The Times correspondent at Pekin, one of the best informed
and most trustworthy of his class, tells in Wednesday's issue a story which singularly illustrates the extreme sordidness that has intruded itself under cover of commercial interests into modern diplomacy. The German authorities at Kiao-chow have endeavoured to obtain a monopoly of mining interests in Shantung. The Mandarins made the concession so far as a space of ten miles on each side of all the railways in the province is concerned, but stipulated that the Chinese who had opened mines within the space should be allowed to continue working them. The Germans agreed, but are now declaring that the Chinese are bound to use only their old methods,—that is, are in their own country to be prohibited from using machinery or any new contrivances. There must, in fact, be no competition, neither by other Europeans, nor even by natives who were already engaged in mining opera- tions. What a fate Europe would prepare for Asia if she really conquered it.
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