CONDITIONS IN CHINA

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1934, Page 3

CONDITIONS IN CHINA

RECENT OBSERVATIONS CHURCH MISSIONARY’S WORK. HIS TRAINING OF TEACHERS. Accompanied by his wife, the Rev. G. H. McNeur, Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in New Zealand in 1926-27, is visiting Wellington on furlough from Canton, China. Mr. McNeur went to China about 32 years ago, being the first missionary to be sent there by the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. In an interview with a Post reporter, Mr. McNeur made some interesting observations on conditions existing in China. Mr. McNeur’s special work is teaching at the Union Theological College, Canton. The union unites the Episcopal, Congregational, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches, and carries on the training of teachers and pastors for all these different churches. It has been established about 20 years, and has been an unqualified success. The students are all Chinese men and women, and at the present time there are about 30 at the college. IMPROVEMENTS. It was very difficult, said Mr. McNeur to say a great deal about conditions in China. Comments about one part of the country did not necessarily apply to others. In that part of the country in which he resided, conditions during the past few years had been very peaceful. There had been little local fighting, and brigandage and piracy had been gradually reduced. Travelling was very much safer than it was, and the same comment applied to life and property. “Our connection with the Central Government,” continued Mr. McNeur, “is really only nominal. The military Government, which controls tilings in Canton, is under one man. While he is nominally attached to Nanking and gets a certain amount of money for his troops, yet.it is only nominal. In the next province to ours, Kwangsi, conditions have improved tremendously. In some ways Kwangsi had become a model to the whole of China because of its new means of communication. A system of motor roads had been put down, and this has opened up great areas that were at one time subject to lawlessness because they could not be reached quickly by troops; but now that they have the motor roads, they can be effectively policed. They have also put through afforestation and education schemes that are really a great credit to the local government. Then there is the province of Fukien, where the recent revolution has been taking place.” An independent Government had been set up there by a group of men in an endeavour to draw to themselves different elements from other provinces with the idea of the overthrow of Nanking. NEW CUSTOMS. Mr. McNeur said that he thought that conditions in China would eventually settle down, but they would take a long time to do so. The Chinese had departed from many of their old customs, especially in the larger centres such as Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Shanghai, Hangchow, Nanking, and Tientsin. One striking example was in regard to the position of women. Women now had a voice on public bodies. For example, all the churches practically had some women office-bearers. Then there was the spread of education. The standard of literacy was being steadily raised. A great many boys and girls were going to school, and a great many more adults were being taught to read and write, which, of course, increased the reading population and prepared for a more democratic type of Government. In some parts of China, Mr. McNeur continued, an intense hatred existed against the Japanese. This was more so in the south than in the north. Communism was still very strong. It was driven underground in many parts, but it had a great many educated leaders. Some were educated abroad—in England, France, America, as well as in Russia and Japan. Many very fine young men and women had given their lives for Communism. The authorities were really in earnest in their endeavours to stamp it out, and were quite ruthless when they caught a young man or woman they regarded as being tainted with Communism. In North China Communism was very strong. Communist troops and leaders controlled quite a large section of the country there, and the danger after the revolt at Foochow was that the troops there would join with Communist forces and make increased trouble for the Government. The Chinese felt very sore about the Japanese action in virtually taking over control of Manchuria, and it appeared that there was no immediate prospect of redress of any kind. It was difficult to see just what Japan expected to get out of it, .because the Japanese did not care to emigrate to Manchuria on account of the rigorous nature of the climate. Manchuria could not be changed. It was so fully populated by Chinese. No system of migration would attract the Japanese there in large numbers. The faking of Manchuria did not solve the problem of Japan’s surplus population. ATTITUDE TOWARDS JAPANESE. While there was a lot of feeling against the Japanese there were many Chinese business people and students who recognised that the trouble was caused largely by the military section in the Japanese Government; that was that it was not really a Japanese national movement of aggression against China. In fact he heard a Chinese professor addressing a large meeting of Chinese students say that he thought it was time for enlarging the circle of their Japanese friendships, and he offered to get students into touch with Japanese correspondents so that they might understand each other better. He also advised the Chinese students who had the money and the time to go across to Japan and make first-hand contact with Japanese life. This professor represented quite a strong group of Chinese, who while they were quite open in condemning Japanese aggression did not want the whole Japanese nation to be blamed for what they considered was the fault of a limited number of Japanese leaders.

“Our church work in the field is directed by the synod of the Chinese Church,” added Mr. McNeUr. ‘‘The church in China is very insistent that it still needs the co-operation of the churches abroad both in regard to personnel and in‘regard to finance.” 1