[=A Lecturer’s Edition= has also been issued, price in cloth, 1_s._ net, and may be had of MESSRS. NEWTON & CO., 3, Fleet Street, E.C.] Six Lectures on the Sea Road to the East. By Mr. A. J. SARGENT. Published by Messrs. GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LTD., price 8_d._ net in paper covers, 1_s._ net in cloth. [In this book the ordinary edition and the lecturer’s edition are combined.] CONTENTS PAGE LECTURE I GIBRALTAR AND MALTA 1 LECTURE II MALTA TO ADEN 20 LECTURE III THE INDIAN OCEAN 39 LECTURE IV CEYLON 57 LECTURE V THE MALAY REGION 75 LECTURE VI THE CHINESE STATIONS 99 _NOTE.--The reader is asked to bear in mind the fact that these lectures are illustrated with lantern slides. The numbers in the margin of the text are the numbers of the slides, of which a complete list will be found on pp. =117-124=._ LECTURE I GIBRALTAR AND MALTA In the great land mass which is formed by Europe and Asia is included upwards of a third of the land surface of the Globe and about two-thirds of the total population. Grouped at the western end are the three hundred and fifty millions of Europe, while the majority of the seven hundred millions of Asia are crowded into the southeastern corner. Between the two, from the Red Sea coast of Arabia to the western boundary of China, lies a broad band of desert and steppe, mountain and plateau, thinly peopled and difficult to cross. On the north, the sea passage is barred by the ice of the Arctic; while the only land link between west and east is the thin line of the Siberian railway. But on the south, from the Baltic to the Sea of Japan, is a broad highway, free 1 to all and within easy reach of the great trading nations of Europe and Asia. From end to end we see it running along the coasts and through inland seas; so that ships are rarely out of sight of land for many days together. At frequent intervals are straits to be passed and corners to be turned by every ship; and here, where the sea road must touch the land, are the key points for trade in time of peace or strategy in time of war. Britain is responsible for the government of over three hundred million Asiatics and carries on a great trade with the remainder; in fact, about two-thirds of the merchant shipping passing through the Suez Canal is under the British flag. We have important interests, too, on the eastern side of Africa, while a new Britain, British in race and political organization, is growing up in Australasia. We are the chief users of the main road to this region of the world, and are thus most interested in its condition and control.