of

grace in which to set their houses in order, and to prepare for the sharp competition which the reinvigorated portion of the Far East will most. certainly offer them. That China will ever be Christian, in the ordinary sense of the word, is a vain dream; but that Protestant missions, if they awaken to a proper sense of their responsibilities, can exert an enormous influence, and saturate the whole country with Anglo-Saxon ideals, is quite certain. Protestant missionaries are, thereforejust as the Chinese think, although in a slightly different sense-a valuable political asset, but that asset must be careful to know its exact value, and to understand its peculiar limitations.

CHAPTER XXXV

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

THE exhaustive nature of the criticisms which fill the preceding pages leave but little to add. Many things will perhaps seem a little clearer, and the exact situation to-day in China-whose fate will be largely decided by the actual results growing out of the war-should be well understood. All through the arguments used certain things should stand out clearly; first that China, although still corruptly administered, is beginning to be moved by strange and unaccustomed feelings, and that the whole mass of population is becoming affected by some signs of Westernism through a thousand different things; and that the Chinese Government, understanding this full well, is much disturbed. Secondly, that a certain number of Chinese officials whose intelligence has enabled them to grasp more clearly than the majority of their colleagues the immediate necessity for action, have begun arming and drilling large numbers of men in order to be in some measure prepared for the great day which must come. Of these officials Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai with 80,000

efficient troops is the foremost; but although the Tientsien Viceroy is for the time being the most active, the day is not far off when this example will be more and more closely followed by every one of the great territorial officials. Thirdly-and here the strange inconsistency of the East is very apparent-in spite of all these things the Chinese Government, the Manchu Court, the territorial officials, and the masses of population, although all are much affected, are as yet quite unable to shake off any of the outward and visible forms of the Chinese system. This last point may seem in strange contradiction to the first two, but, nevertheless, the first two statements are no exaggerations. Description of voyages over well-known routes will have allowed the reader to understand how this is possible. The distances, the lack of communications, the formidable obstacles to intimate intercourse between province and province, which have been placed by Nature and climatic conditions and not yet overcome by man; the manner in which eighty per cent. of the population of China is tied to the soil and overburdens that soil; the extraordinary weakness to which Government by equipoise has reduced the executive all these things, and many others, a perusal of the preceding pages should have made patent. And in addition, superimposed on all this unsatisfactory state of affairs, is the aftermath of the Boxer outbreak, which is rudely expressed in Peking by the armed Legations, the Marconi mast ready to call for help, the string of little European garrison

posts to the sea, the crushing Boxer indemnity, the activity of Continental intrigues, and many other petty things which aim at binding hand and foot the Chinese giant and preventing him (vain hope) from ever striking again.

This complex state of affairs in China itself is further complicated by many other things in the rest of the Far East. The grim and tremendous drama being enacted in Manchuria is attracting the attention of the entire world and frightening all with the possibilities of the future. Whilst the European Concert in the persons of important little Ministers, looking timorously over their embattled walls, is apparently still functioning in Peking, it has long ago ceased to be a serious quantity. The Chinese Government, saturated in diplomacy since its earliest days, well understands this, and is now playing off one Power against another with greater and greater success. There are therefore a number of "situations" overlapping and complicating each other, and each temporarily claiming its share of attention from an indulgent public for a day, only to be forgotten on the very next. What is to be the outcome of all this? Which of all these forces is to defeat its rivals? Supposing Japan is utterly victorious in the present war, will that be sufficient?

All these questions are only to be answered with the greatest difficulty; but although such answering must entail some work, one thing may be immediately said, and that is that the Chinese Government must be unbound and strengthened as quickly and

rapidly as possible, because this great war has proved that great masses of men, however ill-handled, if resolute enough, can bring about the most notable results. Thus Russia, although she has done everything wrong in Manchuria from a military point of view, is after fifteen months' war only 190 miles from Newchwang. If China becomes able to put in the field a million men, she can equally well place three millions there; and if she does that, she can defy everyone. Sufficient has already been written to show that she is going to work in a very different way from any she has attempted before, and that it is imperative for some one soon to show that so long as she does not intend to employ force wilfully and wrongly she will be helped. Who should perform the task? England, and no other Power; for England has in past years, as has been shown, done all the pioneer work, not only in China, but in Japan, and still occupies in a manner which admits of no contradiction the premier place in the Far East. And although her diplomacy in China for ten long years has been deplorable (there is no other word for it), her vested interests, her commerce, and her press mightily overshadow everything else still, and are well understood by all to occupy such a position. Much has been said by recent writers, and much is indeed said in these pages, of the advance of other Powers, of their ceaseless intriguing all over the Far East, whilst the mask of friendship is kept on; of their undermining of the British position; and so on ad infinitum, until perhaps English statesmen have