Correspondence
A LETTER FROM SHANGHAI. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The asseverations of the Foreign Office that " British life and property will be fully protected " are received now with sardonic smiles, not unnatural. We have heard too many of these promises and seen too little fulfilment. At the present time there are several hundreds of refugees in Shanghai from Hankow, Kiukiang, Kuling and elsewhere, destitute of all but the clothes they got away in, living on the charity of friends. At Kiukiang British homes were looted and wrecked beyond description. Their owners' belongings have gone, never to be recovered. At Tayeh in lIupeli the Wesleyan mission was attacked by a mob on the night of New Year's Day. The missionary's wife had her head cracked with a bamboo pole, and her husband only succeeded in getting her and another missionary lady, Miss Anderson, away over the fields with the greatest difficulty and under cover of dark. After terrible hardships they were befriended by some Chinese farmers and eventually got to Hankow, thence to Shanghai. Every- thing they possessed was stolen or destroyed.
Press comments from home, voluminous as they are, show that grave misunderstanding still prevails as to the true issue. To speak of the Nationalist Government in Central and South China as implying something noble and patriotic struggling through difficulties and dangers to a new and enlightened China is to pay the anarchs of Hankow a totally undeserved compliment and to perpetuate a most dangerous sham. Ad- mitting that there may be on the Cantonese side men of ideas and moderation, it is abundantly plain that they have no power. Eugene Chen for all his big talk is a mere figure-head. In the riots at Changsha, on January lath, which led to the British being evacuated, Eugene Chen sent down an agent to endeavour to control the mob. They seized him and com- pelled him to sign a declaration of unity with them and pro- ceeded with their riot undeterred.
The simple truth—and nothing but evil can come of shutting eyes to it—is that the power in Hankow is in the hands of Bolshevists and cut-throats. It is Boxerism plain and undis- guised, only complicated by Russian assistance and direction. The movement, like all such in the past, has run true to type. It began at least six years ago in growing popular discontent with the intolerable misgovernment, oppression and corrup- tion of the so-called Republic, and, as in previous crises, the mandarins and intelligentsia cleverly switched off this feeling against the foreigners. Now the mob temper has got out of control as it did in the Boxer year. As before, foreign Govern- ments continue to be obstinately blind to facts and to en- deavour to placate people who do not know the meaning of reason with conciliation. At the risk of prophecy, one would venture to say that nothing but a stern, sharp lesson will restore order in China and make it an abode fit not only for foreigners but for Chinese.
The anti-Christian movement is a notable phase of the upheaval. It may not be generally known that eight or nine months ago the anti-Christian students, reinforced by the usual riff-raff, violently seized and still hold some eight or nine missionary colleges and hospitals in South China, in some cases throwing the Chinese sick out into the streets. The number of these seizures is increasing. At Amoy a week ago the Spanish Mission premises were attacked and the priests and nuns only escaped on condition of one priest remaining as hostage. The old story of missionaries slaughtering babies for medicine was resuscitated, and two dead Chinese babies, alleged to have been found in the mission premises, were paraded through the town.
At Swatow an American missionary at the Baptist Academy was set upon by students and nearly beaten to death because he refused to give up to them some trust funds in his keeping. Next day the students paraded the town exhibiting blood- stained garments and declaring that the American Baptists had set upon them unprovoked and wounded several of them. The lies and calumny in which the Chinese student and agitator seem to revel may appear to Westerners incredible. Yet I am reporting nothing but hard and well-authenticated facts. From every district under Southern control come reports of student assaults on missions and services broken up. The agitation has been particularly bad in Shensi, which
has recently come under the control of Feng the Christian General, an ally of the Kuomintang.
The worst feature is the way in which a number of men, claiming to represent the Chinese Christians as a whole, have practically made common cause with the anti-Christian faction, and pretend to discern in it a patriotic movement designed to purify the Chinese church of " imperialism." How they reconcile it to their consciences to condone the disgraceful outrages on missionaries and mission property described above it is for the tortuous mind of the Oriental to explain.
The Salt revenue collected in i926 was $64,287,000, a decrease of $9,347,000 from that of 1925, which is a fair indication of the country's condition. But of this amount over $474 millions is a mere book entry, this money having been detained by the provinces in which it was collected for their own use. Nothing whatever was collected from or even recorded of Kuangtung and Kuangsi. In Sir Richard Danes day (he reorganized the Gabelle in 1913 and successive years) the Salt Revenue rose to $80,000,000 (the highest previously known was estimated at $36,000) and it all went to the Central Government, yielding it a surplus of between 60 and 70 million dollars annually after foreign loan obligations had been met. So is Sir Richard Dane's great work being frittered away.
The Customs returns for 1926 were Tls. 9,000,000 in excess of those of 1925, the chief increase being at Shanghai. But Hankow showed a serious drop. From the moment the South got there in September returns began to decline, and from what had up till then been a good surplus a large deficit resulted before the close of the year. Last December the drop in revenue was 60 per cent. as compared with November. So much for the blessings of " Nationalist.' government.
As an indication of how hardly present conditions bear on peaceful Chinese, I know of a Chinese engineer in the employ of the China Merchants S.N. Co., whose ship, some months ago, was commandeered by the South and has since been used by them here, there and 'everywhere for transporting troops. The officers are kept on forced labour and have received no pay. My engineer friend has a wife and four children in Shanghai who are now practically destitute. Such stories could be multiplied by thousands.
The Mixed Court of Shanghai was formally handed back to the Chinese on New Year's Day. On the Manchus' downfall in 1911 the Consular Body took over the court and have managed it ever since. A step fully warranted in 1911 had long ceased to have any justification, and a good many abuses had crept in, particularly the sale of patents of nationality to Chinese, by Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian Consulates, which conferred on their holders a sort of extra-territorial rights which were a natural grievance with Chinese officials. The agreement for rendition was concluded with the Kiangsa provincial authorities, with scope for revision by the Central Government, if and when one comes into existence. The agreement is a very good one. Assessors continue to sit, and foreign lawyers to appear, in all cases involving foreign interests ; the Mixed Court gaol will be under the control of the Municipal Police, who will also execute all warrants of the Court. There is also a foreign registrar of all cases and machinery for a double system of appeal, which was hitherto altogether lacking. The new judges, influenced perhaps by the anarchical spirit of the times, have shown a regrettable disinclination to uphold municipal by-laws and regulations. But when China comes to her senses again the Provincial Court, as it is now to be called, should develop into a really efficient institution.—I am, Sir, &c.,
YOUR SHANGHAI CORRESPONDENT.
[Our correspondent's letter was despatched from Shanghai on January 24th, and reached London on February 11th. It was, of course, written before Sir Austen Chamberlain had defined the policy of the British Government. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Spectator, but they are interesting as revealing the outlook of the man on the spot. —En. Spectator.;
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