Nov. 24.
More than passing attention is called for by a speech delivered Shanghai College a few days go by General Chang Chih-Kiang: he was formerly Tupan of the Northwest Frontiers and is an influential member of the Kuomintang. He took as his text the old morality of China and the indispensable need of it in this period of political tute-Jage when the people must be trained to the acquisition of their lawful rights. Here are wame trenchant aphorisms from General Chang's addr "The best method to be adopted 40 to revive the old codes of morality which have determined and shaped the national characteristics of the People for a period of 8,000 years:
"To the Three People's Doctrines should be added a fourth principle, the principle of the people's moral-Dr, Sun, with his far-sighted-and his' far-flung vision, laid down in his doctrine that' the revival of the old morality was indispensable to the salvation of China.
"Tt La impossible to save Chia her people have no morals." It is of interest to recall that Jast February General Chang, and General Nin Yung-chien, a well known scholar who is also Christian, memorialized the Nationalist Government on the Smportance of publicly affirming. religious toleration, to which the reply was given that it had been fat firmed at a then recent meeting of the Central Executive Council. On March 30 a proclamation of religious freedom was issued from Kaifeng, General Feng *Yu-hsiang's capital, Bouched in the most emphatic terms, It recalled the Nanking Weclaration and added: "Re-Jigious freedom is one of the recognized rights of the people, secure and immune from all Sllegal restraints." Both these tatements were actually aimed it Christian teaching but their application obviously cannot be restricted.
Younger members of the Kuomintang, however, are of a different mind, as shown by Beveral examples of religious "persecution by the District Coun-ils. Thus in August our correspondent at Haichow, in North Kiangsu, described how the Dang Bu (the Kuomintang Dis-frit Council) were confiscating temple lands and revenues right and left, the proceeds to be de-chang, eight miles east of Hai chow, where there is a large and famous temple, the Dang Bu lassooed the god, dragged him from his pedestal and, having beheaded him, hung his head at the gate like a common crime al's. Fearful legends had grown up about this temple: two men ho had plotted mischief against it came to untimely ends. We do not hear of the like in respect of any members of the Dang Bu, but in October they brought \vout a serious riot at Yencheng in north Kiangsu by trying to lay hands on the temple (which described as exceptionally well built and containing "a forest of idols") in order to turn into a welfare club. Equally determined is the Dang Bu at Hankow. There is a temple near Hanyang which is a great. resort at the Mid-Autumn Festival, but this year all access to it was forbidden for a month and soldiers posted to enforce the order. The pretext was used that such assembles attract bad characters, but one suspects that this was not the real motive. At the same time all pilgrimages from Hankow to the Buddhist temples in the Holy Mountains were for-hidden, These pilgrimages were very popular in former days and one does not gather that they occasioned any disorder: the officials used to make special arrangements for them, a fai at the masthead of the boat, by which the first part of the Journey was performed, announced that the travellers were pilgrims and was a sufficient, passport, and robberies were unknown. " But the temples are very rich in lands. Only at the end of last month the Hupeh Provincial Government denouneed Buddhist priests and nuns for living idle ud worthless ize temple revenue schools with them, open hospitals and build granaries. Dr. Sun Yat faure of the temple property at Canton five' years ago no doubt affords a precedent. But that, too, caused scandal and protest at the time.
These are ticklish matters which strike at the root of the people's life and feeling. Tem ple worship and the old codes of morality are, of course, two different things, and no doubt some of the priests deserve all the hard words they get. But missionaries, who would natur ally be their severest critics, not appear to condemn them wholesale and we are told that the priests of the Holy Mountains near Hankow, who own most of the farms in the surrounding foothills, are good landlords, readily remitting rents and taking a fatherly interest in their tenants. On the whole one ventures to think that the Kuomintang have more important work to do than to start 'a campaign of religious persecution, which is always a dangerous game and moreover seems out of keeping with the present, mood of the Chinese. One hears, of symptoms of a reaction setting in towards the older fashions. The strong ban upon coeduedtion voiced by the Educational Conference at Nanking last May, and which has been enforced in Canton, is undoubtedly one such sign. other is General Chang Chih-kiang's address from which we quoted above. And these indications of a revival of old standards are no bad thing. The revolution need not be one whit less effective, because people wish to preserve what was best in the old-days, rather indeed' the reverse. As more than once observed, when the old standards of learning were knocked away, nothing was put in the place of the traditional Chinese ethics thus displaced and the country has inevitably suffered. Bfost
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.