768 Sir Stamford Baffles and the Malay States. [May 27, 



of Manchuria and a German occupation of Shantung; but that we 

 ought at once to clearly define our sphere of future direct influence 

 in central China, and take immediate steps to make that influence a 

 reality when the time comes. We deferred providing India with a 

 frontier line until the Russians had advanced across the plains of 

 Central Asia, and difficulties were the natural result. If we defer 

 defining our share of China greater difficulties will assuredly arise. 



No one power can monopolise the trade of an opened-out China. 

 There is room for all, and we can, if we choose, secure our just 

 share. If we do not maintain our present proportion of the whole 

 trade of China, it does not thereby follow that we shall not gain 

 enormously, for that whole trade at the present time is but a fraction 

 of what the future will bring. If, as I believe fully, we shall keep 

 our full share of future commercial advantages, it will be due in 

 great measure to the wisdom and the foresight of Stamford Raffles, 

 who, in Singapore, secured for us the great gate of one of the most 

 important trade routes of the world. 



[A. C] 



