It is Madame Wu Ting-Fang, wife of the Chinese Minister at Washington, who has recently returned from a visit to her old home, who says: "The first penetrating influence of exterior civilisation on the customs of my country has touched the conditions of women.

The emancipation of woman in China means, first of all, the liberation of her feet, and this is coming.

Indeed, it has already come in a measure, for the style in feet has changed.

Wee bits of feet, those no longer than an infant's, are no longer the fashion.

When I went back home I found that the rigid binding and forcing back of the feet was largely a thing of the past.