Occasionally in Ttaly one may stop at an hotel remodelled from" a princely palace. In Bologna, notably, I remember a most charm ing old' palazzo whose owners, reduced by ill luck to poverty, had sold their property to an enter prising caterer for the tauris trade, 'There were lovely iron guile at the entrance and steps up to the windows of the rooms that could imagine beautiful ladies ning out and throwing flowers' down on carnival crowds.
'But China is the only country—80 fax—where it is possible for the public to rent apartments in a genuine Imperial Palace. In the to let" column of one of the Chinese newspapers, the City Government of Peking' is advertising number of buildings in the Sume mer Palace for rent as residences, "These buildings"—so verti ment temptingly runs both sanitary and comfortable, ing neither too cold in winter nor with a great deal of suspicion and too warm in summers A for hee thought it was the beginning of] es on the hill and a similar namber political exploitation and an inva- near the lake are. available for sion of their political sovereignty immediate "occupation, For' {ure And they objected to it and wanted /ther particulars regarding. rental the Japanese to withdraw, especially ete. phon as the Russians -before' the war in the year 1029. The Japanese in 1916 seized the opportunity of the powerlessness of the Chinese to before them the 21 Demands ion which may—soon se where now that "so many monarchs are either gone, 9 going, out of busin and not which included that the Jeages which extended for Borer in should longer. If such an advertisement needing their official residences any. owl) reaches the sight able, aye sore of those American 'The Japanese put up a strong ease at Kyoto in defence of their forced to economize since the Stool attitude, 'They said they had to Ket cranh—there should be hot intervene to drive the' Russians out, bidding for the Empress Dowager's The Japanese asked what security. private apartments, they had if Russia were once more For those who have no memories! to expand. They declared that of other days in China and,, there-their interests in Manchuria were f fear of being haunted by really purely. economic and they had no desire to deprive the Chi-it sovereignty, but they tent in defending their economic interests. At present, there was no solation that one could see of this grave problem and it was perhaps. the problem Which was most. threatening the Far East at the present time.
Some interesting discussion' followed, Answering a question as to whether we "went to explo China, Mr. Wyndham said the Chi nese were quite prepared to admit that Europe went to China simply to look after commercial interests fand she had every right to do. s0 fand they had no right to shut them selves out, He thought that, if we wanted to trade with China, we had every right to do so and we went there with no ulterior motive. The ills which might have arisen out of that fact were nobody's actual fault.
Answering a question whether the opium wars were an economic exploitation of the Chi nese, Mr. Wyndham said they seamied to be raising very controversial subjects. He pointed out that the war in question was not fought at all for the exploitation of opium. In the treaty, opium was never mentioned. The war of 41842 was to see that we were treated as civilized: people. Opium haa connection with the war, because there was trouble over a particular consignment of opium and'the Chi nese were-ever ready to receive opium, but the war of 1842 was not to force the Chinese to: take opium: Itowas fought to-see-that we were dealt with as civilized people.
Her' Majesty's ghost, the Summer Palage would be an ideal residence certainly for the hot months, For the more energetic there would be the sport of rowing on the lake and climbing the hills, while the lazy could indulge in lotus gathering which would be novel occupation for the tired business man, Anyone with a taste for archaeology could visit the ruins on the northern slopes,.and for the student of comparative there are temples at hand where he could study indefinitely.
On rainy, afternoons, the ardent fisherman could angle for. carp and mayhap catch one with a bronze ticket dating from the Ming dynasty around, its neck, and the eager pedestrian take his exercise striding up and. down the mile-long covered gallery, while those gifted for amateur. theatricals might organize a snappy comedy in the Empress'g three storeyed theatre, Yes, strangers might do all this with a good conscience untroubled by the facts thas meanwhile the Empress Dowager would be turnig over in her grave. In fact, "turning over" is too: mild 'a word, Knowing "her character, one can imagine her positively rotating.
For in her lifetime she did not like strangers in her private apartments, if we may' believe the tale that, after a group' of for eign Indies came to'tea and'behaveld in what Her Majesty thought an indecorous marmer, she ordered all the furniture and. hangings, changed because "the western barbarians had stared too much at them."
One questioner pointed out. that it seemed absurd to talk "about a little country like Englaid exploit. ing @ country with a population of 400,000,000. Mz. Wyxdham pointed Hour that this dealt with the fun mental' problem of: the difleulty: adjusting the new to the old con No, despite the "sanitary build ings! and all the other advantages, those who know the Summer Pa: lace under the Empress. Dowager's réyione would: "hesitate. to rent it now, it was: so mach more beautiful then, And besides: one would have
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.