Dee. 19.
Wuite China is still in a state of turmoil, it may seem absurd to write on any phase of alleged advancement when all that reaches us is news of internal unrest and military disorder. We have often pointed out in these columns that 99 per cent. jof China's 400,000,000 care nothing for politics: their pressing care vice, and the very wherewithal to live. China's history shown that this has ever been so, and despite the fact! democratic principles worked out in habitual practice have held out inducements for the son of the lowliest labourer to rise to the highest position in the' realm of politico, there has been an infinitesimal proportion of the people who have left agriculture and industry for politics. This is true to-day. For while we' hear much more of internal politics than we used to, this whirl is made by an extremely: small number of the people. But in a very real sense the masses are becoming gradually interest-jed in industries, for there are already signs that China will some day become a great industrial power. Many' Chinese, even at points far inland, whos forebears tilled the soil contrary after' century, are now pulling cranks and levers instead of pushing thei crude hoes or driving their ungainly buffaloes. At'
guess we should say that there are 30,000 factories of all kinds scattered throughout China. Most of them are, of course, found on or very near the seaboard. Among. them are included thousands of diminutive establishments two-room work: shops—which would not be classed as factories in Europe or America, and there are! probably not more than a thousand or twelve-hundred that would compare favourably with similar plants in Western countries. These have. increased but vould treble in a month it the Central and ial Governments could thought of a country transcends ud includes its commercial activi Would the Federation of British "Industries itself be the influential body it is to-day but for the constant study by its members of the scientific adaptation of means to ends? The Boxer. Indemnity gives us an opportunity of increas ug Chind's knowledge not only of our industrial means and ends but of our political means and ends also, and in the long run the British taxpayer is likely to derive far more advantage from such increase than from the building of a railway, or from the opening "of any other specific channel for the export of British goods.
It is, of course, arguable that' China would do far better with be convinced that It. is. the essence of stupidity in state-) craft to discourage any industry that shows promise by imposing upon it the maximum of taxation that. it wil bear. Cases. are constantly. reported where" official, against. whom no. one could bring a charge of extort on, systematically throttles anything in the nature of an industry—as he may believe, in the interests of the State.
Our readers will know that is not by any means an uncommon thing for a prosperous factory which advertises its wealth and parades the extent lof its influence, to be deemed a her native philosophy than by attempting to implant in her own soil the learning, the inventions. and the political science' of an alien land. But that point is outside discussion. Apparently. she. does not think Suitable thing for taxation the very limit. It can, therefore, be assumed that the official classes are to-day, as ever in \China's history, the greatest [enemies "of the growth of industrialism; Yet' China, is making great strides in certain directions. In many respects this country ie undergoing the same transitional stage tin ivdustries from which India has long since emerged—that is, in regard to the native factory turning out the foreign-style article. She is now mal many articles that used to form important imports, but which are imported no longer. A couple'of decades ago China had started to make cotton goods, but she had not dreamed of making blankets, matches, soap, candles, cement, electric lamps, foodstuffs, toilet requisites, printing materials, and so forth, on the scale she is to-day. Even decade ago, one had pointed the reasonable possibility China not only manufacturing for her own needs many commodities of daily use, but exporting them to other Asiztic markets, ko would have been considered unacund of mind, The time has already arrived, however, when in many cases China is refraining to buy from abroad, for the simple reason that she is able to make and sell her own commodities more cheaply—and it applies to many articles. Quality may not be, and is not, on a par with the foreign-made article, but it scents to be good enough for thy vast interior markets, And us time goes on China will make many more commodities, and will not then have to buy elsewhere; the remark is applicable, if we take the long view, to practic. ally anything from a cake of soap or a packet of needles to an aeroplane or a locomotive. The rapidity with which China is advancing in the export field with her own manufactures may be judged from the following table of exports of Chinese factory products:
1923, Sheetings 3,689,877 Shirtings....... Hk. Tle, 47)14
Drills and Jeans 93,365 Nankeens Blankets, ete, Towels 4
Handkerchiefs Cotton Yarn.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.