The treaties newly concluded with China by Belgium and Italy are undoubtedly a feather in} Dr. C. T. Wang's cap. Whatever other departments of the Go ernment may or may not be doing, his business is to get the treaties revised; he has been assiduous in his efforts and well claim credit from his countrymen, There are in all the new trea-
Middle Kingdom. The promise has been made to China, and it will be kept, that the treaties! shall be 1ev!
1d and the old pri vileged position of foreigners abandoned when she has a Government that can speak unitedly: foi the country.
The phrase plainly implies that the Government can also act unitedly in trol of the whole country.
no wish to und Chinese amour propre, it utterly im, possible to say that such a stage has yet been reached, And in: asmuch as millions of the Chinese people are vitally interest ed in the appearance of such a Government, the prospect of treaty revi ion must be used as a spur to the men in high places to make their authority truly united and effective. So powerful a lover for the good of the whole country must not_ be lightly thrown away. For China's sake, if for no other cause, it is to be hoped that this weighty consideration will be given full value abroad, Tur Chinese press says that a draft treaty has been drawn up be-tices representatives of the Tark-
Chinese Governmente, conditions which they revealed, nothing could be done to abolish it. If the Government wishes to introduce this measure successfully it should first. make provision so that these factors will not constitute the insuperible opposition which has up to now been the case. We are afraid, however, that the Fac~ tory Law cannot be described as strong on the economic side, for when it comes to the introduc fon of an eight-hour day it ignores the discrepancy in working power which exists between the Chinese and his foreign competitor, It has for long been a matter for serious complaint that the Chinese worker, who, generally speaking, has been content to work long hours and do his work in his own particu lar fashion and at his own time, will not go out of his way to improve the standard of his work. As a consequence we find that Chinese mills have to employ very many times the number of hands required to perform the same work in Lancashire, and hence the only way in which mills in China can be made to compete and to pay la by long working shifts, rene
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.