October 21, 1897.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
ALLEGED DANGERS OF FOREIGN intimate knowledge of the vernacular and
EDUCATION FOR NATIVES.
The notorious HENRI ROCHEFORT in his journal, the Intransigeant, expresses satisfaction nt the trouble that has be- fallen England on the Indian frontier and rejoices in what he considers "the near "and decisive victory of the oppressed and "the massacre of the oppressors." He is at the same time good enough to disclose what he believes to be the origin of the matter.. He says that the revolutionary agitator DJEMAI ED-DIN, whom the cruel Sultan ABDUL- HAMID caused to be poisoned at Coustan- tinople, predicted to him the formidable rising which Great Britain is DOW experiencing SO much difficulty suppressing. He told me,"
"
""
K
"
#6
" sily8
<<
66
"
45
<5
64
"L
303
aggerated importance to the teaching of which would not exist if instead of learning English to the Chinese. Some consideration the language of the natives they tried to might with advantage also be given to the teach the natives a foreign language. The encouragement of the study of Chinese by article concludes as follows:-" An associa- the European boys 'attending the various "tion was formed several years ago with the schools of the colony, and foreign mercantile chimerical aim of educating the natives up firms would be well advised to impose on to our own intellectual level, to initiate their cadets an obligation to make them- "them in the progress of our civilisation, selves acquainted with the vernacular, or "and thus to win them over to our ideas by at least to offer substantial inducements 'Frenchifying them as much as possible. to them to do 80. The Blackburn Is not this an error, generous perhaps, but Commission, according to Mr. HIBBERT, 'full of danger for the future? Ought one found that the energy and enterprise not to be afraid to give to these unwilling which were successful in the past in protégés of to-day, to those recalcitrant forming the present position
of the subjects of to-morrow, weapons which it "cotton trade had in a large measure "will be easy for them to turn against us? disappeared. They were told that mer- " in How much wiser and farseeing would we chants were to a very great extent be if we were to confine ourselves to studying gradually becoming merely commission and gauging to the bo tom the people whom 'agents, and that there was nothing like we pretend to direct, for their good and our "the amount of energy and perseverance- profit. As the English pass as our elders and "there formerly was. As an example of masters in the matter of colonisation let us "what might be done, however, he instanced profit by the hard lesson now being taught a leading thread manufacturing firm in "them in their Indian empire." As already England who had sent a representative remarked, the present disturbances on the "who spoke the Chinese language, and who Indian frontier have nothing to do with the was an enterprising young man, through spread of the English language, but it must "the country establishing representatives, nevertheless be admitted that the education with the result that the firm were founding of the natives of a subject country in the lan- a gigantic trade in China. He had no guage of the dominant race is not in itself an doubt that when the report of the mission instrument that will necessarily secure their came to hand something of the like kind affection, while on the other hand it may "would be proposed with regard to the very readily resolve itself into a means of " cotton trade." The disappearance of the promoting disaffection by imbuing them energy and enterprise which were so sucess- with aspirations that cannot be fulfilled ful in the past is unfortunately only too and encouraging a spirit of unrest.ratent. Some expansion of trade there has Whatever dangers may lie in that direc-been, no doubt, but such as it is it is due tion, however, the advantages on the other rather to the energy and enterprise of the side largely outweigh them, as the education Chinese merchants themselves than to that of the people is one of the best means of the foreign commission agents whom they towards the material development of a coun- employ. British merchants may plead try. But it is a mistake, where the natives that the stagnation which has come over are in too great numercial preponderance to the trade that still remains in their hands is be thoroughly assimilated, to deprive them due to the want of support, amounting of an adequate knowledge of their own almost to hostility, on the part of their language. In Hongkong, for instance, the Government, which has adopted the knowledge of English should be superim- narrowest Chinese reading of the treaties, posed on a sound Chinese education, which is given the mandarins practically a free hand more likely to make a youth at once useful in the imposition of lekin and other squeezes, bud an orderly subject than confining and discouraged direct trading in the his education entirely to English and thus interior. This indictment of the Govern- unfitting him for his environment.
ment is well founded, as a perusal of the blus recently adopted policy in this matter is a books will prove, but it cannot be held mistake and the departure from the lines to absolve the merchant from the charge of laid down by the late Dr. STEWART is to be lack of enterprise, for it is in the face of regretted.
difficulties that enterprise should exhibit it- self.
