China and the West

Russell, Bertrand. Fair play for the Chinese [ID D28421].
[This very distinguished man of science spent some time in China ; he writes about it not only with special sympathy, but with special knowledge].
I hope your readers are not yet tired of the Chinese question. As I have often pointed out before, the truth about any Chinese occurrence cannot be ascertained until the mail arrives ; telegraphic news is always propaganda. Who could have guessed, from what was telegraphed about the Shanghai shooting, that 30 British missionaries had published a protest, saying among other things : - 'We desire to express our intense regret that these incidents should have occurred. We should go further. We recognize that the serious situation evoked is largely due to underlying racial animosities. We, as Britons. Admit that we have a large share of blame in the matter'.
To issue this statement must have required great courage – more than can be realized by anyone who has never lived in a small British community among oppressed population.
The Chinese Information Bureau has issued valuable corrections of British misstatements ; but even when its facts are drawn from the China Year Book (a British enterprise) they are regarded as biased ex parte pleading. For instance, attempts are made to give the impression that the International Settlement in Shanghai is mainly inhabited by non-Chinese. The facts are that the foreign population of the Settlement is 23,307 and the Chinese population 763,401. (The total population of Shanghai is close on two millions).
The foreigners alone have a vote for the Shanghai Municipal Council, which behaves as if it were a sovereign State, and has recently refused to acknowledge even the authority of the Diplomatic Body. It has nine members – six British, two Americans, and one Japanese. This explains why the Chinese hold the British specially responsible in Shanghai.
The American Government is anxious to use the Conference which was promised at Washington in 1921 for the purpose of seeking remedies for this state of affairs. The British Government wants to get the Conference indefinitely postponed, or, if America insists upon its being held, to have it confined to the one question of tariff revision.
Two Demands :
Two quite practicable demands should be made by our Government :
(1) The holding of an impartial judicial inquiry into the Shanghai shooting.
On this matter the British action is condemned, not only by the unanimous opinion of China, but by many British missionaries, practically all foreign missionaries, the diplomatic body, and the unanimous verdict of the non-British world. Our Government should undertake that, if an partial tribunal condemns the action of any Shanghai officials, he shall be punished.
(2) The holding of the Conference demanded by America, with the right to investigate the whole question of the position of foreigners in China.
Generally we ought to give it to be understood that we shall adapt our Chinese policy to that of America, which has been far more liberal than ours. This would also have the effect of improving our relations with America. Our heaven-sent diplomats are too ignorant to know how serious is the bad effect which such incidents have upon the attitude of Americans towards us.
India is the key to most of our crimes in China. We wish to keep up the white man's prestige, and imagine that that can best be done by wanton homicide. But modern China is not that of the Manchu Emperors, and our methods are out of date.