Feb. 18, Wun one recalls the desperfate search, there was for men in the days of the Great War and how much it was impressed on the mations that man-power was to be the deciding factor in the struggle it is amazing that to-unemployment. If remunerative labour could be found for the robbers who ace terrorizing vast districts, "plundering and. burning whole villages, they, would be metamorphosed into honest farmers as by the wave of magnician's wand. And the waste of it! Here is. the late Lao Yang-ren, a bandit who has led a rabble of untrained follow-era through three provinces, jeluding the government troops when possible and fighting them when battle was unavoisable. Could any trained general have done better? And yet we rejoice when we hear that this old rascal has been shot; forgetting the dictum of the judge who said, "Depend upon it, the worst use you can put a man to to hang him." But we have hanged him and hope that Honan will now be at peace. the world seems to team But what is to become of with superfluous men, Money|unemployed following? They was nothing accounted of in|are scattered but they still ex-those days.
A thousand million' pounds! Tt was a mere baga follo. You floated your war Joan.
Ola scrip—like the old lamps of the fairy tale—was taken in exchange for new and behold the thing was done. But man-power was differer the human wreckage could not, like the old scrip, be re-written and renamed and sent forth apparently as good as ever. The blind, the m: ed and shell-hooked soldiers were of no further uso to the Moloch of battlefields and so men were more precious than gold, "To-day all that is changed. ist, roaming hither and thither, hungry and superfluous.
And yet, in spite of this vast army of superfluous men, the world's work is not done. There are millions of hungry bellies that are not filled and millions of shivering bodies that are not clothed. There are roads that} should be made sind bridges that] should be built, If there army of unemployed men is also a wilderness of untilled land waiting to be broken The problem of governments. is to bring together the waiting task and the idle hands. It may be difficult but it is not impossible. Tt has apparently been solved in the province of Shansi, [cial privileges and concessions, fand then by opening up the coun try with railways. and by steam navigation on the inland waters—as well og by the moral, religious, and educational propaganda of our missionarice—we gradually introduced Western ideas _and novel political theories. Subsequently by attracting young Chi ese to study. in America and Europe we inculcated the younger generation the belief that our methods and ideals superior to theirs, and in so doing' we sowed the seeds of the 1911 Revolution.
From the aftermath of that upheaval China is suffering and it can hardly be wondered at that! she should take some time in passing from "the rule of autocratic, sacrosanct and inaccessible Emperor to the strange and complex machinery of a democratic form of government based on the rule of the people" and Sir Ronald continues is therefore necessary to main-a nice sense of proportion, to it the right of Chinese thinkfers to opinions which we do not necessarily share, and to give the recognized Central Government of which is in friendly relationg with H. M. Government and ich I fully believe forely anxious to maintain those relations, th credit for ite good Such an attitude is not incom.
atible with a sturdy defence of ritish interests in China or Shanghai, should these appear to bevin "any" way endangered the Now we may not view that the foreigner rust admit his share of responsibility for the disturbance in China. And we are fully entitled to! plead that that responsibility was incurred in absolute innocence. It cannot be called a him in the lawful pursuit of business against brigands, licentious soldiers and illicit' taxation, helps to secure the same immunities of civilized life for millions of Chinese. And_ it} the Diplomatic Body had {tamely permitted Dr. Sun Yat-sen to seize the Kuangtung Customs, the whole of China both now and in the future would] have suffered for it. On. the other hand, we cannot but think: that the foreign Powers are morally committed to something more than a purely passive titude of patience wail China sets her own house in order.
Innocent though their responsibility is for her troubles, they leannot evade the consequent duty of helping her to pick up! the pieces. That is the feeling which has.led to the suggestion that they should issue a friendly invitation to leaders throughout China to join them in seeking for some system by which unity, peace and g permanent scheme Jof government may be evolved. The popular conception of a Tuchun as a monster disguised in man's form is rapidly dissipated by actual contact with' them. There are black sheep) in every flock." But we have not the slightest doubt that the great majority of leading. Chinese officials are weary of disorder] and genuinely desirous of a better state of things. Mistrast ly]and the terrible back stairs luences of every oriental court Keep them asunder and it needs some stronger push than any of them can exert to force them to face their differences in common and adjust them.
As regards this paper's part in current problems, we would earnestly invite our Chinese readers to let us know their views from time to time on the acts or a ime that foreigners wished to tet, China and "do "business years. they have shown an. in. trained workmen, too, many of them ore and yet we have no use for them.
Our only _problem is how to got rid of them. (Wo have carefully examined every likely solution of our problem; have scanned the horizon for a possible haven for these arrangers thin our gates who) can find no work here and threaten to die of starvation on) our streets and it is fuir to say! we re at our wits' end for no solution is in sight.
At home li Britain there are million unemployed men. Tt is true the clouds are lil The new year has brought with it @ more hopeful outlook andi despondency is giving place to optimism.
It is true also that there al has been and always will be a certain number of men out of employment. reserve of mun-power is as ne-assary in industry as in war buy when everything that can be thas been said in palliation of the circumstances, it still remains true that our superfluous] Population is a serious menace] to the country's welfare.
China is supposed to be a land where the people toil like busy' "bees and where Satan can find no idle hands to work the mischief he finds for them. ut this is the China of the tourist. Ask any Chinese and he will tell you that the number of idle people in China, who live like para sites on the labour of others, greater than in any country" in the world. Took into the Chinese shops as you wall-our streets and it will go hard with you to] find one that has half as many: customers as it has servitors. The bandit menace which oceupies such a large space in our columns is largely the result of! ear thank eto build wah turned, his army' into " workimed lean up cities and cultivate waste patches of ground. And] this unorthodox activity seems to have solved the bandit problem so far as Shansi is concern-} ed; for, so far as we can learn, bandits there tre as scarce a snakes in Ireland. We commend the policy of the Governor of Shansi to all those who are frightened by the bogey of superfluous men, Nature has aa] antipathy to superfluous things. She first disintegentes and then destroys them. The unemployed main is also subject to. this law of deterioration. He is first unemployed, then unemployable and finally anti-social. Puta spade in his hand and you imely start him on' the up-
SIR. R. MACLEAY'S
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.