ended by believing that the time for abdicating a proud position has really come. But there is never a time for abdicating any more than there is ever a time for surrender-excepting in death; and it is with a view of proving the force of these assertions that a few statistics (undeniable facts, not merely refutable opinions) are now quickly quoted to show the British position in China.

In 1864 the registered tonnage of British shipping entering and clearing in China ports aggregated some three million tons. In 1874 this tonnage had risen only to five million tons; in 1884 it was some twelve million tons; in 1894 it rose to over twenty million tons; and in the year 1904 it had reached the large figure of a fraction below thirtythree million tons. That is to say, during the ten critical years of the past decade when politically England was allowing herself to be supplanted in China, her shipping business rose some sixty per cent. in tonnage. This is a result which establishes the fact that there is still some health in us-even in the Far East. But more figures must be given.

Entrances and clearances in China ports in 1904 amounted to a little more than sixty-one and a half million tons; the British share was, therefore, no less than 51.64 per cent. of the whole. But this does not cover all. Of the grand total given above, slightly more than thirteen million tons of entrances and clearances are credited to Chinese owned steamers. This is a shipping which may well be called AngloChinese, since the greatest Chinese shipping con

cern, the China Merchants Steamship Company, is "linked" with the British shipping companies and is practically commanded and officered by Englishmen. If we add this thirteen million tons to the British total as an Anglo-Chinese asset, it is at once seen that England owns or controls threequarters of the shipping in Chinese waters. Germany, our greatest rival, in 1894, had but two million tons to her credit, and in 1904 rather more than seven and a half million tons. In ten years her entrances and clearances increased therefore five and a half million tons; in the same period British shipping had increased nearly thirteen million tons. It is true the German increase was proportionally very rapid, but as I have been at some pains to point out, that rapid increase was due to special reasons, and in the next ten years there will be no such expansion in Chinese waters. Therefore England cannot be called anything but safe even by the pessimistic.

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In trade the story is but little different, and rough totals will suffice. In 1904 the statistics of the foreign trade in China disclosed that British imports amounted to 215,000,000 Customs taels out of a grand total of 357,000,000 Customs taels, and that exports the British Empire amounted to 131,000,000 Customs taels out of a grand total of 252,000,000 Customs taels. This means that England's share of the foreign trade of China amounted to 56.80 per cent. of the whole. In coast trade the proportion is hardly less remarkable;

50'45 per cent. of the total is credited to the British Empire. It is useless comparing this with the German percentage, as that percentage is so small that it need not be considered. At the China treaty ports, as on Chinese waters, England is safe, and can hold her own. Finally, to give people some idea of the enormous water-traffic in the Far East, it may be stated in passing that Hongkong is today only a few hundred thousand tons behind London in the total of tonnage entering and leaving that port yearly, and that if the rapid increase continues Hongkong, which is now the second, will be the first shipping port in the world. Very few people have realised this.

Out of the 18,000 Europeans in China ports (entirely excluding, of course, Hongkong) more than 6,000 are British subjects. In banking and financing it is calculated that the British share is even more remarkable, some crediting British transactions at eighty per cent. of the whole. The name of a single British institution may be mentioned in this connection-the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which has immense strength. It has been estimated that nearly half the foreign business of China passes through its hands. It is also little known that there are now not very far short of one hundred Far Eastern joint-stock companies and corporations which include banks, insurance offices, warehouse companies, land companies, gas companies, water companies, hotel companies, cotton mills, etc., registered at Hongkong, and representing purely