574 CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES. 



revise her exterritorial treaties, and it speaks well for the fairminded- 

 ness of England and other countries that they have thrown no obstacles 

 in her way. I hope that the day will soon come when China ma}^ fol- 

 low in her footsteps. 



In the meantime China observes with interest that the planting of 

 the Stars and Stripes in the Philippine Islands will make the United 

 States her neigh])or in the future, as she has ])een her friend in the 

 past. It is her earnest hope that the United States will make no 

 attempt to bar Asiatics from her new shores, but that she will seize 

 this opportunity to strengthen friendly relations of mutual helpfulness 

 between the two countries. No other nation has a stronger claim to 

 the confidence of China than has the United States. The very first 

 article of the first treaty concluded between the two nations provides 

 that there shall be peace and friendship between them and between 

 their people. Through a half century of intercourse no untoward 

 circumstance has interrupted those amicable relations. More than 

 once the United States Government has used its good offices to pro- 

 mote Chines(>, interests and welfare. Nations, like individuals, appre- 

 ciate favors, and, like them also, resent indignities. The sentiment of 

 good will entertained by the Government and people of China toward 

 the Government and peoi)le of the United States is strong and pro- 

 found because of the long, unblemished past, but underneath it all 

 thcrcMs. I am sorry to say, a natural feeling of (li.sapi)ointment and 

 irritation that the people of the United Stntes deal now less liberally 

 with the Chinese than with the rest of the world. If the best guar- 

 antee of friendship is self-interest, surely the friendship of a nation of 

 •J:00,(»()(>,0<>0 people ought to be worth cultivating. China does not ask 

 for nuicli. She has no thought of territorial aggrandizement, of self- 

 gloritication in any form. All she wants is gentle peace, sweet friend- 

 shi}), helpful exchange of benehts, and the generous application of 

 that golden rule which people of all nations and all creeds should 

 delieht to follow. 



