THE COMPLACENCY OF CHINA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3383, 15 January 1919, Page 54

THE COMPLACENCY OF CHINA.

Civilisation is like a housemaid going round with brush and duster tidying up the world. We want to get all the people that inhabit this turbulent globe divided neatly into little lots, labelled according to name and nature, and comfortably settled down under "stable government. ' We give this tidying habit all sorts of high-sounding names—self-determination is the newest—but it is just the old incurable itch to put squint things straight. The League of Nations, which is to be built out of the stuff that dreams are made of, will be the biggest housemaid that the world has ever seen. There are some places that even she will find it difficult to tidy. The Balkans, for one reason, is one; China, for quite a different reason, is another. The Balkans are a family of bad-tempered children who cannot be tucked safely in bed, because they are always fighting with each other. China is not at all bad-tempered. It just does not care. The League of Nations can ishout itself hoarse at China. It can go in and build China a beautiful government. China would sit by and smile while a mouse nibbled its beautiful government into holes. It is a continent of sublime indifference, and continents—like little boys—cannot be kept, tidy when they do not care whether they are tidy or not.

But the very indifference of China makes its political history fascinating. It is the background for the quaintest happenings. China might well argue that if it started to get excited over itself it would miss a lot of fun. The best of the Chinese joke is that the other countries of the world are greatly perturbed over the unhappy state of China. The great Powers are racking their brains to solve the problem. China alone Temains supremely indifferent, so suppremely indifferent that it does not even bother to tell the Powers not to trouble themselves. The connected story of political happenings in China during the last few years is almost too involved to follow. What can be straightened out and told reads like a comic opera. In the summer of 1911 China indulged in a revolution and became a republic. It was just like China to have a revolution at a time when the Manchu Government seemed more secure than it had ever been. There was no immediate pressure from without and no serious disorders within. Huge Parliament buildings were being erected, a constitution had been promised, railroads were being constructed, and the Government's credit was so good that Joans of millions could always be obtainable from France, Great Britain, and Germany. On October 10, 1911, the revolution suddenly broke out in the south. It was a feeble revolt. The Government's army could easily have defeated the rebels. But China never does the obvious. The Manchus abdicated. So for the past seven years China has been a republic save for a few days last year, when a coup d'etat put the little Manchu Emperor back on the throne. A military movement promptly restored the republic. Writing of the Chinese. republic David Fraser says: "When is a Government not a Government? Come to China, and the answer will be apparent. It is a notable thing that the Chinese after thousands of years of civilisation, should have developed a mentality which enables them complacently to ignore obvious facts, and makes it almost impossible for them to arrive at a decision promptly. All action is governed by the desire to attain 'the happy mean,' and in that short phrase may be found the principal cause of their weakness." This estimate of China is well borne out by the political happenings of the last few years. Why should a nation of three or four hundred million people submit to the invasion of their country by a few hundred troops from a smaller Estate? A little more than three years ago 500 or 600 Japanese troops proceeded by rail, despite the protests of the Chinese authorities, to the city of Tsinanfu, a strategic central point on the north-and-south railway that connects the capital, Pekin, with the powerful shipping port, Shanghai. ■ In and around Tsinanfu were large, permanent Chinese armies. Yet the Chinese Government restrained its troops, and is still petitioning Japan to depart. Every great Power in the world has a say in the administration of China save China itself. An interesting picture of the political state of the continent can be got by supposing that the United States of America were China. Canada would belong to Russia, Mexico would be British, and the most important of the Atlantic seaboard cities would be owned or leased by foreign Powers. Furthermore, the United States would be divided into "spheres of influence," nominally under the American flag, but for most commercial and industrial purposes administered by the dominant foreign Power. Japan would control some 250,000 square miles in the extreme north. England's share would cover about 1,000,000 square miles in the Mississippi Valley. Florida would go to France. Russia would have all the Pacific coast and Rocky Mountains. Practically every inch of railroad in the United States would be under foreign management. The Customs houses would be controlled by the nation's creditors, and post offices and banks would be administered by aliens. The Chinese Way.

