department in Nanking University, a union of three missions, will be gladly utilized by the provinces of Kiangsu and Anhwei.

IV. Afforestation is another practical work needing to be taken in hand. It is nearly thirty years since Dr. Joseph Edkins wrote a series of articles on this subject in the first Chinese daily of Tientsin. The reform has been urged on Chinese officials again and again, but neglect of a plain duty has been the rule rather than the exception. The Germans at Tsingtao and along the line of the Shantung Railway have set a good example, and have always been ready to encourage the planting of trees in other parts of China. Professor Bailie of Nanking University is carrying on the same needy work in connection with his agricultural department. It ought to be possible to get every governor to see that all the officials under them, in conjunction with the gentry, shall undertake in a simple way the planting and preserving of trees. An editorial in The National Review for July 24 gave a clear statement of what can be done in all parts of China.

V. Here comes in another important reform, that of conservancy. A National Bureau for this purpose has already been established, with Mr. Chang Ch'ien as the enthusiastic director. The American Red Cross Society dispatched engineers to study the problems in the region of the Hwai river, and it was expected that Americans were to raise the money to undertake model conservancy works. Americans are the only ones with abundance of means— all the more abundant through sales in time of war-and their good fortune should lead them to carry on this Red Cross proposal. Should American philanthropists lose their ardor, it is left to the Chinese to perform one more part of China's salvation. The task for the whole of China is gigantic, but a start should be made.

VI. Another practical reform is currency reform. We are not ourselves particular whether gold or silver or copper is made the standard, so long as some standard is agreed upon. In our opinion gold should be the standard, seeing that this is the standard throughout the world. This does not exclude the wider use and circulation of silver and copper and paper, but gold is the standard and the ratio of exchange is definite. A definite plan of currency reform was agreed upon by Dr. Ch'en Shin-t'ao and foreign experts before the Manchu dynasty came to its untimely end. Under the republic the Ministry of Finance has invited currency advisers, and for a while there was a special bureau und Liang Ch'i-chi'ao; but the reform has gone no further than the academic stage. It needs to be put into practice.

VII. Mines should be opened and railways built on the cooperative basis, with Chinese and foreign capital, but no more concessions should be given outright to foreigners, at least until the law is established that two foreign nations at war with each other cannot in consequence take possession of each other's property, rights or concessions within the domains of Chinese territory. The way should be open for foreign capital and proportionate control, but not for absolute foreign control. If foreign capitalists do not care to cooperate they had better be left out. If the Chinese, on the other hand, continue to hamper and frustrate all foreign help, they too should be left alone. Cooperation means cooperation, nothing more, nothing less.

VIII. China should go on with her salt reforms. A first-class English adviser, with experience, is at the head. His advice should be trusted and followed. A system as efficient as the Maritime Customs will soon be developed, bringing revenue to the government and forming a model for other departments.

IX. In our humble opinion likin should be abolished, whether foreign powers agree or not to increase tariff. Internal trade should be free from all impediments. Free trade, whatever we say of it in an international sense, is an absolute necessity in a national sense, within the bounds of one's own country.

X. A national banking system needs to be established so that the Chinese in one part of the country can trade with those in another through a common medium of exchange. The Bank of China or the Bank of Communications should have branches in every city of China, so that the same notes can be accepted everywhere throughout the country. If a cheque from a bank in New York City may be cashed at the Hongkong Bank in Shanghai, a cheque of the Bank of China in Chungking should pass with the same bank in Shanghai.

These are enough practical points to show that scope is given for a large variety of talent in China.

It is to be hoped that Japan and England, France and Russia, Germany and the United States, Spain and Portugal, and all the rest, will have mercy on China by giving her a chance to set her house in order. Should the exhilarating experiences of the past year after all prove a sedative, and in the course of the next ten years no reform be undertaken, or rather carried out, we will then yield to the superior argument of our friends the Japanese, and welcome their paternal sway in China as it has been so gleefully welcomed in Chosen.

CENTRALIA.

THE OUTCOME OF THE WAR.

BY THE EDITOR.

HREE countries have been forced into a close alliance through

Hungary and Turkey. Later on they were joined by Bulgaria whose king Ferdinand is a German prince and whose inhabitants hate the Serbians and fear the Russians, but place great confidence in the Central Powers.

Prussia and Austria had been enemies since 1740. Austria had been the leader of Germany until Prussia grew in power and the Hohenzollern rivaled the imperial house of Hapsburg.

