Mar, 26.
Yesterday afternoon a party of Chinese maritime cadets set sail from Shanghai on board the Hai Hsing. For several months past they have been re ceiving instruction in theory from a Captain of the British Naval Reserve; now they are 'c have a course in practical ap plication of what they have been learning. These youths are quick, keen and diligent, and although, of course, seamanship cannot be mastered except by years of work afloat, the pre-Sent cruise should give the cadets such an insight into the duties of their profession such a8 no amount of classroom we would ever bring and, we may hope, will increase their zest for it, Here, again, the contrast with the' past is noteworthy. Twenty years ago the lecturers ut the old Imperial Naval Col-Jege at Nanking found that the cadets sent to them, supposedly qualified to be taught navigation and engineering, had to be put back to elementary mathe-maties, in which they were quite backward enough without thinking of the higher branches; and when the engineer instructor took them on board one of the cruisers lying in the river for practical demonstrations, not one of them would sully his hands by touching the machinery. No such complaint, we are assured, need be feared of the cadets to-day.
So often, unhappily, do events in China excite unfavourable comment, that there is all the more reason for drawing attention to'good work wherever it is found, and it is only regretable
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.