Fo the Editor of the "Nonrn. Cutwa-Daty News."
Sim—Your issue of October 12 refers fo "that remarkable book Modern Chinese Civilization" Dr, Legendre. 1 have just finished ending the book and agree that it isa remarkable work but not in the sense implied by you. The egotism fof the author could hardly be exceeded, nor the lack of skill of the English translator, -nor the—pas Slonate acrimony of the author's views on China and the. Chinesey nor the direct falsity of many of the statements made by him in erder to support his thesis tha the Chinese area. completely. hopeless race, owing what little of good it has to a prehistoric admixture of "white" blood, and solely dependent on the "white" control hoped. for by him for any development. which book is ull of these falsehoods, it may reach inthe future, The
few-of which T propose to refer to.
1), on p-10, "This enormous sur-ace, with the exception of the de-sort' of Turkestan, is cverwhere 2). on p, 35. "Glass is unknown in China except to a few-mandarins or merchants who have lived on the coast."
3). on p. 15. "The most advanced mandarin' and. the most - elegant grande dame dress. themselves. like the: contemporaries of Confucius."
4), on p. 81, "The costume is completed by trousers of silk or cotton, usually embroidered, save in the ower classes.
5). p, 89. they (eggs) are only eaten rotten, 6). ps 97, "The culture of the cotton. plant is abandoned more amd more, and will shortly dis to Dr, Koo to be prejudicial to China's rights and interests and of which he felt certain of being unable to obtain the approval from the Cabinet. At the Cabinet meeting which followed and at which Dr, Wang assisted, Dr. Koo's apprehensions were borne out, as all the members of the Cabinet were unanimous in the view that certain modifications should be effected in the agreement before it could be approved. Although Dr. Wang tried hard to obtain certain modifiations desired by the Government, was only natural that he, having igned the agreement himself, was not able to make any headway with 'Mr, Karakhan. In the interest of the State, the Cabinet decided to have the Waichinopa conduct the negotiations directly with atr, Ki rakhan' and: thanks to Dr. levee at Sx ekoopet Cabinet meetings, Dr. Wang was spared certain disciplinary—mea sures which the—government wanted {0 impose on him and for which there were well-established precedents in Chinese istory. Even in the wording of the marilate transferring the negotiations to the Waichiaopy, Dr. Koo successfully insisted on a modification of certain phrases which appeared to cast serious refection on Dr, Wang.
There was another interesting fact. When Dr. Koo as Foreign Minister succeeded in obtaining the desired modifications of the original agreement from the Soviet Government and the amended agreement was ready for signature, Dr. Koo called on the Prime Minister, Mr. Sun Pao-chi, and recommended Dr. Wang to be the plenipotentiary to sign on China's behalf, on\ the ground that it was Dr. Wang who had done most of the work negotiating it ith Mr. Karakhan, 301. "Apart from embroidthere is nothing to beautify the homes of the most fortunate classes, 8). p. 118, "He uses only one sort 9). p. 116, "Sheep and goats. axe rarely found except mountainous parts of the Ww 10). p, 186, throws to him ings of his. meal 11). p. 161, "During wi months' of the your all trafic by road interrupted."
The stalles are mine.
The above extracts, taken at random from the first half of the book, appear sufficient to prove one of the ways in which it is remarkable, When one adds that the author uses the present tense indiscriminately when speaking of the old Manchu times or of the present, time, and that its translator throughout assumes that it is suflcient to copy the French romanization of a Chinese word (Wuchang thus. remaining Qu-Tehang, Ta-chien 1u being written Ta-Tsien-Ton, Pukow Pon Keen), to speak of a string of cash as a "ligature of sapeques" and a cooking pot as a "marmite," one is inclined to wonder why the book has had such a sale-as it has had in France, and why the English translation assiduously advertised in the 1 Tam, ete,,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.