During the past 3,000 years of their authentic history they have been policed—or rather' dragooned into a state of order and sanity at Toast a dozen times by aliens. Twice they were "beaten flat," as their own expression has it' (referring to the practice of levelling graves after a change of Dynasty) by bandit chiefs, the founders of the Han and Ming' Dynasties, both of whom came of that vigorous and ruthless stock once known as the Huai [—Tunguzie barbarians of exceptional virility. But in every ease, whether by heavy-handed despots from within or without, they had to be "beaten flat," before their official caste was content to accept Wine essential to good behaviour and before their masses were either able or willing to return to industry and production. There is not a single instance in Chinese history, ancient or modern, in which conventions, conferences, treaties or verbal agreements have brought order and peace out except. when. some to such conventions and agreements had already shown his ability back his arguments with overwhelming force. and had shown his determination to make the agreement binding for all time by the prompt resort to'force upon the lightest evidence of bad faith, vacillation, or evasion on the part of the other parties to the agree-_ ments.
Al the Chinese who thumb their' histories know that, in these periods. of moral collapse, when a native cannot impose upon his fellow countrymen these old traditions of loyalty and obedience, cannot make them "tremble and obey," China's redemption is dependent upon the will and power of some foreigner to assume the task in liew of a native. If there is no ruthless bandit in sight who will beat them flat and pound reason and common sense into the nation, there must be an alien conqueror.' They are used to nothing else, prepared for nothing else, and unwilling to submit to anything else. These foreign conquests, which have invariably started Chins off upon fresh careers of magni ficent achievement, have always Jbeen resisted by Screams of pat rio tie indignation, officially inspired, because they invariably meant the curtailment of the literally and official castes' right to loot the agricultural and industrial proletariat.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.