Tux rebuke which Earl Perey, the new Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, addressed to the retired China merchants and bankers who have obtained concessions for railways in China which they are terribly slow in turning to account, has been already briefly referred to in our columns, but there is so much truth in it, and it so. vividly represents the feelings of the present generation of British residents in China, that it is well worth while to refer.to it again. Undoubtedly Earl Percy struck the right keynote when he said: "I suppose there is no part of the world in' which it is more true to say than in China that our political policy is synonymous with our commercial policy." It is well that it should be clearly understood by the Chinese as well as by all foreigners interested in the Far East, that we have no political aspirations here at all, no desire for territory, no wish even for a protectorate. Half a century or so ago, when the Taiping Rebellion had brought a great part of the empire into a state of chaos, we could with very little difficulty have made China another British dependency like India. We did not then accept the chance, and we do not want to put another load now on the shoulders of the weary Titan. Our efforts ure devoted exclusively to the spread of our commerce, for the mutual advantage of the Chinese and ourselves, and every new road that we open in this direction we leave open for every other nation to use on the. same terms as ourselves. One of our great objects now, as Earl Percy pointed out, is the extension of railway communication and the removal of trade restrictions in this empire, "because we believe that in the development of Chinese resources. wey of counter-accusation, but rather have the interest of our trade in way of appeal to those who
China at heart, that-.. it is of very little use for us to pile up concessions on paper, and to point as we have so often done with pride to the comparative share which has been allotted to us in contrast to the share allotted to foreign countries in the railway development" of China, if British concessionnaires alone among the nations of Europe take' no: steps to profit by the advantages which they have gained. I think I may go forther and say that I do not think it is honourable or consistent for us to press upon China the urgent necessity of developing her resources as soon as possible, and at the same tinie claim for ourselves the priority of the right of initiative over large areas of her most fertile provinces, the exercise of which is to be indefinitely postponed." The Uganda railway, as we have read, has been interfered with more than once in its construction by the lions which are so numerous in the African jungle; the lions in the path of the British railways fin China are found, it is to be feared, in the City of London.
Agreeing, as we well may, that our Foreign Office has been fally active as far as the securing of|™ railway concessions in China is concerned, it is difficult to read the report of the speech of the chairman at the recent meeting in London of the members of he Bank of China|?" and Japan, Ld,, in liq., without coming to the conclusion that the Foreign Office might have done a little more to help this unfortunate institution. As is well known, the refusal of the Chinese shareholders to pay their calls: is mainly responsible for a deficiency in the Bank's assets of said the Chairman, Mr. J. £180,000. "I need only say,"
Skinner, the Liquidator of the Bank, "that I have left nothing undone in my efforts to induce the Foreis tions' to the Foreign Offies, and to recommence litigation in the Chinese Courts would be a waste of money." The final result is' that the liquidation of both the Old and the' New Banks is to be finally closed and the feeling of the shareholders will not improbably be that the result might have been different if the claim had been in the hands of one of the Foreign Offices of some others among the Great Powers.
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Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.