This is another of that mass of books produced in the 1920s and '30s to address "The Eastern Question" -- the rising power of Japan in the Pacific and the looming threat of war between that nation and the United States. This title, published in 1928, is a fairly standard example of the genre. It has some primary-source interest for contemporary reader interested in period snapshots, but is hardly an engrossing book any more.

The author, LtCol. P.T. Etherton, is identified on the title page as "Late H.M. Consul-General in Chinese Turkestan [sic] and additional Assistant Judge of H.M. Supreme Court for China." As you'd therefore expect, this book has more of a focus on Commonwealth- and Empire-related issues than some others of the era, and also a good deal of first-hand observations on China. But most of it analyses the rise of Japan and the various sources of tension between Japan and the West, and speculation on the conduct and consequences of war.

It's this last that might be most interesting to readers looking to see how well Colonel Etherton's crystal ball was functioning. There's some entertainment value in that, keeping in mind the cliché about hindsight always being 20/20. But apart from that and the aforementioned value of a first-person description of the tensions and assumptions of the era, there's probably little in here to reward freeing this title from the musty back shelves to which it's been consigned for decades.