MCLC: Have they run out of provinces yet (3)

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Have they run out of provinces yet (3)
I'm thinking about T.S. Eliot's "(Of) The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles" with it's dreadful section about the heathen Chinese. That one doesn't sound like satire and I've wondered if it came from knowing of Bret Harte's poem. We often think of Eliot as a British citizen, but certainly he was born in the U.S. and of an age to have heard and been influenced by Harte's poem. There is also evidence of Eliot referencing or perhaps paying homage to other poets in various works. I would be interested to hear if anyone has information as to why Eliot would reference that "heathen Chinese" remark. Here's the section from "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" pubished in 1939 if you need reminding and of course the ending of the poem has the great RumpusCat running both the Pekes (the Chinese) and the Pollicles (the Yorkshires or perhaps the Scots) off :
"Now the Peke, although people may say what they please,
Is no British Dog, but a Heathen Chinese.
And so all the Pekes, when they heard the uproar,
Some came to the window, some came to the door;
There were surely a dozen, more likely a score.
And together they started to grumble and wheeze
In their huffery-snuffery Heathen Chinese.
But a terrible din is what Pollicles like,"
Pamela Herron <pgstover at utep.edu>
by denton.2 at osu.edu on April 16, 2016
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