CHINESE RESENTMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13637, 5 July 1906, Page 6

CHINESE RESENTMENT.

New Zk.uanu is ratlier poor "nine for (lie Cliinrsß Empire to hit at after she ha? been exercising her marksmanship upon a powerful nation like the United States. But the very fact that China has succeeded in breaking down to sonic extent tlio exeliisivcuess of the American immigration laws should have prepared

us for the rebuff, as mentioned in our columns yesterday, which the colony received, and in fact invited, when the Trade Commissioner .was despatched on a mission to the Far East with the. object of exciting Chinese, interest in the approaching International Exhibition. We have probably not yet sufficiently realised the scope arid the purpose of what lins been culled the new movement iu China. The defeat of the European Power, which had so long overawed China, at the hands of an Oriental nation numerically very inferior to tiie Chinese, lias, as was only to be expected, had a powerful effect upon the minds oF the inhabitants of the country. The direct consequence has been the growth of a policy described as that of China for the Chinese, of which the main idea seems to ho that of deliberates- arid organised resistance to foreign influence. . Among other events that have, assisted to give vitality to this policy was the adoption last year of the conciliatory Measure's with which the United States met the boycott of American goods in sbuie parts df Cliihrt. There is a strong party among the Chinese Who believe; in fact, that their nation is capable of achieving all that the Japanese have done, and of achieving it at a leap, for- they forget that it was only after long years of patient and laborious development that Japan secured the recognition now accorded to her by the Western Powers. Many thousands of yoiing Chinamen, it k said, have gone forth to imbibe European learning, either at first hand or through Japanese teachers, and they imagine themselves perfectly- competent to manage tho Chinese Empire oil modern lines. Being active, ambitious, and riot «■ little noisy, they have imbued the governing class with their beliefs, arid a general anti-European movement is Hie result. Such being the feeling that has become prevalent among tho more educated classes, we need not be at all astonished that they resent the policy of countries and colonies which discriminate undiscrimihatingly against them, and involve all ranks and degrees of their race in condemnation to the same exclusion. There are Chinese and Chinese, they remind ns, and all Chinese are not of the coolie class. Mr Graham Cow gathered the impression that among the merchants and students in Chiiia- there is no Strong feeling ag!iin?t the presence ili the Statute Hooks of British colonies of legislation imposing a poll tax on the admission of coolies to their port?, Prima facie, we should have supposed that the pride and arrogance of the Chinese would have been offended by the existence of any laws which were directed against any Of their countrymen. Apparently, however, it is tlie personal, rather than the national, slight which they feel so keenly, and it would seem that they have expressed their sense of resentment so eloquently asi to have forced Mr Gow to the conviction, which many colonists will share with him, that really they are harshly' dealt with. It is quite certain that the spirit of the laws that have been passed for the purpose of checking Asiatic immigration would not bo violated if exceptions were made in favour of Oriental tourists desirous of studying colonial methods and enjoying colonial scenes!. An economic principle underlies the legislation in questionnamely, that it is desirable to protect colonial workmen from the risk of being brought into competition in the colonies with aliens' whose standard of living is markedly inferior to that of the British workman. That principle would clearly not be endangered by the admission of Chinese tourists; representative of tlie merchant and student classes, without their being subjected to the galling experience of having' to pay a poll tax and of having thus to submit, in effect, to ari acknowledgment on their pert of i'iicial and social inferiority. We do not desire Chinese population, rind legislation to restrict the immigration of Chinese who seek to earn their livelihood iii the colony is perfectly defensible. But the better class of Chinese; who May wish to visit the colonies for no purpose other than that of extending their education and widening their experience, make riut a legitimate claim for exemption from the provisions of the law.