To the Editor of the Sin,—In these days of aggrandisement, some questions seem to occur to one who belongs to the nation which has built up its Colonid Empire from small beginnings, in fact of much home discouragement, and which has gained its eno! mous success mainly through unaided individual enterpr ach enterprise, asking for little or no Sta-2 aid, and moving on the line of least resistance, has evolved an Empire which is the j-lousy of the world. In the growth and prosperity. of this nation's colonies the whole world has been allowed to share without any restriction whatever. What is the result? A seemingly furious attempt on the part of those who have been benefited to destroy their benefactors. Will it pay? What are the means used to effect such destruction Primarily, a call for funds to be supplied by the home taxpayers, Let us consider what is going on immediately around us. One nation, not a hundred miles from the Shanghai Bund, is seeking to gain territorial extension on a scale which cannot be justified by any commercial interests, and almost still less on the score of its national representation. Who pays for all this, and in the manner of its doing, will it pay? Another nation, though its scene of operations is more than a hundred miles away from Shanghai (though it still keeps that foster-mother in its eye), starts a colony of its own, fully equipped with all the sixty years conveniences of (say) Hongkong, though without any present trade, and—confining ourselves to China, the mercantile who pays? and will it pay Again, without
marine of the older colony-ing being threatened on all sides. By what Subsidies. Who pays and will they pay Tam, ete., 5th July.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.