Wide Opportunities for Jews Offered by China, Says Walter Buchler, in Article Published by Jewish Te

China offers wide opportunities to Jewish merchants, professionals and salaried employes, according to Walter Buchler, who writes an article on “What china Offers to Jews,” syndicated this week by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Foreign enterprise in China is welcomed by the Chinese, who are just as friendly to Jews as to other foreigners, says Mr. Buchler, who even thinks that the Chinese are more inclined to favor Jews, because the latter make no attempt to interfere with their ways of living or convert them to a Western religion.

There is a tendency now to erect more factories in and around the Treaty Ports, as well as in the interior, but the average Chinaman is not a good organizer, and a factory owned or controlled by foreigners generally shows better results than one managed entirely by Chinese; on the other hand, there is plenty of cheap Chinese labor to be gotten. China’s textile industry has made such rapid progress that there are now 120 cotton mills in the country, and the increasing demand for cheap cloths and wearing apparel is bound to lead to still more mills being erected there, especially as the Chinese are anxious to free themselves from dependence on Japanese textiles and supply their own requirements in the lower grades. Exporters can find a good market in China for the better class of cotton and woolen goods.

The most important and up-to-date city in China, says Mr. Buchler, is Shanghai, with a population of 2,500,000 Chinese and 40,000 foreigners. There are already a fairly large number of Jews settled in China, the majority of them being from Russia. Most of the Chinese Jews are engaged in exporting or importing or selling to the public, whilst others practice professions.

For the individual seeking work, China presents opportunities in the way of a connection with a foreign firm already established there, or with a Chinese company anxious to have foreign cooperation or advice. For the Jewish investor and financier, China offers opportunities in the way of collaborating with Chinese merchants and industrialists in promoting manufacturing there, organizing and financing better means of transportation and developing the natural resources of the country.

Because of the unhygienic ways of living of the Chinese, doctors are very much needed there—and dentists as well—says Mr. Buchler. The Chinese do not mind paying high fees for the professional services of a doctor, to whom they feel very grateful and whose reputation they spread far and wide among their relatives and friends if he effects a cure. As to dentists, the Chinese have in recent years shown a tendency to have their teeth filled with gold as an “adornment,” and the fees charged by dentists in China are also higher than those charged abroad.

In the field of law, according to Mr. Buchler, China also offers scope for the foreigner. A foreign attorney in China employs the services of a Chinese interpreter who is expected to be versed in the Chinese law. In the settlement of Chinese disputes, arbitration by a third party plays a very large part, and it is here that the foreign attorney can find many opportunities.

Among other professions for which China offers the Jew opportunities are journalism, engineering and architecture. More and better buildings and roads are now being constructed all the time in China to meet the requirements of modern trade and a higher standard of living.

The position of the Jews in China, states Mr. Buchler, is on the whole a happy one. They are prosperous, no one interferes with their religious practices and there is little, if any at all, anti-Semitism. Finally, he states that China provides a fairly good field even for the collector of funds for Jewish charities and other Jewish purposes.