878
FRENCH AMBITION.
8
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The restlessnes and fractiousness of France are beginning to constitute a menace to the peace of the world. No Power is at once so previst, so perverse, and so paltry. There is scarcely a quarter of the globe wherein her agents are not meddling and intriguing The disease known as earth hunger has taken hold of her in its worst and most incurable form, for she cannot bear to se0 any other Power make acquisitions in any country, no matter how remote from her borders or however widely dissociated from her interests. The latest development of this crase is the hostility she is showing to the annexation of Formosa by Japan. That Russia should feel that her interests might some day be threatened by the per- manent occupation of Shingking by Japan is understandable, as the CZAR's Government are, avowedly jealous of the erection of a strong Power so near the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway now in course of construction. That Great Britain should not altogether relish the acquisition of Formosa by Japan was also to be expected because of its vicinity to Hongkong and ou account of British commercial intercourse with the island, but the British Government have the sense to recognise that this is the most suitable form territorial acquisition by Japan can take as a means of settlement and they are doubtless satisfied that the trade privileges now enjoyed will be secured, if not enlarged, by the change of ownership. At any rate they are not disposed to play the part of dog in the manger, and were the first to accept the terms of settlement between the late belli-In no land save Canada have the French gerents. If Great Britain, with her com- paratively large interests in Formosa and the navigation of the Formosan Channel, has no hesitation in acquiescing in the terms of the Treaty of Peace between China and Japan, what possible objection, or right to raise objection, can France put forward? French interests in Formosa are nil, and the establishment of Japan in the island constitutes no menace to any French posses- sion, steamer route, or trade. What justi- fication, therefore, can there be for French interference? Not surely the fact that in 1884 they tried to take Formosa and failed to make good their footing in Tamsui. Not because they had possession of the port of Kakung in the Pescadores for a few short months. Not on account of the cemeteries wherein sleep a few gallant sons of France, the victims to the fickle policy of the Govern- ment of the day, that commenced a war with China and then grudged the funds to carry it to a successful issue. Not even the memory of brave Admiral COURBET, whose
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[ May 23, 1895- ready even for resort to that last argument that Japan should be compelled to resign of nations as of kings, but we do not be it at the dictation of neutral Powers, some of lieve the sober, staid, and practical Presi- | whom are only remotely concerned in the dent, M. FAURE, is prepared to proceed to matter. It is true that Bussia has all along such lengths. Nevertheless it cannot be declared that she could not saustion the denied that the French are now showing an cession of any Chinese territory on the main- extraordinary spirit of unrest. Burning to land to Japan, but the Japanese people have beard the perfidious Saxon in Egypt and on never taken the hint seriously or believed the Niger; eager to conquer and annex the that armed intervention would follow if their vast island of Madagascar; anxious to pick Government attempted to secure a portion a fresh quarrel with Siam in order to extend of Manchuria as a guarantee for the future the Indo-Chinese frontier; and quite ready non-intervention of China in Korea. It is to press China for a slice of Yunnan in most natural therefore that the Japanese settlement of their frontier quarrels, the should feel angry and disappointed. The French are assuredly spoiling for a fray Japanese Government deserve sympathy in somewhere. If there was any chance of any the difficult situation created for them by paying result from this forward colonial the action of the three protesting Powers. policy the feverish activity of France They have bowed to the inevitable, made might have some reasonable excuse, but choice of the lesser of two evils, but they when it is considered that all her colonies, now have to confront an irritated people, with the exception of Algeria, are dead whose pride has been hurt and will smart for failures entailing a heavy drain on the some time to come. We trast, however, already overburdened national exchequer, it that the good sense of the Japanese nation is certainly marvellous how the thrifty and will speedily convince them that their sober-minded Frenchman can be seduced Government is in no way to blame, and into sanction of utopian and wild-cat enter- would have been rash to defy the might of prises such as many of the so-called colonies Russia, to say nothing of France and free. may be truthfully designated. Possibly many. If there are some little sbullitions of many of these rash and ill-considered popular ill-will to foreigners the circumstance schemes have originated from jealousy of will not be surprising, but it may be hoped England, but that feeling surely ill that the Japanese people, who are not de- becomes a great and gallant nation who, ficient in practical sagacity, will recognise as proved in a score of cases, have no that anti-foreign demonstrations will do their genius for colonising and whose sons never cause no good and will only serve to embar. willingly migrate from her bountiful soil. rass their Government and vex the Emperor. GOLDSMITH's lines in The Traveller" And Japan certainly owes a big debt of might well have been addressed by a return- gratitude to the Mikado and his Ministers- ing Gaul to his beloved land-
