Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 102 (Color Image)

0102	Among the Celestials : vol.1

76 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. IV.

And our second great right is that the British

Government and its subjects shall be allowed

equal participation in all the privileges which

may be granted to the Government or subjects

of any other nation.

Such are our rights, which it may be well to

`remember were only acquired after years of

negotiation, and after fighting more than one

war with the Chinese ; and which, it will be

noticed, are neither selfish nor exclusive. These

rights little as they are it is all important

that we should maintain ; that we should see in

future that no impediments are placed in the

way of the investment of British capital, and

that no commercial privileges which we at

present possess should be impaired. Man-

churia is not a Turkestan nor a Uganda nor

a Rhodesia. I t is an exceedingly valuable

country, with both present wealth and future

potentialities. The foreign trade with it is

already valued at three and a half millions

sterling, even with only one Treaty Port, and

that closed by ice for half the year, and with no

railways in the country. Of the 664,000 tons of

shipping the British flag covers 349,600 tons,

while the Russian flag covers 3,628 tons only.

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