Abstract
IF it were not for the remarkable powers of recuperation which China has shown on more than one occasion after an apparently crushing disaster, present conditions in that country would appear to afford anything but an opportune moment for discussion of the possibilities of reform and regeneration. An enormous number of her population, estimated at thirty millions, has been rendered destitute by floods, and the country is in the throes of civil war between rival provincial governors. Yet the situation is not entirely without hope. China, for better or for worse, has adopted the form of Western institutions of government. Whatever may be the outcome of the present struggle, which represents on one side an attempt to secure unity with strong central control by force, the future of the country will depend upon how far the Chinese are enabled to assimilate the spirit of Western culture, without which superficial measures of reform may well be a delusion and a disaster. A wise use of the Boxer indemnity, which is to be remitted from the year 1922, would play a paramount part in shaping the course of events. The size, the vastness of the resources, and the immense numbers of the population of China, make the question of her future development of vital and world-wide interest. It is unnecessary to emphasise here the importance of China as a centre of production in relation to world supply, both now and still more in the future. The fact alone that two hundred thousand foreigners are resident in the country, for the most part interested in some form of industry or commerce, makes good government and the stability of the country a matter of immediate concern to the nations to which they belong, while it is no longer possible that a state of unrest in almost any country, however remote, can for any length of time fail to affect other parts of the world.
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The Boxer Indemnity and Chinese Education. Nature 114, 777–779 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114777a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/114777a0