Chapter ii American Concession IN the making of Chinese foreign commerce and the opening of the country to trade and industrial enterprise, the position taken by European governments has been to foster and support the efforts of their subjects. The policy of the United States in this regard has been dis- tinctly negative, and whatever has been accom- plished by our citizens is the result of individual energy without national support. There have even been lacking co-operative efforts on the part of our people, so that practically all of the corpora- tion interests, such as banks, transportation lines, railway and mining privileges, and the adminis- tration of those departments of the Chinese Gov- ernment whose functions are largely external, such as the maritime customs, are in the hands of Europeans, principally English. The reason for this is partly due to the traditional policy of the American Government not to interfere in foreign affairs, but principally to the fact that the atten- tion and capital of the American people have been occupied in the development of their own country. A change from such conditions and a turning of American energies into new channels were devel- opments that were inevitable. In the investiga- tion of the transition of the American position the 44