[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.1
Sia,—In your interesting leader on the above-named subject in the Spectator of May 9th I read the two following sentences, to which I venture to call attention :—" Manchuria will be just as advantageous to us in Russian hands, provided the principle of the open door' is admitted, as in Chinese hands. We trade with Odessa and Riga as easily as with Shanghai." Let us no longer blind ourselves to the dainty fiction that Russia, Germany, France, or Belgium will voluntarily leave any doors open to us in China over which they have obtained. or may obtain in the future, any control. We can and we do trade without let or hindrance with Shanghai. It is far other- wise in the cases of Odessa and Riga, as, to all intents and purposes, these doors are closed to us, inasmuch as prohibitive tariffs entirely prevent us from carrying to these ports any merchandise of a nature which the Russians can manufacture for theniselves. It is true we are allowed to buy as much as we like. What do we sell there ? Coal and machinery.. Need I ask why these are purchased in such large quantities ? No, I need not. I merely state, however, a fact which is apt to be strangely ignored, viz., that the monetary value of any machine—a loom, for instance—is a mere nothing when com- pared with the value of the material which it is destined to turn out.—I am, Sir, &e., War. CECIL SLINGSET.
Carleton, near Skipton-in-Craven.
[Poseibly the trade is thrown into different channels by the hostile tariffs, but is it killed as is so often alleged ?— that is what we want to see demonstrated. Hitherto we have not seen any clear proof that the hostile tariffs which result from foreign control really destroy our trade.—En. Seectaterl
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