istance to British manufacturers. It must be remembered
that Russia is an enormous country, and that her markets both for exports
and imports are not to be despised. In machinery alone huge profits could
be made, as well as in cloths, piece goods, fire-arms, Manchester goods,
worked iron, steel, etc.

Articles of British manufacture are in much demand in Russia and Siberia,
and, should the British manufacturer see his way to make articles as
required by the buyer, very large profits could be made in the Russian
market. Also huge profits will eventually be made by the export of
Siberian products into England and the Continent, a branch of industry
which the Russians themselves are attempting to push into the British
market with the assistance of their Government.

To return to Persia it must not be forgotten that British imports into
that country (in 1900) amounted to L1,400,000, whilst Russia imported
L21,974,952 of British goods. Which, after all, is the customer best
worth cultivating: Persia which takes L1,400,000 of our goods, or Russia
which buys from us for L21,974,952?

It is a mistake to believe that we are the only civilising agents of the
world, and that the work of other powers in that direction only tends to
the stagnation of Eastern peoples. One might affirm with more truth that
our intercourse with the civilisation of the East tends to our own
stagnation. We do impart to the natives, it is true, some smattering of
the semi-barbaric, obsolete ways we possess ourselves, but standing aside
and trying to look upon matters with the eye of a rational man, it is
really difficult to say whether what we teach and how we teach it does
really improve the Eastern people or not. Personally, with a long
experience of natives all over Asia, it appears to me that it does not.

The Russian, though from a British point of view altogether a barbarian,
does not appear to spoil the natives quite so much in his work among
them. The natives under his _regime_ seem happy, and his work of
civilisation is more of the patriarchal style, tending more to enrich the
people, to promote commerce and trade on appropriate lines, than to
educate the masses according to Western methods and laws. The results
are most decidedly good, and anyhow lead to much greater contentment
among the masses than we can secure, for instance, in India. Above all
things it makes for peace; the natives are treated with extreme
consideration and kindness, but