CHINA AND JAPAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2225, 24 June 1908, Page 1

CHINA AND JAPAN.

THE EFFICACY OF A BOYCOTT “There seems to be no question that- the agitation in China for the boycott ot Japanese gfj-pds is extending,” writes the Japan “Chronicle” of 23rd. April. Remonstrances or threats are clearly of little availin the ease ol : the boycott. It is remarkable that Japan, despite her contiguity to China, should have been so ignorant of the latter’s nationalist aspirations, or of the unequalled power of organisation and . combination amongst the Chinese to combat what they regard as injustice. Then the Chinese have in their trade guilds a marvellously efficacious means 'for settling commercial and' similar disputes. Examples of their power are given in Jernigams book on “Chinese business methods.” Ho cites the ease of the Shanghai riots in IS9B. “It is the custom,” lie writes, “that when a Chinese .from Ningpo dies at Shanghai, Ins body is placed in a coffin and stored away until an opportunity offers to send it to Ningpo, and the matter- is one that comes within the function of the Ningpo guild. There wore a great many ■coffins so stored in the French Concession at Shanghai, and tho French Municipal Council, in the interests of health, ordered their removal. The Ningpo resisted, and when the French authority determined to enforce its order a riot occurred in which several Chinese were shot. In retaliation tho Ningpo guild issued a secret order for tlio suspension of all business, which resulted m several large steamers remaining at the wharves for weeks. So long as the guild remained firm every branch of business which drew its vitality from that source was paralysed.” Again, the guilds can effectively checkmate the Government in tho matter of excessive taxation. Thus the battery tax was imposed a few years ago, but when the' collectors came front Canton to Swatow they were unable even to rent a place in which to establish themselves, and eventually all attempts to on force payment had to be given up. By the guild’s decrees steamer companies liavo to pay claims for damaged cargo. If they demur, no ease comes for trial: the loss of their carrying trade is the penalty that quickly makes tho objectionable demands seem reasonable'. The Swatow Guild, among other tilings, settles trado disputes, exacts trado regulations, and performs with equal readiness the functions of a chamber of commerce, a board of trade and a municipal council. It supports a firebrigade, levies its own taxes, provides standards of weights and measures, fixes rates of commission, determines settling days, and provides penalties against tricks of the trade. It possesses a. power to enforce its views which might- he envied by many a Government, for in it is vested llie solo right to the exercise of that modern crusher of arguments—the boycott-.

And it is through the machinery possessed by these guilds that China is busy writing “paid” to Japan’s account over that little affair of filibustering expedition and China’s subsequent humiliation.