Tue " Hongkong Daily Press" quotes some very stringent remarks made by the Chinese Minister to the United States recently at Philadelphia in the course of a discussion on "Phe Causes of the Unpopularity of the Foreigner in China." We have already mentioned the consideration that the former Mr. Ng-choy, now Wu Ting-fang, enjoys m the United States as a Minister and a speaker, and we cannot doubt that his remarks fell on appreciative ears, His speech was an extremely adroit one, and had the air of not only telling truth, which is often most deceptive, but of telling the whole truth, an aim always desirable but seldom attained. Mr. Wu said I cannot help adverting to the character of the foreign Press in China. Its general tone is calculated to set the whole Chinese nation against foreigners and things foreign. Take up any foreign newspaper published in China, and you will find that columns are devoted in almost every issue to denouncing the Chinese Government and its officials, and con-dernning everything which the people hold dear and sacred. "Far be it from me to assert that all Chinese officials are men of immaculate characters. I admit that in China, as in every other country, some of the officials are unworthy of public trust. But the foreign newspapers in China lead one to believe that the Chinese Govern ment is nothing but a sham; that the are all scoundrels; that the people quwud dowa by fearful oppression. settled policy to the Chinese do, begrudge even asi crumb of justice which is their due.
"The recent unfortunate uprising in China is a godsend to writers for the foreign Press. It unfortunately furnishes them with just the kind of material for blackguarding the Government and people of China without stint. We Chinese representatives abroad, as well as many high officials and intelligent Chinese, deplore as deeply and denounce as strongly as does any foreigner, the frightful atrocities recently perpetrated.
"Tt should be remembered that the violence of the Tientsin and Peking mobs was not directed against foreigners alone, but also against a large portion of their own countrymen. The crimes committed by the Boxers are, imputed to the machination of the whole nation. Even the diplomatic representatives of China abroad have not escaped the general condemnation, but have been treated as particeps eriminis. Dr. Morrison, the correspondent of the London "Times" in Peking, went so far as to charge my colleague in London, Sir Chichen Lofengluh, and myself with barefaced mendacity in his telegraphic dispatches.
"I hope to be able to live down all slanders of this kind. But the general mass of the Chinese people are not of s0 philosophical a turn of mind. When they seo such sweeping attacks upon their country, their public men, their traditions and their institutions made by the foreign newspapers in China, it is a wonder that they entertain anything of a friendly feeling toward their slanderers. I should like to mention that I and those Chinese who have a knowledge of some foreign language, as a rule, stand up for the foreigners in Chiva, and for this reason we are generally regarded with suspicion by many of our conservative countrymen.
"Events of recent years in China have done much to increase the bitter feeling already existing between the Chinese and the foreigners. The seizure of territory without proper compensation; the forciple taking of lands from their Chinese owners, who have been in continuous possession from time immemorial; the rough treatment received by those in defence of their rights, sometimes resulting in bloodshed' these have added fuel to the flame and contributed to the unpopularity of foreigners among the Chinese. In saying this, I do not wish to convey the impression that the Chinese are entirely free from blame. They are at fault in that they generally are orer-suspicious of foreigners, and do not study and appreciate the good points possessed by them.
That Mr. Wu had no intention of being unjust to the foreign Press we are willing to believe, and it must be from ignorance of his own country, or rather of his present country for we believe that he was for many years a British subject, that he made so many misrepresentations in his speech. The "general tone" of the foreign Press, he says, "is calculated to set the whole Chinese nation against foreigners and things foreign." Mr. Wu's hearers would imagine from this that the whole Chinese nation is conversant with what appears in the foreign Press. Later on in his speech he says, speaking of the "general mass of the Chinese people:" " When they
country, their public men, their tradi-see such steeping attacks upon their tions and their institutions made by the foreign newspapers in China, it is a wonder that they entertain anything of a friendly feeling toward their slanderers." If Mr. Wu really knew China, he would have told his hearers that what the foreign Press says has no effect whatever on "the genera! niass of the Chinese people," because not five people in a million in China ever see or hear or have any knowledge of the contents of a foreign newspaper. With the exception of a few more enlightened officials who have articles from the foreign papers translated to them, it is only Chinese who have a knowledge of some foreign language who ever read the foreign papers, and Mr. Wu gives himself away altogether by saying of them that they' "stand up for the foreigners in China that is, the only people who read these slanderous foreign papers take their side.
Mr. Wu denounces the foreign Press in China because its "columns are devoted in almost every issue to denouncing the Chinese Government and its officials, and condemning; everything which the people hold dear and sacred." As we have shown with chapter and verse before now, we have never denounced the Chinese officials in harsher terms than the 'Throne uses in denouncing them from time to time in the "Peking Gazette and Mr, Wu can surely have hardly been able to continue to look serious when he told his hearers that the officials are "dear and sacred" to the people of China. It is' Mr. Wu's cue to report to the American people that the crimes committed against civilisation in China in 1900 were the work of rebels against the Chinese Government, and he says of this uprising that it has furnished the foreign Press in China "with just the kind of material for blackguarding the Government and people of China without stint." Now speaking for ourselves, we confess to having "blackguarded" the Manchu Government of China—to use Mr. Wu's own term. But we have never " blackguarded" the people of China; and wherever we have found a good official, good from the Chinese standpoint or friendly to foreigners, we have been careful to recognise his value. In fact, we have always endeavoured to be discriminating and just; but in being just. it has been impossible to avoid reprobating the Manchus who organised, promoted, and directed the outrages of 1900, and it is these Manchus, not the Chinese people, who sent Mr. Wu to Washington, and whom he is right in defending; but he should not make an unfounded attack on the foreign Press in China a portion of his defence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.