No wonder the Germans are looking with longing
eyes on China! But we want these riches and this labour for our
people. If it is worth the time of men of other countries to come to this
far-off land in search of what lies beneath our soil, it is worth our while
to guard it and keep it for our own.
We hear news of battles and of secret plottings, and I am worried
about my son, who is in Canton, the province that seems to be the
centre of rebellion and the breeding-place of plots and treachery. I
wonder what will be the outcome of it all; if after all this turmoil and
bloodshed China will really become a different nation? It is hard to
change the habits of a nation, and I think that China will not be
changed by this convulsion. The real Chinese will be the same
passive, quiet, slow-thinking and slow-moving toiler, not knowing or
caring whether his country is a republic or whether he is ruled by the
Son of Heaven. He will be a stable, peaceable, law-abiding citizen or
subject, with respect for his officials so long as they are not too
oppressive; not asking whether the man who rules him is called a
governor or a futai, so long as work is plentiful and rice is cheap.
These patient, plodding men of China have held together for countless
thousands of years, and I am sure that their strength is derived from
qualities capable of bearing great strain; and our government, even the
government which we are trying so hard to overturn and mould on
Western lines, must have suited the country and the people, because
nothing ever persists generation after generation, century after
century, without being suited to its environment and more or less
adapted to the changes which time always brings.
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