The country of Britain, which lies in the north-west corner of Europe, comprises two large islands and 5,500 small islands. It is separated from the continent of Europe by a strait called the English Channel, on the other side of which lies Calais, in France. The sea-route across the Channel is no more than twenty-two miles at its narrowest point.

The area of the United Kingdom as a whole is 121,362 square miles, and according to statistics for 1871 its total population was 31,817,108. Its form, location, size and population are very similar to those of Japan. For this reason, the people of Britain are in the habit of referring to Japan as ‘the Britain of the East’. From the point of view of economic power, however, the disparity is immense. Lands belonging to this country are spread across the five continents. In Asia its possessions include most of India, and in the South Seas the Australian continent and New Zealand. In North America, all the vast territory to the north of the United States is British, and Britain also has numerous possessions in South America, including Panama, Guiana and the Antilles Islands. As well as these, in the Mediterranean Britain rules Gibraltar, at the south-west corner of Spain, and the island of Malta, to the south of Italy. It leases Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea, and Singapore, at the tip of Malacca.