SUNDAY READING

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10302, 11 January 1927, Page 3

SUNDAY READING

NATION A, 'Li RETRIBUTION

(AFFAIRS IN CHINA.)

(By The Rev. James Altken, M.A.) Hie following address was delivered by the Rev. Jas. Aitken at St. An-ure-.vs C'.uirch on Sunday night last: , 111 and again these last few m-Tths cur attention has been directed to events in China. Me know there is a great civil war waging. there just now, and while it is impos si ole for us to follow the details ol the struggle, it appears as if the forces, that have their headquarters in Canton were in the way of gaining tlie upper hand and effecting the unification of the great republic. We read a great deal about the influence or the Bolshevists in China, and no doubt that influence is both great and dangerous. The Cantonese Government is employing Russian advis ors and Russian officers with its troops. But one tiling we must remember; it is not the Bolshevists who are stirring up the National movement in China. There would have been a national movement there although never a Russian had crossed the frontier. The awakening of China is the inevitable result of the contact and intercourse with the “West which has been forced upon tier, and of tho spread of modern education. Under these influences she was bound to realise her potential strength and her national greatness, and to demand that she be treated as an equal by Japan and the Western powers. Meantime she has turned to Soviet Russia for help in setting her own house in order partly because Russia is her neighbour, and partly because Russia is the foreign nation which has treated her in tile most friendly fashion. It is Russia alone which has foregone the extraterritorial privileges, and has refused her share of the indemnity exacted after the famous Boxer rising. China is no mere catspaw of Bolshevist intrigue: she is determined that she will shake of the incubus of foreign interference and control, and will rule in her own house.

Very remarkable is her method of procedure. Her fighting at present is within herself: against the enemy from abroad she lias taken no warlike measures. There is a great deal of common sense in China, and her leaders recognise that war against the sixteen foreign powers who claim the privileges which she has come to resent, would be futile. Her method is that of the boycott, and it has been directed first and foremost against Great Britain. She refuses to have anything to do with British subjects. She will not buy from them, will not sell to them, will not work for them. British trade in China is at a standstill. That means, of course, an immense loss to British traders; but it means also an immense loss to the Chinese too. And it is worth reflecting that a shrewd and able people like the Chinese are not likely to submit to the loss and hardship entailed by the stoppage of their principal foreign trade fitr any paltry reason. We may ascribe the present, state of affairs to happenings on the Shameen at Canton,or on the Settlement at Shanghai: but those regrettable incidents were mere symptons and occasions. They were not themselves the cause of the universal and bitter anti-British sentiment. To trace this cause we have to uo further back—right back into the first half of last century. In those days China desired no political relations with foreigners of any description. She was a self contained and self sufficient Empire, and wanted nothing more than to lie let alone. She barely tolerated the trade of the East Indian Company : ml of the_.private traders who succeeded it on the expiry of its charter in 1834. One important article of commerce winch they brought to her shores was Indian opium. The Chinese Government and Chinese laws forbade its importation, .but the traders defied the restrictions. There was much friction, till at last in 1839 the Chinese declared the immense stocks of opium in the traders’ hands to be forfeited, seized it ancl destroyed it.' The majority of the interests affected were British. Accordingly Captain Elliot, the Jiief superintendent of British trade in China, sent to India for ships “to protect the lives and property of Englishmen” who were violating the law and defying the Government of lhe country in which they resided. The British government, it is true, sent out orders that 'the opium traders were not to be shielded or supported; but communications were slow in those davs, and the injunction arrived too late.’ The war was short and inglorious. Victory was easy. The treaty imposed upon China was unjust. She was compelled to cede Hong Kong, to open five norts to our trade, to pay for the opium, and to meet a huge claim for indemnity. It was Mr. Gladstone who said in the House of Commons, :

“A war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with disgrace, .1 do not know and 1 have not read of.”

