Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/202

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182
DRAMATIC MOMENTS

countries were like. What Mr. Pin Chun reported is not obtainable, but it hardly covered the exigencies of the occasion as an English account of his visit may explain. It says:

"He was received like the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon and shown—at least in Great Britain—everything that was admirable from the Western point of view. He was as far, however, from appreciating the triumphs of science as was Cetewayo the Zulu, whose admiration of England focussed itself on the elephant Jumbo at the Zoological Gardens."

It is not my purpose to affect to patronize these people. A greater mistake could not be made. Keener, more capable, statesman than some of those consulted on this occasion could not be found from the time of Solomon to that of Jumbo. Li Hung Chang's report on the subject is on record, and, if they had seen it, would probably have caused the utmost astonishment to the self-satisfied critics of the "semi-barbarians."

The consequence of the decision reached by Prince Kung and his advisors was radical and