(Six)
a
with the foreigners along the Yang- tsze and in the South, while north- ern China was in turmoil. The northerners then learned that Boxers were not invulnerable and that to exterminate all foreigners was less easy than they had sup- posed. Remembering this, the northerners to-day are not attempt- ing to destroy foreign treaty-rights by violence, but are willing to negotiate friendly settlement. It is the southerners this time who believe themselves to have found an invincible weapon wherewith to drive all foreigners out of China. They miscall it "the economic wea- pon," meaning thereby strikes, boy- cotts, labour unrest, mob violence, -all excited by lying propaganda,- piracy, brigandage and every other means of making trade in China unprofitable to the foreigner and residence in China disagreeable to him. A better name for this wea- pon would be
the
Bolshevik bludgeon and those who brandish it have been taught by their Rus- sian "high advisers" that with this weapon they can so bedevil the foreigner that of his own accord he will after a while pack up his traps and leave China for good. But the true name of this weapon is "the Bolshevik boomerang,'
"because it will most certainly curl back and deliver its shrewdest blow at those who endeavour to wield it. Al. ready none suffer from it more than do the Chinese themselves, and it will sooner or later knock out every bolshevized Chinese in the country. (Applause.)
"1
Defeatist Attitude Will Not Help.
Lying propaganda of the most virulent type gives the initial im- petus to all these Bolshevik machinations: and, gentlemen, we must counter it by telling the truth and exposing the falsehoods. There are many who, like Conventry Pat- more, would sit down and say that for lack of them the world's course will not fail.
"When all its work is done, the
lie shall rot.
The truth is great and will
prevail, When none cares whether it
prevail or not."
|
Such a defeatist attitude will not help us now. We must be up and doing. We must see to it that the lie shall rot before, not after, its poisonous work is done, and that the truth is widely told all over China now when the victory of truth is the best means of averting the Bolshevik menace. The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce as well as the Chinese Chamber of Commerce should give most serious consideration to this matter.
Light On The Horizon,
Gentlemen, it is always the dark- est hour that comes before the dawn; and already I seem to see a glimmer of light on the horizon. The Chinese Nationalist rarty is at last struggling to rid itself of the taint of Bolshevism and is dis- carding Comrade Borodin and other demagogues who deliriously direct chaos and who are prophets of communism and "world-revolu- tion." It now looks as if measures, similar to the emergency regula- tions made by the Hong Kong Government to save this Colony from the tyranny of Bolshevized Labour, have also been enforced by Chinese Nationalist generals both in Shanghai and at Canton and in other large cities, although Chi- nese generals have had to use the mailed first where I fortunately was able to use the velvet glove. may, therefore, be on the verge of a renewal of the friendly relations which are traditional between this
We
Colony and the neighbouring pro- vinces of China. With all my heart I hope that it is so. I have complete faith in the future of this Colony. I do not believe that the day of British influence in China is drawing to a close. On the con- trary I believe that, when the spasin of madness now convulsing China is spent, Great Britain and the British Colony of Hong Kong will be recognized throughout the Eighteen Provinces as the most potent, the most beneficent and the most congenial friends and coad- jutors of the Chinese people in this era of its renaissance.-(Applause.)
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