UNREST IN CHINA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 4 July 1925, Page 4

UNREST IN CHINA.

According to a cable yesterday, Mr. Chamberlain, replying to a question in the House of Commons, said that it was clear the Government was not only unable to consider the question of the revision of extra territorial treaties until China established a government capable of restoring order and respect for treaties, but even a tariff conference under the Washington decisions cannot bo held where it might be exposed to anti-foreign demonstrations. The anti-foreign demonstrations are the root of the trouble in China. Hos-

tility to the foreign element is never far 'below the surface in China, and periodically it bursts forth in a violent gush. From one point of view the feeling is not unnatural. For seventy years China has been the happy hunting ground of concessionaires, .who have grown rich at her expense. Foreign Powers have scrambled fbr spheres oi influence in China. They have secured leases of territory almost under duress. They have disposed of China with, th: Chinese argue, a complete disregard for her interests. The memory of these things rankles. However, there is another side to the question. "While the concessionaires have exploited China, they have.given much in return. Theii capital has built China s railways, ports and factories. Their enterprises give employment to millions of Chinese. Whether Western civilisation and its adjuncts are, in the final analysis, ideally suited to China is a question into which it is not necessary to enter. But the Chinese have embraced the conditions eagerly, and in the absence of these concessionaires her material progress would not have been nearly as great. And though in the past foreign Powers have not been o\er scrupulous in their dealings with China they have latterly been less predatory. Japan was constrained by international opinion to relinquish her Twenty-one Demands. Tsingtao has been restored to China, while Britain and France have promised to give back Weihaiwei and Kwangckow-wan respectively. The Boxer Rising occurred when China was still smarting with defeat and the loss of territory, and exasperated with the thought that sue was used by the Western Powers as a mere pawn. Moreover, while it enabled the anti-foreign element to satisfy its thirst for the blood of the “foreign devil,’ the price was heavy. The outbreak was followed by indemnities and the loss of further territory. The conditions to-day are somewhat diffeicnt from those which obtained in 1900, especially in one; material particular. The Chinese Government, that is to say, the Dowager Empress, actively, though secretly, encouraged the rebellion. The present Government has displayed deplorable weakness in dealing with the agitation, but is not associated w ith it.