The officials in Peking and the provinces are)not, in this generation, like the old Manchu officials. They take pains to know what is going on in the world. They know, much better than the average foreign resident in China, how terribly bad conditions in China would have to be before any foreign Power could at this moment be brought to exercise force to protect foreign rights or to restore order in China They realize that for some little time to come Japan will be more than conciliatory and that she might even be played against the other Powers in a pinch. To conceal these things or to leave them unsaid, is to deceive ourselves. While Chinese officialdom has not the will or the-strength to evolve a government and restore order, Chinese officialdom is alert now, with the alertness of the hunted, the tendencies of the times abroad and is on the qui vive every moment to exploit these tendencies in its own protection. To attempt to suppress the truth and to deceive Chinese officialdom only confuses the poorly informed foreigners in China and gives Chinese officialdom fresh assurance in the belief that we are self-deceived.
In answer to this "what then" question, there is not much point, therefore, im shouting about armies and fleets and flotillas. Such shouting may serve to overawe your clerks and shroffs, but at this immediate juncture it only amuses the Waichiaopu. They know as well as we do that thousands of us will have to smoke and reek like victims on
"Before this talk of armies ani Odin's altar in a dedicated grove. fleets will sound any echo in the Occident.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.