the German Government against the new
measures of blockade. The Chinese Government also proposes to take
such action in the future as will be deemed necessary for the
maintenance of the principles of international law.

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the
assurance of my highest consideration.

His Excellency Paul S. Reinsch,
Envoy Extraordinary & Minister Plenipotentiary of
The United States of America.

When these facts became generally known an extraordinary ferment was
noticeable. What efforts had to be made to overcome the not
inconsiderable opposition of the Military Party who were opposed to any
departure from a policy of passive neutrality need not now be set down;
but it is sufficient to state that the decision arrived at was in every
sense a victory of the younger intellectual forces over the older
mandarinate, whose traditions of _laissez faire_ and spineless diplomacy
had hitherto cost the country so dear. A definite and far-reaching
Foreign Policy had at last been inaugurated. By responding rapidly and
firmly to the invitation of the United States to associate herself with
the stand taken against Germany's piratical submarine warfare, China has
undoubtedly won for herself a new place in the world's esteem. Both in
Europe and America the news of this development awakened
well-understandable enthusiasm, and convinced men that the Republic at
last stood for something vital and real. Until the 9th February, 1917,
what China had been doing was not really to maintain her neutrality,
since she had been unable to defend her territory from being made a
common battleground in 1914: she had been engaged in guarding and
perpetuating her traditional impotency. For whilst it may be accurate to
declare--a fact which few Westerners have realized--that to the mass of
the Chinese nation the various members of the European Family are
undistinguishable from one another, there being little to choose in
China between a Russian or a German, an Englishman or an Austrian, a
Frenchman or a Greek, the trade-contact of a century had certainly
taught to a great many that there was profit in certain directions and
none in certain others. It was perfectly well-known, for instance, that
England stood for a sea-empire; that the sea was an universal road; that
British ships, both mercantile and military, were the most numerous; and
that other things being equal it must prima