THE EFFICIENCY OF JAPAN.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPZOTILTOR."]
STE,--In your article on " The Efficiency of Japan" (Spectator, March 12th) you say ; " We would confidently ask the most experienced Anglo-Asiatic whether thirty years ago be would have believed, on any evidence whatever, that an Asiatic people could learn to work an ironclad battleship or to repair electric engines as well as any European engineers." This statement recalls to my mind a somewhat interesting incident. I was in Calcutta in 1861, when the Jape were very little known. A friend of mine, who was a steamship-owner, had 'sold one of his steamers to a Japanese firm. The engines of this steamer were of very unusual and complicated make, and when the Japs came to take delivery, he sent his own engineer on board to explain how to work them. " And will you believe me," said my informant, " they sent my engineer ashore, telling him that they wished for no assistance, and within an hour they had steam up and everything working perfectly ?" So that the Japanese engineer was certainly en evidence forty-
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