'China's Reconstruction; Her Own'
Task At the monthly. meet of the} Uuion. Club held on Tuesday. in th Clubrooms,- Judge: M, D. Purdy the guest of honour, addressed a gather-} {ing of British, American, and Chi-'Rose members' and their friends President and Members and of The Union Club:—
From your presence here to-day I think that {may safely assume that you arg interested in the problems of maintaining friendly rela tions between the Ohinese and the foreigners who are living and dol business on these shores, The idea that our-difficulties can be settled by force upon either side, is out-of date. 'That theory has been tried fu all parts of the world and upon all sorts of problems, and found wanting, 'Temporary' adjustment may result, but unless the basis is friendship and mutual understand ing, there is no real and permanent Solution of the problem, One of the principal purposes of this club, 1 believe, is to aid in the settlement of our' difficulties along these lines. We are beginning to see that the sooner. all of us, Chinese and foreigners alike, drop our foolish notions of race prejudice and superiority, the sooner we shall find our way out of the intolerable confusion which prevails today. Friendship can not thrive unless it is given very substantial encouragement. The: work of this club seems to be: along the right lines. Acquaintance is essential. When we! cally know one another better, we shall perhaps find that many of owe difficulties are but imaginary.
As we have learned in recent years, the isolation of any nation is. now Impossible. We must therefore anon to live together, whether we Tike it or not, and. we must do. business together, 'The meeting the two radically different civil tions such as the east and the west, Snovitably caused n clash, but that does not mean that one must des troy the other. If we use our inteligence instend of our prejudices, we can' in time make vhis adjust. mont, and the experience will promote' the welfare of all concerned.
The condition we are facing today is manifestly: not of our make ing. It is an inheritance from a preceding generation, Probably we would have made the same blunders 8 our forbears had we been here those early days. They used methods with which they were familiar, but we have come to see that the results are not entirely satisfactory. It is to be hoped that we may profit by their. mistakes. In reading the history of the early contacts between the East and the 'West, we can now see that the blunders were about equally distributed. Whether or not we would all be better off had the foreigner: never come to China, is a useless question, We might' discuss such question until doomsday and never get anywhere. The point is that a prior generation bf human beings started this great adventure, and it must be carried on by the people who are on the scene to-day. The fact romans that the foreigner here on the shores of Chin Individuals may pack their belonsings and return to their home, but such a clearing out is not desired the Chinese, and would perhaps be disastrous to all concerned. The thinking men of China wish to gee. their country take its place in the great family of nations. They know that China can no longer live within a wall, nor do they wish such condition. The problem is for China to set her house in order and for the stranger within her gates to recognize that he is a guest in China.
The presence of the foreign courts in China is one of the sore spots—one of the grievances which has come to the surface in the past few years. May T say a word about that, I feel that these courte are materially assisting in the recon struction of China. Everyone should recognize the fact that a foreign court in China is an anomaly; that it is only a temporary measure. In this adjustment between the East. and the West, it is one of the in. struments whereby we are assisting in making peaceful relations pos ible, I am sorry to say that all
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.