SIR FRANCIS YOUNG HUSBAND AND ASIA'S PROBLEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14038, 22 April 1920, Page 8

SIR FRANCIS YOUNG HUSBAND AND ASIA'S PROBLEMS.

Sir Francis Younghusband, the distinguished traveller and soldier, writing on the problems of Asia in the "S.unday Pictu< ial." says : "The situation created by the recent Bolshevist victories has aroused serious apprehensions i,i many quariers regarding our i'jterest- in the Middle East.

"Io what extent are these apprehensions justified ? '"Let me say at once that in no part of .A via that Is have been in is there the remotest chance of Lenin's doctrines being adopted. "Ihe Chinese are law-abiding and pacific and content with a very small standing army. They are great believers in bureaucracy for the management of their general affairs. "The individual Chinaman likes, too. to be left to work as hard as he chooses, -o that by greater industry he may earn more than his less industrious neighbour. "Among Mohammedans, it is true, there is much of that 'international' spirit that Lenin wishes to see prevail everywhere till patriotism is extinguished. "Vet Mohammedans group themselves in States. They set up chiefs and armies and bureaucracies and police. And' I cannot conceive of Afghanistan, Persia, Turkey. or any other Mohammedan country netting on without its hereditary ruler, its army, and it functionaries: or without. its peasants being eager to have each his own piece of land to cultivate. 'Nor can I imagine India:—even if we I were to leave it —becoming (in Lenin's language, 'one olTice and one factory,' with no caste divisions, with all men equal, and with the Brahmin levelled down ty the coolie. "The Bolshevists must know perfectly well by this time how preposterous is the idea of Bolshevising Asia. But thi# does not deter them from activity. / "We have always brought up the Indians in ideas of freedom, and have gradually exercised them in its use. Last year's Reform Act was a still further s'tp. It placed on record our set intention eventually to grant them full responsible government; and it provided the n;e;iiis by which they could reach it. "We still retain in our hands full means of preventing revolution.' But we place the means for reform in the hands of ilie Indians. "If they want to abolish caste divisions, and class distinctions, chiefs, nobles, priests, and all the rest; reduce India to one dead level, with everyone Hoing equal work and receiving equal pay—they are quite at liberty to do it, only they must do it by peaceful means, and not by civil war. "Indians have, too, under the new Act, the means of developing the rich natural resources of their country, for agriculture, industry, and trade will now be almost entirely in their hands, and our experience and expert advice always at their dis ; pcsal. "To Lenin's methods we will oppose tho direct ly opposite. "He practices revolution. We will practice reform. He preaches civil war. We will maintain civil peace. "He Dveaclie- internationalism. We believe in patriotism and in countries joining together. for the common good. We have "encouraged Indian nationality and brought India to the Council of the Nations. "Bolshevists are for the level; we aspire to the heights. They are for mediocrity ; we are for excellence. They stand for the rule of the strongest; we stand for the rule of the best. They employ the coarsest and roughest instruments ; we should employ the finest and most delicate. "We are using the grace and charm anil natural human spontaneity of the already much-beloved Prince of Wales as a means of. uniting India. "Passionate Asiatics are easily led- by ' Appeals to the worsfc.in.their nature. They ■are, still more easily led by appeals to tile best." And to -that best the visit to India of the heir to the throne will make { appeal. , • ' : ; ' • "But besides ..sending the Prince to India,'l would'send to India,. Persia,- Ara- ' bia, Egypt, the very best.men we have— • Trot men of politics and business only, but ; ] m'en of art and thought and religion. " > j "These will get in touch with ponding men of .culture' and refinement. . and reach the -real, goul of-the-peoples.: They will show them that what we value most are things of the spirit, good fellowship. beavty, and truth. ■ 1 "By taking our stand on these highest ' things we"shall'kindle Asia to new life—to the kind of life she loves. "Bolshevism "will shrivel away of its. own inanity. : . And the true. Russia will emerge once more and take "her rightful ... place among, the nations/; - " "Thus should we figlit Bolshevism in ■ Asia." - .■ • • -