follows the ungrammatical Mr. Krausse's advice, would have to say to his boy:—"Boy, bring me a piece of black paper." It is, I think, to the credit of practical men among foreigners in China that they can put away all this nonsense about the true inwardness of the Oriental mind when they come to deal practically with the Chinese. In fact I believe that those foreigners get on best with the Chinese and are the most successful men in China who stick to 2 plus 2 equal 4, and leave the a plaus b equal c theories of Oriental inwardness and Anglo-Saxon ideals to John Smith and Mr. Krausse. Indeed when one remembers that in those old days, before the Rev. Arthur Smith wrote his "Chinese Characteristics," the relations between the heads or taipans of great British firms such as Jardine, Matheson and their Chinese compradores[1] were always those of mutual affection, passing on to one or more generations; when one remembers this, one is inclined to ask what good, after all, has clever John Smith with his a plus b equal c theories of Oriental inwardness and Anglo-Saxon ideals done, either to Chinese or foreigners?
Is there then no truth in Kipling's famous dictum that East is East and West is West? Of course there is. When you deal with 2 plus 2 equal 4, there is little or no difference. It is only when you come to problems as a plus b equal c that there is a great deal of difference between East and West. But to
- ↑ Chinese employed by foreign firms in China to be agents between them and Chinese merchants.
