It is sincerely to be hoped that the large number of Japanese tnancial folk who e begun making bee-lines to England yid America and vii Suez since the publication of the Anglo-Japanese Convention are not going to alt raise loans in Eng. land. In the frst place they will only spoil one another's "hand"; in the second place they will make John Bull feel disagreeable. Baron Iwasaki left some weeks back and is to be followed by some oiticials of the Department of Finance whom he has arranged to casually meet in Europe in order to discuss—ah!—er!—archology of course.
Baron Shibisawy who takes a great interest. in Corea and has a lot of mousy invested there has also left his native shores, solely, need Tadd. for purposes of rest and recreation. He has admitted however that, if rich people im England will insist on' entrusting him with large stun of money to complete the Seoul-Fusan railway, he may possibly find himself unable to turn a deaf ear to their solic tations.
The " Echo de Chine."
I notice that: the "Echo de Chine" of the Sth inst. does me the distinguished honour of quoting from my last letter to you les phrases significulices suiruntes:
The authorities from whom I take these' views alo point out that if France joinx will simply be more delight ed than ovr, as she can then, while the British fleet is making matchwood of the the French colonies in Tndolong laid covetous T have not before me a copy of the letter from which this quotation is made but it strikes me that even a glance at the contest would prevent the Editor of the ving that this is definitivement es bat-or to pen the following comment "Un journaliste anglais a attenda_In conclusion de Valliance qu'on nous dit tre pacitique, pour preferer des paroles qui ne sent en somm+ qu'une belle eh bonn provocation tour les A tenter hotre dard des actes de conquéte brute. t cette declaration, faite de bluff et dimpudene in moment oit Ton nons assure que Te nouveau traité est nowvean gage de paix."
The authorities to whom 1 referred were reither English nor Japanese. One of them—and I feel sure he will excuse my mentioning his name—was Labbé, the French traveller, who has now in_ the Press a work on Saghalien; and who, since he neither speaks English nor Japanese ordinarily while on the other hand he speaks Russian with great facility, having lived some si or seven years in Siberia, is not likely to echo the hope of cither English or Japanese statesmen. Mr. Labbé's long study of the Far East and his profound in acquaintance largely distinguished position as a French official and savant—with the political conditions in this quarter of the globe certainly render his opinions valuable but T must say that on the above point T do not quite agree with him—and, if T mistake not, I signified as much in the letter from which the "Echo de Chine" quotes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.