Many friends wil' regret to hear that Sir Alexander: Hosie, formerly of. 4. M.—Consular Service in China, has had to have his right foot amputated. The foot was frozen some years ago on one of his travels overland in China, and has often given him great tvcuble with numbness and coldness, There is no doubt that his two long opium journeys into the interior in 1910-11, first up to Shansi, Shensi and Fansu, then to Szechuan,. Yiinnan und Kucicnow, impaired his constitution, which has not been improved by the hard mental work he has accomplished since his retirement, on grounds o7 health, in 1912.
Owing to poor cirevlation, and in spite of all that could be done, gangrene finally set in and, after much pain, the foot, on Angus: 12, had to be removed. Sir Alexaamier esme successfully through the operation, and, though (at the end of August) still in a Nursing Home, his condition having caused his friends great anxiety, it was hi ped that he might get up for-an our or two in a few days' time and, in due course. return f.. his hom.
Soon after his retirement, Sir jexander Hosie published On tne Trail of the Opium Poppy," a book which dealq with the agricultural and industrial conditions, witl tei vast possibilities, of interior China, vather than with the actual poppy. During the war, he was Chairman of the Urban District Counc'l, of the Military Tribunal, and of the War Hospital Supply Depot in the town of Sandown, I.. W., where he kas lived since his retirement.
A NEW MAP OF CHINA, In 1913, he completed a Com mercial and Economic Map of China for Messrs. George Philip & Son, of 32 Fleet Street, but on the outbreak of war, they. felt relvctantly compelled to delay its publication. After the Armisti Sin Alexander went on a visit to Ching and, while there, came the conclusion that an altogether new map of China was needed. giving the new official nomenclature of the cities, now in vogue. On this map he has accordingly beer engaged, basing his map on Bretschneider's principle of inserting all the Asien cities of China An index gives cross-references to the old names.
In November 1920, he gave a lecture at the Technological Department of Manchester University on "Commercial snd Industrial Development of China." This Sir Alexander has expanded into a comprehensive handbook dealing with China from that point of view, which is to accompany the map. At the same time, he has very fully revised and extended the scope of his original commercial map, adding thereto China's "present industrial development, Messrs. George Filip state that. the map and handbook will be published in October.
This has meant a very great amount of detailed -vork, added to which Sir Alexander, in the intervals of editing the map for Messrs. Philip, revised and brought up to date his work on Szechuan, orig-mally published as a parliamentary paper and no: out of print. Messrs. Key & Walsh are bringing this out in book form this autumn. He is also the author of the article on "Manchuria" in Harmsworth's series, Peoples of All Nations."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.