New Britain herald., 1921-10-21
cult and dangerous though it may be.
 Like Orphan Alice.

S~AASA
 Like Orphan Alice.
 By international control I do not mean the "internationalization of China To the contrary It is to the everlasting interest of all concerned that the sovereignty of China should be restored and then respected
 Today China's so-called sovereign ty'' is a mockery. She is just about as sovereign as little Alice, home less match-girl of the city streets, naively wondering where her next meal is coming from, uncertain of the future, at the mercy of an unscru- pulous world, a danger to herself and to sociey.
 China needs a guardian and, like Orphan Alice, is bound to fine one. Either a stronger influence will pick her up and make her it's plaything, or some disirterested group must guide her footsteps until she is ir a position to take care of herself.
 Looting the Country.
 Among China's 400,000,000 people two small groups will be found to op pose any form of control over any of the country's affairs.
 The first group is the grafters; the second, a section of the educated classes.
 The masses about 390,000,000 strong--if uninauenced by either of the two groups, would welcome any thing which would better their pres ent beast of-burden lot.
 There is scarcely a province in China which has not its grating tue hun, or military governor, a little king and war lord, and law unto himslf Backed by his own personal army, he defles all corners, including Picking.
 Gen. Wang Chan-yuan, one such tuchun, recently deposed by his own subjects, is reported to have carried off with him between SIC, 0,000,00O and $16,000,Q00 of the peoples money and is now living in peaceful retirement.
 tnbridled Graft.
 There are 22 tuchuns in China Some 19 or 20 of them are Wangs.
 Under the tuchuns arc the minor grafters clear down to the coolies who scrub the yamen floors.
 There is graft at Picking. There is graft all over China, in public and in private enterprise.
 At my hotel in Picking a peddler came up to my room to sell some trinkets He confessed he had to pay squeeze" to the head porter at the door and to the hall-boys on my floor. If he did not come through, he said, he could never enter that hotel again. He was not lying, either.
 No grocer or butcher can long do business with a household unless every servant in that household is given his bit of graft, or squeeze"
 Try, if you dare, to buck the game!
 Graft, in high places and low, rides China like Little Old Man of the Sea. Educated Chinese recognize this, but, unaided, it would take them a hundred years to rid China of it.
 A Matter of Face.
 The republic is in no wise respon- sible for this. Graft was handed down to the republic from the dragon throne.
 So grafters will oppose any move to restore order in China. They will fight any move to place effective con- troI over the collection or distribution of public money.
 The other group of Chinese who resent foreign interference," do so from purely patriotic motives. It hurts their pride as Chinese. They think China Hoses face. every time foreigner is employed to set things to rights, and preservation of face" in China, not self-preservation, is the first law.
 Facing Extinction. Many return sudents sincerely be- lieve nearly all China's ills come through foreign interference This is undoubtedly partly true. but today, whoever is to blame, foreign | CTS, Chinese or both, the country is l facing extinction.
 China must have help from the out I side or go under.
 China is now but an agglomeratior of autonomous provinces virtually bankrupt, unable to pay her soldiers sailors, officials or schol teachers. Only by raking and ,scraping and resorting to unusual measures can the expenses of her delegation to the Pacific conference be met l With any kind of management China, reorganized and put on sound financial basis, would be one of the