only,[1] yet even now they present a sufficiently formidable force to prevent any one from lightly taking np arms against them. I do not believe in the existence of a Chinese army for purposes other than those of securing the nation against undue interference with its internal affairs at the hands of foreign Powers.
The questions discussed in the following chapters are consequently those of the development of China under the new conditions which recent years have brought, and especially the construction of railways, since this is at the present time the chief instrument which is being employed in opening up the country; of the prospects of future trade between China and Great Britain, with special reference to the provinces of Western China; of the settlement of frontier problems arising out of the juxtaposition of China with British Burma; of the politico-moral problem arising out of the opium traffic; and finally, of the future of Japan as a
- ↑ At the much boomed manoeuvres of 1905, for instance, an inquisitive visitor found the dressing-station useless owing to the fact that it possessed no bandages.
