Britain's Opportunity in China.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9478, 4 February 1907, Page 4

Britain's Opportunity in China.

(By F. O. M'Kcnzie, in the London. DailyMail.) China needs a fiieml among the Great Powers. That friend should be England. The statesmen who rule in Pekin distrust both. Russia and Japan, believing that these nations have designs against their territory; and they hate Germany on account of her seizure of Kiao-chau and her conduct in .the Shantung province. i'hey recognise that America has been much more disinterested than other Governments, but they have a grudge against her because of the indignities inflicted'upon Chinese subjects in California and else- '■ where. | They know that they cannot yet stand alone, and some years ago they hoped that England would see that their land had justice among the nations. The weakness of our policy in the Far East during the past decade has greatly shaken their confidence in us, but it is not yet too late for confidence to be restored, and for us to secure China's lasting goodwill, gratitude, and friendship. Only to do that we must be prepared to take up a definite attitude, to stick to it, and, if necessary, to light for it. In acting as the protector of China we should not stand alone. Events during the past few weeks have convinced America that if she is to retain her position on the Pacific she must, be moving. It needs no prophetic vision to see that within the next few years the American Fleet around the Yellow Sea will be enormously increased. Japan never made a greater mistake than whe.ri heT representative and part of her Press used threatening language towards the Federal Government at Washington, and the mistake wa6 none the less because for the moment Japan was in a position to enforce her threat. English and American interests in the Far East are identical. —Steps For Great Britain to Take.—• The first step for us, if we desire to retain our predominance in the Far East, should be to retract the blunder of 'last autumn, when we decided to withdraw our big fighting ships from the China seas. If we aire to be respected on the Pacific we must give evidence of pur power there. The Oriental believes in what he sees. It is useless for us to have a strong policy without the weight of a strong fleet behind it. We need a real fighting squadron in Eastern; waters again. Then' we must, take active steps to guard both our own and Chinas Tights and interests in Manchuria and our interests in Korea. In the latter country it. would.be well worth our while to insist uiion the retention of a proportion of British officials in the Customs service. Friendly representations to Japan would go a long way towards restoring actual a 6 well as nominat control of Manchuria to China. We need at least four Consuls in Mknchuria, besides our present Consul at Newchwang. These should be stationed at Dalny. Mukden, Quan-chun-tzu, and Harbin. It is not necessary to have a. Consul at Antung, .a 6 that place is not nearly so important as its position on the map would seem to indicate. America is hurrybig forward her Consuls. One fettled at Dalny in September, another has just reached! Harbin, and Mr Willard Straight, a newspaper correspondent who served during the Japanese war, took up his ncsition as Consul-General at Mukden in Octoiber. If our new Consuls are the light type of men—as most of our China Consuls arc:—and if tbev have the Foreign Office actively behind, them, they can do invaluable services in safeguarding our commercial interests in Manchuria. I have never concealed my conviction that certain stages of the new movement will probably produce serious trouble, inwhich foreigners may suffer severely. One Power, at 'least, hopes to use such disturbances as pretest for intervention, with the ultimate object of acquiring Chinese territory. For us to permit this will be folly. From the point of view of selfish interest alone, the integrity and genuine independence of the Chinese Empire are worth our fighting for, if they can be maintained in no other way than by fighting. —Education for Future Pullers. — We might greatly help forward the educational movement in China. There are now about twelve thousand Chinese students in Japan, and the Japanese Government and educational institutions are doing everything possible to attract them. No money could be better invested than that spent in inducing some of the best of the Chinese students to come to England. The cost of the journey to England and of living here is so high meantime that none but a few can afford it. A little encouragement, would add to numbers. Far-sighted diplomacy might even consider it wise to maintain a well-equip-ped and very cheap university at Singapore, with English professors, for Chinese. The foreign-trained students are the future rulers of Chh'.;.. It would be to our interest and to their advantage that they should be taught under Western influences. What are we going to do about the opium question? Let me here say that I am not an anti-opium fanatic. I fully recognise that in certain parts of India, the effects of opium are no more harmful than the effects of alcohol at home. T believe that the anti-opium campaign has been injured bv the intemperance and hitter language of some of its advocates. Still the fact remains that in China—unlike India—the smoking of opium is a fearful national curse. It destroys character, it saps energy, and it perverts merals. If the official smokes opium, the district under him goes to ruin: if the servantsmokes, dishonesty and laziness fallow: if tin- father -smokes, the household is often wrecked. The Chinese authorities have set themselves no harder task than to Temove this curse. They will be hampered by the clamorous appetites of their own people, and they will be weakened by their own desire for revenue. It is not enough here, for us to express pious sympathy and to say we. are willing to co-operate if we are satisfied of China's sincerity. It is for us by our national policy to strengthen the hands of the anti-opium officials. —A Blunder to Retrieve. — When England took Wei-hai-wei she departed from her traditional policy. The occupation of this .port is now an admitted blunder. It is worthless as a naval or as a military station. Why should we retain it? No step could do more to convince China of the sincerity of our goo-'i intentions towards her, and no step could be more grateful to China's reaving national pride, than for us to give it back. The British who have gathered around that place would, of course, have to be adequately .compensated, but that would present no serious difficulty. The task of helping China in her marc ; - towards modem civilisation should liatura - ly fall to England and America. Ainu? among the world nations, we to-dav desire no further territorial gains. it is to our interest to have a China arusei provided we also have a China enlightened' and a China free. New China is "n the making. Let- us do our part towards moulding her into a progressive Pow :r. permeated with those ideals of per:i:ml freedom, respect' towards woman and peace among men for which we have struggled and striven so hardly and so long. The arousing of the East should crown the triumph of the moral ideals of the West. Why. it may he asked, should" we concern ourselves* about this distant laud? Those who speak thus have faint .idea of the duties of Empire. We are still the premier world nation: we have still the greatest commercial stake in the Far East; we still maintain fleets before which the oldest and the youngest of other great naval Powers miist give way. We have the trade and the prestige, and we can enforce our will.- If we only throw off the indecision and the inaction which have been our curse in China for a generation, the prestige and commerce of Britain around, the Yellow Sea may have a greater and-more glorious future than ever our fathers dreamed. We go to China to-day not as the intriguer, not as the would-be conqueror, but as the friend.