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バートランド・ラッセル 自伝 第２巻第３章
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第２巻第３章 中国（承前）
中国において共産主義者たちの政権が出現以降,英国の対中国政策は,米国の対中国政策よりもいくらかより啓発された（開かれた）ものとなったが,それ以前はまさしくその逆であった。1926年,3回にわたって,英国軍隊が非武装の中国人学生の集団に発砲し,多数を殺害あるいは負傷させた。私は,これらの非道な暴力行為を激しく非難した一文を書いた（松下注：ラッセルは1921年夏に,日本経由で帰国しているので,この時＝1926年,ラッセルはもちろん在英）。それは最初英国で発表され,続いて中国全土にわたって公表された。私と文通をしていた中国在住のあるアメリカ人宣教師が,この事件があってまもなく英国にやって来て,こう語った。即ち,中国の憤りは非常なものであり,同国内に住んでいた全英国人の生命が危険に瀕したほどであった,と。また,彼は −それはあまり信用が出来ないと私は思ったが− こうも語った。中国在住の英国人の生命が保全されたのは私（ラッセル）のおかげである。なぜなら,それは,英国人の全てが悪いわけではないということを,激怒した中国人に私（ラッセル）がわからせることができたためである。しかし,それが正しかったとしても,私は,中国在住の英国人だけでなく,英国政府の'私に対する敵意'を招いた。 中国在住の白人たちは,中国人の間では常識になっている多くのことに無知であった。ある時のこと,私の取引銀行が −アメリカの銀行であったが− あるフランスの銀行が発行した手形を私に手渡した。しかし,その手形を中国人商人が（私から）受け取ることを拒むことに気づいた。私の取引銀行はビックリし,代わりに他の銀行の手形を渡してくれた。それから３ケ月してそのフランスの銀行は破産し,中国の他の白人系銀行のすべてが驚ろいた。 私が判断し得たかぎりでは,東洋在住の英国人は,その周囲とまったく接触を持っていない。彼（彼ら英国人）はポロ競技(注：馬上から球を打ちあう競技)をやり,社交クラブに行く。その土地の文化についての考えは,18世紀の宣教師の著書から得る。また,東洋の'聡明さ'（知性）に対しては,彼が自国において'聡明さ'（知性）に対して感じるものと同じく,軽蔑をもって見る。不幸にも英国人は政治的に明敏すぎるために,東洋においては'聡明さ'（知性）が尊敬され,それゆえ,中国では,啓発された急進主義者が,英国の急進主義者には否定されてしまう事柄に対し,大きな影響力を発揮する,という事実を見落としてしまう。マクドナルド（松下注 James Ramsay Macdonald,1866-1937：イギリスの政治家。労働党党首。1924年及び1929年-1935年に首相）は半ズボンでウィンザー<（城）に行った。しかし中国人の改革者たちは,中国の皇帝に対してそのような敬意の表わし方をしなかった。英国の君主制は,中国の君主制に比べれば,きのこのように昨日（急速に）生えたばかりのものではあるけれども。 中国ではどのようにしたらいいかということについての私の見解は,私の著書『中国の問題』(The Problem of China, 1922)に書いたのでここでは繰り返さないことにする。 |
The National University of Peking for which I lectured was a very remarkable institution. The Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor were men passionately devoted to the modernising of China. The Vice-Chancellor was one of the most whole-hearted idealists that I have ever known. The funds which should have gone to pay salaries were always being appropriated by Tuchuns, so that the teaching was a mainly a labour of love. The students deserved what their professors had to give them. They were ardently desirous of knowledge, and there was no limit to the sacrifices that they were prepared to make for their county. The atmosphere was electric with the hope of a great awaking. After centuries of slumber, China was becoming aware of the modern world, and at that time the sordidnesses and compromises that go with governmental responsibility had not yet descended upon the reformers. The English sneered at the reformers, and said that China would always be China. They assured me that it was silly to listen to the frothy talk of half-baked young men; yet within a few years those half-baked young men had conquered China and deprived the English of many of their most cherished privileges. Since the advent of the Communists to power in China, the policy of the British towards that country has been somewhat more enlightened than that of the United States, but until that time the exact opposite was the case. In 1926, on three separate occasions, British troops fired on unarmed crowds of Chinese students, killing and wounding many. I wrote a fierce denunciation of these outrages, which was published first in England and then throught China. An American missionary in China, with whom I corresponded, came to England shortly after this time, and told me that indignation in China had been such as to endanger the lives of all Englishmen living in that country. He even said - though I found this scarcely credible - that the English in China owed their preservation to me, since I had caused infuriated Chinese to conclude that not all Englishmen are vile. However that may be, I incurred the hostility, not only of the English in China, but of the British Government. White men in China were ignorant of many things that were common knowledge among the Chinese. On one occasion my bank (which was American) gave me notes issued by a French bank, and I found that Chinese tradesmen refused to accept them. My bank expressed astonishment, and gave me other notes instead. Three months later, the French bank went bankrupt, to the surprise of all other white banks in China. The Englishman in the East, as far as I was able to judge of him, is a man completely out of touch with his environment. He plays polo and goes to his club. He derives his ideas of native culture from the works of eighteenth-century missionaries, and he regards intelligence in the East with the same contempt which he feels for intelligence in his own country. Unfortunately for our political sagacity, he overlooks the fact that in the East intelligence is respected, so that enlightened Radicals have an influence upon affairs which is denied to their English counterparts. MacDonald went to Windsor in knee-breeches, but the Chinese reformers showed no such respect to their Emperor, although our monarchy is a mushroom growth of yesterday compared to that of China. My views as to what should be done in China I put into my book The problem of China and so shall not repeat them here. |
