Yearbook

Yes, leafing through the yearbook, suddenly my classmates look so Chinese. I had not remembered them with such slanted eyes and yellowish complexions. And anyway, where did all those Oriental names come from, all those Kondo, Liu, Takeda, etc.? I am not sure why but every yearbook seems to begin with a General Survey of conditions in China, not that I would know much about that. Says that eminent old "China hand" Arthur H. Smith: "The currents and the cross currents mingle confusedly, but they are beneath the surface, and often the only evidence of their existence to the outsider is the emergence of new sandbars, the opening of new and intricate channels, and the partial or complete closing of those which have been long in use." Yes, the constant struggle of the ying and yang perhaps? I am not sure what he means except that China is making progress. Dr. Smith is not shy about expressing his opinion in matters of Chinese government and dissing various Chinese leaders as he sees fit. For example:

• "The aged Sun Chia-nai was a man of weight and importance in his way, but he belonged to an age which had never comprehended the new era in which he could not be classed as a leading figure."
• "Yang Shih-hsiang, Governor-General of the Chihli province, was not a man of great abilities, but a substantial and a useful official."

Dr. Smith reports in 1910 that the talk in China is about the proposal to introduce a constitution. Provincial assemblies have been called to develop this document. Dr. Smith confidently asserts that the provincial assemblies will immediately want to know why the people are being so heavily taxed. "The next step will be an impeachment of the inordinately large number of thoroughly inefficient officials against whom there has hitherto been practically no redress."

Yes, now there's an idea. Let's impeach all these government officials who are so heavily taxing us to pay for all this stuff. Yeah, sure. I hope the lawmakers in D.C. are shaking in their boots. Uhuh!

Yes, clearly the constitution will solve all of China's problems, although Dr. Smith has some trepidations about how it is going to work. "By what processes are these innumerable millions to learn the meaning of that mighty and mystic term, to distinguish between liberty and license, to be schooled in that self-restraint which involves cooperation, the subordination of the present to the future, and especially that of the individual to the community?"

Nevertheless, that will be a glorious day for China when a constitution is finally adopted and ratified.

When that day comes district magistrates will be obliged to give prompt attention to suits-at-law, to decide with some measure of fairness, and the rudiments of a writ of habeas corpus act will emerge, preventing the indiscriminate detention of both guilty and innocent for months and years until all track of the original case has been lost to the public. Whether the reformed code of Chinese law which is promised at an early day is to take cognizance of matters like these, no one seems able as yet to say with certainty, but whether it does or does not, the old tyrannies and disregard of individual right are doomed.

  Yes, that will be a great day indeed.