21 JULY 1900, Page 2

We see that the military writer of the Times, in

an excel- lent paper on the situation, declares that the "intelligent appreciation of the military situation is not in accordance with the Chinese character, and "points to expert advice and trained leading." The same idea is expressed in other directions, and we even see statements that some German, Frenchman, or Irishman of _military experience must be at the head of Prince Tuan's forces. Why ? Do these writers really believe that military capacity is dependent, like the production of apples, on climate, or mean to assert that all the great generals and organisers of Asia had European lieutenants ? Does he suppose that Kaled, the "sword of God," learned his trade of the Greek Emperors ? Why in the world should there not be a Chinese Hyder Ali, or Runjeet Singh, or Ibrahim Pasha? This rooted and apparently incurable contempt for the Asiatic intellect is the cause of almost all our misfortunes in Asia, and lies at the root of the Asiatic dislike for us, to which Major F. Younghusband, the explorer of Manchuria, testified on Thursday in the Times in these words Even the intense conservatism of the Chinese is not so important a factor in the question as that instinctive antipathy to Europeans which seems to dwell in every tissue of their bodies and run through their veins in every drop of their blood." All who know Major Younghusband know that he is a cool, thought- ful diplomatist, rather singularly free from prejudice against Asiatics.