Ow the 12th of Jast month in the House of Lords, Viscount lempletown asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any of the officials employed in the Far Eastern department of the Foreign Office, and, if so, which, had at any time served in China, Japan, or His Majesty's colonies in the Far East, and what was the nature of those services. This was an eminently reasonable question, and Lord Templetown might have quoted Kipling's pregnant line: " What can they know of England who only England know?
Lord Lansdowne' reply was exactly what might be expected from a Down-
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