TIMES
MARCH
The Troubles in Hong-kong.
An important British colony, the great Far Eastern port of Hong-kong, which has long been one of the chief channels for the dissemination of Western influences in China, is now seriously affected by the obscure read- tions of modern movements that are now phanging the whole face of Chinese politics. Some weeks ago a seainen's atriks disturbed the rich traffic of the port of Hong-kong, and, gradually extending and including within its scope, first the goal coolies, and then other indispensable workers, has now brought within its range even the house-boys and the workers who bring down provisions to the colony from up the river. Some of the Chinese population have tried to meke their way into the interior across the leased territory of the Kowloon peninsula, and have been held up by military cordons on the i frontier. The Seaman's Union, which started the strike, has been proclaimed ; the more responsible Chinese elements have tried to exert a moderating influence; the Legislative Council has placed in the hands of the Governor, REGINALD STUBBS, and his Executive Spr exceptional powers to deal with the emergency; the small non-Chinese population of Victoria, the neighbouring islands, and Kowloon, con- sisting mainly of British and Portuguese, have placed themselves at the disposal of the Execu tive in order to maintain order and ensure the essential services. In spite of all these ' precautions the situation remains
grave
and not easily explicable. Hong-kong.
or
the
island hilly
with its dependen- cies, is one of the centres where British civilizing influence in the Far East has | appeared at its best. It was a refuge for bewil- dered Chinese during the storms of the revo. lution, and ita excellent University has been a means of imparting Western education in close and fruitful association with Chinese AVHE- roundings. The little English colony has contri. buted enormously to the prosperity of China, and the port that has been the centre of a trade whose value amounts to about fifty million pounds a year has stimulated the de- velopment of trade and industry throughout Southern China. Now all this great work is at a standstill. The port is idle. The trade from up the Canton river is blocked. Steamers carrying cargo from Europe are com- pelled to discharge at Singapore to deposit their freight in warehouses at Shanghai. A strange paralysis has overtaken Hong-kong, and the British population, who are the authors of the port's prosperity, are stranded amid a population of about half-a-million actively or passively hostile Chinese. There are no people in the world who are more capable than the Chinese of what may be called a cohesive boycott. They learned the lessons of organization for this purpose from the reiterated experiences of boycott against Japanese trade, and it may well be that advantage has been taken of these experiments on the present occasion. It seems, however, incredible that the root of the trouble is purely national and anti-European. A large number of Chinese have closely identified their interests with those of Europeana in the upbuilding of Hong-kong, and not a few of them appreciate the benefits of British rule in the colony, mora particularly when they compare it with the disturbed condition of inland China. For all that, the connexion of the majority of the Chinese population with the interior remains very close, and if it be remembered that Chinese, driven by some rostless impulse far from their country to Polynesis, to America, or even to Europe, still retain some compelling veneration for national tradition, and are still subject to the dictates of some obscure organizations at home, it will be comprehensible that the popula. tion of the Hong-kong colony mey easily be moved by disturbances in the interior,
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The nature of the disturbances in the interior it is not easy to fathom. There are hints that a large proportion of the workers in Hong-kong *re intimidated by threats of reprisals to their relatives up the river. Canton is the centre of disturbance. Canton is the headquarters of the so-called Southern Chinese Government, under SUN-YAT-SEN, and this Government, ag contrasted with the Peking Government, has throughout been distinguished by extreme democratic tendencies. In addition to the Kwang-tung province, the Canton Government has lately secured control of the province of Kwang-si. There is a further complication in the fact that while BUN-YAT-SEN has lately been suspected of surreptitious negotiations with the Northern leaders who control Peking, his Commander-in-Chief, CHEN-CHTU-MING, who is the real power in Canton, has been parloying with WU-PER-Fu, the great War-lord of Southern China, who is opposed to the reactionary
Northern leaders. While all these mancuvres are being enacted, Canton, where a persistence in loud modern outeries has developed into a crude ferment of extremist ideas, has apparently become the centre of a powerful Labour organi- zation. The strike in Hong-kong has been accompanied in Canton by a sympathetic strike, the watchword of which is Labour against Capital. What is happening in Hong-kong must, then, be regarded as the reflection of a| more general and somewhat sinister movement in the interior. It may be that the stubborn Chinese propaganda of the Russian Bolshev. ist.s already yielding certain results, although the experience of most of the wretched Chinese coolies who were caught towards the end of the war in Bolshevist Russia was such as to arouse in them & hatresì for Bolshevism. In Southern China, however, the echoes of the doctrine, stripped of the bitterly illustrative experience, may have had an inflammatory effect, and, combined with the Chinese capacity for organization in secret Bocieties, may have produced the results wo now see in Hong-kong. Happily there have been no signa of violent disorder. The British colony will certainly hold firm, and as the days pass the more responsible Chinese elements will recover courage and the dupes of the agitation will realize how cruelly they have. been misled; then normal life will gradually bė restored.
is
There are few indications, in spite of the recent Amoy boycott, that the movement is specifically anti-European in character; and though populer Chinese opinion is disappointed by the results of the Washington Conference, it is not for the moment aggressively anti-foreign. The whole incident serves to show how profoundly European interests in the Far East are being affected by that steady impact of European ideas on China which is incalculably transforming the whole fabric of Chinese society.
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