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44 CHINA MISSION YEAR ROOK.a sufficient number of advanced students, and also to theuncertainty of its financial support. In none of theseinstitutions is it possible to discover any marked advanceduring the last few years. In some respects, perhaps,they have scarcely held their own.One marked feature of these higher schools was theemployment of foreign instructors. When they werefounded, it was considered as necessary to employ foreign teachers as to erect school buildings. The employment of foreign teachers gave at once a character andstanding to school enterprises. II was customary toestimate the standard of a school by the number of foreigners employed. Not only was this true of the Chinese,but public opinion among foreigners as to the grade ofschools was largely influenced by this same consideration.The employment of foreigners was taken as an evidenceof progress, and their non-employment as a sure sign ofreaction. During the last few years a change has come,and there has been a gradual diminution in the numberof foreign teachers, although it must be rememberedthat at no time has the number of such teachers beenlarge. The province of Chihli had perhaps moreforeigners employed in schools than any other province, and they were chiefly Japanese. It is a strangefact that this decrease in the number of foreignersengaged for educational work has been contemporaneouswith an increase in the number of schools. Many ofthose whose services were dispensed with were men ofwide experience in educational work in China. Theirdismissal was frequently the result of no stated policy,but simply because the management of the school hadpassed into other hands. In explanation of the decreasein the number of foreign instructors, it must be notedthat, at the time of the founding of schools, it notinfrequently happened that foreign professors wereengaged to teach special subjects which there were nostudents fitted to undertake. The result was that thesespecially qualified teachers spent a large proportion of