hotly, which
they quaintly term "cruel and unreasonable," virtually amount to the
annexation of Tibet by the British Government. It is amusing to think
that it was the Japanese press which first gave them publicity. We are
so accustomed to hearing of the famous Twenty-one Demands of Japan that
we fail to realize that other nations make demands equally sweeping and
equally arbitrary. Of course, these British demands will not receive the
world-wide attention accorded those of Japan. Remember, over here it is
not customary to think of or speak of anything but "Japanese
aggression." Japan, you see, offers the only stumbling-block to the
complete domination of the Orient by Europe. But for Japan--China might
possibly become another India. And the Japanese, facing race
discrimination and exclusion from most of the European countries, and
many of their colonies, as well as America, cannot afford to have China
under European control. It is a question of self-preservation.

We were dining the other evening with a Chinese gentleman, of high
position, who invited us to dinner at an old and very famous restaurant
outside the palace gates. It was at this restaurant, in the days of the
dowager empress, that the Mandarins used to assemble every night while
waiting for the imperial edicts to be issued from the palace. And as the
edicts frequently did not appear until two or three in the morning, they
comforted themselves, during this long wait, with much fine and delicate
food cooked in the fine and delicate manner that even French cooks
cannot excel. And if the cooking in those days was as delicious as at
present, they passed the time very pleasantly, and did very well by
themselves, those old officials.

It was a bitterly cold night, and the dark street in front of the
restaurant was crowded with a motley array of rickshaws, Peking carts,
and motors, through which we made our way by the light of a bobbing
lantern. We entered a crowded, noisy kitchen, filled with rushing
waiters and shouting cooks bending over charcoal fires. In contrast to
the freezing wind outside the air was deliciously warm, redolent with
the fumes of charcoal and the aroma of savory exotic food. Our table was
waiting for us in a private dining-room; the whole place consists of
private dining-rooms, separated by good thick stone walls, so that one
can't hear the plots and intrigues being hatched next door, though the
din in the open courtyard caused by the scramb