Evening star., 1932-03-06
Continued From First Page.)

claves of the literati and gentry.
This control of opinion from above
accounts for the notoriously "spotty'
character of every anti-Christian, anti
foreign or boycott movement in the his
tory of China's foreign relations.
It will be remembered how the Boxer
movement was confined to certain prov
inces, in which the imperial license to
hate the foreigner had been passed on
to the populace by the viceroys, and
how that license was withheld in
others The anti-Japanese boycott of
the last six months has had just this
spotty character, being violently ettec-
tive wherever the Kuomintang-the
official party-had persuasive or coercive
Irowers, ianguidly effective where the
local officials were not real converts to
the Sun Yat-Sen doctrines; but has
made no appeal to public sentiment
whatever in many northern communl-
ties where reactionary officials were un-
sympathetic to radical nationallsm.
To get anywhere in China a boycott
movement must, therefore, be otnclaliy
inspired, or officially licensed, or tacltly
tolerated by the local oficialS-partlcu-
larly by the military officials. In
modern China the medium OF propagat-
ing a movement which the central or
mintang; this is the party organization
from which the government derives It's
authority and from whose hierarchy
the highest officials are selected.
When the word to start something
comes to a branch Of the kuomlntang,
in an interior city. let us say, the heads
of the local unit go to the local ofhclaI
if he is friendly to them and get his
consent or promise OF support. II ms
attitude is doubtful but not SO openly
hostile as to entail serious rlsK, II is
decided to bring little pressure on
him through a demonstration, and TINS
NOWADAYS always begins with the stu
dents, ever ready to leave their classes
and agitate.
Handbills and posters are composed
In a hysterical jargon calling on the
400, O,OO0,000 brethren" to rise and strike
down imperialism, or to strike Down
militarism, or to wipe out the national
shame, or to kill the dwarf slaves,
these being the japanese. Then one
fine morning a test procession OF COT
ton-gowned youths files SolemnIy
through the main streets OF the city,
shuffing along at funeral pace, giving
out their violent literature and dronlng
out their slogans in singularly doleful
and uninspiring monotone. The popu-
lace Is pleased with the spectacle, but
cold. They are waiting for hint from
the higher ups
Now, if this procession is met In its
course by silk-gowned yamen subordi--
nate, or police official, with an escort
of a dozen hard-looking yokelS in uni
form, decorated with Mauser pistols
and bandolierS of cartridges, and if the
minor official barks a few biting words
about youth belonging in school ana
national affairs being in thoroughly
competent hands, while the yokelS of
the escort scowl and finger their pistol
butts, the procession halts, murmurS
feebly and breaks up. Unless the local
dictator changes his mind or Is coerced
from above there will be no boycott in
that city.
If, on the other hand, the local au-
thorities are ready to support the move
ment or have secretly ordered it, they
will receive from the student leaders a
petition telling the national government
just how its relations with the alien
tyrants should be conducted. This will
be followed very shortly by similar
documents presented by deputations of
merchants, workers, soldiers and peas
ants" The town will be plaStered over
night with inflammatory posters. An
"Anti-JapaneSe and Save-the- Nation
Association" will be formed by the
Kuomintang agents, with representa-
tives of all classes on its directorate;
agitators will howl at every street cor
ner, and the tradespeople will resign
themselves to the search of their prem
iSes, the seizure Of enemy goods" per-
secution, arrest and even execution.
How deeply all this will be permitted
to stir the emotions of the stupid folk"
depends entirely upon how effective the
local authorities want the boycott to be.
The Chinese are SO matter -of-fact that
nothing but dramatic action, repeated
at frequent intervals, will sustain en-
thusiasm for the principles of politics,
religion or patriotism. To maintain
boycott alive against traffic in goods
which the merchants can get and the
public normally wants, the mob must
be stirred to supply the dramatic in
spiration, and once the mob gets start
In China, or rather, once it has indirect
othcial license to start, it sheds all the
qualities Of decency and restraint, toler-
ance and good humor which make the
Chinese en- maSse so likeable.
Those who have faced such a mob
never forget it, and they wonder for
long time afterward how they ever saw
any quality in the Chinese that was
not loathSome. Since this anti-Japa-
neSe boycott was meant, as an "inStru-
ment Of policy" to be a more than
usually effective one, the japanese resi-
dents Of dozen big Chinese cities and
the unhappy traitors" who tried to
carry on business or social relations
with them have had six or seven months
festationS of policy" Ti1J does not
excuse, but it certainly helps to explain,
the Japanese irregularities at Shanghai
The boycott-the eighth serious one
that the japanese have faced since
1908-began early in July with Sino-
Japanese diplomatic impaSse over the
HuangpaoShan incident. A Chinese
attack on Korean farmers near Cheng-
chun in Manchuria prompted anti-Jap-
anese Chinese riots in several Korean
towns. DR.. c. T. Wang, the Chinese min
lister OF foreign affairs, with his campaign
against japanese eXtraterritoriality at
the back of his mind. at once became
Endiplomatically blusterous. The stu
dents were aroused and the organiza-
tion Of a boycott was almost immedi-
ately under way. Marking wanted it
as an instrument of policy to support
the Chinese point of view in a number
of outstanding diplomatic issues; but
the commercial communities in Shang-
hal, the Yangtze Valley and South
China viewed the occasion as too Pc
culiarly Manchurian and responded
feebly.
In North China, however, where
Chang Hsueh-hang and his officers
were in control, the people we're made
to feel that a Manchurian issue was
theirs; so the boycott made steady
headway throughout August and Sep
tember in Tientsin, Peking and TSing-
tao and was assuming really serious
proportions when the big clash came in
Mukden on September 18. 1t is worth
noting that while to Marking this was
the signal for starting a movement in
the south which in three weeks out
stripped any previous boycott in
thoroughness and violence, to Chang
Hsueh-hang and his organization it was
such a calamitous reaction to their
pin-pricking policy that the boycott in
the north promptly subsided.