June 18.
During the last few months the relations between China and the foreign nations, who come into business and' diplomatic contact with her, have been implicity under severe discussion. There is no suggestion that those relations are cither better or worse than they have ever beer It might be argued, from some points of view, that they are better; it might be held that, especially in regard to the developments of Japanese policy, that they are much worse, AS, toa large extent, the Manchurian problem governs Sino-Japanese contacts and as the Lytton Commission are charged with the duty of propounding a solution to that problem it can, for the Purpose of the general theme, be left temporarily out of account. Basically there must be some ground for the belief that Chinese and foreigners manage successfully to live and work side by side in some degree of harmony. The extensive financial and commercial links forged: between them both would have' been impossible without the flame of goodwill. Yet it is difficult to name any subject without finding that its discussion immediately evokes serious differences of opinion. This is not due only to differences of outlook, of tradition and of culture, although they naturally. have—their! proper responsibility, It would seem that the chief source of difficulty lies in' misunderstanding "which flourishes on prejudice and on ignorance. A too active ally in support' of this misunderstanding is the absence of frankness on both sides. Paradoxically this! defect leads to excessive frank ness, degenerating into intoler: ant licence in the formulation of criticism, the one of the oth Foreigners, on their side, are loth to express admiration, which they may honestly feel for Chinese virtues, because they have the uneasy feeling that they may be bound on that account to acquiesce im doctrines against which their whole sense of justice and, indeed, their own material und fexitimate interests} revolt. Chinese refrain from recognizing the value of foreign associations, lest, on its basis, too extravagant a claim may be made on their gratitude, 'There is, of course, history. History has its methods of teaching wisdom. It also has, un-"happily, the sift of perpetuating suspicion, Where two races are brought by destiny' into the one with the othe suspicion is intractable potent obstacle to speedy under standing, When not two but several races are concerned the task of reducing history to its due pedagogical impotence is all the harder. No-one would be so foolish as to believe that the process of creating a true understanding or satisfactory relation ship between China and. foreign nations could be entirely independent of history or could be suddenly achieved by the ex posure of a few fall The schoolmaster may end a feud between' two small boys by the simple and time-honoured ex-' pedient of knocking their heads together. The world—even -in the beneficent guise of the League of Nations—cannot yo to work that way in the Far East. Much can be done, however, by endeavouring to see where elimination can be made of long} standing but obsolete misconceptions to the clarification of the really substantial and obstinate points of difference To-say that an attempt of t kind were easy would be to display gross ignorance of the manner-in which foreign comm ties. far from their own land—tend to develop-their solidarity jand to show scant appreciation the ingrained notes of inter rogation and astonishment which invariably seize the indigenous resident at the sight of foreign ways, faces and manners.
Early i The Victorian urchin who iced a desire to eave alfa at the intruder from an-Jother village could be matched Jon the other side by the sublime surprise of the Englishman who discovered that the children Jot Paris were so clever as to be lable to speak French.
There is a just a wonder when ther, always, due allowance has been made in China by both sides for these very human idiosynlerasies, "It may be argued with some force that, too often, opinions are formed on the basis of fashions and principles long dis-bearded, To many it would seem that the best way of judging between foreigners and' Chinese in IChina is to study at some length the course of popular thought, the current of political opinion the development of modern notions of administration in other countries, So often, for example, the foreigner is accused of hav-jing failed in some policy from Wwhich China is considered to have derived definite hardship when he was in fact proving that no-one—unless he be a prophet—Jean act ahead of his age. China, jon the other side of the account, accused of shortcomings which ure hers no more exclusively than is the fashion of wearing shoes or making on political platforms speeches which cannot be parsed or intelligibly translated in the calm Jexactitude of the study. In such points of contact shibboleths have far too reverent a treat-on either side. Let no special example be selected: is simple for Chinese or foreign-to overhaul his list of stock observations when dealing with Sino-Foreign relationships, rigor tously submit each of them to the cruel test of modern criteria He would probably be surprised Jat the result and, in the end, not a tittle relieved. The point is of the first importance for surely everyone will agree that, apart from the world outside, China provided during the last year Jamazing proofs of the impossibil ity of always judging the present in the light of the past. It is of further importance because Chinese gestures of goodwill are by mo means so unreal as bewildered students of public affairs are inelined—naturally perhaps—to believe and because there are among foreigners many who would welcome the optunity to assist im the encouragement of a new order of ce-operation, based not on words, shibboleths or slogans but on the realities of commercial and political relationship—hetween them and the country whose interests are so involved in their own,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.