Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/105

 miles of delayed railways to be built, and ten thousand troubles will spring from them unless obscurity and obscurantism are forthwith banished.

For lagging not far behind the urgency of this railway matter, is the whole question of Chinese trade taxation—a question which has never been more than hastily touched upon and as hastily dropped by foreign negotiators because it has hitherto been beyond their ability and vision to deal with it. Viscount Grey, in a recent speech which referred to the League of Nations and the good one nation can do another, instanced the Chinese Maritime Customs as an example of successful alien administration, showing by his citation that he was ignorant of the facts. The late Sir Robert Hart, the originator and organizer of this system, which in the popular imagination is supposed to insure the merchant and the manufacturer a successful entry into China, was something of a philosopher and a good deal of a diplomatist; and consequently he was discreet enough not to reveal to the world that he was not doing what he was supposed to be doing. The administration which he erected was simply an accountancy, which was able to justify itself because it was dealing with a foreign