And he noted the same in his diary, “X am in dread of the judgment ot God upon England for our national iniquity towards China.” , Canton was one of the five ports. Iu 1856 there was a little vessel called the “Arrow” trading in the Canton River She was realty a Chinese vessel, Chinese owned; but she was fraudulently flying the British nag, • when she was boarded by Chinese officials who arrested twelve men of her crew on a charge of piracy ims was talked of in the British J arliument as an act of violence, a violation o c treaty rights, an insult to the nag. The Governor of Hong Kong demanded the immediate release of the. men, an apology for the alleged insult and. an undertaking that nothing of the kind should happen again, lhe Governor of Canton released ’nc prisoners, promised that the utmost care would be taken in the treatment ot British shipping, but refused an apology on the ground that the Airow” was really a Chinese ship. Whereupon the Governor ot Dorp, Kcn°" called the naval squadion his aid, bombarded and occupied Canton. The Chinese Governor was treated with shameful indignity, exiled to Calcutta, where lie died; and a treaty was forced on the Chines which secured further rights r.r-d privileges for the foreign trader. Amon„ other provisions were one which compelled China to legalise omum tra.be and one which specified that the change of ratifications should take place in Pekin. Now the Chinese did not want any foreigner to enter their secret city. And this stipulation was a tvi.i'L n indignity heaped upon them. Litt.e wonder they resented it. ''hen the embassies arrived for the ic'cmonv there, were French, American and Russian representatives as veil .«• British —they brought with them • fleet, of nineteen .armed vessels force their wav up. the l ciuo Rm or. But the Taku forts oavve'd" tlfiur passage. effectually. The expedition ' warned. The forks queued Me. The fleet, was driven hack. 4 yi.n ‘-it another expedition “opem-d. much stronger. It was irresistible and soon entered Pekin. Put .some cf h members had been .ringed J” Chinese, and a drastic tiW/ The famous fcnmnmr I rbme of the Emperor, with ad A*. *’’ treasures, alb its Of works Of Chinese a.H. all. i s gardens and pagodas, was wantonly desAnd of eou i 'se : fi;ttnev cpn,>essiop« for the traders were wrested from the Chinese.

Wo conveniently tugof- those stories. A recent history of the times glosses them over, bet the Chinese do not > iget. There ore millions of Chinese to-day whose fathers and grandfathers lived through tiros,' events and who fi.-.ve i “h »’d of them from their lips. Mi.ii.er Baiuns have exacted concessions .'vom China, and have treated her ivruigniiiy. But 'our nation stands out <n the eyes of the Chinese 'as the one v. Vich has been most brutal and unjust; Our nation has been most prom.neat in cue lorcign trade. Our nation has had,the greatest interest Jii those etxra-territorial “concessions” which the Chinese have come to regard as intolerable co-day. Those “concessions” :.ie fjeus cl land set apart in the treaty ports for the residence of foreign traders. They are removed from the jurisdiction of the Chinese, exempt Hem Chinese law and administration. They are governed by councils elected by the foreigners; those councils levy the taxes, 'conduct the aha irs of the settlement, maintain police forces and volunteer organisations lor the keeping of order and defence. Chinese residents in the concessions pay taxes but have no representation or the governing bodies. The concessions are practically foreign cities on Chinese territory, and their privileges arc open to abuse and have been allused. In the early days they may have been a blessing to China in some ways. They afforded an example of municipal efficiency in roads, buildings, lighting, situation and so on, which the Chinese were quick to profit by. And at first they caused no trouble. But as the foreign communities grew undesirable chaiac-ters took refuge under the protection they t afforded, and nefarious practices, sprang up. Unscrupulous men, in the selfish pursuit of gain, nursed the obnoxious dpi uni traffic, smuggled arms and ammunition to hands of Timbers and rebels, anil opened up a trade in noxious drugs. The foreigner was always highhanded in resenting anything which looked like •invading his privileges, quick to raise the cry of treaty rights, and prompt in summoning gunboats to protect his life and property. A very little imagination will enable us to see how naturally the 'Chinese have come to regard the whole range of tteaties under which those concessions have been granted as grossly unjust and insulting to the dignity of au ancient arid honourable people. And the foreigners—or at least foreign governments—have themselves come to see that the maintenance of them is impossible. They are a violation ol China’s sovereign rights. And there are other violations which the Chinese quite naturally complain of. They are not allowed to control their own traffic laws. Customs duties at the ports are fixed hr treaty, and "by treaty they are compelled to have a foreigner—a British official —at the head oi the customs service. .

(To Be Continued.>