That is the "sovereign" nation of China as it exists to-day ! It is the background you must picture for this sketch of happenings since the failure last year of the attempt to put the Manchus hack on the throne. The man who restored the republic became Premier, and duly formed a government in Pekin. The Premier came with force behind him, and all in North China having military strength at their disposal acquiesced in his assumption of power. In fact, all China acquiesced

except three of the southern provinces. It might seem that if 19 out of 22 provinces were satisfied with the Pekin Government the minority could easily be brought into line—by force if they did not listen to reason. But that is not the way in China. The three recalcitrant provinces were Kwantung, Kwangsi, and Xunnan. In Kwantung the revolutionary party, headed by Sun Yat-sen,. convened a Parliament that had been legally dissolved, and set up an independent military Government. A little later Kwantung and Kwangsi promoted a rebellion in Hunan, a neighbouring province, and both sent troops to support it. The third province, Yunnan, invaded the rich province of Szechuan, commandeered its revenues, and sought to conquer it. These acts made the Pekin Government angry, and after a Jong, long delay its thunder was launched against Sun Yat-sen, who by then had become the most insignificant and unimportant of the offenders. A mandate was ordered for his arrest. Nobody paid any attention to it. Then the Pekin Government ordered . the dismissal and arrest of the provincial governor under whose nose Sun Yat-sen had been prancing. Nobody paid any attenion to that mandate either. Then a third mandate was issued from Pekin, ordering the arrest of the Yunnan generals, who were attacking Szechuan. Still nothing happened, and nothing at all was said to the actual principals in the rebellion. Instead, the principals were in friendly communication with Pekin, and one of them, while actually in active rebellion, has been promoted by Pekin to be a field marshal in the Chinese army! The situation to-day is that the nominal Government of China is in Pekin, and that a rebel Government has been set up in Canton. The Pekin Government represents 19 provinces, and the Canton Government represents only three provinces. But the stronger does not make any serious attempt to crush the weaker. Out of the provinces obedient to Pekin only two or three have moved hand or foot to assist the Government in overcoming the rebellion. One is so busy trying to suppress bandits that it has no troops to spare. Some must keep their soldiers at home to maintain the political situation. Others have no money to spend on campaigning, or their troops are not equipped for taking the field. They sit neutral, and watch the fray, many of them secretly hoping that Pekin may fail to assert itself. So far the rebellion has not "interested" the foreign Powers. A state of civil war in China is more or less chronic, and only means some inconvenience to the foreign population on account of roving armies of soldiers and revolutionaries that are nothing more or less than bands of bandits. But the Canton Government recently took a step that alters the complexion of affairs. It has notified the Customs Commissioner at Canton that it intends to take over the customs, by force if necessary. The customs, as has been explained, is not controlled by China, but by its creditors, and the interested powers are already breathing threats to the Canton Government of what will happen if this "amazing" and "short-sighted" policy is persisted with. These friendly warnings from the interested powers do already appear to have had some effect, for it was announced a few weeks ago that the President in Pekin had issued - a mandate ordering the war to stop, and that the southern rebels were inclined to obey it. Stopping a civil war by mandate is truly Chinese. The situation is not without its humour. China can play about with rebellions and civil wars as much as it likes, but immediately any Government attempts to control anything that would bring it the revenue it must have before it could possibly become a stable.government it finds that it is "confiscating"' something that does not belong to China. The explanation of this is, of course, that China is bankrupt, and that all its sources of income are in the hands of the receivers. For a score of years the nations have been competing for concessions and trade positions, and even for territory, in China. The Chinese Governments have been quite willing to sell anything, for cash, so that there is now very little left for China. A few years after the Boxer uprising the principal lending nations got together andagreed to make loans jointly, and not otherwise, to China. Their programme was to finance China, and to exact in return, authority over the Government's financial administration. As a rule money lent to China is squandered or stolen by the officials. Foreign overseers and controllers now check expenditures. Civil wars cannot be carried on without money. Foreign nations will not lend any parties in China money to carry on civil wars, because there is nothing left for China to pledge as security. So we have the comic opera situation that the Pekin Government has not got any money with which to fight the rebel Government of Canton, and the Canton Government has not got any money with which to increase its sphere of action. Meanwhile, most of the three or four hundred million people of China do not even know that a civil war is waging. When the Chinese revolution blew up and blew over in 1911 it was fondly believed abroad that without any particular guidance or assistance China had thrown off autocracy and adopted democracy. But the like the present rebellion, was a movement among a very limited class of Chinese only. It scarcely touched the people's interests. They were scarcely aware of it. The real China to-day is very much the China of a hundred years ago, and of another hundred years before that. —The Age.