British policy during all this long period has been to send gunboats as far up the navigable Chinese rivers as possible. They suppressed piracy, supported our Consuls in the Treaty, ports, gave confidence to British merchants, and, on the whole, got on well with the Chinese authorities. 'They do, not proceed up the Chines: tivers under the licence of any treaty, and we have stoutly maintained' our privileges of maint ing these vessels of war.
Most of them are of small size, from 160 to 180 tons burden, armed with two small six-pounder guns and 'a few Maxims, their upper works armoured against rifle fire only. Though they have represented force, these individually weak units, of slow speed and shallow draught, commanded by young officers, have) done their work by a combination of tact and the extraordinary prestige in which the British have been held in China, at any rate up to recent times.
During the great Boxer rebellion at the beginning of this century the Whole Yangtze Valley of 150,000,009 inhabitants was comparatively and there were no outrages against foreigners of any. nationality to speak of, This was almost entirely} due to the influence of the British naval officers on the rivers in their little ships,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.