A Tide in the Affairs of Men references to a tract of country It is always hard to decide whether it is the heat of summer that brings on the madness or just the tendency of mortals to break case once in a while. But every Vnown as the "Jewel Field," which {one gathers is noted for its jade Vmmines. 'There enters that famous Chinese phrase, "a certain Power," which tyrant' is charged with alienating the Iand of wealth from summer something happens, during the dog-days, to stir the imagina-to keep the police at work, to drive newspapermen to search for copy and to Keep the headlines of the newspapers large, black an And this condition is not limited to any one count®y. Things of this ature seem to move in waves. For instance, the year 1848 was one of revolutions everywhere in Europe. Tt was a year of uprisings and excitement. Kingdoms fell and republics were proclaimed. Karl Marx became an international figure. In distant Kuangsi, for from the general stream Europe, a crisis took place among the organizers of the Triad Society and the numerous Hakka revolationists who were dissatisfied with the poverty and hunger in which they lived, and the Taiping Rebellion was let loose upon China. Was it some cosmic urge that set this movement afloat upon verse—was it mere summer ment or a stirring of the planets in their course? Who can possibly know?
Opium in Yunnan washing of opium fictions is almost as monotonous and hopeless fa task as the endeavour to persuade the world of the utter untruth of 3 and Chinese" fable. On May 11, the "Chinese Economic Bulletin" (pp. 235 and 236) pablished an article headed "Hidden Treasures in Yunnan," in the course of which the writer made the fabulous statement:—"On account of its propinquity to India, Yunnan has not been very successful in the suppression of opium." The inference, of course, is that India is the source of Yunnan's opium supply, despite the latter's supposedly strenuous efforts at suppression. Even if it were not known that opium is being increasingly cultivate ed in every part of China where the poppy will grow, the incidence of the "trunk scandal" in America and the amazing smuggling conspiracy uncovered in Hongkong last week should be sufficient to prevent enthusiasts from endeavouring to throw the whole blame on to foreigners. We believe it is a fact that opium is cultivated in Yunnan on fa greater scale than in any other province in China, which is saying much; furthermore, the Burma authorities have to maintain a large staff at very great expense to prevent the smuggling of Yannan's surplus opium into Birma. The poppy Yunnan uplands and the even greater than the notorious production in Szechuen, whilst the offial revenues therefrom are derstood to exceed those from all other sources. In the course of the article there are somewhat obscure fed, the modern girl Ive in tears as easily as the Victorian, and, where her feelings are engaged, will kilt up her skirts and off to the wars alongside her sweetheart cheerfully as the famous Polly: Oliver. In one respect, middle-aged folk incline to think that girls of the day make a mistake, in that they seem to be ttle too hail-fellow well-met with their male contemporaries. The iS, or one thinks that there was, a certain aloofness, a kind of noll me tengere in the girls of twenty-five and thirty years ago that was not without its value and its charm, this may be a superficial view. The only people who could con-frm it are the young men themselves, and they do not talk about' such things to their seniors, nor at all perhaps until Time has shifted them gently' on to the shelves of the elderly, where they may dream of the stained glass windows of the past and hold up shocked hands at the deplorable laxities of the modern girl.
Chinese suzerainty. Proofs of that, and a clearer indication of the piratical Power would be welcome, particularly as the "Bulletin" is oficial publication. All that, ho and it would be still more interesting if the "Bulletin" could give any. evidence in support of the allegations against India, and in defence against the allegations made by. thoroughly qualified people that Yunnan is sown with opium almost wherever the poppy can be grown.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.