July 28.
It is not always easy to as certain the general attitude of the Chinese Government toward the employment of foreigners in its sevice, "Generally reliance on foreigners for technica! and administrative experience has been the practice of successive governments. As the recruit ment of such foreign experts possessed of sound professional and personal qualifications has encountered no special difficulty the assumption must be that service under the Government of China is not more irksome less generously rewarded than in other countries. Indeed the mere fact that certain services in China are manned by foreign personnel who would do credit to any organisation in the world suggests the existence of satisfactory relations between the foreign official and the adminis tration. 'The Government has shown that, in working for the further progress of the country, it desires to encourage foreign capital, within certain limits, to operate here, It certainly' is prepared—as recent arrangements with the League of, Nations have shown—to invite technical experts from Europe and America to play an important part in the rehabilitation of the country. Yet it cannot be forgotten that, apart from the development of the modern spirit of nationalism, the natural con-servetism of the Chinese people is not favourably inclined ward foreign notions or for eigners embodying those notions, So, from time to time, in moments of intense political excitement, hostility to the foreigner has found too free an expression. This has tended to embarrass the relations which, apparently, the Government must attach importance by reason of its employment of foreigners in so many different branches of the administration.
Frankness in discussing this problem is not, so difficult to|/* achieve now because generally may be asserted that antiforeignism as an official creed has lost ground. It would be idle to pretend that old animosities or old prejudices cannot be revived by calculating demagogy but fortunately there is little fear of that stupidity being attempted at the moment. The foreigner in Chinese service today is perhaps apprehensive of the changes which may brought about by the very perplexity of the situation, Yet, in some respects, he is better off than his predecessor. The recruitment of experts through the League has given the Chinese Government a newer conception of this problem of its relations with its foreign employees. It has coincided with a general acceptance of the prin-icy should not be:
to service. The Chinese Government—whether effective: contro! of the countty or not—is looked upon master in its own house, subject to the ordinary implications of such engagements as it has taken upon its shoulders. It is, of course, a commonplace that, the servant of any adminis tration has his grievance. Travellers from London to Shanghai will surely have been veritable hermits aboard if, during that. journey, they have not received, in the smoking-room or other place of confidence, the details of the shocking treatment administered by Whitehall to some altogether admirable servant of the State who has to return to his post somewhere between Port Said and Hongkong. When, in place jof Whitehall, there is a foreign Jadministration which is endea-
Jvouring to accustom itself to a new method of manning the public services, after having lserapped one which, with all its defects, functioned well for centuries, the scope for possible grievances is obviously enlarged.
This does not preclude critileism of lapses which tend to undermine confidence in the Chinese. service. Elsewhere to-Jday will be found an appreciation of the career of Mr. L. P.
Ridgway who has, for a quarter lof a century, served the Chinese Railways with conspicuous Jability and zeal. It will be leathered that Mr, Ridgway's contract has not been renewed and, view of the pressing need for sound railway knowledge in the administration, it is disturbing find that' at this critical time so experienced an engineer to be lost to China. It is Jan open, secret, however, that the whole affair has come as a Ishock to those who, appreciate the value of the work performed by Mr. Ridgway and know how highly he has been esteemed by the Ministry. Perhaps it may not be indiscreet to suggest for some reason or other, a mi understanding has arisen as the result of certain political currents now at work on the railway line in question. Elaboration of the point is not desired for it is recognised that Mr. Ridgway's Jdeparture to-day finally severs his connection with the Ministry. Official decisions may have been taken under a misapprehension but they cannot be varied without damage to the authority lof those responsible. It would be unfair from what may be an isolated case—although candour compels the admission th: Jother services, politics hav frequently played a similar part—to draw unfavourable deduetions regarding the Chinese Government's relations with its foreign servants. Tt may not, however, be untimely to stress the fact that, for no professional Jor administrative shortcoming but merely because of some political complexity with which he is in no way concerned, Mr. Ridgway's career in China has been prematurely ended. It is exceedingly desirable that the interference of these unruly political prejudices should be reduced to a minimum in the interests of service efficiency and lof the functions which that efficiency has to perform in the public's behalf. At this time when the Government's railway under close scrutiny unate that the services lof so able an officer should be ost to China. It is believed that nowhere is the feeling stronger than in the Ministry of Railways which has thus been unfortunately the victim of a too vivid political intrusion into its direction of affairs. It would be futile to claim that such a Jeatastrophe is peculiar to China. Politics and intrigue are evils vhich afflict many government services in greater or less degree. ISuccessful railway tion—as Australia, for instance, knows to her cost—dependy on ithe strict elimination of the influence of the politician. Therefore attention to the possible encroachment of that influence lon China's railway affairs rightly. in' the public drawn interest.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.