Chinese. Then there is a volunteer force, commanded by a British (regular) officer, mustering nearly 650, and including a German and a Japanese company. During the Boxer troubles the volunteers were called out, and undertook the defence of Shanghai till the arrival of the foreign troops; but their capabilities of defending the scattered settlement were not put to the test of active military operations. Two English gunboats are generally anchored off Shanghai, and the other Powers usually have a ship of war in the Whangpoo River; but circumstances might require the presence of these vessels elsewhere-as, indeed, was the case in 1900-and the settlement would have to fall back on its land forces. Since 1900 the Viceroy of Nanking has rearmed and reorganized his provincial army, which consists of 10,000 men, and has lately been seen and highly reported on by British officers; but the ability of the Viceroy's Government, even with this armed force, to control a general movement of insurrection directed against foreign encroachment is too uncertain to inspire confidence. At Shanghai the expediency of occupying the principal island of the Chusan group with a detachment of international troops finds general favour. The island was occupied in April, 1860, by a joint English and French brigade, the fine harbour providing a safe half-way anchorage for transports en route to the Gulf of Pechili. Troops stationed at Tien-tsin, where the international cantonment at present exists, are too distant for the immediate

defence of Shanghai. Regret is often expressed that the Chusan Islands were not acquired under the Convention of July, 1898, instead of Wei-haiWei; but as the lease of the latter place actually lapsed automatically when the Russians vacated Port Arthur,1 the present time may be thought opportune for handing back Wei-hai-Wei to the

(i.) Chusan to Shanghai, 130 miles; (ii.) Chusan Island was occupied during the Opium War in 1840 by a detachment of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir Hugh Gough, and again in 1860 by both French and English troops, possession being taken of the Chinese town of Ting-Hai.

1 The text of the first Article of the Convention, which was signed on July 1, 1898, is as follows: In order to provide Great Britain with a suitable naval harbour in North China, and for the better protection of British commerce in the neighbouring seas, the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees to lease to the Government of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland Wei-haiWei, in the province of Shantung, and the adjacent waters, for so long a period as Port Arthur shall remain in occupation of Russia.'

Chinese Government in exchange for a lease of territory in the Chusan Islands. What is wanted is to establish a moral sense of security throughout the foreign settlement of Shanghai, and this can only be done by means of the visible presence of a naval and military force strong enough and near enough to control the situation.

At Shanghai the 'yellow peril' is a living force of dangerous possibilities. China for the Chinese ' is the watchword of every secret society, and is the cry which gives expression to the universal sentiment of antiforeign enmity. No one can go through the crowded streets of the native city of Shanghai without perceiving the intensity of that sentiment which fills the minds of the vast Chinese population. Hatred and contempt for the foreign intruder can be read in every face. Leaders only are wanted, and they will soon be forthcoming from the mass of Chinese students returning from Japan. There they are learning how to use the power which collective organization and directed leadership will place in their hands. How far it may be in our own power to remove this feeling of enmity will depend upon the action of the British Government at the present crisis in Chinese history. No entente cordiale, however, is possible between the Chinese people and ourselves, unless the selfish and dishonouring commercial policy initiated by Lord Palmerston is reversed. Until this is done resentment will continue to increase, and the pentup passions now secretly smouldering will one day

burst forth in an overwhelming wave of insurrection, compared with which the Boxer movement was only the mild and unorganized forerunner.

There are some who live at Shanghai in the same fools' paradise as English men and women lived in India before the Mutiny; there are others who know they are resting on the edge of a volcano, but who remain at the posts where their work and duty lie. In the present state of growing unrest in China it behoves the Government to be forewarned and forearmed, not acting with panicstricken haste, yet not refusing, as in 1900, to listen to trustworthy reports, and always remembering that a small spark may kindle a mighty flame, which, when once lighted up, can only be extinguished after sustained exertion and costly effort.