After one has talked with any representative of the big foreign trading houses in Peking for a few minutes and heard a recital of the urges on commerce—Custom: {ariff, coastwise charges, transi dues, exorbitant freight charges on che railways fixed by the military, squeeze paid to railway officials to get cars, transportation surtaxes Tittle stimulant, is a very bold fellow and swings his arms like a Viking limbering up for a duel with} axes, while he explains how we ought to deal with these official follo who are betraying our interests and letting our rights go by default. These fine frenzies, however, never seem to survive the gin-and-Ditters hour and the person who tries to get a chamber of commerce support openly and without qualification any courageous resolution will come away as disillusianed and with as dark fore-hodings about the future of the Anglo-Saxon race as he who admitted to a diplomatic conference. If things are not to go on as they fare in China, getting steadily worse: daily for want -of a firm hand on the reins and by virtue of inept and cowardly diplomacy, the commercial folk will have to' pull themselves together and realize that a life-like representation of their activities would not make a\ very inspiring picture.
Suppose that it is generally true, is 20 freely stated in the clubs,' that our diplomatic representatives fare more concerned about their careers in the service than about the interests of their nationals, and that their daily prayer is that the evil day which they are putting! ff may come in the next fellow's time. Suppose it is true that they are all small fry who dare not face a big situation because they could not handle it that} failure in such a. situation would inevitably wreck them. Suppose it is true that this terror of bring-1 things to a head prompts them to misrepresent conditions here in Reproduced with
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.