Peipimg, May 1. N the surface Peiping residents appear to accept their fate with complete indifference, and in minor walks of life, at any-rate, many of them are to be found working for the Japanese. Yet in private they one and all express the greatest dislike of and contempt for the invaders. It is all very puzzling. What is their true attitude What are their real feelings towards the Japanese The answer one receives to this question would generally appear to depend on the political views of the person asked. Those of more radical views (not to use another expression much favoured these days) will tell you that they loathe the Japanese and will have nothing to do with them; others of the old s bool will say that they do not really care who rules over them, as long as they can earn their bread and butter.
Looked at entirely objectively, and leaving aside the móral issue, it seems to me that neither of the above statements are correct. The division is, so to say, not vertical: between those who do and those who don't; but, rather, horizontal: between those who can and those who can't afford to indulge in the luxury of patriotism. This, I hasten to add, is neither, a defence nor a criticism, but mere statement of fact.
Tt is, moreover, a fact that lies inherent in the Chinese character. with its love of compromise, a characteristic that derives chiefly from the terrific struggle for. existence that has been going on in China down the ages and makes the "rice-bowl" the one consideration that overshadows every other. For the Chinese it is, therefore, quite possible and not at all strange, to be able apparently to submit gracefully to the foreign conqueror who holds the whip in hand, and yet at the Same time to detest him from the bottom of their hearts.
Furthermore, those who condemn the apparent submissive attitude of the Chinese in Peiping, Tientsin and other cities under direct Japanese control, as well as those who praise it as very sensible—realistic is, I believe, the correct modern term—both parties seem inclined to forget that they are judging Chinese, and therefore their conduct must be assessed by quite different standards from our own. A few conversations T have had or have listened to bring that out very clearly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.