To the Editor of the Nour-Cutsa Datty News, Stx,—Your article of the St of July on of Captain Long from the is very able and excellent, and it is only fair that the Chinese side is also heard from before final judgment i passed on the case, That the Captain is an efficient, honourable and capable officer in every way, Ido not, for " moment, dis pute, but what his real position in the Eh nese navy was is what I propose to bring forth. Tu Viceroy Li's menirial to the Throne of his engagement of a foreign officer as naval adviser to the Pei-yang squadron Captain Long was called Brigadier-Ceneral Long. et til General ie not an Adwiral. la. pla and that a naval adviser is not Commander of the navy is equally plain. How Cap: tain Long' became generally addressed as Admiral Long is inexplicable, perhaps through courtesy, but it is certainly carry ing courtesy too far. Being only a Brig: dier-General in rank and naval adviser in position, Captain Long could not have been the equal to Ting who was appointed by Imperial Decree as the {L3F7K ROSE, Admiral of the Pei-yang naval forces. True, the literal translation of #AF is Major-General, but it being the highest military rank of both the army and the i China the term of Admiral is not cable. People, as a rule, underrate the powers of Sdmiral Ting and believe he is under the thumb of Viceroy Li, Far from being so, Admiral Ting can memo-realise the Throne independently of the Viceroy and can offer his humble opinion to his most august Majesty without cousulting the Board of Admiralty. The engagement of Captain Long as naval adviser to the Pei-yang Squadron was really a concession on the part of Admiral Ting, who knowing his own deficiencies acquiesced complacently in the wishes of Viceroy Li. Had he objected from the first, the Viceroy, great and powerful as he is, would have thought thrice before daring to force an adviser on him. It is obvious then that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.