The One Road to National Unity From" Correspondent, There is no doubt in the writer's mind that China, and all who wish her well, will ardently espouse the League of Nations movement and the formation of a World Council.
Directly and as a political power, China for some time to come will not be in a position to make much, if any, positive, or material, contribution to such a League. The completion of the reconstruction of her government and_ the re-establishment of peace within her borders will be necessary. Indirectly, however, her adhesion and inclusion is a' necessity if the League is to be world-wide and all embracing. A country so rich, with a population so dense, and with an intelligence and a patience of the highest order, China must and will become a great power.
Ose axp Ixpivisip.e.
She forms a political and a geographical whole, despite attempts made to separate and disintegrate certain portions. The Literature of her vast territories is one. I refer not only to the 18 provinces (in themselves some 20 times as extensive as England) but also to the surrounding territories—the New Dominion, Manchuria, and Inner Mongolia. Her written language is one. Her national heroes are the possession of all the provinces, and her great sages, Confucius and Mencius, are house-hoid words in every home. The Chinese love to speak of themselves as a nation of 400,000,000 brothers.
While her dialects are many and diverse, the so-called court tongue or Kuan-Hua, in greater or less purity, is current over some three-fifths (it has been said "over three-fourths") of the country; it is becoming to an increasing degree the accepted official and business language of the land and it is being taught in schools to an ever wider extent. Kuan-Hua written and spoken is included in the euro riculum of the Hongkong University. In short, China is a whole—a political and economic unity. If such a people, naturally inclined to peace, "is not enlisted in a World League, words lose their meaning. 2
Tue Desire ror Usioy.
Despite the restlessness rampant of late in China—accompanying the recent change from an absolute monarchy to a republic, a change still in progress—there is a general and widespread desire for union of forces, for a settlement of the differences now existing between the so called northern and southern parties, and there is a recognition of Peking as the centre of government, the capital of the land. Sentiment and desire will, I -am sure, ultimately triumph; a reunite ed and a reorganized China will advance in all those arts which we of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.