Does China Hate Britain ?
[Mr. fi ang Leang-Li, a Southern Chinese research student now in London, is closely in touch with the Nationalist Party of Chine We do not endorse his opinions, but give them as an expression of a section of Chinese feeling.—ED. SPECTATOR.] CHINA to-day is entirely different from the China of 1900, or even from the China of five years ago. But whereas' China has changed, the attitude of the British official and mercantile cliates. there has remained essen- tially the same.
Until a few years ago China was governed by a group of officials who, on the whole, were timid and self-seeking, while the people were apathetic and desirous only of being left alone. In these circumstances it was a matter of course that British interests were served by a policy of intimidating or favouring such officials. The bartering away of the Chinese heritage by these corrupt officials, however, provoked a reaction among the Chinese intelligentsia, who found a leader in the late Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of the iCuo-Min-Tang. This party aims at the national emancipation of China by the revision of China's treaties , and at the political and economic freedom of the people by the liberation of the country from the reactionaries and the brigand-militarists- For a long time the Kuo-Min-Tang led a precarious existence. But in the face of tremendous odds—bath, internal and external—it has succeeded within a few years in making Canton a model city and Kwangtang a. odel province : throughout China the Canton Nationalist overnment is admitted, even by its opponents, to be the ost efficient of all the authorities in China.
Kwangtung, which is about the size of France, is the ly province where the civilian rules, instead of the ilitarist, and where bandits and pirates are having an nhappy time.
It is true that in carrying out its reconstructive pro- ramme the Kuo-Min-Tang uses expert Russian assistance, tut as Japan employed German advisers and Peking mploys British autocrats as Inspectors-General of the 'ustoms and the Salt Gabelle. These Russian experts, ar from dictating policy to the Chinese Nationalists, are imply there to carry out their wishes : they have shaped bin's progress and rendered signal services to the hinese people, which stand out in vivid contrast to he " assistance " given by some nationals of several ether Great Powers to Wu-Pei-Fu and Chang-Tso-Lin, ie fomenters of a senseless civil war.
Since the War and until the Washington Conference apan was considered as. China's most dangerous enemy, n idle the Anglo-Saxon nations were looked upon as the uardians of China's quaSi-independence. The modern hinese have a great respect for the country who taught he world the principles of liberty and democracy ; they .enerate the birthplace of the Mother of Parliaments, he birthplace of Locke, Burke, Byron, Bentham and Mill. hey still believe that the British are a nation with an iherent sense of justice and fairplay, who would view ith horror and, indignation the acts of violence -em- itted in their name in China—if only they knew the real acts. Bid, rightly or wrongly, in the Chinese view, ritish agents in China are reluctant to let the world now these facts. The Chinese recall to their mind that he Diplomatic Report of the Shanghai shootings was oppressed at the instance of the British Coniul-General at hanghai, and that the British Consul at Canton refused n inquiry into the Shameen incident.
It is a matter of profound regreirthat the British at ome, ignorant of the real situation,' or of the Chinese mt of view, allow- themselves to be misrepresented in hina as a vindictive people. In consequence thereof nti-British feeling is rapidly spreading and the Chinese re losing their faith in them. This is solely due to the fact hat before a radically changed China, British agents in hina continue- to pUrsue the traditional policy of force ad intimidation. Soviet Russia, on the contrary, lized the need of change in 1919. Imperialist Japan llowed suit in 1925, and benefited accordingly, as is lustrated by the following significant extract from the hanghai Customs returns for 1925 :- 1924. 1925.
Crest Britain .. Great in '000's 53.605 in per- 60.2 in '000's in per- tads. centage.
35.291 48.0 Japan . . 34,408 38.6 36.123 49.1 Other countries.. 1.030 1.2 2.123 2.9 The impending consolidation of China by the Kuo- tin-Tang will mean that sooner or later the Western owers will have to readjust their relations with China in a irit of good will and understanding, rather than in a irit of distrust and provocation, even at the cost of 'Inc prestige. For what Canton says or promises, it has c will and the means to carry out. As regards the protection of foreign life and property the affected areas, akeady on August 22nd Chiang Kai- hek issued a manifesto declaring that he undertook the ll responstbility- for the lives and properties of all mons, irrespective of nationality, who did not • hinder e conduct of the National Revolution. Occasional despatches from the war front reveal that ne of the first things done in all the districts after the victories of the Cantonese troops is the restoration to the people of the freedom of speech, of the Press, and the encouragement of mass organizations. Peasant unions and labour organizations have been, for instance, revived in Hunan, where they were suppressed by Wu-Pei-Fu in 1922. The fulfilment of the educational and constructive work of the Nationalist Administration will, of course, take time. But the fact that it is being undertaken so soon after the cessation of hostilities is significant.
No time is being lost in determining the policy of the Party ris-a-ris the district and provincial governments, and the basis for the convocation of a National Assembly. This is taking place at the Extraordinary Congress of the Party which opened on October 15th.
The Hongkong-Canton boycott is by a unilateral decla- ration of Canton made a thing of the past. Without waiting for the formal consent of the Treaty Powers the Washington surtaxes are put into operation, the proceeds of which are earmarked for the liquidation of the financial: liabilities of the strike and boycott. Meanwhile the Canton Government is committed—voluntarily—to the abolition of the likin as soon as an alternative source of revenue is found. That this promise will not be an empty one may be gathered from the successful reform. of taxation in Kwangtung last year.
In the tremendous task of reconstructing China, the Cantonese stand practically alone. What they can achieve in face of the most formidable difficurties the future alone can tell. Meanwhile, has not the time come for a new orientation of British policy towards China ? It would secure her a moral and material harvest such as
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