Page:The Modern Review (July-December 1925).pdf/280

258 seen by aeroplanes unless they come within 150 ft. or the ground.

Where Young Life

is

Cheap

The right of the foreigners in Shanghai is the right of the conquest—the same right as the Germans had in Belgium from 1914 to 1918. They arrived there in the first instance as a result of the Opium War of 1842, There is no justification whatever Root cause of Chinese Disturbances. for their presence, except that the Chinese are not Mr. Bertrand Russell writes in The Neio a match for the foreigners in military and naval power. Leader : Shanghai is an important industrial centre, and - The trouble began with a strike in a Japanese the labour conditions are quite as bad as they mill in Shanghai. One of the strikers was shot by were in England 100 years ago. Young .children the Japanese. Some Chinese students paraded the work twelve hours a day for seven days in the streets as a protest against this unjustifiable homi- week ; sometimes they fall asleep at their work, i-.ide. The students were, as the Professors state, and roll into the unfenced machinery and are ‘«rmed with nothing more than pamphlets and killed. Other children are employed in making • handbills.’ Many of them were arrested by the matches. They get 'phospherous poisoning, and liritish police, whereupon the remainder marched most of them die young,. There" was a proposal to the police . station to demand the release before the Shanghai Municipal Council to introduce of their comrades.. Terrified by this unarmed some slight regulation of child labour - (at present mob of boys and girls, British authorities there is none). This came forward during the first ordered the police to fire upon them, killing six days of the present trouble, but fell through because and seriously wounding over forty. As the there was no quorum—fortunately, according to the srudents continued to demonstrate, the police con­ “Times”, as it might have encouraged the strikers. tinued to kill them for six days, until 70 were The conditions of adult workers are such as these felled and 300 wounded. To justify their action, facts would lead us to expect. They work from the British asserted- that the mob was armed and 12 to 13V2 hours a day, and their wages vary from advanced with cries of “Kill the foreigner.” If 16s. to 30s. a month. It is to prevent any improve­ such cries were uttered, it must have been by- ment in these conditions that we are shooting “agents provocateur.” unarmed boys and girls—usually in the back. “Only Man

is

Vile!”

The students who demonstrated were the kind of young men and young women of whom I saw a great deal when in China—eager, enthusiastic idalistic, unable to believe that justice, however, dear is powerless against brute force. Chinese students are like the best of our sons and daughters hut slightly more naive as regards the wickedness of the world. Confucius taught that human nature is naturally good, and one of the difficulties of our missionaries has been that they cannot get the Chinese to accept the doctrine of original sin In this task .they are receiving valuable assistance from the British police. The rest of the Chinese population of Shanghai has resented this massacre, and has been engaged in a gradually growing strike. There is also a beginning of a boycott of British and Japanese goods throughout China. There have been simul­ taneous disturbances in other places in China. The navies of the world have assembled in Shanghai harbour so as to be ready to shoot more boys and girls. To understand -the situation it is necessary to say a word about the Government of Shanghai Shanghai is a city comparable -in size to London divided into three parts: the Chinese City, the •Trench concession, and the International concession The last, where the trouble has occurred, is governed by the capitalists exclusively : there is not the faintest hint of democracy. The capitalists are mainly British, and Japanese, with a fair sprinkling of Americans. The British police are Sikhs (except the officers), who .play the same part as Cossaks played in Tsarist Russia.” When­ ever the capitalists of Shanghai get into trouble warships of all ‘civilised” countries hasten to _their assistance as m the present instance.

From the controversy that is now raging around the Report of the Post Graduate Re-organisation Committee one cannot form much of an opinion on the subject because on the one hand a set of people are trying to make things appear in such light as would enable the Government to refuse to help the University with grants as if for the sake of truth, justice and public opinion; and on the other hand there is another party, the party in power at the University, which is attempting to broadcast everything that will favour a continuation of their regime with additions to the income side of their budget, shelving the main items of any scheme of Post-Graduate Reorganisation. The conscious and unconscious helpers of the Government cause are expressing the opinion that the University is extravagant and is running a large number of departments which are useless as they lack a proper number of students; hence it it should not receive any help. Moreover as things stand now it is possible to run the University Machine at a much lower cost than has been usual for several years. Leaving aside questions of technical detail,