Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

NOTEBOOK “ξ”

(“XI”)


MACKAY, CHINA, THE MIDDLE REPUBLIC.
ITS PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
.

557

Page 20 of Notebook “ξ” (“Xi”)
Reduced

B. L. Baron von Mackay, China, the Middle Republic. Its Problems and Prospects, Berlin, 1914. ((264 pp. + supplements.))

 A scoundrel, reactionary, blockhead and swine;
has lifted from a dozen books a heap of slanders
against “radical democrats” (the Kuomintang and
its leader Sun Yat-sen). Scientific value nil. Pp. ??
Supplement V. Kuomintang leaflet =
naïve, democratic republicanism ((the scound-
rel of an author heaps abuse on it)). [“An Analysis
of the Advantages of the Republic”.]
N.B.

Source References:
 James Cantlie and Sheridan Jones, Sun Yat-sen
  and the Awakening of China
, London, 1913.
 Vosberg-Rekow, The Revolution in China, Berlin,
  1912
 Joseph Schön, Russia’s Aims in China, Vienna,
  1900.
 M. v. Brandt, East Asian Questions, Berlin, 1897.
 Wilhelm Schüler, Outline of the Recent History of
  China
, Berlin, 1913.

The chapter “International Political Troubles and Conflicts” (Chapter 13) contains a brief account of the plunder of China by Russia (Mongolia) [the secret Urga protocol, 1912], by Russia + Japan (Manchuria. The secret treaty of Russia and Japan, July 8, 1912), by Great Britain (Tibet), by Germany (Kiao-chow[1]), etc.

 pp. 222-24: written after the Japanese ultimatum
to Germany (August or September 1914)—gross abuse
of Great Britain for her “policy, dictated solely by
the interests of the shopkeepers and money-bags” (223),
her crime against European civilisation, etc., etc.
For his part, the author favours “extending the German
power position in China
” (228)....
!!!

 Germany’s share in Chinese trade=4.2 per cent, but
factually (he says) (N.B.) more than 7 per cent—
and up to 25 per cent (!!?) if the total German trade
turnover is taken into account.
 Britain’s share in Chinese trade=50 per cent, but
factually 21 per cent (p. 232).

 ...“just as ‘international’ capital becomes ever more
national under the impact of modern imperialist
power tendencies, so the mechanism of what we call
world economy has to become more and more respon-
sive to the laws of the national economies of the
Great Powers” (235).
N.B.

((Chapter 14: “Germany’s Mission”.))

 Britain and the U.S.A. “last year alone raised
18 million marks to found new higher educational
establishments in Shantung, Hankow and Hong Kong”
(236)—compared with this sum, everything Germany
allocated during the same period “appears minute”.
Where does the money come from? The chief source
is the big British and American capitalists’ commer-
cial and industrial enterprises in China!!
N.B.

 Britain has “hundreds” of officials in “her maritime
customs service” who know the Chinese language!!
(“trained officers”)—pioneers (239)....
!!

Belgium and her commercial interests in China (243): Société d’Etudes des Chemins de fer en Chine,—its concessions on two railways in China.

p. 245—a map of railways in operation and scheduled for construction in China, in three groups

N.B. 1) German— — —(medium-sized)
2) British— — —(smallest)
3) Russo-Franco-Belgian— — —(largest)

According to Hennig (World Communication Routes, Leipzig, 1909), the following lines already exist;

1) Peking-Tientsin (and continuation to Dalny)

2) Kiao-chow—Tsinanfu[2]

3) Peking-Hankow

4) Shanghai-Pukow

...“The mouth of the Yangtze is Great Britain’s East-Asian Shatt-al-Arah, and the Yangtze sphere of interest her East-Asian Southern Persia” (246-47)....

 The Tientsin-Pukow railway is being built jointly
by the British and Germans (247).
 Great Britain has 1,900 km. of railway conces-
sions in China (247)....
N.B.

N.B.

 Germany has 700 km. of railway concessions in
China (248)....

Mackay p. 245

560

In the great work of irrigation and land reclamation in China, German technique is supreme (254-55 et seq.)....

 The Chinese ought not to sympathise with the
“radical democracy of the New World”, nor with
Anglo-Saxon Constitutionalism with its “faded
monarchism”, but with monarchical Germany (257)
!!

 Then follows a long, dreary and stupid eulogy
of German culture....
!!!


End


Notes

[1] Present name Tsingtao.—Ed.

[2] Present name Tsinan—Ed.


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