Fan RAstHaN INTERNATIONAL Tone toss Uy Hosea allow Morse and. Harley Farnsworth Macnai.
hanghai, The Commercial Press, ioo This is a beck on a big subject. Ik extends, inclaling appendices, to 1128 pages. ed Tt is well printed' on good white paper and the pages have wide margins so that the student may make notes there if he feels so inclined. It is fully doeumented so that the assertions made_ may be verified without difficulty. Foot notes are plentiful but valu able, Ifa reference to something' said in a previous part of the book is made a note indicating the page is supplied in order that no time be lost in finding the passage. There is a good glossary, maps and illustrations, In short, this is a book for students, prepared by teacher famille with the student's needs.
The authors, Messrs. Morse and] Maenair, are both experienced writers, Mr. Morse's book on "The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire" is a standard but, as the Empire has gone, it is now out of date and this on "Far East ern Relations" will be as authoritative and is not likely to be super soded for many years to come. Pro. fessor Nacnair has a long list of! books on China to his.redit and this one will enhance his reputation; fon the subject of which it treats the book is encyclopaedia.
To review a book of this kind [adequately vould require a treatise servants were withdrawn and, the foreigner was not allowed to! walk abroad, he could buy nothing for himself." No foreigne= was allowed to ride in a sedan chair. Walking was the only mode of progression suitable for such folk, and not much of that. "Foreigners! were not allowed to row for pleasure on the river." Three days in the month they might visit the flower gardens, across the river at Fati, and then only under the es-cart of an interpreter who was held responsible for any misdeed that might occur. They were never al lowed to walk in the street, even jin the vicinity of the factory. Foreigners were not allowed to present! petitions—not to say, remonstranees—to the Chinese officials. All communications must be made through the Hong merchant to whom he was tied as a kind of Siamese twin. There was no treaty defining the foreigner's rights, for!
had no rights, There was no. fixed tariff. The Mong merchant squeezed all he could out of the: trade and the officials squeezed all they could out of the Hong mer: chant. The only remedy the merchant had against squeeze was to! tel use to trade. He could sail away without doing business and, in the] ast resort, this argument was usually successful. For, while the viceroy affected to treat the trade as a mere bagatelle, not worthy of consideration, it was as profitable! to the Chinese as to the foreigner and its abolition would have spelled serious diminution of income to the officials and blank ruin to many' wealthy Chinese merchanta, In spite beside which present quality under which the Chinese suffer pales into insignifiennce.
The foreign traders were confined to their factories situated mid bank of the Canton rive factory was the property of th Chinese merchant throazh srhom the foreigner was required trade. Ile vas not allowed to stray' outside the factory and when the tyadingy season ended he was bound once to leave Canton ait fad to pay a fee of Tis, 200 Zor liberty to ko, though debarred from staying. He was not allowed to bring a -vife: his servants were hired for him by his Inndlord and ko had no power to dismiss them. If a dispute arose between Iandlond and Viceroy by letter. As no foreigner was allowed to enter through the gate of Canton city the messenger, Mr. Astell, secretary to the com.'
proceeded to the gate and offered the document to any officials who would carry it to the Viceroy. Several minor officials looked at the' letter and, noticing that it was not! styled "ping", a petition, refused to rees ive it. For three hours this! British official waited outside the sate, having no right of entry., and had to return with his message undelivered. The cumulative effects of incidents such as this made the situation intolerable and a even the first step toward a peaceful solution, free communication between the representatives of the. esti could not be effected speare.
The riot of arum: doughty Chinese generals do battle with fierce barbarians, the exquisite musie of stringed instruments al-formating with the car-splitting din of martial brass, the proud. strut. tings of officials and statesmon, Wen Chi and her some wearing the fur hats, from which depend fox-the conventional sign ud 30 on are but some of tht beggars description. tails have been so well handled: but, if laymen must be suitored on the ige, they might, at least, be kept of during the transcendent moments when the actor sings his be-t songs. If scenery be used st all, it should be of good quality; other-ise, the time-honoured plain oF embroidered curtain would do much better, The Opium War." Did foreign-Jers introduce opium into China? they did it was ages before British traders came to Canton. The poppy.
joned in Chinese literature of the Tang dynasty. (618-908 A.D.) The method of extracting the juice from the capsule is described by Chinese writer in 1488. This writer was governor of Kansu and probably learned the use of opium from Arab traders there. "Opium in its modern form has been pro-_ [duced in China for four centuries" Tobacco was. introduced by the Spaniards about 1620 and opium was often mixed with tobacco. Foreign opium was first introduced into China by Portuguese trading from Goa. In 1589 a customs im-Port duty had been imposed class of commodities which included opium; it was similarly included jin tariffs enacted in 1615, in 1687 jand in 1733; four years after the im edict Mr. Ch'éng Yen-chin has not only produced a play of real artistic worth but has acted and sung the main role, it is safe to say, better than could any other actor in China today. It ig the writer's fond hope that he will bring most, if not all, hie plays vp to the high standard this one, Ships, in those days, carried much to China wherewith to buy.
Ik, ete., Opium offered a commodity easy to carry and almost as valuable as silver. All nations engaged in the trade, carrying jane, the proceeds, buying opium to Canton, selling it, there
Chinese goods, The sin of the British was that they pushed the trade with more vigour than their rivals] Jand on them fell the brant of the Battle when the inevitable conflict ensued.
This is a very inadequate review of the best book issued on China's recent history. Its tone, on the] whole, is judicious and fair. We. think' more could be said for the British side of the ease but the facts fare here and should be mastered by all those who have an interest im China, The myth that the early traders were an arrogant and unruly Je.owd who bullied the Canton gov-Jernment is exploded into thin air. (The chamber of commerce ought to Jput this as a text book on its curriculum and insist that all budding Taipans should know its contents, [Faults there were on both sides that might have been avoided and if this book is studied a better way out of Jour disagreements than was found the past may be discovered. Mis. sionaries on furlough should be required to know the facts enunciated here teters being allowed to say! opium" in any address given at! home. More recent events are also elucidated in this book with praiseworthy fairness and if it becomes text book in Chinese schools much }good will result from its use.
We take it that the authors are not responsible for the eccentricities of printivig on the outside jacket
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.