366 THE FAR EAST. 



increase, though not perhaps to the extent that 

 the mere abstract expression " 400,000,000 of con- 

 sumers " might not unnaturally suggest. It is not 

 perhaps sufficiently recognised when talking of the 

 commercial possibilities of China that, as Sir Robert 

 Hart puts it, " China needs neither import nor ex- 

 port, and can do without foreign intercourse, . . . 

 and foreign traders can only hope to dispose of their 

 merchandise there in proportion to the new tastes 

 they introduce, the new wants they create, and the 

 care they take to supply what the demand really 

 means." ^ 



Still, commerce always did, and always will lie 

 at the root of the Chinese question, though not so 

 exclusively perhaps in the future as in the past. 

 For a desire among European nations to secure each 

 for itself as large a share of the trade as possible, 

 has led to not always amicable contact among them, 

 and to an unfortunate failure on the part of some 

 of them, as far as China itself is concerned, to make 

 any accurate distinction between meum and tuum. 

 Moreover, reservations must be made in this, as in 

 other generalities, more especially in this instance 

 in the case of Russia and Japan, the former of 

 which has been largely influenced in her Far 

 Eastern progress by her innate craving for access 

 to a warm -water sea, and the latter by the ne- 

 cessity, owing to her geographical position and the 

 encroachment of the former, of securing the safety 

 of her empire. 



Great Britain's ideal in the Far East, as else- 

 where, can be summed up in the words, " the open 

 door." There are many other terms by which it has 

 been expressed, such as " integrity," or " a fair field 



^ These from the Land of Sinim. 



