THE FAR EAST.
Far Eastern Impressions. By Ernest F. G. Hatch, M.P. (Hutchinson and Co. 6s. net.)—Mr. Hatch made a tour through Japan, Korea, and China some three years ago. In the course of it he saw a great many things that are not usually visible to the mere tourist, and thus had a good opportunity of forming a sound judgment upon the commercial aspects of the awakening of the Far East. The present juncture of affairs has suggested to him the desirability of publishing "these ' impressions ' of a business man, who made a point of seeking and obtaining information from every authoritative source available to him." He is quite right : this little book contains much that will be read with great interest by all students of the remarkable developments now unfolding themselves at the other end of Asia. We have seen few things so instructive as the map of railway concessions in China which forms the frontispiece to this volume. "If you take a map of China with the railway concessions clearly marked on it," says Mr. Hatch, "you have a perfect index of international ambitions. It says more plainly than reams of official despatches what view particular countries take of the future of the Chinese Empire. Tracing these various lines from beginning to finish, and joining them up with enterprises, it may be many hundreds of miles away, you can with almost mathematical certainty determine what are the hidden motives which have directed their promotion." In three very useful and able chapters Mr. Hatch enlarges on this text. A glance at the map, for instance, shows how Russia and France have been working in unison. The French line from Hankow—where it will one day connect with the American line projected from Canton, in which Russians and Belgians have a substantial interest—to Pekin, when finished, was clearly intended to meet the line which the Russians had planned from the Trans- Siberian line to the capital of China, via Kalgan. Another scheme involves the linking of Pekin with the French settlements in Tonquin, by way of the line already planned to Yunnan and its suggested extension by Siu-fu and the valley of the Yangtse River to Hankow. If this scheme were ever completed, it would give "Russo-French communication between one extreme of the Chinese Empire and the other, passing on the way through the very heart of our own sphere of influence." Again, the projected German lines marked on this very suggestive map throw a clear light on the programme of Germany. "Her ambition is to draw the trade of Northern China to Kiao-Chau, the port in Shantung upon which she has expended so much. Keeping this object steadily in view, she has carefully prepared a scheme of railway construction which will tap at several important points in the interior the stream of commerce and, divert it by the natural law of trade gravi- tation to the seat of her power in the Far East, which she hopes may some day compare with even Hong Kong in the volume and importance of its trade." The chief British enterprise marked upon Mr. Hatch's map of railway concessions is perhaps more likely than any of these great schemes to arrive at a successful consummation. "If projected schemes are carried out, we shall have under our control a great line of railway commencing at Shanghai and running through the most fertile and populous part of the Yangtae Valley for nearly a thousand miles to Chen Tu in Sze-Chuan." Now, it is not more than five hundred miles from Chen Tu to Bhamo, where the Burmese railway system now ends,—or will shortly end. The construction of a railway between these two points would complete "that bond of communication between our Indian Empire and China which has so long been the dream of the more enterprising of our Indian statesmen?' This
vast scheme still exists mostly on paper, but Mr. Hatch has done good service in drawing public attention to its existence and its possibilities. We commend his unpretentious but very thought- ful book to the attention of all students of Far Eastern problems.
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