There may be many answers to the "what then" question which will occur to others, but to the writer only one occurs, and that is plain speaking. It may not be solution but it may serve to keep us off of Odin's altar until the Chinese themselves have found way of bringing order out of chaos or until we can educate the home bureaux out of ignorance in some cases, sentimentality in others, and provincial conceit in others. Plain speaking is' a greater shock to the Chinese official nerves than gunfire. We have had too little, of it or this would be better known. The first bare and uncouth remark which the foreign Powers address to Chinese officialdom is that they do not constitute a government in any accepted sense of the word. The second crude statement might be cne addressed to the Chinese people to the effect that they are neither governed nor misgoverned, that they are not governed at all, in the sight of the rest of the world. All China might then be advised that, thanks to a. limited official caste, the "four Hundred million brothers' are unfortunately coming to be regarded in a fairly big and aggressive outside world as four hundred million outlaws and that unless they can put their own checks, in their own way, upon their own worst enemies of the officio) caste, the time will sooner or later come when they will be working fourteen hours instead of twelve per diem, through no actual fault of their own, to redeem the sins of their brother exploiters.
Diplomacy is almost as adverse to this sort of talk as is Chinese officialdom, but lacking the immediate support of armies and fleets, diplomacy is 4 rapidly descending toa plane of actualities that it behoves the Waichiawpu to be prepared for it. It depends very largely upon the big foreign commercial communities. Plain speaking is very difficult when "interests" intervene. For instance: a withdrawal of recognition implies a real embargo upon loans, big and little. implies a bonn upon contracts with governments, central and provincial, of whatever nature. It implies that whatever firms. in Peking (nine-tenths of them) live through shady government contracts, shadily negotiate ed through oily compradores, shall for a time suspend business under a rigid embargo. Raise foreign. prestige, by all that's holy writes the banker with his right hand to the controller of ships and armies, while with his left he doles out a few hundred thousands at mediaeval interest to a Cabinet Minister who will be Tientsin next week, retiring on a good third of the proceeds, leaving payment of mediaeval interest to the man who picks forgotten amulet heads out of a harvested field and winnows them by moonlight.
VESTED INTEREST EVIL, There can be no plain speaking, no such thing as foreign prestige (which, by the way, is no more reasonably inherent than China's famous sovereign rights), until the right hand of vested interest
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.