UNREST IN CHINA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19845, 20 May 1927, Page 11

UNREST IN CHINA

SOVIET INFLUENCE TREASON AND PETTY WARS. A personal impression of affairs in China is contained in a letter received by Mr J. J. Sullivan, of Auckland, from his sister, who has been there for several years, and who is now a nun near Peking. She writes:— “The people do not care who is nt the head of affairs in Peking, or whether Peking still exists! There is no patriotism as wo understand it—there is instead individualism, so you find these endless civil wars. The Governor of each province has his soldiers and his ambition is to become still more rich and powerful by extending his territory. A Governor has his soldiers, and lie also has his generals; the ambition of each one is to depose his chief and become Governor himself. Hence treason and petty wars. The soldiers will transfer their legion to the opposing camp for better pay. “Were there a strong Government all this might bo rectified, but there is no Government in China. From the highest to the lowest, with very few exceptions, the great ambition is to enrich "oneself. The Soviet is at tho bottom of the present turmoil and religi|ous persecution in tho south of China. Its doctrine, preached unceasingly, ‘is bearing its fruit in sacrilege, profanation and ruin of mission property. The people are told that the missionaries are simply spies whose chief business is to report to their Consuls on China’s riches, etc., so that at moment opportune their Government may step in and make the land their own; thui they cloak their designs by a display of good works; school, orphanages, hospitals, etc. “The poor ignorant people—the groat mass-—easily believe this, and the still more ignorant, half-educated youths become fanatic under such instruction. That there may be much to alter in the treaties is perfectly natural, but it must not be forgotten that China is the only country where a foreigner is unsafe simply because he is a foreigner. Therefore the concessions are _ necessary. When a foreigner in China enjoys the security of a Chinaman in Europe or America —or New Zealand if you will —concessions or such safeguards will not be needed. “In 1870, vfhen they martyred ten of our sisters at Tientsin, they held that the Sisters took out the. eyes and hearts of the little children in order to make medicine-—nearly sixty years ago. Things have changed much since then surely! Nothing is changed in pagan minds. Only a few months ago the mission of Foo Chow was wrecked on the same accusation, and the Spanish Dominican Sisters barely escaped with their lives.” .