the discussion was stimulated by the increase in the number of drug addicts in America as well as by her desire to heal one of the world's open sores.

Yet the Conference was brought about by the Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium of the League of Nations, in which the United States was represented only in an “unofficial and consultative capacity." The Committee recommended the calling of Conferences to consider (a) the suppression of opium smoking, (b) the limitation of the manufacture of opium products.

The first Conference met on November 3, 1924. Eight governments were represented, namely, those of Great Britain, France, China, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Siam. The United States did not participate, since it was claimed that the problem of opium-smoking did not concern the Philippines. China was regarded with much concern as the country from which fifty to ninety per cent of the exported drug came. She admitted the impeachment, but promised amendment as soon as a stable government was once again in existence. The second Conference was opened on November 17, the United States being represented by a delegation including Congressmen Stephen Porter and Bishop Brent. Viscount Cecil offered the British proposal that opium-smoking should be abolished in the British Far Eastern territories within a period of fifteen years from the date of the effective control of the traffic by China within her own borders. The question of effective suppression was to be determined by the League of Nations. The United States delegation was not satisfied with this proposal, desiring something more drastic, though possibly less practical. The American delegates withdrew from the Conference on February 6, 1925, and were followed by the Chinese members on the next day.

Nevertheless, the Conference continued its work, and, through the Committee of Sixteen, reported two protocols. One of these, signed by the States of the first Conference, obligated the signatory nations to put an end to opium-smoking within fifteen

years after sufficient progress had been shown in the suppression of smuggling. The other placed upon the signatory Powers the responsibility for controlling the production and distribution of raw opium, so as to prevent smuggling.1

The Conferences must not be regarded as failures because of the clash between the idealism of the United States and the practicality of the British and Indian Governments. Seventeen governments out of twenty-one signed the final acts of the second Conference. The Convention remained open till the beginning of October 1925 for the signatures of those who had hitherto abstained. "The most practical gains of the 1925 agreement," says Mr. Buell,2 "relate to the international control of the drug traffic." The export certificate is now embodied in an international agreement. Free ports are also to be supervised to prevent illicit traffic.

1 Buell, in Foreign Affairs, July 1925.

2 Buell, The International Opium Conferences, p. 117.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE WEST IN THE EAST - EDUCATIONAL
AND RELIGIOUS RELATIONS

In the last chapter we discussed the political and commercial influence of the West upon the East, particularly in reference to a general trend toward better conceptions of international relations. We reserved for this chapter the discussion of two other kinds of relation, namely, the educational and the religious. Since, however, most of the educational efforts put forth by the West in the Far East have had a religious motive and have been for the most part supported in connection with religious propaganda, the two phases of Western influence may conveniently be considered together. In fact, the whole story of Christian effort in the Orient will fall naturally under the following heads: Educational, Medical, Industrial, and Evangelistic. First, let us summarize the story of Western influence in the Orient educationally. In India education has had less of the missionary element than in China or Japan. This follows, of course, from the fact that the Indian Government has always regarded itself as responsible for Indian education and has been careful not to interfere with the religious beliefs and practices of the people any more than was absolutely necessary. For the same reason no system of education has been made compulsory, at least in British India. Yet from the beginning the system introduced was Western-probably too Western, following upon the recommendation of Macaulay's famous Minute.1 To

1 Thomas Babington Macaulay (Lord Macaulay), while a member of the Supreme Council of India, 1834-37, settled the controversy as to the employment of public funds for the teaching in English or in the Oriental languages, by a remarkable paper arguing for the use of English,

some this has been one of the marks of its comparative failure, since it fitted Indian students only for journalistic, political, or clerkly careers. In spite of everything it became amazingly popular, and even the designation "Failed B. A., University of Calcutta" has been considered a mark of some distinction. The mistaken tendencies of the past, whatever their kind or degree, are now being rapidly corrected. "Primary, industrial, and agricultural education are now taking the place of that senseless routine which for so many years did nothing more enlightened than to turn out Government clerks with the B. A. degree attached to their names." 1

Missionary schools, of course, are playing an important part in supplementing or correcting the work of the Government schools, especially through the attention they are devoting to the training of character in addition to the training of intelligence.

It is fair to add that the influence of the Western schools has spread quite extensively into the native States. Excellent systems of public education have been established in such States as Hyderabad and Baroda. In the latter State what was supposed to be impossible has been achieved, namely, the putting into operation of compulsory education. At least, just before the war, out of 280,000 children of school age 180,000 were attending.

In China the missionaries were first in the field a field of extraordinary promise in the light of the traditional Chinese estimate of the scholar. Till practically the last decade or so missionary schools have been alone in representing Western educational ideals. Recently, however, the professional educators have been active. The formation of the National Association for the Promotion of Education was one of the notable events of 1921. The visits of such prominent American educators as Dr. Paul Monroe and Dr. John Dewey, not to speak of equally distinguished scholars from Great Britain, France, and Germany, have had tremendous if not revolutionary 1 See The Modernizing of the Orient, p. 160,

results. In some respects the heady wine of Western ideas has had not a little to do with the present prevailing unrest. Another notable result of American interest in the education of China is to be found in the Tsing Hua College of Peking, founded in 1911 as a result of the remission by the United States of the balance of $10,000,000 due from the Boxer indemnity fund. The college trains boys in Western methods of education, and a certain number of its graduates are sent annually to American universities to complete their education along their chosen lines.

The missionary colleges of China under foreign direction are over fifty in number, without including the hundreds of schools which afford opportunities for education below the university grade. Such institutions as St. John's University (Shanghai), Canton Christian College, Boone University (Wuchang), Yale-in-China (Changsha), Peking University, and others of excellent standing, have done an immense amount for the making of the new China. In spite of strikes and a disaffection toward Christian instruction which probably mark only a passing phase, these institutions are still the models toward which the truest friends of China are looking with hope.1

In Japan Western education has been valued from the time when certain students became, as they phrased it, “mad with Dutch." Before the beginning of Meiji, Mr. Fukuzawa founded (1856) the university of Keio in Tokyo for the express purpose of introducing Western learning. He began with Dutch, but was soon led to adopt English, teaching himself the language from a Dutch-English dictionary. With the beginning of Meiji after 1867 Western education soon became popular. Doshisha was founded in Kyoto in 1875 by the celebrated Christian teacher, Joseph Niishima,2 fresh from his American experiences. Since then many other Christian colleges have been established. One need only recall St. Paul's (Tokyo), the Aoyama Gakuin (Tokyo), and the Christian College at Kobe, as

1 See The China Year Book.

* See Life of Joseph Hardy Niishima, by Jerome Dean Davis.