For the present, even if the funds existed, there would not be sufficient teachers to provide a schoolmaster in every village.  There is, however, such an enthusiasm for education in China that teachers are being trained as fast as is possible with such limited resources; indeed a great deal of devotion and public spirit is being shown by Chinese educators, whose salaries are usually many months in arrears.

Chinese control is, to my mind, as important in the matter of education as in the matter of industry.  For the present, it is still necessary to have foreign instructors in some subjects, though this necessity will soon cease.  Foreign instructors, however, provided they are not too numerous, do no harm, any more than foreign experts in railways and mines.  What does harm is foreign management.  Chinese educated in mission schools, or in lay establishments controlled by foreigners, tend to become de-nationalized, and to have a slavish attitude towards Western civilization.  This unfits them for taking a useful part in the national life, and tends to undermine their morals.  Also, oddly enough, it makes them more conservative in purely Chinese matters than the young men and women who have had a modern education under Chinese auspices.  Europeans in general are more conservative about China than the modern Chinese are, and they tend to convey their conservatism to their pupils.  And of course their whole influence, unavoidably if involuntarily, militates against national self-respect in those whom they teach.

Those who desire to do research in some academic subject will, for some time to come, need a period of residence in some European or American university.  But for the great majority of university students it is far better, if possible, to acquire their education in China.  Returned students have, to a remarkable extent, the stamp of the country from which they have returned, particularly when that country is America.  A society such as was foreshadowed earlier in this chapter, in which all really progressive Chinese should combine, would encounter difficulties, as things stand, from the divergencies in national bias between students returned from (say) Japan, America and Germany.  Given time, this difficulty can be overcome by the increase in purely Chinese university education, but at present the difficulty would be serious.

To overcome this difficulty, two things are needed:  inspiring leadership, and a clear conception of the kind of civilization to be aimed at.  Leadership will have to be both intellectual and practical.  As regards intellectual leadership, China is a country where writers have enormous influence, and a vigorous reformer possessed of literary skill could carry with him the great majority of Young China.  Men with the requisite gifts exist in China; I might mention, as an example personally known to me, Dr. Hu Suh.[110] He has great learning, wide culture, remarkable energy, and a fearless passion for reform; his writings in the vernacular inspire enthusiasm among progressive Chinese.  He is in favour of assimilating all that is good in Western culture, but by no means a slavish admirer of our ways.