December 24, 1906.]
PEKING SUSPECT.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
these alleged reforms which, whatever else they may do, will certainly affect our there should now be such an influential interests very deeply". It is a pity that party which, being outside China, yet ou mistaken ethical grounds conspires for Chinese interests and against our own.
THE TIEN TSU HUI.
WAS
(Daily Press, December 17th.) We note that the London Times is advised that the most trustworthy guide to the real significance of modern Chinese movements is to be found in Japanese opinion, and we need not quarrel with this so long as it is understood that it is Japanese opinion that is offered, and not some foreign resident's opinion of what Japanese opinion ought to be. The Japanese newspapers are said to complain that the recent edicts from Peking
(Daily Press, December 18th.) do not touch the awkward division of reply, by those who love a tu quoque, when It used to be considered rather a nent Chinese and Manchus, and that the pro- references to the cruel fashion of crushing vincial governments of the Chinese Empire Chinawomen's feet were met by allusions to are not adequately brought under control. the pinched-in waists of foreign women. Other papers are quoted also, as if it had The argument was even carried further, not been the prevailing opinion of all and the point emphasized that more vital properly-informed residents and neighbours organs were affected, and health more that
every recent Chinese decree must be seriously threatened, by the foreign corset regarded with more scepticism than sympa than by the Chinese foot-bandage. Happily thy. That this should have become traditional attitude to their "reforms". the vagaries of fashion; but it is not altogether the day seems going for both monstrons Chinese have only themselves to blame. is not altogether a fair or reasonable attitude
It Anttering to the West to have to not that to maintain, on the face of it, but those China than to Europe, in those respects. commonsense is coming more quickly to with practical acquaintance of the Chinese Our telegram nonouncing that a record mass genius and policy have had too many warnings to be led away from the cold
meeting at Shanghai witnessed the taking criticism that looks unkind and prejudiced. Feet Society by a purely Chinese committee over on Sunday of the control of the Natural Their cynicism is not contumacious, but is significant. inevitable mistrust, and the double chorus ARCHIBALD LITTLE and her friends are It suggests that Mrs. of hysteria coming from yellow peril people antisfied that the seed so industriously sown on the one hand, and from mendacious by them has germinated successfully, and optimists on the other, was bound to make put forth strong shoots indicative of a good the tone of their comments less charitable | harvest, to China than might otherwise have been Dowager
The support of the EMPRESS the case. There can be no real reform, we
n table triump', and fear, till the whole old breed of officials what was really needed
very useful 80 far as it went; but have joined their ancestors in their in-revivalis: calls a
was what the "conviction of sin", and Docuous sphere of usefulness, and till a a consensus of Chinese opinion that this new generation fully aware of the principles particular reform deserved immediate at- and potentialities of the Western century, tention. For a long time now, has arisen in their place. The
as the reduction of the present offic al personnel at of the movement have been encouraged by mere reports of the Society show, the champions Peking, desiderated by some contemporaries, the valuable co-operation of will not bring about the real reforms they Chinese helpers, but now we see the whole numerous hope for. Not reduction, but extinction, work in similar hands. that may be trusted seems to us the essential preliminary. Then the Japanese are
to work out their own salvation. It was certainly justifiel in the opinion of the late Bishop HOARE that indexing the Manchu-contra-Chinese dis- the time had about come tinction as fatal to any real reform on the
for laying lines wished for. In the redistribution the Christian church in China, and probably |
on Chinese shoulders the responsibility for effected by the recent Edicts, it is admitted in that as in the natural-feet mission, the that the Manchus have received more than satisfaction of enjoying such responsibility their share of good things, while the huge and dignity would tend to more earnest abuse of the Manchu pension list and a superfluity of ornamental Court function-retard the realization of the late BISHOP's There are prejudices likely to aries are retained. In addition to this dream; and the committee of the anti- awkward cleavage, there remains the foot-binding undoubted fact that Chinese and Manchu congratulated, doubtless, for
association are to be “reformers” alike are working to a standard effacement in thus, having brought the some self quite unlike that of the foreign critic's ship to port, standing modestly asile. In imagination. Their objects are not the ther and what some people may even objects of the stranger at their gata; in
consider bigger things, the Chinese would be glad to so take charge, and to dispense with the directing counsel and managing ninds of alieus; but for these, the Shanghai incident is a too premature omen. Doubt- less it will occur to some to ask, if in one reform, why not in others? The answer will probably be that there is no objection, convinced in these cases of the Chinese ng the foreigner is as strongly bona-fide intention as was actually the case when the control of the T'ien Tsu Hui was handed over, which society, by the way, began with the hope that it might in a few years become rather a Chinese than a foreign society. In one decale of years it has realized its hope, and Mrs. LITTLE, in retiring from China altogether, has the satisfaction of knowing that thoroughly earnest and peculiarly influential efforts are now being directed to the completion of the humane work so ably carried on by her.
