In these days of stress it if pleasant to find that London can take a little, intelligent interest in the geography of China, Havas unkindly refuses to disclose the mame of the wiseacre who feared that "gunboats whose gauge permits passage up the Yangtze River might go as far as Nanking", for it would be exceedingly Satisfactory to pay him a real tribute of applause, If he should be inclined to come out and take a sufficiently shallow gunboat on the perilous passage to Nanking he would be interested no doubt to stop at Chungking on the way and perhaps spend an hour or two at Hankow when proceeding from Shanghai to Woosung. Hankow does not have to worry about gunboats for it can entertain cruisers— even flagships—on occasion, but it will be a little led to know how Nanking has managed to nto such exclusiveness that it only pretends to accommodate gunboats—and shallow ones at that, However London must not be expected to appreciate these trivialities. 'The river there has real L.C.C. steamers on it and though there is an irreverent habit it is believed of throwing cricket balls across the Thames from the Lords' terrace to St, Thomas' Hospital, it is sternly forbidden below London Bridge lest the Tower should get annoyed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.