12th June.
Ir is with a very real satisfaction that we print this morning the record of a conversation our representative had yesterday with Mr. Wrightson, one of the purly of four, prominent Shanghai merchants who have just returned from a brief, but' thoroughly practical, journey of investigation of trade conditions in Manchuria, Not only are Mr. Wrightson's statements supremely interesting in themselves, but they bear out in the main the opinion we have so frequently expressed in there columns that an at~ titude of distrust in regard to Japanese designs in Manchurin, while reasonable and to be expected in great measure unsubstantiated, Itis well, of course, that our allies should realise, and there is every reason to believe that they do, that tions in Manchuria and in generally, will be very closely ised by those interested in British commerce. In the matter of trade we are rivals now en-ernies, xnd in insisting upon a fair field and no favour we are asking only what the Japanese have ever expressed as one of the objects for which they fought the recent war. Even under such conditions they possess the enormous advantage of trading close at home, and of dealing with a people with whom they-have an affinity of race, and whose wants therefore they can cater for with a certain natural instinct. Other advantages besides these the Japanese unquestionably possess at the present me, Mr. Wrightson very ly explains that these are the legi unate outcome of recent events and that, in so far as they were bound to exist, the Japanese are only taking a course which any other nation would follow, in making
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.