NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13202, 13 June 1906, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE SITUATION* IX CHINA.

Dr. Morrison, (he very able I'ekin correspondent of the London Times, who lias returned to his post after an absence of nine mouths, sends to his journal an interesting: review of the present condition or China. After making exhaustive inquiries, he lias arrived at the conclusion that there is m foundation for the alarming accounts of the situation in China which have found their, way into American and European newspapers. But while the atti- : tucle of the Government shows no sympathy with any anti-foreign -movement, it would be-idle, he says, to deny that some features of the present situation are most, unsatisfactory. Foremost- is the unbridled nature-of the newborn native press, the journals of which are mostly published in the treaty ■ ports, and • guided largely by students, with - a smattering of education from Japan ~ assisted by irresponsible Japanese. Several of the worst inflammatory papers are registered under Japanese protection. There is an urgent necessity that England should concert with Japan to assist China: to draft and enforce press laws. "Nut all the papers, however, are bad. Some tire good, and -have a beneficial effect- in contributing to the growth of a reasonable public opinion, but the general tone is antiforeign, and even the best are remarkably inaccurate. The publication in the native papers of the anti-slavery South African election charges has had a deplorable effect, while the publication of English cartoons, showing Chinese driven with whips in chains to laboui, Englishmen shooting railaway Chinese in.. sport, and Englishmen torturing Chinese at the mines, can only make Englishmen living 'a China wonder why retaliation is to in-frequent. Another unsatisfactory feature, due to the •weakness of the central Government, is its failure to forbid the holding of inflammatory* 'meetings in the central, 'nod souther* provinces. Yet another is the frequent i»l<rit-rcace of Catholic missionaries in the interior in native lawsuits, leading sooner or later to breaches of the peace and attacks upon the innocent. Some of these unsatisfactory conditions are counterpoised by the spread of Western knowledge, accompanying which is an extraordinary desire throughout the Empire for a- knowledge of English. Since the abolition of the old methods of examination the demand for Western literature lias increased enormously. Literature, modern, healthy, and instructive, is being brought into China by the ton. There is immense activity in the publishing houses in Shanghai and Japan, a\rd altogether great changes are in operation. The movement is often misdirected, and many evils are attendant upon it, but the general tendency—a striving towards greater national efficiency, however impossible of attainment that may seem in Chinais ou 3 that all nations interested in modem progress should regard with some measure of sympathy and encouragement/ •