during a period of twelve years. In little more than a decade, therefore, by calling out all his reserves, Yuan Shih-kai's six divisions of the north would number on a war-footing 300,000 men. These terms of service are to be extended to every province in China. Every division is composed of two brigades of infantry numbering six battalions each; three regiments of artillery having forty-eight guns in all; three regiments of cavalry; and a battalion of sappers and miners. The pay and allowances for all these corps have been all provided for by setting aside regular services of internal revenue. The yearly expenditure for each division amounts to taels 1,600,000 each, or, say £225,000. The total grant for the whole army thus amounts to nearly taels 10,000,000, of which taels 6,000,000 will be paid by the Peking Board of Revenue and the remainder by the Northern Provinces. When plans and funds are ready, this system will be extended to all the provinces, and the units now existing will form the nucleus of future divisions. Thus, in five years the territorial forces will probably be divided into six armies; the Army of Manchuria, the Army of the North, the Army of the West (Shanse Shensi and Kansu), the Army of midChina (Wuchang), the Army of the Yangtsze (Nanking), the Army of the South (Canton). Assuming that there are three armies of six divisions and three of four divisions, the total number will be thirty divisions, or 360,000 men on a peace-footing. By 1915 or 1920 these corps on a war-footing will number at least a million and a half men. If we add to this total the modernised Banner corps, who are referred to later on, and the military police, who must ultimately number a large force, this total will be nearer two million men than anything else. Already there are 120,000 well-drilled men and 100,000 partially converted troops. Their leaders are most resolute and will be found to face death with Japanese unconcern. The new officers' titles have all been settled on and are as follows: Lieutenant-General Fu Fu-tung. (Divisional Commander) Major-General. . Hsieh Fu-tung. The training of all these men is on the Japanese system. That the whole movement is a very earnest one is shown by the fact that early in 1905, T'ieh Liang, a high Manchu official, was despatched from Peking on a tour of inspection through the central provinces. A most rigorous examination was made by him of over forty battalions, and all those who fell below the desired standard were severely reported on. The fact also that investigations were made concerning the removal of the Kiangyan arsenal, which lies just above Shanghai, to a place at least two or three hundred miles up the Yangtsze was another proof that the lessons of 1900 have been well digested. A very little fortifying would convert the reaches of the lower Yangtsze into impregnable positions and make the advance of a European flotilla on Nanking or Hankow an impossibility. Most important also is the question of the establishment of additional Chinese arsenals, which will make China quite independent of Europe for her supplies of war materials. Whilst for the time being there are only the two Yangtsze arsenals, owing to the destruction of the immense Tientsien establishment in 1900, machine shops have been already put up at nearly every provincial capital, At such places all kinds of repairs can be effected. and it is already arranged that a cartridge factory provided with the most modern plant shall be a sine quâ non at the seat of each provincial Governor. But there is another point. Two additional arsenals are to be established on a grand scale as soon as the necessary funds can be collected. The exact position of the great Southern arsenal has already been decided on and the contract signed for the supply of an immense quantity of plant and |