amounted to more than 1,429,126,000 yen in gold and more than 132,442,000 yen in silver. These figures give a hint of the magnitude of Japanese operations in South Manchuria. It is an illuminating comment on their commercial dealings and the fast turnover of their business.

These Japanese investments and financial activities in Manchuria react on the Japanese trade with the country first of all. Then there is the South Manchuria Railway, whose story we gave in Chapter VI. It is by far the biggest fairy mother of Japanese commercial and industrial activities in Manchuria. It is alone amply big enough to raise Japan's trade with the country above that of any or all of her competitors.

POSITION OF DAIREN IN MANCHURIAN TRADE

The speed record in the growth of trade among all the ports on the Pacific is not held by Seattle or by San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles, or by any other American port. Neither is it held by any of the aggressive ports of Japan. It is held by a port in a country whose name millions of our American friends cannot tell from that of a chop-suey dish: the Port of Dairen in Manchuria holds it. The port was opened to international trade July 1, 1907, with the establishment of a Chinese Customs-house there. The total trade of the port for the second half of that year was 13,837,739 Hk. taels. The trade conditions in Manchuria were far from normal in that year: the disturbing effects of the Russian war of 1904-5 were still evident everywhere in her trade centers. In some parts of the country a near-commercial chaos reigned. The Russian sphere of North Manchuria was utterly demoralized; and that reacted on the trade activities of South Manchuria.

The following year brought a turn. The ever-increasing entry of the Japanese into South Manchuria began

to tell. It resulted in a revival of industrial and commercial activities. That was the year, as we have seen, when soya beans made their European conquest. By 1909 the trade of Dairen rose to 46,510,000 Hk. taels. After recovering from the first shock of the World War Dairen's trade went ahead with a rush, so that ten years after the opening of the port it stood in 1918 at more than 165,824,000 Hk. taels, without counting in the reexports handled through the port. That is quite a contrast to the less than 13,838,000 Hk. taels of the closing half of 1907. The Port of Tsingtao under the German administration felt very good when its customs revenue reached a million taels at the end of the first ten-year period after its establishment. She felt vain because she rose to the sixth among the Chinese ports. She announced her achievement from her red roof-tops to all the world. It took Dairen less than three years to break through the million-tael mark in its customs revenue; in 1916 its customs receipts went beyond the two-milliontael mark. In that year her trade was valued at 99,776,790 Hk. taels, which was about 6.84 per cent. of the entire trade of China for that year. She was ranked sixth on the customs list. In 1917 she passed the greatest port of South China, Canton, astern. In 1918 with her total trade of 165,824,000 Hk. taels, Dairen passed the two great ports in the long-established trade centers of China, Tientsin in the North and Hankou in Central China, and assumed the rank of second to the premier port of all China, Shanghai. In that year her trade amounted to 10.45 per cent. of the total Chinese trade. In 1922 Dairen's net trade (exclusive of re-exports) amounted to 220,010,135 Hk. taels, which is an increase of 9,568,870 over the figures of 1921. In the total net direct foreign trade for that year she again ranked only next to Shanghai with her 161,113,470 Hk. taels, distancing both Canton and Tientsin. Last year while I