Mr Curzon made a long stay in Corea. The population, he says, is over 11,000,000, and are surely the oddest, quaintest folk on earth. A dirty people, who insist upon dressing in white, is a. first peculiarity ; a peoplo inhabiting a northern and in winter a very rigorous latitude who yet insist upon wearing cotton (even though it be wadded in winter) all the year round, is a second ; a people who always, wear hats, and have a headpiece accommodated to every situa tion and almost every incident in life, is a third. The' Coreans are in dustrious when they -are made to work, and then only ; and they are filthy in habits and have as little regard for morality as a' Tahitian of the old days. Mr Gurzon evidently thnks that China has right on her side in the present quarrel, and he also con siders that she is a weak State for outside operations and that it will take her all her time to keep out the Japs. As to any fear of China ultimately being a menace to the western powers, or, indeed, to my anxiety

about a Chinese swamping of Australia, he laughs all this to. scorn. The reviews of his book in the London papers are extremely interesting. Would that a cheap edition of the book itself were on sale in the colonies. It would have a good sale just now.
