RED REGIME IN CHINA.
44 RUSSIA THE MALIGNANT." ABJECT STATE OF PEOPLE. JHE TOOL OF BOLSHEVISM. OPINIONS OF SENATOR GOFF. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] WELLINGTON. Thursday. Blaming Russia to a large extent for' the present state of affairs in China, Senator Guy D. Goff, of the United States, in an interview, expressed the opinion that Great Britain and America must stand together and decide between friendly, immediate and inexpensive intervention or a future costly and terrible war. Having visited China a short time ago, when he studied economic conditions there, he was satisfied that upon the solution of the problem depended the security of generations yet to come and the safety of the entire world to-day. The so-called Nationalist Party in China, Mr. Goff said, was completely under the influence of Soviet Russia. Surprising as it seemed there was no Government in China to-day. The Peking Government did not function outside the walls of that historic city. He referred in detail to the various political factions or war lords, who were all at war with other. Two Major Movements. "There are two major movements taking place in China to-day,'' said Mr. GofT. "One is the struggle of the Chinese people to free themselves from the tyranny of the militarists and the other is the' organised attempt of Russia to involve China in her programme of world revolution and world distinction. Russia aims to drive all foreigners out of China and convert the Chinese to Bolshevism, with Russia, of course, paramount in control. The -Chinese people were ignorant, long-suffering .and pathetically patient. The Chinese as a nation lived in the past. They were stalic and never dvnamic. They determined things and did things as their fathers did—not the fathers of a generation ago, but the fathers of forty centuries ago. "These unfortunate people, and I use the term advisedly," Mr. Goff went on, "are reduced to-day to a state of abject subjection, where misery and red-handed anarchy rule' supreme. The overwhelming majority of them are helpless, fatuous and hopeless. They are a nation of foui hundred million people and 98 per cent, of them are illiterate. The great majority of the intelligent Chinese to-day are practically unanimous in condemning the misrule of the war lords. These so-called patriots confiscate property, starve and terrorise the'' multitude, and make human life the cheapest commodity in all the world. The Undomesticated Bear. " China, left alone, might have worked out in her own way a solution of her present chaos. She has not been left alone, and she is not now and she never has l>een free to be herself and to think out her place in the nations of the world. .. . Russia, the malignant and the sinister, , Russia—always the growling, snarling/ undomesticated bear—is the cause of it all- Russia is the pariah and the outcast of civilisation to-day. She is using China, hoping that her disintegration will affect other countries.
" Is civilisation doing its duty when it stands placidly by," says Mr. Goff, "and sees a /great people helplessly, hopelessly and supinely rushing to its ruin? Does civilisation answer the test when it does not- step in for the sake of humanity and aid those who cannot aid themselves ? Is the present civilisation of which we boast worthy of the name or worthy/ of continuance if it allows a "nation not only to destroy itself but to destroy its relationship and its place in the family of nations?"
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19719, 19 August 1927, Page 8
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574RED REGIME IN CHINA. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19719, 19 August 1927, Page 8
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