very importint respects they are essentially opposite and hostile. The foreign visitor recommends reformn to make more pleasant his visit; the native reformer sets about reforming in the lively hope that the visitor may be induced to shorten bis visit. In such perfectly well recognized
circumstances, it is not so unreasonable to suggest that "there is a conspicuous feature in these changes which suggests that they may be inspired by other motives and utilized for other ends than the promotion of good government
"" or to mention as "
a shrewd suspicion" the common opinion of competent observers that "the so-called reform movement is mainly an anti-foreign movement, in the e.es both of the Court and of Young China". So, as the Times remarks, it is certainly a view which deserves consideration and suggests caution ¡n determining our own attitude towards
work.
80 8000
MORAL GARLIC.
(Daily Press, 19th December.)
A certain man of Hongkongfis in the habit hates are humbug and garlic. of remarking that the two things he most Quaint an in this juxtaposition, it is not altogether an incongruous one. The utter physical nauses which overwhelins many Europeans when they too nearly approach a Chinese kitchen ia closely analogous to the mental loathing with which the ingenuous spirit_contem- that distinguishes the civilization of to-day. plates the omnipresent effluvia of hypocrisy If we take the present situation in America as an example, it is not because we consider respect, but merely because recent events, that country and people unique in this coupled with the lofty, ethical pretensions * of the Federacy, happen to draw attention to the gap between precept and practice that is to be observed deepening and widening With the eyes of an evolving civilization in every state community in the world. upon it, this "United" people began its the liveliest admiration in certain quarters, corporate existence with ideals that evoked
an I in others the inevitable wonder whether disillusion and follow. The American republic, if we may backsliding would not
s put it, was launched upon a flow of
feeling. reason; it is now tossing in a whirlpool of they feel. This accounts for the pheno- In crises, men rarely think;
the philosopher engrosses and frames and menon of humbug. On a full stomach,
hanga up soma “honesty is the best policy' maxim; being hungry, he reaches out and takes what he needs. Thus som humbug is as inevitable as pingand charity towards nconsistency is as necessary as the matter of fact tolerance with which we see ʼn man weep one day and laugh the next. Where and when does irritation at humbug become them keeping upturned eyes excusable? It is surely when we behold on the
with the bands. heavenly motto while doing earthly work
towards the Negro, the
The American attitude
lately towards the Japanese, is understand. Mongol", an l able and bearable so long as they do not wave the Constitution and its inalienable
having made all men equal", the American righ's of min before our eyes. "Providence frees the black slave ocinomically and freezes him socially; he refuses to sit down with the emancipated “nigger" at the same Confucian "Do not to others what you table. Mr. BaYAN makes comparison of the would not have them đồ tổ you" with the Golden Rule "Do unto others as ye would that they should do to you”. He demonstrates nobler i led, and uses it to justify America'i to his own satisfaction that the latter is the zeal in sending missionaries to Obina. The obvious implication that America thereby is doing "as se would that Chias should to to her" has had its mocking commentary in • the events leading up to the late boycott; and we presume that during his present candid - labour the point. America "tulks big” of ture Mr. BRYAN will not deem it politic to its educative mission. It is overeducating the him to its own theoretical status of equality ; Filipino, but is not over eager to adinit and herein feeling strikes us as a better guide than reason. the Negro, and when the barrier of illiteracy It has been educating promises to break down, as a result of its own virtuous endeavours, it resorts to legis- lative ingenuities_to_disfranchise and keep him in his place. In the case of the Japanese, Californians propose to beat the Federal Consti ution and its ethical and other agreements by a State law. Georgia pr›- poses to give the negro schools only that pittance of money arising from the negro's
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蒜泥