The lack of railways and roads in China is a tremendous handicap to the country, and the Government has already turned its attention to aviation. An English firm was successful in obtaining from it the contract (in 1918) to supply a hundred commercial aeroplanes, and to construct the necessary aerodromes, supply and repair depôts, etc. The aeroplanes have already been completed, and a service is started from Peking to Shanghai. It will be most interesting to see how the experiment turns out. The planes are like those used for crossing the Atlantic and can carry twelve passengers and luggage. The adviser to the Chinese Government is Lt.-Col. F. Vesey Holt, who is at Peking, with a staff of skilled pilots and engineers. We enjoyed the hospitality of the Customs Commissioner, and heard of the difficulties of combating opium smuggling and of working an international customs service. The Japanese unfortunately are pushing the opium trade with considerable success. I made another excursion from Hong Kong of the greatest interest, namely to Canton. It is now the seat of the Southern Government, which is not recognized, however, by any of the foreign powers. The Cantonese are very different from the Northern Chinese and their language is wholly unintelligible to them. They are the cleverest and most advanced people in the empire, and have traded with Europeans regularly since the seventeenth century; they have in consequence been influenced by Western ideas to a certain extent. The native population is estimated at two millions, of whom two hundred thousand live in boats; there are many foreign merchants as well as missionaries of various nationalities. Its hospitals and schools are justly celebrated. I went by the night boat, arriving about 6 a.m., and had engaged a guide to take a young French lady and myself to see all the main sights. Canton is a most fascinating city, and as one was carried in a chair through its narrow granite-paved streets (their average width is twelve feet, and they are eighty miles in extent), one is dazzled by the wealth of beautiful and curious things displayed on every side.