisation of their railroads and industry. China was also eager to get control of her Customs and tariffs, and 10 free herself from the domination of the military party.

Dr. Yamei Kin, the first Chinese woman to receive a degree from an Amerivan university, speaking of the China silk, and ton which her country had given the world lately, called attention to the fact that in return China had boon given opium, that, it had boon forced upon her, although there were laws in China imposing capital punishment upon those who produced it there. She said that two years ago •J I tons of morphia were imported into ishantung by Japan. She urged that the United States help put down the traffic in opium. "The only way to stop the consumption of narcotics is to take then?, out of the world," she said.