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SCHOOLBOY "STRIKES.”
(Daily Prass, 21st June.)
Among the many subjects which the PRINCE REGENT has under his considera tion at the present time is a memorial on the subject of the insubordination of the students at the Tongshan Railway and Mining College. Twice, we believe, within the past twelve months, have the students at this College revolted against new regula tions introduced by the Directors. On
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[June 26. 1909.
educated on modern lines, and whose highest | her own customary law which had grown up ambition is said to be the attainment of under very different conditions. The more lucrative posts.
It is complained Preamble to the first Order in Council relating to British subjects in China shows this distinctly. It is dated December 9th, 1833, and was promulgated while Canton
1 was the only port in China "
open" to foreign trade. It proceeds :--
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Whereas the officers of the Chinese Govern-
the East India Company at Canton the desire ment, resident in or near Canton in the empire of China, have signified to the supracargoes of of that Government that effectual provision his Majesty's subjects resorting to Canton, and should be made by law for the good order of all
for the maintenance of peace and due sub- ordination amongst them; and it is expedient that effect should be given to such reasonable demands of the said Chinese Government; now therefore, in pursuance of the said act, and in execution of the powers thereby in his Majesty in Council in that behalf vested, it is hereby ordered, &c"
that they do not uphold the traditional dignity of the teacher, and hence they fail to command that respect from the students which makes for the maintenance of discipline. But the raison of the schoolboy "strike" may be anything. It may be member of the teaching staff; or a grievance some sudden psychological umbrage at a relating to a new primer; or (as a writer the first occasion one hundred and six
on the subject of Education in Japan has students abandoned their studies in con- remarked) the class, having made progress sequence of an order curtailing the monthly in allowance of students. The Board of Posts introduction
the English alphabet, desires instant t.o the works of Lord and Communications intervenerl, "rectified" | MACAULAY-8 course to which the the regulation, and restored peace. Now teacher has his the majority of the students are on strike objections.
public and private But at bottom it is all again, this time to mauifest their disapproval | a question of respect for authority. We of a new rule aiming at the better classifi
never hear of school-boy "strikes occur- cation of the students. By this rule it ring in Hongkong, and the Board of Educa - Such was the occasion of the introduction appears that students who fail to reach a
tion at Peking could doubtless obtain from of the elaborate system of jurisprudence certain standard of efficiency in the the schoolmasters here some valu-
into China kuown as annual examination are required to undergeble hints as to how to preserve authority Nor was the system itself unknown or "Extra-territoriality." a second examination, and in the event of a
in the schools. The school hov's contempt unpractised in China. During the great student failing a second time he is deni d
for authority may be "but the defect of hi-Tang dynasty, which the Chinese them- advancement in the school. An Imperial zeal and prompt enthusiasm," but it is defect Edict commanded the Board of Education which needs prompt curative treatment golden age, China was open to the trade velves acknowledge to have been China's and the Board of Posts and Communications alike in the interests of the individual and of the world, without any external pressure to hold a joint inquiry into the causes of the school. the disturbance at the school, and to recom-
having been placed on her, and the nation mend such improvements as they deemed to
that took the largest share in that trade was Arabia. be necessary in the institution. Four recom-
As in later times, Arab trade
mendations are made in the memorial, but
was centred in Canton, where we find resident only the last of the four has any bearing
many thousands of Mohammedan mer. (Daily Press, 22nd June.) upon the subject of the insubordination Some short time ago we pointed out the modern times all the benefits of extra-terri- chants, and we find these enjoying as in the students. The recommendation is "that mischief being wrought, not only to Foreign toriality. The Arab accounts thus describe the school be more strictly administered" Relations with China, but to China herself, the position:-"SOLIMAN, the merchant, and with this object in view it is suggested by the recent agitation fomented by the relates that at Canfu (Canton), which is the that "a new set of rules and regulations Re-actionary Party regarding China's sup- principle scale for merchants, there is a should be framed, and inspectors sent out posed Lost Rights. As we pointed out, periodically by the Board of Education this agitation was all the more dangerousf his religion by the authority of the Mohammedan appointed Judge over those to see that both instructors and students are that to a certain extent it had a modicum Emperor of China, and that he is judge of working to secure the order and welfare of
of reason on its side, and so, with half- all the Mohammedans who resort to these the school." This scarcely solves the ques-informed people who saw but one side of tion as to how the obedience of students to
parts. The merchants of Irak who trade the school regulations is to be obtained,
conduct, or his administration in the post hither are no ways dissatisfied with his unless there is in the recoinnindation a covert suggestion that the regulations should
Le is invested with; because his actions be framed to conciliate the students rather
and the judgments he gives are just and than to promote the efficiency of the school
quitable, and conformable to the Koran, If we concede that the passion of revolt is it
and according t› Mohammedau juris- the breast of most school-boys, we must at
prudence." Regarding the second there is no le-s doubt. Foreign nations, complains the Chinese reporter, have their own Tariffs. Now he was exactly one of the prime causes of complaint, leading up finally to
the same time admit that there are few places in the world where the ability to organise a school strike is so much in evid-
ence
as in the Far East. A few years ago these school strikes were not uncommon in Japan, but the Japanese educational authorities seem at last to have got at the root causes of the trouble and applied the necessary corrective.
