My intention is to discuss a particular approach to these problems rather than the problems themselves. This question of approach does seem of basic importance at a time when so many Americans are about to develop their wartime interest in Southeast Asia. Naturally this first interest has largely been focussed on political and economic issues. Now I think it is time that we bring to the fore the concept that in the longer view it is the matter of our cultural contacts with the East that is of most penetrating significance. I am going to show why I think that we must rid ourselves of the common impression that these contacts are going to be ruled by westernization, or acculturation, and that hence we absolutely must try to build our future relations with the East on a basis of sympathetic understanding.

It was from the Jesuits that the intelligentsia of Europe learned of the philosophy of Confucius. Many years before their sinophile propaganda had begun to affect the thinking of European scholars the members of the Society of Jesus had determined their attitude towards Chinese thought. It was, in fact, the simplification, to suit their own needs, of an ancient, complex and effective system of religion, ethics, and social philosophy. Faced with the coalescence of religious and moral teachings represented by the son chiao or three cults (of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism) the Jesuit missionaries found it expedient to oppose the social philosophy of Confucianism to the esoteric teachings of Buddhism and the mystico-magical thought of Taoism—creating a purely imaginary dualism in which the two latter were labelled heathen cults and the former was exalted to the position of a noble philosophic system, rivalling, if not surpassing, that of Greece and Rome.

Many questions have been asked and are still being asked concerning the census which the Manchoukuo government conducted in 1940. It seems, therefore, that there is a need for a somewhat detailed statement of the background, aims, and methods of that census, and for a description of the results, in so far as they are available at present. No one familiar with the history of Manchuria will deny that it is one of the most vital and has been one of the most contested areas of the Far East. And though the vast majority of Americans, as well as the vast majority of Chinese, will deplore the auspices under which this census was conducted, it would be unrealistic to ignore the event, or to deny that the complete results, when they become available, will be of enormous value to those who must plan for the rehabilitation of Manchuria, and to those who hope to develop commercial relations with that area.

The Civil Code of the Republic of China was published during the years 1929–1931, the Criminal Code in 1935. A great number of other law codes were published before and during this period. Almost all of them have the legal systems of Continental European countries as their basis. The driving power behind this feverish legislative activity was the endeavor of the Republican regime to modernize China and to eliminate every pretext of Western powers to perpetuate extraterritoriality.

Anson Burlingame, lawyer and politician, was elected to the Congress of the United States from Massachusetts in 1855 as a member of the Know Nothing Party. Later he changed his allegiance to the new Republican Party of which he was one of the founders in Massachusetts. He served in the House for three successive terms winning some slight fame as a member of the House Committee on Foreign AiFairs and wide notoriety for his speech against Preston Brooks, assailant of Charles Sumner. An ardent supporter of Lincoln, Burlingame himself failed of re-election in 1860. In reward for his faithful party service, President Lincoln appointed him Minister to Austria. When it proved that he was persona nan grata to the Austrian Government, the President then offered him the post of Minister to China. Burlingame promptly accepted and arrived in China in October of 1861.