June 22, 1908.)
CHINESE OPINION.
"we are
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. reforms in a spirit of admiration and emul- ation of the Japanese. We have always reminded our readers that hero-worship of (Daily Press, June 16th.)
that sort was unlikely to come as from There is no doubt that Chinese Public formula would most likely take this pattern, Chinese to Japanese, and the Chinese Opinion, the new paper appearing in English that "if the Japanese could do so well, we at Peking, is thoroughly Chinese. A state- ment has appeared that it was encouraged Chinese could do so much better." The by Germans in German interests, and edited
Times thinks that China is yearning to by a member of the German Legation Staff. imitate Japan, but that it lacks the most To this the editor replies that
important qualities that Japan enjoys. Chinese and Chinese only." If there were
They" (the Chinese)" must either adopt any further doubt remaining, it should be beliefs and habits compatible with the dispelled by a typically Chinese point of scientific attitude or they must accommodate view elaborated in the issue of June 2nd, in their own ethical system to that attitude," which the editor attacks with more vigour This it says, because the Chinese, in its than politeness some
utterances of the view, had "attributed to her acquisition of Shanghai correspondent of
the London Europeau arts and sciences results which Times. That gentleman wrote an article were, in fact, due to her success in grafting with the heading, "What China is asking those arts and sciences upou rare moral for," and it is really a Times editorial there- qualities and habits which are wholly on that the new Peking paper demolishes, independent of them." This naturally Such articles are easily made to look ridicu-irritates our Peking contemporary, and it lous. No subject was ever generalized over
irrupts a little tirade which we have no so much as the subject of things Chinese, trouble in identifying as genuine Chinese. and even men who do know something about of European arts and sofences fre would not for That Japan bas acquired a superficial veneer China, as for example Sir ROBERT HART, a moment deny, but that she has grafted them have not failed to utter stupidities or
upon banalities from time to time.
rare moral qualities and habits," we beg Those men
leave to doubt. As a matter of fact, judging whose business causes it to be expected of by our own standards, we were not aware that them that they shall frequently say some- Japan, possessed great "moral qualities and thing about China
habits." It can scarcely be expected. therefore, temptation, in the absence of any vital issue, that we should seek other standards in order to to be oracular, because that is easy in credits us with making. The gentleman is form conclusions such as this correspondent writing or talking of China, and there is no
didactio upon the results which will follow upon way of proving their generalizations to be a failure to combine the ethics of Japan, or their in error, especially if they stick to remarka kio, with Western learning, but seeing that we like this (from the Times): "The Chinese do not admit his premise we can only say that if problem is a language problem, and it the adoption of a Japanese opde of morality; ethics and habits is essential to the s and rather remain without that most desirable ac- assimilation of Western learning we would
quisition. As a matter of fact we are more inclined to attribute Japan's success to the grafting of a knowledge of foreign warfare on to a patriotism and a fearlessness of death which is fanatical.
cannot
resist
the
China herself and the other nations re- cognise this, the Eastern Window' will soon open for light." That might mean anything or nothing, and our Peking con. temporary is naughty enough to suggest that it is "merely vapid vapourising in protest against a language and a literature which the writer cannot master." The
Times clings persistently to the theory that suggests itself, that Japan's victories over China and Russia have made the Chinese discontented with their own educational system. As it says, the Russo-Japanese
war
"
taught them that with Western learn- ing an Asiatic State might victoriously resist one of the greatest of European Powers. To which Chinese Public Opinion replies scathingly as follows:
"
Really? Now this is news to us; We fought Japan it is true, but at the time we were by no means belligerent nor were we anticipating the attack that was made upon us. From the Russo-Japanese war we learned that a nation with an army and navy, of mushroom growth, if assisted by the strongest nation in the world was able to drive ont of a leased territory, or rather half of a leased territory, a badly organised army of Europeans, several thousand miles from their base of supplies, by putting into the field
a proportion of m9 and munitions of something more than two to one They were able to destroy a navy nominally more powerful than their own, by sectious and with luck, bad seamanship on the part of their adversaries, tactical hints and telegraphic in formation from outside sources, aiding them considerably.
