Nov. 15.
We do not hear so much of the ery "down with. imperialism" these days as we did not so long Jago. But the idea of imperialism, as expounded in the "Three Principles," has so embedded itself in the minds, not only of the ignorant, but of all. thinking] Chinese that it is worth while! devoting some space to clearing way a few of the misconceptions that exist regarding the meaning of the word.—Impenalism, according to Nationa-Hist propaganda, is the seizing or exploiting of a weak nation by a stronger. In this sense} they suppose that India, Africa, and even our great self-governing colonies are being exploited by Great Britain, and the Philip. pines by America. China, they fondly dream, is entirely free from aggression of this kind. Now, whether any nation is) justified, in any circumstances in imposing its will on another an academic question that we do not propose to discuss. We would, first, have to decide what) is meant by the word "nation"! ud then answer the conundrum when is a nation not " nation?" Instead we propose to adopt the definition popularized in the "San min chu i" and then show that, in the sense given in that} book, China is guilty of impenalism in a worse form than is practised by any other Power.
It is not usually remembered that three-fifths of Chinese territory lies outside the bounds of China proper. These vast dependencies have been conquered or annexed by the Chinese and it will be interesting to discover} what attitude they adopt towards the natives who are now their subjects. In the southwest learner of the map of China are the three provinces Kuangsi, Kueichow and Yunnan, There is, in these provinces, dwelling apart from the Chinese, a race of aborigines known by various names as the Miao, the Tai, the [Hsu, and others. These primtive peoples were, as the word "aborigines" signifies, the originfal inhabitants of these fertile] lands. The Chinese came in and, by the mere weight of number: moving slowly but irresistibly, like the moraine of an avalanche, pressed them back into the fastnesses of the mountains 0 that} they now dwell: like. wild goats or conveys on the. inaccessible! Iheights, They are.a hunted and fugitive people who are at perpetual feud with: their masters. This is Chinese imperial: sm.
In the opposite corner of- the map we have the three. Eastern provinces commonly known "as!
Manchuria, This again. is: kan wai or outside of China: proper, but one travelling in, that wealthy terrain might find diffi culty in finding the original possessors of the. land, He [would be tempted to, ask where are the Manchus? for the Chinese have dispossessed them almost completely as they have the twiid tribes of the southwest.
Some days ago we published a photograph of a long: line: of Shantung coolies: on the way. to Manchuria, These were. the successors of. generations of forerunners who preceded: them Jand whose descendants: have made' Manchuria, almost as Chinese as Honan. In Mongolia the "cultivated belt" rolls-northward year by year and marks the limits of the Chinese invasion of the land of Genghis and "Tamerlane. For the-moment the Tibetan frontier is at rest: China is too busy with internecine. war to bother about the wild tribesmen of the far west, but a peace is declared the on Tibet will be resumed andthe cuckoo again lay her eggs: in the sparrow's nest.
Chinese immigration. into these lands differs from the British occupation. of India: her dominant position in Egypt. The Briton does not covet the [Indian's lands nor oust the Egyptian fellaheen from his farm on the banks of the Nile. "The Americans took possession of vast tracts of territory over which the red man-once roamed but which he never cultivated, In compensation. the United States has set aside reservations for the Indian tribes, and cannot be alienated from the possession of those to whom they are assigned, The same is true of the British in Africa; there are sections of territory which are prohibited: to white settlors and there the black man lives in. undisputed: ownership. We are ready to.admit that the world has benefited: by the Chinese occupancy of some, perhaps of most, of the territories to which we have referred. They have made that part-of the desert of Mongolia where they have squatted into fertile land and have developed agriculture and commerce inthe backward spaces out of what was, largely, waste ground, But if we admit the argument that the neglect or misuse of nature's rifts by wild tribes justifies a more civilized people in taking and developing resources which never were and never would: be of any use (0 their owners, we are admitting a principle, the ramifications of which we do not feere to contemplate. The: one fact we call attention to is that in the colonization of unoccupied lands the Chinese have been as active and, at least: as unscrupulous," as those against whom they hurl the charge of being imperialists, A last, but by no means-unimportant, point is that other nations have recognized their obligation to give education wnd.the benefits of civilization to: those tribes over which they have assumed sovereignty. The very unrest in-such places as-India-and Egypt is a fruit of the education that has been given to the natives by those the Chinese charge with exploiting them, was reserved for mis from the west to: invent. an alphabet for the Mino tribes in China's southwest; in. none of her acquired territories did: she ever establish a school. or lift 'a finger to benefit those. she dispossessed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.