Feb, 26.
'Tnose of our readers who have' glanced over the copy. of the first issue of the 'North. China Herald' with which we presented them on the occasion of the opening of our new building must have observed that the leader—the first ever written by an English journalist in China—was on 9 Consideration of our present and future relations with China," That seventy-four years ago and it is almost terrifying to think how much ink has been spilled and how many reams of paper utilized since the first newspaper saw the light in Shanghi in the further "'consideration" of this perennial topic. How much heat has been how many futile expletives discharged in the course of the! discussion only is the recording] angel could toll.
What the Clinese have said te. jue idea" "be smuonell on the subject of China's reproceeds "should not be sur-|\tion, forthwith, then at least its) jut munity is not so well known the foreign com. rendered to any group of Chinese to us, but the discussion must pitciats {0 Play with nor used jaye ' been, at least, 28 in-solidation of old, loans, but cresting and as irritating to for addition of new, of con- MNS them' as to our forebears that it should be banked, as Mr. Long said on Saturday, to accumulate until there was Government to which it could safely be handed.
Because two things are absolutely certain to-doy:
first, that. there Government which can be trusted with money or security for money; secondly that the Powers cannot buy a good Goverament in China by any device which oriental duplicity woulll not outwit.
Neither the financial or any other problems of China can even be approached until she produces & Government worthy of the mame. fore, the suggestion of temporarily withholding all surpluses, which are now a cause of bitter feeling among some Chin-cee politicians against the Powers—witness Dr. Sun Yat-sen's ceaseless contention that the latter enable Peking collect revenues from Kuangtung for the purpose of warring on her—is wholeheartedly to be supported and pressed upon the Powers by every possible means.
For sue hi a policy of rigid abstention from any direct or indirect interference in China's affairs, there is @ further important argument. Chinese tell us frequently that the presence of foreigners among them prevents their adjusting their quarrels as would have been done in the past. In point of] fact, it would repay the Chinese business community a hundred {61a to insist on the sanctity of treaties, by which they them-seventy years ago and to our correspondents now. For the influx of foreigners into China, uninvited ud unwanted, has had much the same effect as the intrusion of the irritant inside the shell of the oyster which is inevitably a continual worry to the mollusk, however satisfactory the remit may be pearls.
the vendor. of cultured
We seem to the inese to be for ever wanting something. We want roads and railways and wireless telegraphy. We "want the moon ith, and the stars to run away with," and this constant restlessness is very a1 noying to those who are content with things a8 they are. Mangro these cross purposes, we believe there is one principle which if acted upon would, like a master key, open every' lock and reduce to a minimum the friction which we all find so unpleasant. This id the frank recognition of the fact that our interests, og sojourners, and the interests of the owners of the land we live in, are essentially identical. Whatever is. good for us is good also for the Chinese people. We might well test every concession or reform we risk for by. this simple principle. Will it benefit the Chi-hose 2 much ad ourselves? Tf 90 let us press for it by all reasonable means and if not let us be content toi live with-jour it.
'A little thought will" show that this principle' covers every' legitimate concession that we have "any "right to request. Take, for instance, the suppression of brigands.. Foreign trade would certainly benefit if the country were rid of the bandit pest, but the benefit reaped: by foreigners would. be infinitesimal compared to the vast relief it would be to the Chinese. We were all moved by the story of two ladies who were carried off by brigands in the province of Honan. We read with alternate indignation and pity how they were @ragged over mountains and through rivers. But the bri-gonds had carried off some three thousand Chinese -captives who were treated with infinitely less consideration than the foreign ladies. These captives were called. "'Ch'ien piao-tze,"" "cash © tickets."" And when one failed to be redeemed he was shot and this was called "'sze-liao chien piao-tze,"" "tearing up the cash ticket." Even when Tie brigands were scattered and the Jadies get free, the Chinese captives had still to purchase their freedom, only the "cash fipkets'" had to be' redeemed" from the soldiers stead of from the brigands. We see that in this one case the elimination; of brigands would have benefited "the Chinese as against foreigner: the proportion of 8,000 to two.
Or take the abolition of likin, a reform that has been persistently asked for, often promised and never granted. The abolition of likin" would benefit foreign trade.considerably but more by getting rid of vexations delays and annoyances than by the actual remission of the money value of the "fix. The benefit to Chinese trade would be easily a hundredfold that secured by the foreigner. Beside the fact that eyen the tax on foreign goods falls ultimately on the Chinese consumer—this is sure as death and as inevitable mathematics—the native trader suffers a hundred times more from the iniquities of the tax collector than docs the foreign merchant. Its abolition would be to him " relief unspeakable and the government that granted the boon would be in danger of incurring the woe denounced on those of whom all mon -speak well,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.