Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1918 — WHAT APPEALED TO CHINESE [ARTICLE]

WHAT APPEALED TO CHINESE

Consideration Accorded Women by British Authorities Evidently Made Deep Impression op Native*. ■ “If one. were’to. ask a native of Wef-haf-wei what were the characteristics of British rule that he most appre-dated,-one would perhaps expect him to emphasize the comparative freedom from petty extortion and tyranny, the obvious endeavor (not always successful) to dispense even-handed justice/ .the facilities for trade, the improvement of means of communication. It 'Was not an answer of tMs kind, however, that I received from an intelligent and plain-spoken resident, to whom I put this question," R. F. Johnston says in “Lion and Dragon in Northern China." “ ‘What to' it we like best In our British.rulers? I will tel! you,’ he said. 'Our native roads are narrow pathways, and very often there Is no room for two persons to pass unless one yields the road to the other. When our last rulers —the Japanese—met our small-footed women . . . along such a path they never stepped aside to let the woman pass by . . . An Englishman, on the contrary, whether mounted or on foot, always leaves the road to the woman. He will walk deliberately into a deep snowdrift rather than let a Chinese woman step off the dry path. We have come to understand that the men of your honorable country all act In’the same way. and this Is what we like about Englishmen.’ ”