CO129-491 - Public Offices - 1925 — Page 324

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this work. On the other hand, Dr. Lavington Hart, who has kindly con- sented to second this Resolution and who is qualified to speak on this sub- ject with a good deal more weight than I can myself, will tell you in a few minutes of the intense propaganda which has been carried on amongst mem- bers of parliament at home to get our Government to commit themselves definitely to allocate the funds to educational purposes alone. This is what we must set our faces against. Why should we follow blindly the action taken by the United States years ago when different conditions were obtain- ing in this country? Why should we disregard the crying need of the masses in China for subsistence, before we concentrate all our resources on educating them? Education is the most dangerous tool in the hands of politicians and you all know what kind of propaganda is being instilled in the minds of Young China of to-day through the innocent medium of for- eign educational institutions.

Let us profit by the lessons of the past and remember the silent suf- fering masses, the farmers of China. It is these who always will be the backbone of this country and it is not until their daily struggle for existence is made easier that they will be able to take their place in the political councils of their country.

As far as I can make cut, the Chinese advice which has been sought so far, has been almost entirely confined to Chinese educationalists. Surely, the opinions of others, with a wider and more practical outlook, should also be taken into account. As a prominent Chinese, whom I was speaking to yesterday, said, "The Boxer Indemnity was exacted not only from the students but from all the lower classes as well. If your Government wishes to remit this indemnity, why not let the lower classes benefit too, especially as they too suffered and paid as a result of the boxer uprising?"

In the history of our race our traditional policy has always stood for sound common sense, so do let us be practical. The International Famine Relief Association has shewn us what could be achieved in China by means of a revolving fund, with which work is undertaken on a loan basis and the repaid funds reemployed where need is greatest. It is not up to us definitely to advocate and decide here to-day in what proportion and to what definite purpose the Indemnity Fund should be used. I trust this will be left in the hands of a thoroughly representative Anglo-Chinese Committee whose members will be able to give all their time and thought to this purpose.

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But what we want is to prevent the bill from going through Parliament with the avowed purpose of applying the funds to education alone.

I feel confident that our appeal to H. M. Government will not be ignored.

Gentlemen, in asking you to support this Resolution, I am doing so in the hope that with the funds available after the educational needs already advocated have been fully met, Britain may do something to help in the most practical way the people of this great country. (Loud applause.)

Dr. Lavington Hart, M.A. Cantab., n.sc., London (Principal of Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College) then seconded the resolution. In the course of an eloquent speech he said:-

ist.

If I am entitled in my quality as Honorary Member of the Chamber to take part in this discussion, I would ask to be allowed to second the Resolution, and I do so as an Educationalist, and a convinced Educational- I confess that I have great sympathy with those Members of British Chambers of Commerce who are still convinced that the best service that Great Britain can render to China is through education. For we must re- cognise that there are other avenues of approach between peoples than those of Finance and Commerce; that indeed of all such ways of intercourse the old honoured highway of Thought, Ideas, Investigation and Knowledge still lies if not prominent, yet pre-eminent.

If any one of us will give himself the trouble to discover what it is that has made our Nation great and helped to spread its influence to such an extent that it has become the model to others in matters of self-govern- ment, liberty, just and equal treatment of other races, he will be forced to the conclusion that it is not only through its unrivalled commerce, not simply through the intervention of Machinery, but through the introduction of those high ideals and thoughts, and the inter-penetration of its own ideals of justice and fair dealing that the British Empite is what it is to-day, and can influence the rest of the world.

It is mentality that Counts.

Or if he begins to enquire into the state of this equntry and asks what China lacks to-day, the answer must be not in the first instance, Machinery or methods of communication, not even in the last analysis the means of liveli hood, but Men. When these are forthcoming China's needs will be met, its vast resources will be tapped, and foreign assistance no longer be required.