Aug. 8.
It is not the least distressing feature of the wrangle over the treaties that it tends to run so perpetually on the same lines. Again and again stress is laid on how the Chinese "have suffered" by the treaties, but no Chinese speaker ever tells us exactly what those sufferings mean. And against this view the foreigner can argue by practical examples that the treaties have been directly responsible for better trade, better industry, financial stability and a better standard of living for millions of Chinese. Only the Chinese int of view seems to be conidered by Chinese speakers. Here perhaps is a case of the mote and the beam. But with all allowance for partiality we think it may fairly be said that foreigners have shown a juster appreciation of the Chinese point of view than the Chinese have shown for that of for-
The speeches made by Dr. C. Wang and others at his banquet, Jon Monday night are an illustra-{tion of the Chinese unwillingness to face realities. When Dr.
Wang said "our aspirations are legal and just," he only. gave expression to views repeatedly, voiced by Sir Austin Chamberlain, and by many British and American speakers and writers. But when Dr. Wang added "We fare not in the least unreason-fable" it is necessary to test his assertion. by fact, When the treaties are revised, foreigners course will be under Chinese jurisdiction. Now only a few hours before Dr. Wang was speaking, the installation of a Inow President of the Provisional Court had been used as an Joceasion for the most extraordinary outburst of political partisanship, in which every speaker, even the new Judge himself, made it particularly plain that his conception of a court of law was that it should carry out the wishes of the Kuomintang and nobody else, regardless of what law and j tice might require. If this is the Chinese idea of law, can foreign-jets be deemed unreasonable if they shrink from submitting themselves to its obviously biassed operations? How can anybody expect to get justice, when politicians are perpetually behind the judge's chair instructing him what judgment he must give, and when the judge himself announces that in all things he. is prepared, to obey the politicians' orders?' Further, what justice do we get in mat: ters actually under Chinese control? Some pretence has lately been made of returning occupied mi their rightful owners nearly every case restoration has been the merest farce. Buildings have been evacuated, but within a very short space they have been re-occupied, Even worse than the buildings held by troops is the case of those in the possession of Chinese educational bodies. Take for ance Trinity College and the hhodist College at Ningp there are others, but these ai exceptionally glaring instancs lof the Nationalist Government's inability, or, reluctance, to. give the protection it so loudly asserts that it will give. Trinity College and the Methodist College at Ningpo were quietly evacuated and sealad,—in the of Trinity College, we believe, at the Chinese officials' lown request to the British Consulate—and both were immediately seized by Chinese schools and continue to be held in defiance of all legal right. Wo can easily believe that the Nationalist Government is actually helpless against its own troops, and the student organizations. But then, why keep 1 promising protection which it palpably cannot afford?
Until Dr. Wang and his associates can make good the promises in which they are 80 profuse and can guarantee that protection of life and property in China which all established governments maintain for the foreigners within their territories, he is not reasonable in asking for the abolition of the treaties, and foreigners are most reasonable in demanding that the treaties shall continue, Let it be further remembered that the /Nationalist Government has control of only the outer rim of China. Go but a little distance inland, and you have to deal with others who snap their fingers at Nanking, and do precisely as they please, Furthermore, what justice or protection does the Government extend even over its own people?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.