THE REVOLT IN CHINA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19736, 8 September 1927, Page 8

THE REVOLT IN CHINA.

EFFECT ON MISSIONS. LUXURIES IN DEMAND. BOBBED HAIR A FASHION. BRIGANDS AS POLICEMEN. That China is rapidly becoming the greatest market in the world for the manufactures and luxuries of the West is the conviction of the Rev. G. W. Shepherd, who has spent the last nine years in mission work in the southern province of Frikien. Mr. Shepherd is a Dunedin man, and is a member of the American' Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. His experience is that the Chinese prejudice against the foreigner has not prevented them from eagerly seeking after the products of modern civilisation. Mr. Shepherd quoted an instance in point. A missionary friend of his, visiting a Chinese who had suffered loss by fire, suggested the value of fire extinguishers, and gave a demonstration with one. The immediate result was that interested Chinese clubbed together and sent away an order for 50 of these extinguishers. The present revolution has created, a great demand for Western goods. Every Chinese boy now wants a fountain pen and a watch. Clocks are in great demand, and so are foreign shoes and hats and oyercoats. All the Chinese bovs want worsted or woollen overcoats in place of silk, <jnd therein lies a great opportunity for New Zealand. Tooth brushes and tooth paste and foreign cutlery are among the articles much sought after, and the up-to-date Chinese housewife now demands aluminium cooking utensils.

Until about a year ago Chinese women wore no hats. Now woollen knitted hats to cover their bobbed hair are all, the craze. "As modern as you could make them," said Mr. Shepherd,' referring to the fashion in short hair. "•> The missionary shook his head over the sinister Russian influences evident. "Monkeying with the morals of the young people," he called it, "and setting up Bohemian standards that threaten to bring ruin. Chinese parents to-day have every reason to be anxious for their children." Long Period of Unrest. Responsible Chinese leaders • estimate that it will be ten years yet before their country has passed through the present phase of the revolution, but it will probably be fifty years before they get anything like a centralised government on a proper democratic basis. Discussing thij|§effeet of the revolution on Christian missions, Mr. Shepherd said the revolution was undoubtedly the greatest blessing that foreign missions had had. Yet he stated -that a boat left Shanghai last May taking away 600 missionaries, the majority of whom would never return to China. The work of his own mission—the Shaowu mission in Frikien—has not been disturbed or interfered with to any great extent, because 10 years ago. in co-operation with other mission societies, they formed a Chinese Christian Church enjoying complete autonomy. Against that church the recent propaganda representing all missions as foreign government agencies fell harmless. The revolution as one of its effects had greatly increased the demand for instruction in spiritual things.Mr. Shepherd happened to be in Shane hai when it was captured by the South erners in the last week of March. Ther? could be no doubt that the vast majority' of all foreigners who went, through those crucial days were heart and soul in fav our of the policy of protection affordp-1 by the international police force, in whir! Britain was foremost. A Massacre Prevented. In the interval between the departure of the Northerners and the arrival of the Southerners the lawless bands in the city had made up their minds to loot ali foreign property, and had it not been for military protection a massacre would have almost certainly occurred. Britain * is not yet withdrawing her main protective forces and is not likely to do so for a year or two yet. # "The idea of governing their own country has not yet dawned in the minds of 85 per cent, of China's hard-working masses. National consciousness is still in its infancy. In her political revolution China is about 200 years behind as. Communism is being put through the, acid test whether or not it is an economic snccess. In many districts under the Northern war lords people have already paid taxes in full for 1927, 1928 and 1929, and the Nationalists are being forced to again collect taxes for 1927.. Whatever the people may know about government they are unanimously opposed to that kind of thing." The Nationalist Government has recently invited the numerous and wellarmed brigands that have infested Frikien for years to police the province. Mr. Shepherd has lived under their administration for some months and has no hesitation in saying that it is a considerable improvement on the Government that it" displaced. Similar conditions are found elsewhere. Brigands as Guardians of Law. The more powerful of the brigand chieftains are now generals and the lesser are colonels and majors, employing the old members of their robber gangs as guardians of the province. Instead of roaming the valleys in search of plunder they now collect the revenues of the State andprotect society from its unruly members. Occasionally a few of the men rebel at the monotony and hard work of the barracks, and. taking their rifles, return to th<jir old livelihood, but the majority remain loyal to their leaders. Instead of pilfering the shipping on the rivers these men are now the duly authorised customs officers at the likin stations. To he sure they are sometimes still in league with members of the old gang operating in lonely mountain passes, but for the most part it is now possible to move ahont without fear of being molested by lurking bands of robbers. Mr. Shepherd considers that one of the most hopeful things about- the present state of affairs is that almost to a man the returned students from abroad and the graduates of the Government and mis-; sionarv institutions are heart and soul behind the Nationalist movement. Mr. Shepherd has been spending a few months on furlough in New Zealand, and will sail to-morrow on the Ulimaroa on his way back to Hongkong.