The bulk of the imports and exports, which pass through the Customs, comes from China and Japan. The means of transport are controlled by Japanese; the export trade of the country is entirely in their hands. This fact alone should appeal to British shipping interests and to ship-owners. Unfortunately, many years of prosperity have brought about great changes in the spirit of our nation, and we no longer show the enterprise and initiative which formerly distinguished us. This depreciation in the forces of the nation has promoted a corresponding depression in our trade. We are no longer the pioneers of commerce; nor have we the capacity and courage of our forefathers who fostered those interests of which we are now so neglectful in every quarter of the globe. At the dawn of the twentieth century, it is amazing to find a country, with a total foreign import and export trade exceeding two millions and a half sterling for the year 1901 and two millions and three quarters sterling for the year 1902, whose shores were visited by over ten thousand steam and sailing trading-vessels in the same period, registering an aggregate tonnage of more than two million tons, almost untouched by British merchantmen. Deplorable as this may be, statistics which Mr. McLeavy Brown has drawn up show that one steamship, chartered by Chinese and floating the British flag, entered Korean waters in 1900; that four steamers came in each of the years 1901-2, a return which reveals a steady decline upon the previous years. Since Korea was opened to trade in 1880, British shipping has visited the country in the proportion of 1377 tons to every two years. Despite appeals from our Consuls in Korea to British steamship companies improvement has been impossible; since no response was evoked by their efforts, and no service has been established. The consequence of this is that a valuable opportunity has been allowed to escape, the Japanese profiting by our indifference.