Is there any business man in the
Straits Settlements who has not the same opinion of the Straits-born
Chinese? But as one who has traveled in China, living among the Chinese
and with them, seeing them under all natural conditions, at home in
their own country, I say unhesitatingly that at the present time only an
infinitesimal percentage of the population of the vast Interior
entertain genuine respect for the white man, and, in centers where
Western influence has done so much to break down the old-time hatred
towards us, the real, unveneered attitude of the ordinary Chinese is one
not calculated to foster between the Occident and the Orient the
brotherhood of man. Difficult is it for the foreigner in civilized parts
of China--and impossible for the great preponderance of the European
peoples at home--to grasp the fact that in huge tracts of Interior China
the populace have never seen a foreigner, save for the ubiquitous
missionary, who takes on more often than not the dress of the native.
Although the Chinese Government recognizes the dangerous situation of
the nation _vis-a-vis_ with nations of Europe, and has ratified one
treaty after another with us, the nation itself does not, so far as the
traveler can see, appreciate the fact that she cannot possibly resist
the white man, and hold herself in seclusion as formerly from the
Western world.
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