Aug. 14, No one can accuse the foreign community in China of a lack of generosity, Even in the times acute economic stringency the hearts of foreigners here are able successfully to unloose their purse strings, A good cause, with a good advocate, can win ready sympathy of the most Practical kind. Therefore criticism of the Flood Relief Fund cannot be dismissed as emanate ing from men and women impervious to the dictates of humanity. Of the letters xeceived deprecating the efforts now being made to raise-funds for the relief of sufferers from the terrible Yangtze floods that from Mr, W. Bruce Lockhart i printed elsewhere because it crystallises the arguments which many readers seem to adduce as a reason for withholding from the Fund support "otherwise willingly forthcoming, Dis agreement with Mr. Lockhart cannot blind anyone to the fact that he is voicing a view which, at this particular moment, is. finding expression. At the out-Set let one misapprehension be removed. The action of the Pekin Syndicate in leading ti movement for the collection of funds has been solely dictated by regard for the representa- Chi Hlont of: certain Chincee rent.
tion of Major Nathan and Mr. dents, who invited Harold Porter as foreigners well-known to them as likely to be sympathetic with the di Mr, Porter has indicated the idea is to link up the Shanghai effort with. the International Benevolent Association for Flood Relief which is under the skilled Girection of Mr. C. H. Lee. Major Nathan and Mr. Porter have convented to give the movement a atart entirely in the belief that it will have the considered sup-Port of the foreign community: in Shanghai, They are prepared to fall in with any feasible proposals for giving the Fund a completely international status. They ate, in fact, anxious, journal is, that the practical question of collecting as much money as possible and as quickly as possible should be considered to. the exclusion of all other evtisiderations, They will welcome constructive sugges tions calculated to help in the most effective attainment of their object.
At this juncture it is perhaps unnecessary to elaborate the ease for a generous response to this appeal. The terrible conquences of this vast inundation have yet to be fully sanged, The Chinese Government, as will be seen to-day, have recognised that'they are faced with a tional calamity which will to the utmost their resource:
They have taken the unusual step of despatching to th the head of the Customs Service in order that they may have at the earliest possible moment the most authoritative information regarding the magnitude and probable scope of the disaster. hey have intimated their. intention of applying remedial menditres of relief on a national scale, 'They would have. been wanting in the most elementary. priniefples of humanity;" they would have been guilty' of a grave' dereliction of duty had they done otherwise. It will, however, be admitted that they are acting on the very proper conviction that the main responsibility for bringing velvet the sufferers lies on the "shoulders of the Government. It is the part of generosity to recognise the colossal character of the task thus* confronting the Government, who, whether account of their own deficiencies or because of the inherent Weaknesses of the national institutions, they are deeply _involved in problems of the utmost complexity. Great as is the power of resistance of the Chi nese people to the tribulations which seem to afflict them with relentless pertinacity, the access of this flood peril, with the certain advent in its train of famine and pestilence, must give birth to suffering and horror likely to test their fortitude to the limit. At such a picture of human woe the least imagina tive mind must shudder.
Generous sympathy in such a ease has no use for political doubts. It does not trouble to ask whether due attention has been paid in the past to the means for keeping these mani-testations of Nature's wildest. moods within bounds. The imputation of blame or the assertion of credit for unheeded wi-dom in such an event is i vant, Nor for the relief of the sufferers' should be infused with a lively' sense of favours subsequently to: be received. Mr. Lockhart rightly deprecates certain political eccentricities in the China of today. He sees in them evidence of a hostility which will be Placated only by the complete elimination of the foreigner from China, On that account, presumably, he would discouraye support of the Flood Relief Fund, Anti-foreign feeling is! no new ebullition of nationalism in China or anywhere else. Whether it has mow. reached specially dangerous heights isa matter of opinion, Probably the worst possible judges of that issue are the men and women of the present generation, whether nese or foreigners. It may, however, be asserted and Mr. Lockhart, on reflection, will agree, that in 1io age has the spirit of philanthropy considered itself bound by racial or national prejudices. No age has more earnestly striven for the creation of a better understand ing between the nations of the world than that in which we live today, It is not possible always in the complexities of international politics to give this feeling as ample a scope as it should have. Yet when it comes to the question of suecouring the dis: tressed, international comradeship caw surely obtain a hear-ug. unbamipered by poltieal and racial prejudices. He would indeed be foolish who pretended that a few thousand dollars subseribed to this or that relief fund, would find a return in the relaxation of certain disabilities unjust. or otherwise—under Which the foreigner in China suffers. The German seamen, who the cther day rendered such noble service off the French coast to the families of the victims of the disaster to the Philibert, did not permit their' humane actions to be govern by consideration of the extent to which the French Government were prepared to meet German claims for financial assistant in the present politico-economic crisis, To any humane man or woman who lives in China to-day the idea of contributing to the relief of the helpless victims of the floods is natural. It repre-tso privilege of which anyone will be glad to avail himself or herself. without thought of imposing conditions. In the best and, yet, in the most legal sense of the term, auch donations are given "without prejudice." 'They do not' presume to remove responsibility from the shoulders on which the main responsibility must rest. They do not convey endorsement of any political creed. 'They do not imply an undignified bid for favours' unwillingly bestowed. They merely sive expression to that, spirit: of charity which, in spite of sad lapses and faltering efforts, nations calling themselves Christian have endeavoured sincerely to cherish, They also afford further proofs of a desire to cultivate that intern: tional amity on which, in th last resort, the future of this country and all associated with its fortunes must inevitably depend. ini
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.