THE CHAOS IN CHINA

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 7

THE CHAOS IN CHINA

NEWS FROM THE EAST.

MRS IT. G. ANDERSON’S IMPRESSIONS.

News of China and things Chinese was brought to Dunedin on Tuesday by Dr and Mrs H. G. Anderson, who recently left their work in the East on furlough. ~ They arrived in Australia in March, and are spending some time in New Zealand before returning to take up their duties in the Chinese hinterland. Mrs Anderson is a Y. W.C.A. worker in China, and during her furlough she has spent a great deal of lime endeavouring to acquaint New Zealanders with the work that is being carried out there, and at the same time throwing new light on the chaotic conditions at present prevailing in that country.

Speaking of her work in the East to our representative. Airs Anderson said that for the past 10 years she had been connected with the student department of the Y.W.C.A. in China, bur most of that time s-l:e had been stationed in Shanghai ami the adjacent districts. Her work in this connection gave her an opportunity to make a close studv of Chinese student problems, and as a result of the experience gained in that way she was considered worthy to tepresent China, with other Chinese students at the World Student Conference and also at the Pacific Student Conference. She was actively associated with the new student movement which will result in the labours of the Y.M.C.A. and the YAV.C.A. being combined under one organisation. In fact, she handled the secretarial work up to the time of the appointment, a short time, ago, of Mr T. Z. Koo as general secretary. On their return to China Dr and Mrs Anderson will go to a i.ew field, with headquarters at Char gin, a large city, 200,000 miles up the Yangtse Valley, with a population of ;>(M 000. The province of which Chaugtu is the capital is the home of from CqOOO.Otk) to 7,000.000 people. Here is situated the West China Union University, r.n iiistiiutiou under the administration of five missionary societi-'3. Dr Anderson will tike up a medical professorship I .here, and Mrs Anderson will co-.'iiaue bei- work among the students. This university was one of the very few tii.it were carrying on in spite of the terrible conilitiims. All the Government colleges, and ;• great many missionary v.i.i :er .ities mid been compelled to close Tteii- / * i.ip warily. In the Ciiangtu ais-.■: .v-?\<r. things had quietened dsw.”, s g.-.i’i deal, and the Chinese bit.'; made f. I ~qt■ ■st for the return of ri.;\-ign teachers as soon as possible. The university there held classes in medicine, dentistry, arts, science, agriculiuri;, and theology- Mrs Anderson said that she ami her li-.ishuud wore waiting for quieter cor .lit ions before- returning, as C-baugtu. being sc far from the coast, and accessible only through the Yangtse district, would be a bad place for foreigners in the event of trouble. They could not expect to get to the coast unmolested. ‘•Without something like the tremendous upheaval that is going on in China to-day the nation would have been doomed,” was the epigrammatic remark with which Mrs Anderson introduced the subject of the national chaos in China. “All the traditions of the centuries,” she continued, “have been holding the people back, and it was necessary that something drastic should take place. The national temper has now risen to resent the privileged position of foreigners, and the general position has been to a large extent aggravated by several rather arbitrary acts which the Chinese look upon as too aggressive in policy.”

China, according to Mrs Anderson, was now in the throes of a revolution not two years old, but 35 years old. . It began in the ’nineties in a movement, first for reform and then for the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty, which was opposed to reform. The pent-up forces of years broke loose in 1911, and the dynasty was expelled. When Sun Yet Sen refused the Presidency of the new republic, however, the command went to Yuan Shi Kai, who gradually replaced the old officialdom in a more corrupt and unsatisfactory form. Sun Yat Sen went to Canton again and

sought to rouse the national desire for more democratic government. His motto was Lincoln’s—“ Government for the people by the people.’’ It was very easy to say that Bolshevism was responsible for it all, but those who knew the Chinese knew better than to say that. Such a filing was almost impossible in a contented nation, especially as so many of China’s millions could neithe'.- read nor write. No! the seeds of revolution sown years ago were responsible, and the trouble in the concessions helped things along. China had been roused by a band of patriots whose rising had been described by an eminent British Consul as “one of the most hopeful signs in Chinese affairs.”

“The foreigner,” said Mrs Anderson, “is the most privileged person in China. He is responsible only to big Consul, and the Chinese consider that under these conditions they cannot get impartial treatment.’’ Foreign trade was also privileged with the result that Chinese goods could not compete with imported Huff. This added fuel to their fire of resentment. The missionaries, too, were privileged, and the Chinese were beginning to wonder how many of these were political propagandists. Thev recalled the heavy indemnity demanded by Germany for the murder of two of her missionaries, who were thus the means whereby Germany secured many of the political rights she now enjoyed. Foreign ambition and arrogance could not be denied entirely, and every little trivial happening was exaggerated to such colourful lengths that the Chinese were roused to fury.

“The foreigners will go back to China all right, but on vastly different terms,” said Mi's Andersen, speaking of the outlook for the . future. “China will never submit to the old conditions which governed her relations with other Powers. She will never again allow 14 Powers the right to revise her Customs tariffs at will.”

Britain, during the last two years, said the speaker, had made friendly overtures, but they were too late to carry the conviction they should have done. Had Britain issued the manifesto of December, 1925, six months sooner, it would have been accepted in a much better spirit. “The only thing that is now convincing the Chinese that Britain’s goodwill is sincere, is her unbounded patience and moderation. That, in the long run, is going to make possible the solution of the difficulties in the East. We are proud of our Government’s attitude throughout, Britain has not shamed herself. . No one can have anything but praise for the wonderful mode.raticn and restraint of the British forces in China, and it is pleasing tc be able to say that the Chinese, too, are conscious of the British soldiers and sailors’ good behaviour.” “The whole situation,” according to both Dr and Mrs Anderson, “now depends on what transpires when the Southern army takes Peking. Everyone is waiting to see what happens It remains to be seen what powers of cohesion are possessed by the Southerners, and until we arc sure of that we cannot say how things will end.’’