Oct, 2, No document that we can recall is fraught with so much meaning and importance for China as the report of the American Red Cross Commission on the starvation prevailing in the north. We would emphasize that this report is not the work of diplomatists er journalists, who might be accused of having some end to secure. It is the considered opinion of representatives of the greatest philan-tropic institution in the world, men of wide experience and unimpeachable character, who came to China with the sole object of ascertaining what help was needed and how it could best be given, and pushed their investigations throughout the worst districts of the northwest for over two months. They are forced to the conclusion that there is "no warrant for an appeal to the generosity of the American people" and that "the destitution which prevails in the famine arcas is the cumulative result of the chronic conditions of disorder, the crush actions of the warlords, the depredations of bandits, the enforced payment of confiscatory taxation and the crippling and consequent. i of railroads to function beyond a fraction of their normal capacity." In theze circumstances, the American Red Cross Commissioners justly find. that to appeal to foreign benefactors would merely be to invite them "to make good the looting, robbery and confiscations of wat-lords and bandits, thus providing them with an_ opportunity to repeat their exactions." Until Chinese Jeaders can be brough to realize the tragic consequences of their misdoings, help from without would actually be injurious, there could be no hope of permanent recovery.
We have no wish to "rub in" these sad facts, Having published the report we should have been content to leave it to make its own appeal to Chinese readers for whaur its significance is vital. But the reception of the report by some Chinese writers has been deplorable. Thus the China Critic" describes it as "impudent," the work of "demi-politicians who seem to be now controlling the administration of the American Red Cross," gratuitous insult to the Chinese Government and people;" and the "China Critic" concludes: necessary that Colonel Bicknell and his associates should be administered a severe rebuke, partly asa lesson to them and partly to future missions to China who return courtesies and hospitality with insults and impertinences.
The frame of mind which could conceive such an article is al most enough to make friends of China ery. If the truth is always to be an insult and evasion. and nothing is to be acceptable but falsehood and hypocritical compliment, then indeed the future of this country is dark.
Fortunately we need not think that the "China Critic's" contributor—who seems to have forgotten that practically all the American Red Cross charges were substantiated only a few days ago by a public statement of the Kuomintang Central Exsentative of his countrymen. Tt must frankly be said that the conditions found in the Northwest are not confined to that rogion. In varying degrees the Centre and South have been are in many places suffering cruelly, And the American Red Cross does not exonerate National Government from al Blame, But it adds, It is but fair to call attention to the fact that China has been torn by civil war and is not yet freed from her preoccupations with ar and hostile military leaders, while her new. goverament has still to reach a point of assured stability, Indications are not lacking that in the future China's interest in the welfare of her people will show a gratifying awaken Looking back over the past eighteen years, one certainly cannot be surprised that conditions are as they are. They are the inevitable corollary of the gradual breaking up of all the old machinery of government and the destruction of every check upon the rapacity and lawlessness of callous and cruel men, It is, however, possible to believe that through this chaos new force is gradually emerg: ing. It is alive with enthusiasm, has already done something und it will do more, The out come of the contest between old and new may receive tempora: checks, but it cannot be indefinitely delayed. Then it will be possible to give substance and reality to projects which for the moment and under present conditions are still but hopes necessarily deferred. But that day will not come unless men of a'l parties agree fearlessly to fae the facts, even as they are set out in the American Red Cross's sad and momentous report.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.