In her ability to write as she does, so intimately and understandingly of the people she was thrown into contact with, lies the essence and charm of her writing, which one cannot help feeling might not have been attained had she perforce either to write less faithfully or to ignore a good deal of what might have removed some of the "gilt from the gingerbread." Nearly everywhere Lady Hosie goes she meets old friends, and this must have helped her considerably in making comparisons between China Old and China New, and in giving the opinions and views she so definitely and clearly expresses. The book was actually written in England and was commenced some. months after the outbreak of hostilities between the Japanese and China in Shanghai. It was lucky that Lady Hosie had left China before this happened, otherwise and if she had personally experienced the first months of the undeclared war this book would probably not have been written. It must be more than ordinarily distressing for her to read about and visualize the horrors and destruction which have taken place since she paid her last visit to China, and which must have so greatly changed the lives and conditions of the people with whom she conversed and the places she visited. There are no doubt people in China such as She has described in her book, Christian, gentle, honest, genuine and straightforward, and it is nice to read about them and believe that there are such; but there are a great many others, and of these, it is to be feared, ihe vast majority are very much the reverse of these things and who have not stood the test to which they have been subjected. There is no doubt the China of today is infinitely more efficient and enlightened than even ten years ago, and it is safe to say that had the Japanese invasion occurred teri years ago China's resist tance would not have been the same as it has been, but there is a long way to go yet.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.