Raffles, Stamford, Sir Report on Japan to the Secret Committee of the English East India Company. With preface by M. Paske-Smith. Kobe J.L. Thompson & Co 1929
First edition, pp.xv, 252, frontispiece, 9 plates & maps including a large folding map of Nagasaki in colour. A near fine copy in original cloth, some faint rubbing to edges. Preserved in cloth solander case. Some offsetting to last page of text from map. Small ex-libris sticker from the library of R.A. Scoales, and small label of a Tokyo bookseller, both on front paste-down.

A superb copy of the uncommon first edition of this record of Raffles' correspondence from Java as he attempted to reopen trade relations between England and Japan. Part of the surrender of Java after Britain's conquest had been the Dutch Commercial Agency on the island of Deshima at Nagasaki, which was the only means of communication Japan used to deal with Europeans. Raffles was Lieutenant-Governor of the British East Indies by the time he was writing, and saw opportunity in trade with Japan when he was having considerable financial struggles in Java. He saw not just a taking over of Dutch trade but "a great Anglo-Japanese commerce based on principles of equality". M. Paske-Smith (1886-1946) was a diplomat in the Consular Service who produced other works on Japanese history.