LACK OF INFORMATION. 375 



period, and there can be little doubt that it was in 

 great measure due to ignorance of Far Eastern con- 

 ditions and affairs. Lack of information had led to 

 the policy of passive spectatorship at the time of the 

 Chino- Japan complications of 1895, and a complete 

 failure to grasp the real objects of Russian desire, or 

 to appreciate the modifying effect which certain in- 

 cidents — such as the German seizure of Kiao Chau — 

 had upon the mode of procedure employed by her in 

 obtaining them, can alone have been responsible for 

 the succeeding period of ineptitude. The British In- 

 telligence Department in the Far East, or rather the 

 lack of it, is absolutely astounding. There was a 

 story current when I was in those parts of how, 

 when the extension on the mainland opposite Hong- 

 kong was ceded to Great Britain in 1898, the military 

 authorities, being ignorant of the lie of the land, 

 called in the aid of some Hongkong sportsmen who 

 were in the habit of indulging, by way of recreation, 

 in an occasional afternoon's snipe-shooting. Yet it is 

 on record that the said authorities displayed con- 

 siderable annoyance, if not indeed indignation, when 

 they found themselves floundering in a snipe-bog ! 



It has been suggested, with a view to increasing our 

 official knowledge of China, that intelligence depart- 

 ments, with a head officer in charge in each case, should 

 be created at Hongkong or Canton, at Shanghai, and at 

 Tientsin, a third of the country being assigned to each 

 body ; but, as far as I know, there is at the present 

 time only one, at Tientsin. It is only fair to state that, 

 in light of the revelations of the recent War Commis- 

 sion, it would appear that the intelligence branch itself 

 is not to be blamed for its inefliciency. There is much 

 that is significant in Sir John Ardagh's reply to question 

 5011 of the official report issued upon the inquiry into 



