SUNDAY READING

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10304, 13 January 1927, Page 3

SUNDAY READING

national RETRIBUTION

(AFFAIRS IN CHINA.)

(By the Rev. Jaurns' Aitken, M.A.) -no following address was delivered by the Rev. d,.,5. aKvoii at Si. Andrews C'nurea on Sunday right last :• _ 'in I'tiJ the pavers assembled at tiie Washington Conference were uLoily c-fieer-eu twin prootems arising cut of the now conditions growing up round the Pacific. Among those problems were, of course, those arising from the awakening of China: and the Powers definitely undertook that a Conference should be held in China for a revision of the customs tariff and the regulation of internal taxation, and that an international Commission should visit China to enquire into the whole system of extraterritoriality with a view to the remedy of abuses and the gradual abolition of the system. 'Five years.have passed and nothing has been clone. The Chinese complain that the powers have treated them with less than courtesy ancl less than justice: and this, probably, more than any other recent happening has caused the profound dissatisfaction in China against all foreigners.

Of this dissatisfaction file British bear the brunt; partly > muse they havo held a pre-eminent position in foreign trade ancl foreign privilege, and partly because tnere slill nukes in G'ninese memories the ic cohcc-tion of the injustice and cruelty < f the early wars. We may say in excuse that those wars were begun by* local officials without the authority of the British Government. That is true; but the British government did not disown the action of its representatives. It rather supported them, prosecuted hostilities to the finish, and imposed upon the Chinese conditions of peace that were all calculated to promote British commercial interests ancl to humiliate the Chinese. We are suffering to-day lor the sins of our fathers Nemesis has overtaken us. It is true oi nations, as it is of individuals, that what they sow they must reap. The harvest may be long in ripening; but it does not fail. I want to make one thing clear. Ido not believe that Britain's dealings with the backward peoples oi the earth have always been unfair and unkind. I do not believe that the story of her behaviour to China is at all typical. On the contrary i hold that we have much to be proud of and grateful for in our record: and that our association even with China has on the whole been of as much benefit to her people as to ourselves. But at the same time I am sure it is wise to recall our errors as well as our good deeds, it is a false sort of patriotism that will not believe its own country can ever be wrong. It is w ise for us to remember the grievous wrongs we have clone to China in the past: for more reasons than one. First of all, that in the present troubles in that country, we may understand and sympathise with the Chinese point of view. The Chinese desire to be treated, not as a barbarous or semi-civilised people, but as equals. They want us to recognise their rights as we would recognise the rights of France or Germany or America. We would never even mention to any of these countries the proposals to which we have compelled the Chinese to agree. And the Chinese know it. They are an able ancl cultured people, and they demand, and rightly demand, that the old treaties shall be revised and all the conditions under which foreigners live among them and trade among them. After all they have as much right to keep us out of their country as we have to keep them out of ours. And though there may be a vast amount of property involved, there are also questions of equity and justice; and these moral questions are more important by far than the material ones. The Chinese have a souse of justice as well as we have. T hope and pray that there will be no attempt to employ force against them for the settlement of these disputes. I am sure that in the long run justice and reason will provide the best and most profitable solution. The Chinese at Hankow have behaved admirably. They have shown an admirable restraint and have controlled their own soldiers and their civilian mob. They are guarding the property of the evicted British residents pending a settlement of the trouble. Everything goes to suggest that they will be fair ancl reasonable in their _ demands when the treaties are revised. It is for Britain to submit the treaties to revision without delay. Secondly there is a lesson to be learnt from the history of our relations with China of the utmost importance for the future. It is the obvious lesson that good and satisfactory relations between nations can never be established by force. Our position in China was gained and maintained by the guns of our fleet: and we are losing it and must lose it. The Chinese will drive us out of their country by the simple process of letting us alone, unless we come to a better understanding with them. That better understanding will never he reached by Admiral Tyrwhitt and his destroyers, as the merchants of Shanghai imagine. Let the destroyers keep out of the road, and let. men of goodwill meet round a table in conference: ancl if there are fairplay and goodfeeling they will not take long to arto the common advantage of everybody concerned. But nothing will ever be arranged by the use of force. The day has gone by when we dare look to war to accomplish any good. It is righteousness and righteousness alone which exnlteth a nation : and it is upon righteousness and righteousness _ alone that international relationships can he satisfactorily ancl permanently established. God is in heaven: and no work of man can prosper which is not keyed to the moral law which is the expression of His will. There is a word of Christ’s which applies to the conduct of nations as well as of individuals: “All things whatsoever ye would that, men should do unto you, even so do ve unto them.”