In studying the background of Japan's expansionist policy it is necessary to take into account the part played by Yoshida Shōin, one of the most picturesque and colorful personalities in modern Japanese history. Yoshida was one of the outstanding figures of the movement which in 1868 overthrew the Shogunate and restored the Imperial authority. “If we are going to speak of the Restoration,” Mr. Iichiro Tokutomi points out in his biographical study, “we must necessarily speak of Yoshida Shōin. Just as a mother may die in giving birth to her child, but the child lives and grows to manhood, so we may say he was the mother and child of the Restoration.”

Abbé huc's Travels in Tartary, Tibet and China, during the years 1844–5–6, has long since become one of the world's great travel classics. For some decades after its publication, however, it was read with the utmost scepticism. Foremost among the sceptics, and the book's chief detractor, was the Russian explorer, Prjevalsky, whose vindictive attempts to disprove Huc's statements caused many people to doubt that he and Father Gabet had ever entered Tibet. It was some forty years after the book first appeared before Huc found a champion in the American traveller, W. W. Rockhill, who in writing of his own expeditions, quoted the Abbé frequently, and stated his faith in the earlier traveller's observations. Shortly after this, Henri, Due d'Orleans, wrote a book protesting the widespread lack of belief in Huc's narrative. Refuting Prjevalsky's major charges point by point, he made it clear that the Russian's motive for casting slurs on the Frenchmen was largely due to his jealousy at their having gone so far into the interior, where he himself had been unable to go. Finally, in 1900, Henri Cordier published some diplomatic correspondence between Ch'i-ying, the governor-general at Canton, and the French consul, M. de Bécour, which discussed the expulsion of the two Lazarist fathers from Lhasa, leaving no doubt that they had been there.

In the fall of 1925, representatives of the powers which had attended the Washington Conference met in Peking for the long-delayed discussion of China's claim to tariff autonomy. Germany was not one of this group and received no special invitation; however, the Germans hoped that they would be allowed to participate, especially since in European affairs they had been given a place of equality in the October Locarno Conference. Consequently, as a step in this direction, Berlin readily accepted an invitation from the United States to adhere to the Nine-Power Treaty of the Washington Conference. To the surprise of both countries, China took offense. This episode, which passed almost unnoticed behind the scenes of the Tariff Conference, revealed Germany and the United States pursuing somewhat similar policies against which the Chinese foreign minister protested. It disclosed Chinese suspicion and distrust, not only of their policies, but of the Nine-Power Treaty as well.

Perhaps no other area of comparable size presents such geographical, racial, climatic, political, linguistic and economic complexities as are found in Southeast Asia. This region may be delimited roughly as a parallelogram extending southeastward from the Burma-Assam-Sikang frontier through Burma, Thailand, and Indochina and including part of Yunnan and all of the Malay peninsula with the adjacent islands. Those who prefer their geography in circles may think of Southeast Asia as the mainland and peripheral islands embraced within a circle having Bangkok as a focus with a radius of 1000 miles; i.e. from Singapore to Fort Hertz and from Brunei to Chitta-gong.

It may be interesting to learn that even before the end of the Ming dynasty, numbers of Chinese had already arrived in Mexico. On June 22, 1635, the municipal council (cabildo) of Mexico City studied a petition which had been submitted to the viceroy by the Spanish barbers in the capital. The latter protested against the “excesses” and “inconveniences” to the “Republic” resulting from the practises of Chinese barbers. The viceroy passed along the complaint and asked for the advice of the city government.