Japanese posters issued during the War attracted some attention, and favourable comment has been made from time to time upon their merits; but it seems probable that the quaint English inscriptions many of them bore, rather than their intrinsic qualities as posters, beguiled the critics into taking a genial and generous view of their worth. Such sentences as "The severe battle at the Kuragaw--German troops are extremely defeated," "Our troops attack on Tsingau Retreat German Army and Affrighted," and a very happy mis-spelling, "The Gritish _Sydney_ forced the German _Emden_ to fight and the sharp action that ensued," are naturally attractive and amusing. The Japanese, in their colour-printing from wood blocks, invented the most perfect poster technique in the world for use on a small scale. The theatrical posters they produced in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries could not be surpassed. They contain in miniature all the qualities we most value in this branch of art, and are at the present day as fresh and enthralling as if they referred to matters of contemporary interest. The Japanese have proved themselves a wonderfully adaptable race: they have utilised our modern engines of war with an amazing application, and avoided errors, not always obvious, into which other nations have fallen. But while this has its admirable side in the mechanical things of life, imitation in the processes of art proves altogether a failure. The old Japanese spirit has departed. One is tempted to think that the Japanese understanding of their native art is on the wane. For their posters very little can be said. The curse of European influence is apparent in the modern cheap lithographs, crude in colour and design, which they have produced. We have not been fortunate in finding one that would worthily serve the purpose of an illustration. Of the British Colonies, Australia, Canada, and South Africa produced posters of quite a high standard. The eminence attained by the artists of the _Sydney Bulletin_ led one to expect some notable examples from New South Wales; but that province, noble as its achievements were through the fighting qualities of its sons, contributed little to poster art. The Canadian poster reproduced in illustration 74, simple in idea and design, with its fitting legend, shows what promise there is, and indeed attainment, among the Western children of our race. A poster from India (illustration No. 72) is interesting, since it makes an appeal to the Marathas in their own tongue, and in what we are given to understand is tolerably good native verse. The designer, however, is an Englishman resident in India.