Now that a similor spirit of insubordination is beginning to infect the Chinese youth it is important
that
the higher authorities should display no weakness in dealing with a tendency so manifestly mischievous and fatal to the efficiency of any educational system. It is not a little remarkable that this tendency should be so pronounced in the Far East. In Chiua, as well as in Japan, the Teacher has held a high place in the social system,' and it has been th practice to treat the pedagogue with the utmost respect.
In well-bred China, ге are told by a competent authority, "even a Viceroy rises to a teacher as
he
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enters a room." But evidently the times are changing rapidly in this respect in China, and in explanation of the scant respect which is now shown in some of the modern schools it has been said that the feachers are not so worthy of respect as the old type of teacher in China. The exigencies of the situation require the enlistment of the services of young men who have been
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CHINA'S LOST" RIGHTS,
the question, was likely to involve Chiua in trouble all round. The real object of the mischievous agitators who were trying to force the affair to the front was, as we painted out, to check the good work being done by the progressive party; and bring back China to the helpless position sh occupied in the bad old times of a l'ACKWANG or a HIENFUNG. According to the native press the Waiwupu has been reporting on " losses " of rights complained of, the principal of which are reduced to four; and as all four have grown up under the con- ditions of the time, and mostly without any intention of intringing rights that had ever been claimed or exercised by Chita, it is satisfactory to find that the Foreigner is guiltless of any intentional disregard of customary international amenities.
The four complained of are in the order given: First, Loss of Judicial Right; Second, Loss of Tariff Right Third, Loss of Postal Right; Fourth, Loss of Coinage Rights,
war.
At
The Chinese Government had actually no tariff, and, although continually pressed, refused to make any dues were charged and were always matters of bargaining. ccording to the caprice of the collector, The tariff was the gift of the foreigner. The Waiwupu surely has an overshort memory the time of the troubles the Chinese Govern- re arding the third-the Post Office.
sort, and merchants had to make their own ment had abs-lutely no post office of any
With regard to all four, it is worthy of the establishment of an Imperial Post arrangements, native as well as foreign. note that they had never been exercised by China, and that so far from being encroach.was likewise a gift of the foreigner. Doubt- Office is a thing of only five years ago, and ed on, their deficiency had all along less certain of the foreign Powers, by estab- heen complained of by foreign Powers; and lishing post offices in China alongside those was one of the most fertile sources of the of the Chinese Government are not acting difficulties that marked the early periods of fairly, but most of these were commenced foreign intercourse with China. With before Chius recognised the advantage of regard to the first.-the Extra-territorial
sta ting one of her own. clauses in the various treaties with China, -o far from their being forced on China, or being the outcome of any desire on the part of England and the other European Powers to interfere with the prerogatives of China, were actually introduced at th direct request of China herself, who had long experience of the futility of seeking to control the usages of foreign residents by
the absurdity of the first three propositions, As if to carry to the point of sublimity with regard to not one of which had China ever exercised even the most rudimentary control, which could have been interpreted from her, the last carries to a climax the in the light of a national right to be taken
midst. demands of the reactionary party in her According to these new-found
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