CO129-454 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1919 [4-6] — Page 409

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Then they would be able to go back amongst their people and-perhaps the Chinese would excuse me for my plain language - these young men, wise, learned, but humble, will bring with them piety, knowledge, patience, skill and humanity to relieve the Chinese nation of that terrible paralysis of the senses, and one is almost tempted to say, of the mind-that moral and spiritual malady which accounts for all the symptoms of decadence of what was once ધી brilliant civilisation. When that paralysis shall have passed away then, and only then, will the Chung-hua Republic wake up, recover her senses, and banish for ever the sights, the smells, the sounds, and the thoughts at present character- istic of Chinese surroundings-the obnoxious and disagreeable evidences of national degeneration and decay! Then shall arise in the Flowery Land a rejuvenated "Middle Kingdom" with beautiful cities, clean homes, high ideals, happy children, refined women, and heroic men, excelling the best features of the glorious times of the T'angs and the Sungs in Ancient China.

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