30
side, it is obvious that our own prosperity and the remunerative employment of British capital and labour must be benefited by the development of our trade with China; and this, in turn, is bound to be considerably affected by the number of Chines who have received a commercial or industrial training in the United Kingdom.
British prestige and influence, and the extent of the development of mutual knowledge of each other's country among British and Chinese are to a large extent dependent upon the existence of a vigorous British community in China. Such a community is in its turn affected, in numbers and in quality, by the volume and nature of Sino-British trade. Trade depends on the development of the country, and the Moreover, one of the development of the country upon the spread of education. most thorny difficulties which besets the Far Eastern question, is the social discrep- ancy between white and yellow. This gulf can only be bridged, if at all, through an educational rapprochement.
This question of the education of Chinese on British lines, therefore, is more than mere commercial propaganda. It is an urgent and fundamental problem of imperial policy. The political predominance of Great Britain in Asia may have to give way to some extent before the new self-assertion of the Asiatic peoples. The territorial empire of Great Britain may have to revert in form to an economio empire, less concrete perhaps, but not necessarily less strong. The reliance of the new China (as of the new India) upon our commercial and industrial co-operation is surely one of the foundations upon which our economic empire in Asia must rest; and how can such reliance be better promoted than by spreading British education among the makers of the new China? Have we not antagonised the Japanese by treating them as natives, at a time when we might have offered them more than we did in the way of co-operation in commerce, industry and education? As a result foreign goods and foreign influence have been steadily eliminated from Japain. Are we, in the same way, to lose our influence in China, a far greater and more prinising field?
It is clear that other countries, especially France and the United States of America, are fully alive to the importance of the question. The French Government are preparing to grant lavish subsidies for an educational policy in China, at a time, too, when they can afford, even less than we can, any expenditure on luxuries. The policy of the American Government was still more generous, and has gained a lead of thirteen years.
·.
There is strong argument, therefore, in favour of the State directly interesting itself in the endowment of a substantial fund for Chinese education. The Treasury have refused, not unreasonably, to add such a scheme to the burden of the British taxpayer. But, as Sir Charles Eliot says, it is a question of primary importance for our influence in China "; and as such, he urges that the remission of the Boxer indemnity for educational purposes might be brought before the Cabinet (see paper 158944 of the 5th December, 1919). In the suggestions for immediate action, embodied in a separate memorandum, no such suggestion at present is brought forward, because it is strongly felt that those should finance the scheme who will most immediately profit thereby. On the one hand, our aim is commercial propaganda and advertisement. For the present, first consideration should be given to this point of view. But, on the other hand, we should be taking an important step in imperial policy. This is the point of view, which may eventually justify a State subsidy.
French and American competition in the Chinese educational field should stimu- late us to prompt and effective action, but need not inspire unnecessary alarm. With America we can never compete; her financial and geographical advantages are alto- gether superior. But, by spreading the English language. American establishments are assisting our own work and our greatest rival is thus our greatest help.t France *Sir Johu Jordan (see despatch No. 348 of the 13th July, 1918), lays stress on the fortunate result to us of the American educational achievement in China. The Americans, he says, are our friendly rivals, and, in some cases, our coadjutore. But Sir Charles Eliot (see paper 158944 of the 5th December, 1919), is unable to agree on the subject of collaboration between British and American schools and colleges in China. "Friendliness may exist between such institutions," he says, "but not collaboration or co-operation, because their very nature makes their aims different. We wish to attract Chinese students to British institutions in China and then send them on to other British institutions elsewhere, whereas the Americans wish to attract them to American institutions in China, und afterwards send them to the United States, We cannot even count on friendliness. The American college at Canton was strongly anti-British at the beginning of the war, and would not give a hearing to a travelling American lecturer who tried to give a discourse in favour of the Allies.
Yet the French Government subsidise educational establishments abroad, and His Majesty's Government, too, in the case of the Farence Institute.
31
will never do more than cultivate her own little plot in the Chinese garden. She is handicapped fatally by the mean figure cut by her representatives abroad, both official and private. To the Oriental, France is already a second-rate Power. Still more is she handicapped by her language, which for the Oriental leads to nothing or to very little, whereas English is the lingua franca of international commerce, in which Chinese converse and correspond, not only with British and Americans, but with Japanese, Indians, Egyptians, &c., as well. M. Painlevé has recognised this But point and promises instruction in English also under the French scheme. surely the Chinese will prefer to get his English instruction from British or American sources.
push The principal result of the French educational “ China, remarkable as it is, ought to be the stimulus which it should give to our own people to grasp the infinitely greater opportunity lying so much closer to their reach.
February 3, 1921.
SUB-APPENDIX.
JAPANESE Government Students Abroad, 1918.
Countries designated for Study.
United States
France
Russia
Switzerland
[6823]
Subjects of Study.
Political economy and science of finance Science of commerce
Accountancy and science of commerce
Persons.
Science of commerce and commercial English Medical chemistry
*1
Medicine
Orthopedic surgery
Gynecology and abstetrics
Psychiatry
Pharmaceutical chemistry
Electrical engineering
Electro-mechanical engineering in general
Mechanical engineering
Naval architecture
Water and steam turbines
Mining machinery
Applied chemistry
Railroad engineering and reinforced concrete,
Industry of oils and fats in general, specially
manufacture of fatty acids
1
1
2
Applied chemistry and science of commodities Inorganic industrial chemistry Metallurgy
Philosophy and ethics
Ethics..
English language
History
Physics
Organic chemistry
Botany, and biology in general education
Analytical chemistry
Physiology of fermentation
Forest mensuration and forest protection
Management of sericulture and filature
Industry of fibres
Physical education
Matters relating to female education and
elementary education
Total
32
Mathematics
History of Russia
Pharmacy
--
• Those who were sent abroad during the year.
1
1
1
1
"1
F 2
J
in
343
[