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THE PROBLEM OF CHINA.
At the situation in China develops
from day to day. it discloses new phases
of the difficult problem before the
Powers. They have to agree among
-' themselves as lo the future, of the coun
try, and decide how for interference dull
b.? carrietl in defence of their interest?
and the live* and pro]M-rty of their
nationals. The IVJcin corresitondent of
the London -Daily Telegraph" tells nsi
lhaf there are not many fcuropi-an* n-lioj
; r<-;vliM- what i- Koinjr 0:1 in ilitt roy.-tiri-j
on? r?ciou. th<- Chiu.x1 mind. Hut I
?vnijdily the facts may be Mated. China
has ceased to lw an entity, and though
the late £un Vat Sen devoted much
effort to their mconciliat ion there ie no
immediate likelihood of the two great
independent States into which the
Flowery Land is divided breoraiug one
again. For a time ilie European world
comforted itself with'tlie bolk-f that tin
!r.Hijonuli-t niovi-m.-nr did not t-xtfinl iaij
i north iii the jirovinee of Ijuaiifc-tuntt'j
]in which Canton, ihe rapital of tiie|
>oulhrni republic, i* Miuaicd. But the!
spirit of revolt again si \V< >tern influence
Ims extended to IVkin, and is. nmninp
riot in tlie provinces *o far north of
Canton as Kang-tjii and Shan-tung. Tlic
Powers air uang their malice forces and
threats againrf. Pekin to arreirt die con
fiagralion. but they are deroiving them
sches, the corresponder.; M:iie<, if thry
Ki!]i|tose tirit l>y l;inilm^ p.iniis :md p\\i\
i>o?t> :<ii'l l?v u?mv i:if :i.:<-i - f!,'-y :.:? '
'.i.-ii,^ m..v- 7!.:,! i ),.i,k:i-; i-,: l:iv. v.! : . .-? \
'? I. !, ?-.?,! Ifl-'BV.Ii ,:? l!,. 1.-.'l" I:.: ?
:: 1:11-5-i M-.iit- tli."y ;:!? 'i".l!i; !:'>'him; .
lOima le^'iubli-s u<ithing :??-? iiiurh :i.- :;!
vast. :n?it:'.te(J. stuouldoring \-olcanie ma.-s.J
cpmiwscd til three or lour buudred inii-j
lions 01 human I-cinp--. To ?.i|i|*_*>*\ .'-'
.some have done. Ih.-il the existence of
the w.-irrinc f.-iciions lias it- e.\j.l.ni.tij-ju
in tli'- pen-ona! ambition*- of two or
thr.x* or more war lords jy gravely 1.1
misinterpret lhe situation. Tin* Chines ?
jtiind is undergoing i .-juvonstion, and in
die proa's-; is taking an anti-forcigu com
plexion. Young China had -U-saj-ued that
with the downfall of aa effete and a
corrupt monarchy, a ''now heaven and
a now t-artL" would be t-t*eatcd- and for
the failure of the revolution a scapegoat
had to bo found by it. leader*?. The
foreigner and his religion provided a
ready means of diverting the popular
attention from the -corruption and inooct
pctenc. and mutual rivalries of tine <_on
trolling factions. Tlie lam. Washington
Conference, witJi its a*tn*cniect to uphold
tlie integrity of Chin... must have con
vinced any rational Chinoso of the ab
surdity of the talk of the ?"a-nslavemcnt''
of the country by the Western Powers;
but among the Chinese people there ai*_
not many literate enough to do any
thinking at all. In other words the field
if e_< _r for the madtiiurtio-.- of the
Bolshevist emissaries, whose work is a__
tjeariy traceable in China aa in India
and other part* of Asia. Once let toosc
then, are no limit* to the mischief, which
m the absence of a strong Crot"ttim-cnt
to restrain it, may be ttone by the papu
lar hatred of '"foreign devifa." So native
government can guarantee tlie et-eunty
of alien rights in any part oi China, and
before any war lord can arise strong
enough to enforce h_s rate, th-*re is a
grave probability of China p-weing
through a much more tvrrible ordeal than
the has yet done. What is noted by
the "Daily Telegraph V tanswispuitdeat as
specially signuicant is the change the
national ehafmcter if imdrnjiii^ Chin.,
has hitherto been the Quaker land of th?
world. She has been an objeet lesson
of the practicabilily of the ahjctrmt- of
non-militaric-n. Through the peaceful
qualities- of her people: the has tairv-V*t_
in turn subjugation by Tartars, Mongol.,
and Manehtui. She ha_> done mere tfaaa
conquer ber (m-quorors. She has ab
sorbed them. The passive pbttenphy
learned from Confuctue has enabled die
Chinese to withstand fgira?.ia. (mu
materially stranger nat-one. and to offer
to the world tbr .sample of a race airing
and flc-tm^iing for t-mtou-le of yean by
the same pret*ep__ as are mcaleated in the
Scrmon on the Mount.
A philosophy imbued in the Chinese
chmiActer is not easily or speedily eradi
cated. But Voting China teas learned,
periiaps to ber cost, from the Western
Powers, that a social strurttne based on
nou-n-ststance is incompatible with mate
rial progress. As Mill wrote, the patei*
na] despotian of Chins was a fit instru
ment for car-rying it. to such a point of
civilisatioa as it readied, bet could not
catty it hitter. The danger now ia that
the withdrawal of the oontroUing power
of the Mandm dynmsty may be proved
by -events to mean the removal of a
check on tendeneiec which can bode no
good to the rest of thr world. Tnot-e
are those who scoff at tbe pcenbt-iry
of China ever b-tcoming * Great Po-vcr
like Japan. But before Japan rawed
her strength on U? battlefields of Man
churia, 6**4*ptic. wen* found in pl-nty to
deride tbe idea tbat site would m bold
her own with a great Western nation.
The present -desperate outburst tm the
part of a people exupenbed fry what
they are led to believe is foreign acpes
sion may fail, but it will leave behind it
the seeds of a laightic*. and more formid
able movement of national reorganisa
tion. Ohavrwre on the spot declare
tltat die Chinese ?if ttt-day are not the
Chinese of the pre-Boser days. Ever
since the dose of the Great War there
liave been tens of thousands perpetually
*ndcr onus, and using them with as
much success as the Arabs of Morocco.
The danger is that the trarhke spirit may
tspt-ead and last. When, the Allied troops
wen. in UJHiiiphant ocnuM-ian of Pefc-o,
the late Sir Robert Hart warned his
emmtrymsn t_?t mm*} day the Chinesc
oation-J movement would "imperil the
woridV future. Twenty milltons or
more of Boxers, armed, tUaeipline-i, and
animated by patriotic if mietabea
motives, will pay off old gradgre against
foreigners, and carry the Chinese flag
and the Chin-re arms into many a pbn-c
fhat even fancy will not suggest to-day,;
thus prepaiing for futune apbeavt-U and
disasters never 4*ven dreamt of. Fifty
yeans from the alate of the Boxer ??
there will be millions of Boxers in aerried
ranks and war's panoply at the caH of
the Chines* Oot-eenmeot" One eotdd
wish that the indications were not m?
strong of the passible fulfilment ef this
sombre prediction; but tbesc twiniing
ott-bneaks of anti-f oreign "rioience, what
ever their immediate causes aad Ti?*ult*i.
cannot be viewed without cuosidexable
unt_u_nc-t-
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