reliable information on all matters of Far Eastern concern, whether political or commercial.
It has been commonly asserted, especially by Englishmen settled in China, that England has never had a definite policy in the Furthest East, and, while no attempt has even been made to disprove that statement, the facts seem to justify it Russia, on the other hand, made little secrecy as regards her intentions. The occupation and fortification of Port Arthur, the enormous sums spent upon Dalny, the construction of the Siberian Railway, and the practical occupation of Manchuria, were facts which could bear only one interpretation. Japan's position was equally clear to every intelligent observer, and all students of Far Eastern affairs recognised that the moment Russia really threatened Korea, Japan must and would fight for existence, with its back against the wall. Germany, a comparatively new factor in the Far East, has a policy which may roughly be described as Shantung for Germany alone, and the rest of China, especially the Yang-tse Valley, for German enterprise on at least equal terms with all other nationalities. France, again, having acquired in Indo-China, during the last fifty years, a territory twice as large as the Mother Country, has a policy of expansion which embraces the island of Hainan, the province of Yun Nan, and as much of Siam as can be secured. Probably these are not the limits of extension to which the Colonial party in France would be willing to confine their aspirations. M. Paul Doumer, lately Governor-General of French Indo-China, and now the President of the Chamber of Deputies, tells us, in his recently published account of his Far-Eastern administration, that 'a nation with a bold and energetic policy may secure a flourishing commerce. This is the policy that I have pursued in Indo-China to the utmost of my ability and resources, in order to secure a future for France as a great Asiatic power.'
And England—what is England's policy? We, who of all the nations have, throughout the longest term of
