War Lords and Politicians: The Importance of the Foreigner renpecdng tle Chinn snnadle esting" ale" Ghine sue Tecn"fecerded than shone. ofr. Flem the Chin' Baprese snd Tee Mr. Silas 'H. Strawn, of Chicago, who was an American delegate to the Peking Tariff Conference of 1926, was on July 25 entertained at luncheon by the President and board of directors of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.
The President (Mr. W. E. Thompson) proposed the health of Mr. Strawn, On the subject of China Mr. Strawn said he could prescribe: panacea for the condition of things that existed; he did not. believe anyone could do that, Moreover, whatever they might say about Ohina to-day would probably be out of date to-morrow. of the difficulties of dealing with China be could illustrate by describing what happened to him and Sir Kenneth Stewart when they went to Peking with the Tariffs Commission, As one warring section or' another triumphed the Chinese members of the Commission would disappear to take refuge at some foreign concession, and presently he and Sir Kenneth Stewart, who had gone thousands of miles to attend a conference with the Chinese, were left with three innojeuows people with backbones about as strong as wet macaroni. ter.) The Chinese representatives were cordial, but they could do nothing. They could jake no treaty because there was no Government. [There was no semblance of orderly government in China to-day. Sir Kenneth Stewart and he agreed upon a fair tariff scale that was satisfactory to the Chinese experts, but after a time the distinguished chairman. of the Commission yan off toa foreign concession and had not been to Peking since, (Laughter.)
No one could go to China without sympathizing with the patient, Jong suffering Chinese coolie who was being continuously enslaved by' The wat fords and the politicians. Eliminate the war. lords and the politicians and you would eliminate fall anti-foreign feeling. There was not one Chinaman in & hundred who mew anything about foreign impenalism, tariff autonomy, unequal trading, or extraterritoriality, [any of the eries the politicians used to camouflage the iniquities they perpetrate upon the coolie, The Chinese needed foreigners great deal more than foreigners needed China. China was a country of greater area than the United States, but it had only 7,000 miles of railway compared with 265,000 the States, and 98 per cent. of the people could not read or write. Jo' was digit to reach the people or to bring order out of chaos. The people were the slaves of the dominant war lords, and they continued. in slavery without knowing what, it was all about, Forcible Intervention Impossible The natural tendency was to in and spank the Chinese, but that would be like spanking a feather bed. (Laughter.) It would have no effect because there were too many of them. It would cost 'a great deal more than there was to be got out of it. If the Powers went int together the result woul bbe to solidify the Chinese, and that would mean interminable guerilla warfare. In no way, as he saw the situation could they' go into China by force. But they could not pi mit irresponsible soldiers and war lords to destroy the lives and property of their citizens in the treaty ports, where most of those cit zens and most of the property was situated.
Tt was unfortunate that. many missionaries had gone into the interior, Many of the missionaries had done splendid work in China, but some had been indiscreet, for they had talked to the Chinese about unequal treaties, tariff auto nomy, and extraterritoriality under the impression that it would help them in their work. The Chinese now said to these missionaries: "You have been talking about these things and there has been no remedy. You must be the advance guard of imperialism. Get out of On the question of unequal ties, Mr. Strawn said the
perns and of the Japanese was Saxon View td the vie a treaty held good until it changed. "A contract. was coat until it' was changed. They ready, willing, and anxious medy' any unequal treaty Wi China. Personally he did not thi the treaties were. unequal, £08. they were wanted at the time, and, wore cubered into" in good But it was the duty of Sir Kenné Stewart, himself, and the rest BEF, them to' change some of those ties. They were willing to give of Chinese all the tariffs that would bear, and they. agreed schedule, but when the time lit to do business there understood. it. They, did not understand it in the sensé_ that sent thousands of young falx lows to France to die. By therm Hnationalism was interpreted to meat" that a man's first duty was to hig family. The family unit system was the basic difficulty in ing: with China, Whenever a Chinaman got into office he thought it hig first duty to rob the Government to benefit his family. (Laughter,] For a time the Cantonese moves ment did well, but then the peopl the movement began to quarrel Jamong themselves. Whenever you got the Chinese up to a culminating point at which you conceived if possible to do something and make fan agreement, the Chinese must have @ row among themselves bes cause of a fear that one or another would get hold of the National Treas sury. (Laughter.) Everything was done to make unequal treaties equal, That was the attitude of the United States and Great Bue tain, if it had been possible to de. anything.
He saw no sign of imperialism in China, Ail attempts at the sure render of extraterritorial right, twere made abortive by the failure 4 lof the efforts of capable Chinese to frame a system of laws and. a [judicial system. At the time he fand his colleagues were sitting Peking trying to draft a the surrender of extraterri rights the war lords were indiscri" ruinately shooting the judicial offic cials and any newspaper editors who criticized them. Thee: were highly, capable and sincere men in China judges, but they could do mo.
ing. with the swords of the war Fords hanging over them, 1
The situation was very difficult for those who had business to do. China, but he could only urge patience. No one could predict [when order would be restored, but he was afraid a long time must elapse before that happened. The Government was doing all it could to protect their interests; it wad policing the treaty ports, would no doubt do so until order was ro-stored. "If they. could get "rid of the war lords, the politi the half-baked students, th be. no animosity against ers. There were students who' engaged with the Soviet to raise hell, but he did not think they need worry about Bolshevism in China, because one never found a China. man ready to share his bowl of rice [with another Chinaman, are He did not think there was any dif. {ference between the United States and Great Britain on the subject of China, Both took the same view, and were going to take joint mon sures of protection. Of course, he spoke as an individual and not og jan official. His country might not accept all he had said, but joke of China as he understood it Jatter 11 months. of intensive study, Arter gigantic efforts las from July 24 the Japanese police Dairen and other neighbouring towns in Manchuria have arrested 51 Chinese Communists, who were instigating workers in the Onoda Cement, 'Suzuki Oil, Chang Kiang Glass, Kawamura Iron, "Taitung Sin Pao," and various other Japanese: jand' Chinese works to strike, number of them had been specially, despatched from their headquarters in Peking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.