All the large lines are building new ships for the China trade. The Osaka Shosen Kaisha, running to America in connection with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, has ordered steamships from Armstrong, in England, and from the Japan shipyards. The Canadian Pacific Railway Steamship Company and the Pacific Mail are having twenty-knot ships built. The Hansa Steamship Company, running from Bremen, has ordered ships from the Weser Ship-building Company, of Bremen. The Russian Volunteer Fleet has ordered new ships from the Alexander-Nevski works. Wireless is to be used generally, the first shore station having been fitted at Hongkong. The Chinese Merchants and the Sino-American companies (both Chinese) intend to run ships to America, as their plans enlarge. We may yet see the Chinese flag regularly in New York. The Japanese are to run a line into the Black Sea in competition with the Russian Volunteer Fleet; they have already sent boats into Trieste in competition with the Austrians, and they have before now humbled the Germans in the Bangkok-Shanghai service. To show that the Japanese are not the least timid in declaring their maritime ambitions on the Pacific, I shall quote the following circular signed by Manager Iwanaga of the subsidized Nippon Yusen Kaisha (the steamship line in which the Mikado is a large shareholder) at the time of the competition with the long-established British firm of Butterfield and Swire, a firm which had been very friendly to the Japanese during the Russian War. Mr. Iwanaga says: “These foreign firms must be induced to pay respect to the Japanese mercantile flag. It is the duty of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha to check the arrogance of foreign steamers east of Suez.”