To the Editor of the "NorrH-Cuina Day News."
Sm,—As your correspondent "P.D.Z>" is responsible for such a quantity of mischievous eircumlocution in your columns, and as some of your readers imagine his reasoning and his writing merit attention because of his constant assumption of "idealism" and his claims loftiness of mind and so forth, I should like "the opportunity demonstrating exactly what "F.D.Z.' and his soap suds signify to me.
(On September 28, a writer "BLK." writing from Shanghai, published you are now running and for Which, by "the way, students Chinese affairs must feel grateful to In what follows, I trust any! reader will scan with care as it bears closely on what I have to say regarding "F.D.Z."
"MLK." of Shanghai commenced' his letter this opening! paragraph: to. be the pepulae source from "thinking" member of it' that for. Chinese, low education stan were' a Chinese, even then aid nat hanes pion, on this ook which ie the" alllest and most tol in the worl his very first paragraph es" that he is not Chinese—vit I were a Chinese, and the whole tenour of his letter fan indictment of Dr. Sun's ridieulous book.
Lo "F.D.Z." rushes into print and writes a letter, n September 29, of which this is the opening letter an the above subject yeritten respondent, "3K. in the letter any and iveciyeshas. get, beer Renee voices hate real "At the end of his letter which is as frothy and language ous as usual, "P.D.Z." adds this postscript: take P.S. "I have committed a serious mi correspondence thie ae If Be used to. be, "And then 1 glanced over his eauaht the words mand Tdi feel istoke I have' mae rewarding ty. Te is myself who ited the error of preconceived idea hasty judgment. "ut T hope {etter will be rend. with apprecito robe of thie mistake brilliant and distinguished writes on Chinese characteristics, Rodney Gilbert and d'Auxion de Ruffé, have both stressed the overweening vanity and conceit of the Chinese as a race, this conceit and vanity rendering dealings with them on a mutual basis of good faith and understanding so much the more difficult and precarious, And, to my mind, the over. weening vanity and" conceit of stands out, as also another characteristic of "his race, the ipshod and careless way in which he does things. This man for many months past has slopped and slushed about in your columns, carping at our methods of government "and 1g himself, his race, and his "countrymen" for whom' he pro-yesses to speak. He has borrowed the Jargon of the inefficient and the he has aped and Many foolish people have paid him compliments and attention because' crows in his poultry run with an ever increasing shrillness in con sequence of the attention he has wen given.
And what does he amount to? A foreigner writes a letter, and in the first paragraph states he is nut chinese, and tha slipshod Celest'al' F.D.Z." promptly seizes upon it to demonstrate "tte new and wonderfal spirit" "of his poultry ru Finding out his error he actually has not the common sense not to publish his letter at all and avoid discrediting himself entirely before all thinking people, but is actually conceited and impudent enough to hope that his. precious nonsense "will be read with appreciation and sympathy!"
Exactly so! That is the very spirit of these half-baked semi-modernized Chinese to-day. Maske whatever nonsense they may write, maskee their incapacity, their cowardice, and their moral turitude—there must be sympathy and appreciation fbr them, the poor little dears, from the wicked for-|° eigner! We must give up our own decency and order to show them "goodwill," and abrogate our treaties of personal safety to put these poultry on an "equality" with ourselves. That is the jelly-fish spirit of to-day, T will particular "INK." he refers to, On June 28 Mr. E. 8, Little wrote from Peitaho an inform ig letter on "The and immediately egregious "P.D.Z." rushed into print over date July 7 with, "I wish to say that I differ from him entirely in his conception of Sino-foreign relations." He got another screed scribbled over date July 12, and yet another over July. 19, and still another of July 23, and fon July 26 switched into "The Re-[construction of Shanghai Sloat ae the have a government of God, by the intelligent and public-spirited men, and for the people. Let Shanghai government be reconstructed from. its very foundation," and so forth ud $0 on.
On July 13 a, Chinese Middle Schoo! graduate, "M.K." wrote from Hangchow supporting his fellow chicken "F.D.Z."-—"Is Plain Speaker" sure that the Settlement will be absolutely chaotic and ruinous if it were handed over to us in two years?" (Precisely what a Chinese female-schoolboy would ask!)
Two months and a half later "D.Z." spots a letter with the, ini ils M.K, attached to it, and) without taking the trouble to read and understand what it is about, tures it as an excuse to try out his English and his school close jargon on your readers, Now please note carefully the following:—Back in March "PIDZ" was seveoding on "Visions and Realities" and on March 15 published some of his pitiful pie, The "North-China Daily News" actually honoured him with a lender, on March 17, entitled "This Preedom" which commenced we "write note sting. his oven com find' then setting out to toes Saehich vi ina The same day our seribulous chicken gets another one off, and still another one on March 19. Remark. able as it sounds, it is an actual fact that during March 15—19, no less than 63 column inches, 'o! yard, two feet anil five inches, to be exact, of drivel was scribbled by D.Z." for the columns of this paper.
We do wish that "F.D. would read fully instead on it precisely the same thing' has occurred over this "M.K." letter, and though we British' have the characteristic. of trying to be fair to our critics and opponents, T submit there is a limit to this, beyond comes folly in ourselves, have to demonstrate by quotations, by dates, and even by:
year measurement, that "F.D.Z." s utterly discredited as a responsi-made manifest for i-modernized sample of the Chinese race who expects educated foreigners to treat him as an equal when he is obviously a most inferior article, In order that cultured Chinese may not think that I include them in this condemnation of "F.D.Z,," T should like to pay a little tribute of respect to the letters of your correspondent, "Chinese" which occasionally appear. Over date August 8, this gentleman wrote:—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.