Rather I am inclined to think that the success of our rival is mainly due to causes which I have seen in operation in Persia and Central Asia as well as in Korea, and which embrace not only imperfect knowledge of the tastes and needs of customers, but the neglect to act upon information supplied by consular and diplomatic agents, a groovy adherence to British methods of manufacture, and the ignoring of native desires as to colors, patterns, and the widths and makes which suit native clothing and treatment, and the size of bales best suited to native methods of transport. I do not allude to the charge ofttimes made against our manufacturers of supplying inferior cottons, because I have never seen any indications of its correctness, nor have I heard any complaints on the subject either in Korea or China, but of the ignoring of the requirements of customers there is no doubt. It is everywhere a grievance and source of loss, and is likely to lose us the prospective advantages of the Korean market. The Japanese success, putting the advantages of proximity aside, is, I believe, mainly due to the accuracy of the information obtained by their keen-witted agents, who have visited all the towns and villages in Korea, and to the carefulness with which their manufacturers are studying the tastes and requirements of the Korean market. Their goods reach the shore in manageable bales, which do not require to be adapted after arrival to the minute Korean pony, and their price, width, length, and texture commend them to the Korean consumer. The Japanese understand that cotton 18 inches wide is the only cotton from which Korean garments can be fashioned without very considerable waste, and they supply the market with it; and on the report of the agents of the importing firms, the weavers of Osaka and other manufacturing towns with adroitness and rapidity closely adapted the texture, width, and length of their cottons to those of the hand-loom cotton goods made in South Korea, which are deservedly popular for their durability, and have succeeded not only in producing an imitation of Korean cotton cloth, which stands the pounding and beating of Korean washing, but one which actually deceives the Korean weavers themselves as to its origin, and which has won great popularity with the Korean women. If Korea is to be a British market in the future, the lost ground must be recovered by working on Japanese lines, which are the lines of commercial common sense. To sum up, I venture to express the opinion that the circumstances of the large population of Korea are destined to gradual improvement with the aid of either Japan or Russia, that foreign trade must increase more or less steadily with increased buying powers and improved means of transport, and that the amount which falls to the share of Great Britain will depend largely upon whether British manufacturers are willing or not to adapt their goods to Korean tastes and convenience.