[Interesting Letters from Leaders on Lack of Knowledge A Shanghai business man who recently took the trouble to forward some news clippings and other literature, with a covering letter, to Jmany prominent persons in Great: Britain was rather pleasantly surprised by the number of courteous and reasonable replies which he re-from Labour Members of Parliament. There is none who does not welcome information and opinions from all angles, and several go to the trouble to explain that they are trying to keep an open mind on. the China question because they realize -how inadequate to final Judgment is the information that) Jcomes to them. One of the best is from Mr. Philip Snowden, who writes as follows from Tilford in It is always very useful to! have the views of men with practical acquaintance with a problem. It is difficult for those who are thousands of miles away. to understand a situation, ani especially such a complicated and changing problem as the Chinese, T have no dogmatic views on the Chinese question at all. -It would be foolish to have them when it] {is not possible to have a full knowledge of the facts. So far as one can judge the situation, especially in its relation to Communist activities, it is the not unfamiliar ex 8 preying on the ignorance and passions of an impressionable mob, T cannot believe that China can be a favourable soil for Bolshevism. Bolshevism finds its opportunity in chaos and lack of strong government, From this distance Tdo not see any prospect of China settling down to a unified and permanent government for a long time. Foreign intervention gan do nothing to help it, It seems to me, painful as the prospect is for China and the world, that we shall have to.wait for attrition to 'Wear out the contending factions, and then some strong man ma; emerge' who can consolidate the! unity of the nation, The antagonism of the foreign Powers and their jealousies of teach other is one of the serious factors in the situation.
With renewed thanks for your letter, Tam, Yours sincerely,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.