Tue letter from the British Chamber of Commerce on the subject of Mr. Denby's speech in Yokohama will be read with pleasure by the British community and not, we make bold to think, without approval in the American. That the American Chamber of Commerce should have felt that it could not take any action in the matter is, we think, a little to be regretted; a few words when Mr. Denby was actually in Shanghai would have cleared up the misunderstanding and the whole affair would by now have been forgotten. However, the American Chamber must certainly he allowed to be the best judge of what it can do in such a case; and in view of Mr. Denby's ministerial position and of the fact that he was in some sort the guest of his fellow-countrymen in Shanghai, it would not be unnatural if they felt diffident of taking him to task, as it were, over what he said in another city. But we should not. be surprised if the matter were brought privately to the notice of. Washington and may we add that we hope it will be?
Our American readers. will not need to be assured that we refer to this matter again with much reluctance and that we only do so in order if possible to remove misunderstanding: For. several years the."'North-China Daily News'' has done what it could to to promote good feeling between the British and American peoples of the Far East and to mollify the causeless friction of bygone years, and it has received many pleasant proofs that its efforts have been appreciated. For that very reason we cannot leave this incident to rankle unappeased. How acutely the British community felt the slight which appeared to be cast on their commercial honour, our American friends have long since realized by imagining what would have been their own feeling if, let us say, the British First Tord of the Admiralty had made a similar speech reflecting on American shippers. There are practically only three nations concerned. in the American carrying trade. Mr. Denby pointedly ex-operated the Japanese; he could not have meant the Americans; what then could anyone imagine but that he was aiming at the British? The feeling aroused is intensified by the importance of British shipping, the pride we take in it and the high repute in which it has always stood, as freely acknowledged by Americans not less than others who have knowledge of it.
We are only too ready to believe that the Yokohama speech is in reality all a case of wretched misunderstanding, and that Mr. Denby no more meant to accuse British shippers of deliberately rough-handling cargo than he accused Japanese: and if he will but say so, his word shall receive the fullest possible publicity and, we need hardly say, will instantly be accepted by all Britons. But if he had any proven cases in mind when he spoke—and it is a commonplace that there are black sheep in every flock—then we are justified in asking, as the British Chamber of Commerce does, that he will give the facts to the proper authorities in order that they may be thoroughly sifted and an effective check be put against repetition. One thing or the other we trust that Mr. Denby will do for the sake of that. friendship which we know is as much a cause of satisfaction to the American nation as it is to the British.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.