Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/143

 Government would be held responsible"! The scheme was abandoned and the Kuling sold; but the absurdity of the position seems at last to have occurred to the legation mind, and in the following year the Governments of Great Britain and China, being desirous of settling in an amicable spirit "the divergence of opinion" (sic) which had arisen with respect to the position of Ch'ung-k'ing, agreed that the town should be declared open to trade on the same footing as any other treaty port.

Thus was one anomaly wiped off the slate of Anglo-Chinese diplomacy—only to make room, however, for another almost equally absurd, for it was agreed that when once Chinese steamers carrying cargo ran to Ch'ung-k'ing, then, and not till then, should British steamers have access to the port. Chinese diplomacy had imposed a veto for a second time upon British aspirations. The position of the port and the question of steam navigation on the upper waters of the Yang-tsze were finally settled, as far as diplomacy could settle them, by the