table, which, I hope, may attract the attention of British manufacturers to the means by which the Japanese houses contrive to meet the demands of the Korean market. The competition of the Japanese has an advantage in the propinquity of their own manufacturing centres; a co-operative movement throughout the Japanese settlements against foreign goods is another factor in their supremacy.
It may, perhaps, afford British manufacturers some small consolation to know that there are still many articles which defy the imitative faculties of the Japanese. These are, mainly, the products of the Manchester market, which have proved themselves superior to anything which can be placed in competition against them. It has been found, for instance, impossible to imitate Manchester dyed goods, nor can Japanese competition affect the popularity of this particular line. Chinese grass-cloths have, however, cut out Victoria lawns fairly on their merits. The Chinese maufacturer, unhampered by any rise in the cost of production and transportation, produces a superior fabric, of more enduring quality, at a lower price. Moreover, in spite of the assumed superiority of American over English locomotives, on the Japanese railways in Korea the rolling stock produced by British manufacturers has maintained its position. It is pleasing to learn that some proportion of the equipment of the old line from Chemulpo to Seoul, and of the new extension to Fusan, have been procured from England. Mr. Bennett, the manager of Messrs. Holme Ringer and Company, the one British house in Korea, with whom the order from the Japanese company was placed, informed me that the steel rails and fish-plates imported would be from Caramel and Company, the wheels and axles from Vickers, and that orders for a
