THORNY QUESTION

Southland Times, Issue 19986, 28 September 1926, Page 7

THORNY QUESTION

CHINESE POSITION BRITAIN’S DIFFICULTIES THE MENACE OF MOSCOW. “It is no use telling a Chinaman you have got power unleu you display it. The Chinese are becoming rather fcocky* and British prestige is very IoW. The opinion of many Chinese is that the British is a race to be laughed at” The position in China at the present time was thus summed up in an interview given to a Times reporter last evening by Mr T. Hynes, a responsible Civil Servant in HongKong, who spent last evening in Invercargill before proceeding on the Manuka to Dunedin to-day. It is interesting to note in passing that Mr Hynes is an old Waipori boy, who left the Dominion when he went to South Africa with the sixth contingent over aquarter of a century ago. After serving the full term with his contingent Mr Hynes, who had successfully studied the Dutch language in the meantime, was appointed to a position as interpreter in the Courts at Pretoria. In 1904 he made for HongKong, and, having acquired a sound knowledge of Chinese, entered the Civil Service. In this vocation he enjoyed rapid promotion and now holds the position of superintendent of the Post Office in HongKong. As such he has had to take keen cognisance of affairs and events which at this distance appear only as an unintelligible tangle to the student of contemporary history, but which nevertheless have a vital effect on British prestige in the East, and so the comments of one who speaks from first-hand knowledge of affairs as they were and do exist should prove of more than passing interest. Mr Hynes chatted more or less informally on the position as it appealed to him and confined his remarks to generalities rather than to an explanation of the minute details of a most involved state of affairs. Hong-Kong, he said, was certainly passing through a very troublous period, and on account of the late boycott of Hong-Kong goods quite a number of the old-established Chinese businesses had gone through. The point was that in boycotting Hong-Kong business the Chinese in operation there were suffering every bit as much as were the Britishers, at whom the boycott was aimed, and many of those businesses which had really grown up with the colony had gone through. Of course, Moscow was at the back of all the trouble—she had managed to get hold of one or two of the Canton leaders—but doubtless other Powers which were envious of Britain’s position in the East would be pleased with the trend of events. Proceeding, Mr Hynes commented on the four distinct leaders who were to the fore in military affairs at the present time— Chang Tso-lin, Wu Pei-fu, Sun Chuan-fang and Chang Kai-shek. There was no doubt, he said, that the last, Chang Kai-shek, was the most able leader of the four, but like all others he was not involved for the honour and well-being of his country. It was his own glory in which he was mostly interested. Patriotism was not the motive that stirred him or the others. A lot had been said concerning the strong anti-foreign feeling said to exist amongst the Chinese. His personal experience of them in their villages was that they were a most peaceloving race. He personally had had no occasion to suspect any feeling of hostility towards foreigners, and was convinced that malcontents were inspired by emissaries of the Bolsheviks. It had even been said that Bolsheviks actually had votes in Governmental matters, and certainly the Canton Government was as Red as it possibly could be, having issued very bitter and vile literature against the British. The Canton Government, of course, had never been recognised by the Powers, and the preferential acknowledgement accorded Pekin doubtless caused those at Canton to feel a trifle sore. It looked as if things would become much worse unless some drastic action was taken by the Powers. Undoubtedly the Chinese question was a thorny one, but he had no doubt that in time the country would recognise that of the foreign Powers interested Britain was the best friend. Events were moving rapidly, but China seemed to be too big for the establishment of a Central Government. Then again a further great difficulty arose in regard to the diversity in the language spoken although, of course, the written language was the same in all parte. What the future held in store for China he did not know. Britain might come into her own there, but he believed that when he returned to Hong-Kong in June next he would find conditions radically altered, though whether for the better or for worse he or any other man could not say. As indicating the extreme difficulty for any of the contending military factions establishing a definite position as a political force, Mr Hynes stated that corruption was so rife that the one with the most money was invariably the most succesful. A man could be winning “hands down” when an opponent, blessed for the time being with more wealth, would deprive him of his leaders and thus effectively check his success. Graft seemed to be ingrained in most Chinese. As a class officials did not seem to be particularly upright, though as far as the older class of commercial men were concerned, their word was undoubtedly their bond. The student classes, stated Mr Hynes, were the sections which were being influenced by Bolshevistic propaganda, and it was these who were making most of the trouble.

“China has no reason whatever to complain of its treatment at the hands of lhe British,” he concluded, “and no other Power would have put up with so much as has Britain.”