Apr.
Both Mr. R. Calder Marshall ahd Mr, Loufs Beale, in their Speeches at the annual meeting, of the British Chamber of Commerce noted what Mr. Beale called the shock absorption capacity of China. The thought bears application to the general itatity "of Sino-British trade, Feonomic and political difficulties, "complicated by natural disasters, have been met in abundance, By ordinary rules they should discourage their victims, "In point of "fact the amazingly few outward signs of pessimism constitute an important difference between the outlook in China and in some other parts of a heavily-oppressed, world. The tributes. paid on Thursday to the powers of vesistanee possessed by" China might well be extended to the whole body of foreign merchants trading here. No-one reading the speeches of Mr. Calder Marshall and Me. W.'S. King can suggest that they are negligent, of the grim obstacles to China's economic recovery and to the rapid return Toveign trading operations to the prosperity of whut now seems to distant Golden Age. Yet the ability of these leaders of British commercial thought to take the broad view of hopefulness and discriminating recognition of ground gained shows that the British merchant, for all the criticisms levelled ai im, lacks neither resourcefulness nor confidence in the traditions built up by his. decessors and maintained by him in the new and struggling China of to-day, 'This spirit enabled 'Mr. Beale to discern a sympathetic atmosphere for' delivery of his homely axiom:
{IC ye it back and. wring our to the dogs, we shall get nowhere." winds saying everything is-coing rate and keeping a stiff upper in public could not be better defended. Sometimes thought that the rigidity of the British mind leads to emphasis criticism which betokens Jack of sympathy with the "other fellow's" difficulties. It is true that, in every profession "and trade, the British expert is disinclined to permit his sense of the importance of standards to be assailed. He is intolerant of anything which he regards as falling below the standards prescribed for him by his own training. This is often interpreted as excessive conservatism and, occasionally, harsher words are used. It is, nevertheless, a quality by which he stands and it will be a bad day when he yields to demands for its desertion.
This implies no adoption of a carping spirit or superiority in relations with clients or competitors. So, although Mr. Calder Marshall was drawn to dwell in friendly criticism on defects in Chinese administrative und economic policy. his theme included admiring recognition of the manner in which China had managed to record progress, ite experience of a series of cataclysmic upheavals. What is the picture?
In the North a)' vast territory nominally within China's sovereignty has been completely wrested from her by the inexorable action of superior military force. In the South five provinces, loosely adhering to the leadership of Canton, are sublimely indifferent to if not dependent of the control of the Central Government. In the heart of the country a rebel Communist regime, also loosely: Knit together, dominates Kiangsi and exercises a varying influence in "Hupeh, Szechuen;" Anwhei, Fukien and Hunan. The frontier provinces of: -Szechuen and Kansu are remote in allegiance to the general idea: of a unified
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.