The Waikato Times. With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1923. BRITAIN AND CHINA.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15156, 2 February 1923, Page 4

The Waikato Times. With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1923. BRITAIN AND CHINA.

A cable message appearing in this issue states that Britain has -decided to remit the balance of the Boxer indemnity. This indemnity represents toe financial penalty imposed by the Powers upon China as a punishment for the deplorable uprising of 1900. It was fixed at the substantial'sum of taels 450,000,000, or £67,500,000 at the then rate of exchange. But as China .could not pay cash, this amount was converted into a series of annual payments, covering a period of 38 years', the total eventually payable, including the interest, working out at £147,000,000. Of this total China, up to 1917, had actually paid in cash over £48,000,000, or about one-third of the whole. In 1917 China declared war against the Central Powers, thereby annulling her obligation to make further payments to Germany and Austria. At the same time the. Entente Powers agreed to forgo their payments on account of the indemnity for Ave years, in recognition of China's joining them as an ally. That period ends this year, and China is bound forthwith to resume payments to Great Britain, the United States, France, Japan, and some of the lesser Allies. The United States Congress has sanctioned the remission of the American share- and the French Government has recently decided to devote the French share of the indemnity to liquidating the debts of the Banque Industrielle in China. The Japanese Government is on the point of remitting the whole of its share. There remained Great Britain, whose interest in the 1 indemnity averages about £400,000 per annum. The Associated British Chambers of Commerce in China, a body thoroughly representative of British opinion in .that country, urged the Government to forgo at least a part of the indemnity and to devote it to Chinese education. The matter, however, has been shelved owing to the difficulties not unnaturally raised by the Treasnry.

'Discussing the question whether the British Government should continue to take that which all others are relinquishing, the Pokin correspondent of an English contemporary declares such a course impossible. Britain, he urges, can make up her mind to this sacrifice, trifling compared with what she vainly spends in certain regions not necessary lo specify, because it is plain that she can do good with the money, to herself and lo others. Indeed, if she does not make it, she is likely lo suffer heavily in the competition for thd trade and good will of the biggest trading community in the world. Already, lie says, we possess the biggest share in the trade of China, but during the war Japan enormously increased her China business and at one period exceeded our figures. She is now a close competitor. The United Stales . has more than doubled her trade since 1914, and every year records a higher percentage of the total. Thousands of Chinese are studying in Japan and America, many thousands are back in China from these countries, and are disseminating what they have acquired of Japanese and American culture and ideas. Returned students may not directly procure orders for locomotives or boilers, or piece-goods or woollens, but they do create an atmosphere favourable to buying from the country which they know. Trie finest hospital in the world has recently been established in Peking by the Bockcfcller Foundation, and Uio American Y.M.G.A. is represented in many Chinese cities, often magnificently housed and splendidly staffed. Japanese returned students till the Government offices. All their affiliations in foreign mailers are Japanese, because they know no other country. Young china to-day are the apprentices in Hie huge business of conducting Ihe manifold affairs of the country, but they will assuredly he the managers in the fill lire, for the older order is weakening and giving way before the rueh

of ideas from outside. Ten years hence the returned students will be the most powerful political factor in China, and their influence over the course of all commercial and industrial enterprise will be immense. As matters aro now, with only a handful of British-educated Chinese in China, and only trifling numbers now studying in England , British influence among the young men of the day is negligible, and will become less and less every year as the plans of Japan and America for establishing their prestige mature. It is only a question of orders for boilers and piecegoods. Can we, to whom new markets are a vital necessity, who now supply China with nearly half of her total foreign purchases, who have immense vested interests in the country, who are so deeply concerned in the future of the Pacific, can we afford to let this great Pacific Power, fast awakening out of the lethargy of the past, develop politically and socially, commercially and industrially, without endeavouring to cultivate and maintain British influence among her people? Britain, the writer concludes, is doing nothing directly to secure this end, while Japan and America and France are engaging in a great campaign of propaganda which shall spread their fame in the country and gain for them the goodwill of the Chinese. They are doing it with money drawn from China, and it is plain that England cannot continue to put in her pockets what others are spending on good works.