Daring the time of the Manchus, that is before 1911, this writer travelled extensively in many provinees. Often it appeared as if he were in danger of his life, and he undoubtedly would have suffered molestation un several occasions had the Chinese not known that the British would have compelled re-aration if he were molested. dare to say that few foreign travel Jers in inland China would be safe to-day were it not for the knowledge that the people have of their tra territorial status—and even 20, foreigners are held up to ransom and some are killed.
No, it would be an act of irrecoverable folly to allow extratertitoriality to slip. It would be ni generous to foreigners whose lot cast in the interior; it would be the reverse of kindness to China, for we should merely be inviting her place her neck in a noose; it would, relinquished at this time, undo all the good that has been done in the maintenance of foreign intercourse with China, and yet relinquished when the time is ripe it would be sound statesmanship.
Let us not for a moment betieva that by showing weakness ourselves we shall make China strong. Though tone must take long views in making such an assertion, it is indisputably true that China has come out of her shell of antiquity, She is ina strange atmosphere—all_ is now. What she wants is leadership and counsel—leadership from within for Which she has looked in vain, coun-fel from without which has come the form of apathetic pessimism.
No matter what may be said to the contrary, China is the direst of foreigners. We have expected too much of China, We have forced her to emerge from her age-old civilization, and we have stood by hoping that she would be able to complete the work single-handed. But she has shown us that she cannot do it, She is crying for our counsel, and has been since 1911, Foreign Powers dare not, for her own interests are equally for rheic own, leave her in the lurch. Neither for is for her good, though she a sures us that it will be.
And when the Powers answer China's call for counsel and leadership, we must form our judgments not according alone by our own standards, but by China's stander: for these' are all she understands, To relinquish extraterritoriality in any degree at the present time, or even to name a date for so doing, would be the precise means of removing the pathway along which we can bring our united counsel and constructive guidance. I write after over 20 years close association with Chinese all over the country, and from a deep affection for the peopl but I should be a traitor to my Chinese friends if I advocated what America evidently believes should be done forthwith.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.