older regards the burglar. Now
that Japan has tried conclusions with Russia and has soundly thrashed
the latter, great, slumbering China, proud, conservative, but
supremely conscious of its latent resources, has been waking up. The
Chinese, as a matter of fact, have very little veneration, respect, or
esteem, for their Japanese neighbours. The former plume themselves on
being the aristocrats of the East, and they reason, with some show of
plausibility, that if the upstart Japanese have been able to so
thoroughly rout the Russian forces the potential possibilities of
China on the warpath are enormous. Every thoughtful student of the
East has looked forward to what I may term the Japanisation of China
as one of the inevitable results of the recent conflict in the Far
East. To a certain extent the Japanisation of China has commenced, but
at the same time one cannot be oblivious of the fact that the Chinese,
with their traditions and sense of self-importance, have not the
slightest intention of slavishly following in the lead of those
islanders whom they have always contemned, but mean to strike out a
line for themselves. If what we believe to be civilisation is to be
developed in China, it will be developed by the Chinese themselves. If
they are going to possess railways, telegraphs, telephones, and all
the machinery of that material advancement which we call progress, and
sometimes civilisation, the Chinese themselves will be the importers
and adapters and, in due course, the manufacturers thereof.

Now that the great fight in the Far East is over, it certainly looks
as if the Chinese at last realised the fact that development is an
inevitable necessity. The master-spirits in the country have assuredly
come to the conclusion, possibly with regret, that China can no longer
remain in that delightful state of isolation which permitted every man
in the Empire to spend the arc of his life, from his cradle to his
grave, in a state of restful security. China is, in spite of herself,
and certainly against the inclinations of the mass of the populace,
being swept into the maelstrom of struggle now that the people, or
rather their leaders, realise the position. Their attitude seems to me
to be magnificent. If railways have to be made they will be made by
the Chinese; the concessions already granted must--this is the
universal feeling--be bought back, even at a profit, from those who
have acquired them, by the Chinese themselves. No