the kind of skilled labourers required for foreign buildings, and
where the requisite materials must be imported from Europe
and America by firms who ``are not in China for their health.''

It is futile to hope that the competition will be materially less
next year, or the year after, or the year after that. Commerce
and politics are planning works in China which will not be completed
for many years. Railway officials told me of projected
lines which will require decades for construction. China has
entered upon an era of commercial development. The Western
world has come to stay, and while there may be temporary
reactions, as there have been at home, prices are not likely to
return to their former level. There are vast interior regions
which will not be affected for an indefinite period, but for the
coast provinces, primitive conditions are passing forever.

The knowledge of modern inventions and of other foods
and articles has created new wants. The Chinese peasant is no
longer content to burn bean oil; he wants kerosene. In
scores of humble Laos homes and markets I saw American
lamps costing twenty rupees apiece, and a magistrate proudly
showed me a collection of nineteen of these shining articles.
Forty thousand dollars worth of these lamps were sold in Siam
last year. The narrow streets of Canton are brilliant with German
chandeliers and myriads of private houses throughout the
Empire are lighted by foreign lamps. The desire of the
Asiatic to possess foreign lamps is only equalled by his passion
for foreign clocks. I counted twenty-seven in the private
apartments of the Emperor of China and my wife counted
nineteen in a single room of the Empress Dowager's palace,