11 AUGUST 1923, Page 24

The China Year Book, 1923. Edited by H. G. W.

Woodhead. (Tientsin Press and- Simpkin, Marshall. 35s. net.) The China Year Book, 1923. Edited by H. G. W. Woodhead. (Tientsin Press and- Simpkin, Marshall. 35s. net.)

China is in a state of chaos, but this massive reference book, covering all Chinese activities except civil war, breathes a deceptive tranquillity. President Li Yuan Hung, whose photograph forms the frontispiece, has long since fled from the Presidential palace, but the trade statistics are doubtless impeceab'e. The book is well edited, and contains an immense amount of information, but it is shorn of much of its usefulness by The deplorable unrest that prevails in China.