Since the leadership of Germany has definitely passed into the hands of Prussia, which happened in 1870, the old enmity has changed into a close alliance. Austria has troubles of her own with Russia and the pan-Slavic agitation in her own territory. She now needs Prussian help, but on the other hand Prussia needs Austria as a bulwark against the Slavs. Indeed Prussian Germany would be lost, or at least seriously endangered, if the Slavic part of Austrian lands fell into the hands of Russia. Hence the friendship between Prussia and Austria is based on mutual interest.

So long as England treated Russia as her most dangerous enemy, there was no need on either side for a close alliance between Prussian Germany and Austria-Hungary, and it is obvious that England's entente cordiale has knitted the friendship between the two Teutonic powers very firmly, indeed so firmly that their old enmities are entirely forgotten.

But how did the third party enter?

England was formerly the patron of Turkey, but since Edward VII founded the Triple Entente, England ceased to antagonize Russia. Russia, the old enemy of England, was needed for the

policy of encircling Germany, so Turkey was sacrificed to gain Russia.

Turkey is the center of the Islam world and there are many millions of Islamic inhabitants in India who, as is well known, form the most active and energetic part of the population. The best native soldiers are faithful believers in the Prophet, and so England deemed it wise to keep on good terms with the Sultan of Turkey, the recognized head of the Mohammedan faith. But since the Teutonophobia spread in England like an epidemic all the old traditions were set aside, and henceforth English diplomacy fraternized with England's old enemies, the French and the Muscovites, while her former protegé, the Turk, the sick man of Europe, was abandoned to his fate. England no longer had any interest in protecting Constantinople and the Dardanelles against Muscovite ambition, and so Turkey was forced to look for another protector whom she found in the Kaiser. There followed the inevitable result of a firm alliance between Turkey and Germany. It is a struggle for life in which Turkey became involved, and how bravely the Turks held out is evidenced by the many English graves around Gallipoli.

The map on page 509 shows us the situation of these three countries now united for the present war in a close confederacy; but what is most significant in this union is the fact that the new alliance bids fair to outlast the war. English diplomacy has taken care that the interests which have formed the union of Turkey with the Central Powers for mutual protection in war will continue in time of peace. A great boycott is threatened by which the enemies of the Entente Powers shall forever forego the blessings of English trade.

English diplomats cherish the hope that such a boycott will have as great an effect as the same measure had against Napoleon I which contributed not a little to his final downfall. The new boycott will again have serious effects, but possibly it will not turn out in favor of England; possibly it will work on the new alliance like a protective tariff, and it is likely to favor the development of the countries discriminated against, for on a closer examination it seems probable that England will cut off her own nose to spite Germany.

Note the central position of the black spot in the map. It fills the space where the three continents of the old world meet; and consider the favorable connections which can be established from here in all directions, with Africa, with India, and through

Persia and Tibet with China. The territory thus united has not yet a name, but its most significant feature is its central position, and so we propose to call it Centralia.

Turkey has not been conquered by either Germany or AustriaHungary; she has been forced to seek the assistance of the Central Powers. But the result will be the same as if the country had been conquered with the omission, however, of all the unpleasant disadvantages of a conquest. Conquered people hate their conquerors, but the Turks bid the Germans Godspeed. The goodwill which the Turks now cherish for the Germans they would not possess if English diplomacy had not made this new alliance highly desirable to them and a real help in a dire emergency. The Germans are actually looked up to as leaders, and unless they foolishly lose this confidence by lack of tact they will have a great chance of developing the rich resources of Turkey.

The central position with its several connections will be valuable assets for the Central Powers. This new empire is a group of densely populated countries possessing strong military forces which can march out into all parts of the three continents of the eastern hemisphere and cannot be hindered in their movements by the English navy. It certainly forms a combination which will be

a thorn in the flesh of the British empire.

At the same time the total area of Centralia has a command of all the climates that are needed for industrial, agricultural and commercial purposes, which is an advantage not to be overlooked. It stretches from the Baltic down south to the equator and can produce anything needed in civilized life.

Great Britain undertook the war to crush Germany, and the foundation of Centralia will be the unexpected, the undesired and unpleasant result,-unpleasant for English diplomats. Such is the irony of fate in human history! There is always a party or a group of parties who want to prevent a certain change that threatens to come about, and they produce or hasten its coming by the very means they use to crush the new movement. English diplomacy saw the German danger. The Germans were a people who had learned in the severe school of life to do their work better than other people. They possessed qualities in which the British were lacking. They had developed a strong sense of duty and were more efficient in every respect. Recently they had overcome the worst hindrances which had prevented an efflorescence of their sterling accomplishments and had begun to outdo the British in industry and trade. That must not be! England will forgive anything but interference