M. ROCHEFORT, "that amongst other things which would raise India against England. was the mistake committed in 'imposing upon the Hindoos a knowledge "of the English language. As soon as they were able, by reading the public journals "of Europe, to understand their subjection, the extent of their rights, and the wrongs inflicted upon them by their oppressors, they would no longer think of anything "but their own deliverance.” The ex- planation does not seem to meet the case at all, because there is small knowledge of the English language amongst the Afridis and Mohmands. However, the passage we have quoted above is taken as the text of a leading article in the Courrier d'Haiphong in which views are expressed that may be deemed worthy of consideration, though they are not likely to find much endorse- ment amongst the British. Our policy is to spread enlightenment as far as possible in the regions subject to our dominion, and one of the means employed for that enlighten- ment is the diffusion of a knowledge of the English language. That this policy may be attended with some danger must be ad- mitted, but, on the other hand, without a knowledge of the English language the na- tives can hardly be expected to freely imbibe ideas of progress as applied to the commer- cial and industrial development of their country on modern principles. Our Hai- phong contemporary, however, does not take this view, but on the contrary holds that it is better to keep the natives in ignorance owing to the greater ense with which they can then be managed. Having quoted M.ROCHEFORT, | the Courrier says: We make the same "mistake in all our possessions, and es- pecially in Indo-China. Instead of en- couraging Frenchmen by every possible means to study the Annamite language "we mistakenly urge our protégés to learn "ours in the hope that the better they know "it the more they will respect and obey This is an error which may cost us dearly later on: we will then regret hav- ing been simple enough to count on "the gratitude of a people to whom "such a
sentiment is entirely foreign and who submit to our domination "only because they still recognise the "impossibility of escaping from it." Our contemporary goes on to say that it cannot too often be repeated that the most power- ful means at hand for the successful ad- ministration of the country is a knowledge of the language and customs of its inhabit- ants. This, it maintains, is proved by a comparison of the results obtained in the different provinces when the Residents have been familiar with the vernacular and when they have been strange to it. It also speaks of the paramount influence exercised by the French and Spanish missionaries in the Christian communities, which is due to their
<
" us.
露露
|
Our
THE STUDY OF CHINESE FR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES.
A few days ago we quoted from a French contemporary some remarks on the alleged political danger of teaching the natives of a subject country the language of the ruling race. The danger, such as it is, is more than counterbalanced by the advantages. Looked at from a commercial point of view, however, advantageous as the, policy may be in promoting the opening up of a country and increasing the volume of foreign trade, it is calculated to injure the foreign middle man who is content to do business only in his own language and neglects to acquire any knowledge of the vernacular. This is exemplified in the China trade, where the compradore system has reduced the foreign merchant to the position of a mere commis- sion agent. We teach the Chinese our language and our business methods, neg lecting to make ourselves acquainted with theirs, the result being that the Chinaman in time assumes the position of the merchant and the foreigner executes his coumissions for him. Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON attaches what appears to us to be a somewhat ex-¡
|
}
"
If
As the Chinese middleman can afford to work wore cheaply than his foreign con- gener the employment of the former, if his work is as effective, must be considered ad- vantageous from an economical point of view; but if foreigners would take the trouble to learn the language they would be in a position to give their constituents more than an equivalent for their higher charges, as in the case of the Chinese speaking re- presentative of the leading thread manufac turing firm mentioned by Mr. HIBBERT, who is founding what is described as a gigantic trade. In Germany and France the importance of the point we are urging is so far recognised that schools are main- tained for the study of Oriental languages. In England we have professorships of Chi- nese at Oxford and Cambridge but they are maintained for academical reasons and not with a view to any direct application to trade. Some attempt to promote the study of Oriental languages for commercial reasons is, however, made in connection with the Imperial Institute, but with only a moderate amount of success, we believe. Nor, are we sanguine of any material revolution being effected in the matter locally, The young man
1
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.