a definite offer of a picked Chinese Division, or of
several divisions, to Great Britain, against a definite
treaty, to hasten the Mesopotamian campaign would be a
master-stroke of policy, we have to recall that Japan
herself refused to send contingents to the Balkans, and is
therefore looked upon as a semi-belligerent whose stature
can at once be overtopped by the Chinese giant merely
rising to his feet.

A clipping from a Paris paper, the "Petit Parisien," has been
reproduced in the Chinese press, and given prominence. The Chinese
colossus is not asked to rise to its feet merely to demonstrate its
huge proportions. If it rises, it must be to serve a purpose. With a
simple frankness due perhaps to a failure to consider possible
quotation in the Peking press, the "Petit Parisien" comments upon the
"Value of China's Intervention" thus:

The intervention of China is not to be underrated. The
Chinese army at present is sufficiently instructed and
equipped, well officered and supplied, and possesses large
reserves. The military schools are in a position to train
nearly five thousand officers a year, and this figure
could be increased five times, if needed. The natural
resources of China would enable her to supply raw
materials for the ammunition and machinery, as well as
leather, cotton, rice, tea, and other commodities.

In exchange for these natural resources, to develop which China will
have to mortgage herself to the Allies, is offered cancelation of the
Boxer indemnity to the Germans, and postponement (not cancelation) of
the indemnities paid to the other nations. There are also, as I have
said before, vague hints that China may be allowed to revise her
tariffs and place a duty upon certain commodities. But even with the
first suggestion of such tariff revision comes opposition, from Japan.
The Allies, who have no cotton to import to China at the present
moment, may generously consent to protective duties on this article,
but Japan, which has plenty of it to import, objects to a handicap to
her cotton-trade. If the Allies require China's intervention, then let
them pay for it. Thus the "Chugwai Shogyo," a Japanese newspaper, under
date of March 7:

Buying China's Friendship. We maintain that the Foreign
Office [Japanese] officials should resolutely refuse to
agree to the raising of the Chinese customs tariff. But it
is reported that