nd a desire to assimilate all those Western influences and
ideas and aids that have placed Japan in her present prominent
position among the nations, when they, in due course, return to their
own country, will of a certainty exercise a considerable influence
therein, there can be no doubt. I also feel sure that Japan will
render considerable assistance to China in regard to the remodelling
and reorganisation of the Chinese Army and Navy. It is as certain as
anything in this uncertain world that before very many years have
elapsed the naval and military forces of China will undergo as great a
transformation as those of Japan have undergone. I believe, and I may
say that this belief is shared by a number of naval and military men
who have had practical opportunities for forming an opinion in the
matter, that the raw material existing in China for the making of an
effective and efficient Army and Navy is as good as that in Japan. We
know that the late General Gordon, who had excellent opportunities for
arriving at a sound conclusion in the matter, expressed himself in
glowing terms in regard to the capabilities of the Chinaman as a
soldier were he properly trained, organised, and officered. But that
China, any more than Japan, entertains ambitious military projects I
utterly disbelieve. The only aspiration of China as regards Europe
is--to be let alone. She fears, as she has every reason to fear,
European aggression. She has had ample experience in the past that the
flimsiest pretexts have been utilised for the purpose of filching her
territory and exacting from her pecuniary fines under the name of
indemnities. We know by a recent incident that the indemnity exacted
from China by this country in respect of the Boxer rebellion was not
really required for the ostensible purposes for which it was imposed.
A large proportion of it lay at the Bank of England unappropriated,
and eventually was attached by a rapacious Chancellor of the Exchequer
for the purpose of alleviating the burdens of the British taxpayer.
China is determined to have no more incidents such as this in the
future, and the Russo-Japanese War has given her occasion for serious
thought in the matter as well as pointed an obvious moral. As a result
of her cogitations, she has concluded that the most effective means
she can take in the direction of preserving the inviolability of her
territory and preventing the exaction of periodical monetary tributes
on the part