ENGLAND AND CHINA.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sra,—In your interesting article in the Spectator of Ma,y2Oth on Lord Charles Beresford's proposed policy in China, you certainly place the ultimate issue correctly in saying that the adoption of a policy of " Thorough " must mean the assumption of a virtual protectorate over China. It would seem, however, that there is a great danger of losing sight of an important feature in the existing situation in China by merely advocating policies of any kind to which labels can be thus lightly attached. We have at the present moment meeting at the Hague a Confer- ence upon which the gaze of the civilised world is fixed, to discuss the subject of war,—of war as it has been barbarously waged in the past. We have being unfolded under our eyes also at the present moment in China conditions of another kind of war,—of war as it will be waged in the future, a rivalry for trade and for the control of the forces and resources of the world according to certain standards. It is impossible to read Lord Charles Beresford's book in the light of the tendencies at present existing in the world without receiving a deep impression from it, and per- ceiving that all the events of the recent past in China have been, as all the events of the future will be, part of the moves and details of a rivalry of this sort. The principal feel- ing which the book seems to leave on the mind in such cir- cumstances is the great want on the part of Great Britain (whose interests in China are only second to its interests in India) of some permanent advisory body which, understand- ing the character and tendencies of the situation, would hold all the threads of so important a matter in its hands, and which, having in view all considerations, and they are many and various, would be able to advise the Government in &definite and consistent policy in such circumstances as may
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