we
That is, were going to say, thoroughly Chinese point of view, but on reflection it seems
to suggest a little more than that. It reads like a foreign bullet fired from a Chinese gun. There is iu that belittlement of a notable achievement, an achievement not
managed without much study, patience, and patriotic heroism and self-sacrifice, a sou pçon of foreign jealousy. If there is no foreign inspiration about it, it becomes obvious that those were wrong who assumed that China was feverishly setting about
to
For we find that anti-Japanese outburst, with its significant admission of the Ja- panese fearless patriotism, followed by a generally anti-foreign passage, which we must admit had provocation. Chinese Public Opinion says:
Our habits are perfectly in accord with any true do not appear, half naked, in public; we phase of Western learning. Our women it is
with knife and fork; our conversation is, if can eat our food equally well with chopsticks or
anything, cleaner than that of the average Westerner; our marital relations and our family life, though not, perhaps, in accord with that established in Europe by a clerical dictatorship, are absolutely honourable and moral according to our beliefs and perfectly compatible with an assimilation of the arts and sciences of European nations.
Our Peking contemporary closes by ex- pressing the opinion that the Times is not competent to declare what China is asking for," and without authority we will file an admission on behalf of our London con- temporary. But we will add that Chinese papers appear equally incompetent. The youngest and the wisest of our authorities shrewd guesses. The nearest approach to can do no more than make more or less
finality is the hoary and very feeble re- flection that
while, it is certainly instructive to be given
time will show." Mean such glimpses of "Chinese public opinion."
NORTHERN PORTS.
399
(Daily Press, 17th June.) From the first fascicle of the annual trade Maritime Customs, we gather that another reports issued by the Chinese Imperial Sino-Japanese question is looming up at Antung, the port on the north bank of the
Biver Yalu, in close touch with Chefoo and
Dairen. It has a good deal of shipping, both steamers and sea-going junks. Steamers drawing nine feet may anchor off the Bund, or what should be the Bund, according to Mr. Commissioner PALEN who recommends effort in the direction of river conservancy and improvement. The river is eating away the Chinese town, and in November last it "tore away a liberal piece of the shore off the Japanese settle- ment." Cainese cargo pays extra in time and money for transportation from the present anchorage. Antung might have "combined railway and cheap water con- nections," but in the absence of dredging and bunding operations, it looks as if it bridge is projected to cross the river at the must be satisfied with railway only. For a present lower harbour limit, to carry the | trains of the Korean railways to the Chinese shore, and to form the connectiug link between the Japanese Government- owaed lines the Peninsula and the
on
Antung-Mukden arm of the South Man. being made in February, for a fixed churia Railway system. A survey was bridge 3,182 feet long, with spans of
LWO LO
wide, and 26 feet above high water. The three hundred feet, thirty feet Chinese have asked that it be made a swing or drawbridge, to allow the shipping to pass. At present the issue is not an urgent one, as the Budget arrangements for an outlay of two and a half million yen may take time; also, the South Manchuria dard. gauge has not yet been changed to stan. Until the Chinese show some bunding, and until these other factors are disposition to start with the dredging and dealt with, there is no need to talk of the unmade bridge as prejudicing the develop- far as Mr. PALEN d ́es, when he remarks ment of the Chinese town, nor to go so
that "to force across a navigable boundary- line river, in the face of protests from one of the riparian states, a closed bridge
sea-going traffic, is not such an act as may of such a height as to hamper that state's
be admitted to come within the previously established
14
standards of international comity." This almost amounts to find it in such a conservative publication calamity-howling," and it is strange to
as the I.M.C. Reports have hitherto been. The net value of the trade of Autung for 1907 was Tls. 4,763,238.
Russians called Dalni) is, says Mr. Com- The name Dairen (now given to what the
missioner KUROSAWA,
"metronymic and deceptive", so far as the Customs is con- cerned. The Dairen Customs covers more than the port of that name; it embraces the whole of the leased territory of Kwantung. Dairen, the same gentleman states, has The commercial and economic strength of
been overestimated. The world, he says, Manchuria. This is very interesting, in has overestimated the purchasing power of view of past events and
常器
discussions.
Supposing that the total value of the trade of Manchuria be 80 million taels, this The exhaustive operations undertaken by the might roughly be divided as follows: New- Martin, of Hongkong, who was drowned in the Dairen, 20 millions; Autung and other naval divers to recover the body of Colonel H.chwang, 40 millions; Sinminfu, 10 millions; lake at Chus aji, have been abandoned, as there routes, 10 millions. Two-thirds of these was no hope of their meeting with success. figures will represent the import trade, been visiting Japan left Yokohama on Jane which, again, denotes the purchasing 10th for Weihaiwei,
power of Manchuria. Supposing, further,
The ships of the Chila Squadron which have
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