itico-industrial. Group III, as it
stands in the original text, is _simply the plan for the conquest of the
mineral wealth of the Yangtsze Valley_ which mainly centres round Hankow
because the vast alluvial plains of the lower reaches of this greatest
of rivers were once the floor of the Yellow Sea, the upper provinces of
Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi being the region of prehistoric forests clothing
the coasts, which once looked down upon the slowly-receding waste of
waters, and which to-day contain all the coal and iron. Hitherto every
one has always believed that the Yangtsze Valley was _par excellence_
the British sphere in China; and every one has always thought that that
belief was enough. It is true that political students, going carefully
over all published documents, have ended their search by declaring that
the matter certainly required further elucidation. To be precise, this
so-called British sphere is not an _enclave_ at all in the proper sense;
indeed it can only seem one to those who still believe that it is still
possible to pre-empt provinces by ministerial declarations. The Japanese
have been the first to dare to say that the preconceived general belief
was stupid. They know, of course, that it was a British force which
invaded the Yangtsze Valley seventy-five years ago, and forced the
signature of the Treaty of Nanking which first opened China to the
world's trade; but they are by no means impressed with the rights which
that action has been held to confer, since the mineral resources of this
region are priceless in their eyes and must somehow be won.

The study of twenty years of history proves this assumption to be
correct. Ever since 1895, Japan has been driving wedges into the
Yangtsze Valley of a peculiar kind to form the foundations for her
sweeping claims of 1915. Thus after the war with China in 1894-95, she
opened by her Treaty of Peace four ports in the Yangtsze Valley region,
Soochow, Hangchow, Chungking and Shasi; that is, at the two extreme ends
of the valley she established politico-commercial _points d'appui_ from
which to direct her campaign. Whilst the proximity of Soochow and
Hangchow to the British stronghold of Shanghai made it difficult to
carry out any "penetration" work at the lower end of the river save in
the form of subsidized steam-shipping, the case was different in Hunan
and Hupeh provinces. There she was unendingly busy, and in 1903 by a
fresh treaty she formally opened to trade Ch