for the masterly manner in which the war and subsequent negotiations have been out- ried out. There is, moreover, umple matter for congratulation left even after this cheek by the three Powers. Not only bar Japan gathered a harvest of glory, but she has vanced to the front rank as an Astatio Power, has taken her place among civilized nations, has secured an ample indemnity. for the costs of the war, has increased her navy, proved its efficiency, and crushed that of China out of existence. She has also wrung important commercial concessionST from China, has successfully asserted her superiority over her neighbour, and, finally, has secured a handsome addition to her ter ritory by the annexation of Formosa with- out losing her insular position. If she has lost the footing she proposed to establi for herself on the mainland she will be spared the responsibilities and anxieties which such acquisition might entail. The Japanese may, therefore, when the first heat of their indignation has subsided, perhaps - find that their loss is not wholly without compensation, and that, in any cane, the : possession of a strip of Manchuria was not worth a costly struggle which might have been indefinitely protracted by a great and resourceful empire, like Russia. It is no discredit to Japan that she should have yielded to overwhelming pressure like that brought to bear upon her. Russia berself
Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, My heart untravell'd föndiy turns to thee.
ever willingly settled to any extent, and the only use France has for the various colonies she has lately been at such pains and expense to acquire seems to be as happy hunting grounds for a swarm of officials, who cer- tainly find employment, but not seldom also find an early grave iu malarious climates to which they go so unprepared. It will be a misfortune for the world and civilisation, if this policy of adventure and of bounce should serve, some day, when the patience of some provoked Power has temporarily faded, to plunge France into a long and disastrous war. Only her worst enemies could wish to see her involved in a life and death struggle with a great Power about semne miserable patch of tropical or mala- rious country not worth the bones of a single grenadier, and the possession of which can confer neither profit nor glory on the victor. No country in the world probably is so self- contained as France, and this is obviously the reason why her sons so little desire to change their lot. Why therefore fly in the face of natural and physical laws only to campaign in which his hands were tied by a gratify a sordid lust for useless territory and feeble and parsimonious administration. an unreasoning jealousy of a neighbour Rather, we should have thought, would France who has been driven, by opposite causes, to shun attracting attention to a theatre where- seek new outlets for her superabundant on she won no glory but suffered some humilia-population. tion from unavenged checks and reverses.
valour and abilities alike were wasted in a
INTERVENTION.
We do not believe that, if the French CHINA AND JAPAN AND FOREIGN Government #TO serious in obstruct- ing the Japanese in Formosa, they will re- ceive the support of any other Western Power. All along the Russian Press have intimated that if Japan desired territorial compensation for the war she must seek it in Formosa, to the cession of which by China Russia obviously has no objection. Great Britain has accepted the new Treaty; the United States will follow suit;
and Germany is not likely to hold back her assent. If France wishes to establish a claim to Formosa it will have to be done by the sword. No doubt some of the fire eaters of the Paris Press may be
had to submit to a similar revision of the Treaty of San Stefano, by which she was restrained from ousting the Turk from Europe. Whether the other European” Powers were then well advised in their action time has yet to determine, and it may be doubted whether Russia and France have not now committed a mistake in policy in intervening between the victor and the vanquished in Eastern Asia. It has been" hinted that Germany has already begun to regret having allowed herself to be drawn into the league against Japan.
Now that the terms of the Treaty of Peace between Japan and China have been agreed to by the Powers, accepted by China, and finally settled, it is to be hoped that there will be no further difficulties raised by any party. It is not surprising that the retroces- sion of the Liaotung peninsula should have been angrily resented by the Japanese. The Power primarily interested had agreed to its
There are still some matters to be cleared cession, and as the possession of Port Arthur up. First, the amount of spail to be secured appeared to Japan to be a necessary guarantee by Russia. Our great neighbour professes against a renewal of the conflict at some to have been disinterested, at least in a com- future time, it certainly seems very hard parative sense. She was mainly concerned