GERMANY'S IMPERIALISTIC adventures in China have generally been thought of as confined to Kiaochow and its Shantung hinterland. It is seldom realized that between 1895 and 19o02 the Germans made strenuous efforts to secure a foothold in the Yangtze Basin and thereby to challenge the virtual monopoly of economic and political influence which the British had traditionally enjoyed in that region. As a consequence of the Triple Intervention which followed the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, the Germans had sought to claim as compensation a port on the China coast to serve as their long-coveted commercial and naval base in the Far East. In attempting to decide what port they should demand, they had naturally cast longing eyes on the Yangtze region, which by reason of its wealth and population was the most desirable of the regions of China for exploitation. Among the several localities which they considered for eventual acquisition, they gave much attention to the Chusan Islands located not very far south of the mouth of the Yangtze. Vice-Admiral Hollmann, minister of marine, and Admiral Knorr, commanding admiral of the fleet, particularly favored this Yangtze location above all the other proposed sites for a German base in the Far East.' When the Foreign Office pointed out that by the treaty of Boca Tigris of 1846 China had promised Great Britain never to cede Chusan to any other power,' the Kaiser, prompted by the admirals, even suggested the possibility of offering the Cameroons to Britain as an inducement to release her option on Chusan. The disapprobation of Great Britain who hurriedly forced