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ness was that Li-Hung Chang, besides drawing a considerable portion of his soldiers from his own native place, also obtained his officers there. Thus, when anything happened to an officer in his army, he could not be replaced from amongst the troops under the command of the other generals. Thus it was necessary to send to Li-Hung Chang’s native province for all new officers.

I also learnt of another Chinese custom which was universal throughout the whole army, and which made a great difference between the reported strength and the actual strength in the field. The Chinese army was divided into yees, or battalions, which were supposed to consist of 500 men. In reality, however, they rarely ever consisted of more than 300 or 350 men. The commander of the yee, or camp, was in this way enabled to pocket the pay of 200 or 150 of his soldiers from the Government grants. Even as late as the Boxer disturbances, when the Allied Forces were in North China, this state of corruption in the Chinese army did not seem to be known clearly to the world, although it was vital as creating an important difference between the paper and actual strength of the Chinese forces. It was owing to the accurate knowledge which I had obtained as to the condition of affairs in North China that it was possible so to lay the plans of the campaign as to surely and safely bring about the complete victory of our forces.

The future of China may well have an importance to Japan, and I think that what is necessary for the regeneration of China is the coming to power of a strong Emperor, who will take the reins of government into his own hands. In the history of China there were two such rulers of the present dynasty who ruled their people directly with a firm and capable hand. One of the first steps that such an Emperor must take would be to do away with the idea that he is a celestial being, and high above all other monarchs, and enter the commonwealth of nations on an equality. The Emperor alone, I should think, is capable of such a deviation from the constitutional custom in China. Until recently I may say that it was the practice of the Chinese Emperor to abstain from signing the credentials of his envoys to foreign countries, because he considered himself too high to condescend thus much to other monarchs.

Granted a strong Emperor, it would be more easy to change China than it was to change Japan. In Japan the great changes were in establishing the uniformity of the laws, the currency, the army, and the taxation, which were different in the dominions of the different daimyos. In China the system of laws is similar all over the country, and both the civil and criminal laws were codified in Peking. The Emperor is