[18]. “China is a storehouse of men and means; its outer door has scarcely yet been opened” (R. E. Webster’s “The Trade of the World,” p. 317).
[19]. Sir H. Parkes, late Minister of England in Japan, said: “The statement of the national liabilities this year (1878), shows that Japan has kept faith with her foreign creditors, the interest on her foreign debt and the sum requisite for the payment of the amount of capital redeemed during the year having been duly provided. There is no reason to doubt that care will be taken to ensure punctual payment in future on this account until the entire extinction of this debt in 1895.” Japan has never failed to pay her foreign debts.
[20]. There is also a Maritime Insurance Company.
[21]. Light-houses—fifty-seven in number and some of them are very powerful.
[22]. The Samoan Convention declared the Samoan Islands to be neutral territory. The citizens and subjects of the signatory powers will enjoy equal rights and the independence of the islands is recognized with Malietou as king: Jan., 1890.
[23]. The whole history of the French in the East is indissolubly bound up with the history of their efforts to destroy our Eastern supremacy. Mauritius was occupied to enable French cruisers to prey on our East Indiamen. Louis XIV. volunteered armed aid to Annam in order to cut off Calcutta from Canton. A French occupation of Tonkin is a serious matter. French cruisers supplied with coal from the mines of Tonkin would lie in the fairway of our China trade, Burmah and Calcutta would be effectually blockaded, and our outlying Oriental possessions grievously threatened (C. B. Norman’s “Tonkin and France in the Far East”).
[24]. The inhabitants of the eastern region refuse to recognize the Chinese authority. China cannot control the people of Formosa at all. There is a proverb, “Every three years an outbreak, every five a rebellion.”
[25]. In 1873 a Japanese vessel was wrecked on the eastern coast of Formosa and the crew massacred by the savages. The Japanese Government sent an expedition which was perfectly successful. Eighteen of the tribes in Formosa were defeated and subjugated.
[26].
| The Russian frontier has been advanced toward Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Vienna, and Paris— | about 700 miles |
| Towards Constantinople | about 500 miles |
| Towards Stockholm | about 630 miles |
| Towards Teheran | about 1000 miles |
| Towards Peshawar | about 1300 miles |