have
no son than one who is a soldier." To-day its new foreign-drilled army
of 150,000 to 200,000 men is the boast of the Middle Kingdom, and the
army is said to be the most honestly administered department of the
government. In sharp contrast to the old contempt for the soldier, I
now find one of the ablest journals in the empire (the Shanghai
_National Review_) protesting that interest in military training is
now becoming too intense: "Scarce a school of any pretensions but has
its military drill, extending in some instances as far as equipment
with modern rifles and regular range practice, and we regret to notice
that some of the mission schools have so far forgotten themselves as
to pander to this militarist spirit."

It has often been said, of course, that the Chinese will not make good
soldiers, but whether this has been proved is open to question.
Certainly, in view of their wretchedly inferior {112} equipment, their
failure to distinguish themselves in the war with Japan cannot be
regarded as conclusive. Take, for example, this description by an
eye-witness:

"Every tenth man [among the Chinese soldiers] had a great silk
banner, but few were armed with modern weapons. Those who had rifles
and modern weapons at all had them of all makes; so cartridges of
twenty different sorts and sizes were huddled together without any
attempt at classification, and in one open space all sorts were
heaped on the ground, and the soldiers were fitting them to their
arms, sometimes trying eight or ten before finding one to fit the
weapon, throwing the rejected ones back into the heap."

No sort of efficiency on the part of the rank and file could have
atoned for such criminal indifference to equipment on the part of the
officers. It seems to be the opinion of the military authorities with
whom I have talked that the Chinese army is now better manned than
officered. "Wherever there has been a breach of discipline, I have
found it the officers' fault," an American soldier told me.

The annexation of Korea, once China's vassal, by Japan, and that
country's steadily tightening grip on Manchuria have doubtless
quickened China's desire for military strength. Moreover, she wishes
to grow strong enough to denounce the treaties by which opium is even
now forced upon her against her will, and by which she is forced to
keep her tariff duty on foreign goods averaging 5 per cent., alike on
luxuries and necessities.

The