Evening star., 1937-09-20
The Chinese People.

Apart from all political and military
CONSIDERATIONS involved in the present
conIllct IN Asia, strong sympathy un-
doubtedly prevails in this country for
the Chinese people, who are now. after
centuries of suffering from cruel and
| rapaclous administrators, the subjects of
an onslaught by a foreign power bent
| upon conquest. That sympathy is in
tenslfled by the most cursory review of
i the history of China, which traces back
Tor more than thirty centuries, into a
| past so dim that all definite records are
| erased
In the earliest times dynasty after
dynasty ruled that widespread land. with
Its countless millions of people-millions
even now uncounted. The rule was
tyrannlcal. 1t was maintained by the
sword. Naturally peaceable folk. the
Chlhese made no resistance. They could
make none. They had no organization
beyond the village and no arms but their
primitive tools of tillage They yielded
That culture arose out of such con-
oltlons was miracle. Yet it did arise.
limited to small fraction of the people,
but definitely native and authentic.
The racial psychology narrowed its
scope and limited its efficacy in raising
the mass of the population to higher
planes. Great teachers came and spread
their influence among a handful here
ana there. Arts were developed that
remain today to evoke the admiration
OF the world With government in the
interest Of the people rather than in
the interest OF the very few who gov
erned, China would probably have be-
come one of the greatest powers in
world history.
In one respect, however. China was
not a nation-is not, indeed, a nation
today. 1t was composed of numerous
widely differing groups, with not even
common language for general under
standing and communication. That diff
terence exists at the present time.
Jealousies and fears and suspicious have
resulted to plague both government and
governed and to invite foreign aggressors.
One OF the most wholesome influences
in the development of China to the
comparatively advanced state of today
has been that of the missionary healers
and teachers, who have gone out to
that land of sorrow to assuage the suf-
ferings of the people and to bring to
them the light of understanding. This
has not been entirely or in fact in major
degree religious work Thanks to
these devoted men and women millions
of the Chinese have been given strength
and courage and vision as members of
modern civilization.
Those of the western world who have
visited China and have become closely
acquainted with its people have almost
Invariably found them admirable and
have become their sympathetic parti-
sans in all their difficulties and sorrows.
1t is not easy to understand the Chinese
guage, for their modes of reasoning
differ altogether from those of the west
ern world. Those who have gained that
knowledge and have recognized their
native integrity-to refer to the mass of
the people and not to their exploiters of
their own race-have in every crisis con-
demned the practices of which these
unfortunate beings have been made the
victims through the centuries.
The changes that have taken place in
China since the wall of isolation was
broached have not been altogether for
its good, as result of the inability of
the Chinese to consolidate themselves
into homogeneous nation and to de-
velop genuine racial consciousness.
The percentage of literacy is very low
and hence there is no broad spread of
understanding of even the circumstances
of life within the land itself, to say
nothing of knowledge of the conditions
of life elsewhere.
1t may be that within another CEN
tury-and that Is very short span of
time in proportion to China S racial rec
ord--if they are not further exploited
and harassed and tormented by their
native mis-rulers and by foreign ag-
gressors, the Chinese people may become
a material factor in world affairs. They
have the capacity for development and
ground toward true national under
standing. 1t may be that these very
trials of the present will be factors In
such an advancement.