of trained troops numbering 100,000 men. Not content with this
formidable land force, the Government has ordered the construction
of the nucleus of a navy, to consist of eight armoured cruisers
and two battleships. Five of these and three naval stations are
to be equipped with the wireless telegraph.

Not less significant than this rehabilitation of army and navy is
the fact that a few days ago a number of students, who had completed
their studies at foreign universities, were admitted to the third
degree (or
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D. C. L.) in the scale of literary honours, which means appointment
to some important post in the active mandarinate. If the booming
of cannon at the grand review proclaimed that the age of bows and
arrows is past, does not this other fact announce that, in the
field of education, rhyming and caligraphy have given place to
science and languages? Henceforth thousands of ambitious youth
will flock to the universities of Japan, and growing multitudes
will seek knowledge at its fountain-head beyond the seas.

Still more surprising are the steps taken toward the intellectual
emancipation of woman in China. One of the leading ministers of
education assured me the other day that he was pushing the establishment
of schools for girls. The shaded hemisphere of Chinese life will thus
be brought into the sunshine, and in years to come the education
of Chinese youth will begin at the mother's knee.

The daily deliberations of the Council of State prove that the
reform proposals of the High Commission are not to be consigned to
the limbo of abortions. Tuan Fang, one of the leaders, has just been