There is a singular conflict in accounts from Pekin as
to the extent to which the Chinese are employing Japanese to instruct their soldiers and the artisans of their great arsenals. It is asserted on the one hand that the Japanese have super- seded all foreigners, and especially the German officers recently employed, and on the other that there are no Japanese employed at all. Mr. Morris, a student of Japan, asserts, we perceive, in the Morning- Post most confidently that the former story is the true one, and that Japanese are now drill. ing the local armies in many provinces of the Empire, especially Chih-li, which would indicate that the importation is favoured by the Viceroy Yuan-Shi-Xai, said to be the ablest Inan in China, and now persona gratissima with the Empress- Regent herself. It is quite possible that the cause of the contradictions is that the Chinese, while eager to obtain the benefit of Japanese experience, are ashamed to acknowledge publicly their inferiority, and insist that all Japanese officers and foremen shall wear the Chinese costume. For the same reason they are sending, as announced this week, three hundred picked students to Tokio, who they expect will return with all the knowledge of Japan, but will be Chinese and not foreigners. If the Japanese can make their pupils honest much will have been accomplished, for the Chinese can learn anything, war included, but the inveterate habit of corruption divides the officers and men. That is the cause of the desertions reported from the South.
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