July 25, 1904.]
|
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. a vaulting ambition to overleap itself, cloth- ging its interminable length through the ing his treacherous purposes with pious Foreign Offices of both Powers.
A year humbug and soft words of deceit, finally, ago Germany was prepared to bow down unmasked, staggering humanity with a very low-almost go on her marrow bones monstrous, foolish ultimatum that capped to Russin on this self-same subject; but in sheer audacity the behaviour of AJAX then, of course, Germany was desirous of so defying the lightning? It is too soon to ingratiating herself with her big neighbour foretell the verdict of history. The pre- that the latter should, at least, look with judices of two years ago are dormant, not complacence while a second Sadowa was moribund. One who knew the lute presid-being enacted. Russia was disposed to ent of the late republic, and who, knowing him, loved the uncouth old peasant for qualities hidden beneath the rough exterior, was Mr. LEO WEINTHAL. Mr. CECIL RHODES, According to this gentleman, admired KRUGER, because, he said, he had like ambitions to those of RHODES himself, a Napoleonic coloniser, a thinker in con. tinents, a dreamer of a Dutch Africa, as RHODES WAS a dreamer of an English Africa. Both great dreamers have trekked now to that bourne where sleep is dreamless a fitting example for KOHALETH and his vanity of vanities! OOM PAUL, who was born October 10th, 1825, near Coleberg in Cape Colony, is described by his friend WEINTHAL as a man of peace, who regarded the mineral treasures of the Transvaal with loathing as the root of all evil, and hoped and strove only for a pastoral republic." He was, he says, a mau of prayer, and trust, and bravery, and of faithful- ness to duty. "I saw PAUL KRUGER,' says this friend of his, nearly every day in that mouth of reverses, and I can honestly say that at no time did bis many grand traits of character strike me more forcibly than during that trying period." Well, the man is dead, and those who were not admirers will have de- licacy about contradicting these eulogies. Hostility ends at the grave. To err is human, and we do not forget that bis humanity was of a simple, superstitious sort. One of the firm beliefs of the old exile was that the earth is flat, and we fear the poor old man must have felt it flat indeed, in his last, declining years.
"
<i
เร่
64
RUSSIA'S MOTLEY DIPLOMACY
(Daily Press, 19th July.) That Russia having her hands full in Eastern Asia should try her best to keep on good terms with the European Powers is but natural-so natural, indeed, that any other course might well excite our wonder- ment.
C
|
"The Devil was ill, the Devil a saint would be. The Devil got well, the devil a saint was be." That extraordinary section of the Press in England who are always on the look-out for mares' nests, think that they have discovered therein an opportunity of coming to 'an understand
ing with Russia," as if the "
co.filence "trick
were a thing so altogether new that Bouverie Street and its purlieus had never heard of it. The British Government has announced that it has succeeded in making a convention with Russia with regard tu hunting fur seal in Behring's Sea. It was of course to the mutual advantage of both countries that this understanding, which was a distinct advantage to both nations, and did not imply the surrender of any sovereign rights by either, should be brought about. It has been long enough in conges- tion to have satisfied the most d.latory of diplomatists, and apparently has been only retarded by some Russiau Foreign Office formality; so long indeed had it slept that people had practically forgotten all about it. The Russian Government has likewise ev.nced unwouted speed in concluding an arrangement of tariffs with (lermany; bere was another thing which, entirely through the crabbedness of Russia, has been drag,
59
WHY RUSSIA BREAKS FAITH.
Our
(Daily Press 20th July.) The way to speak of Russian statesman- ship, with its all too conspicuous failures to implement its pledges, has apparently been fixed by common consent as an uncompli- mentary, an unsympathetic, and even a contemptuous way. The references to Russia that are nowadays couched in rate her acquiescence at a figure that the extenuatory terms are out of the way, few commercially-minded German thought out and far between. It will therefore be of the question; now, of course, that for the refreshing in the extreme, to those who nonce Russia is, in the language of the may happen to be thirsting to be charitable, course, "out of it," her complacence has lost to discover in an essay by Dr. E. J. DILLON, its market value, and she has had sufficient in the Contemporary Review for June, a common sense to recognise this, and has chapter that seems to supply an explana- made what she would like her admirers to tion, if not excuse, for the divagations of beliere a graceful concession; the advan- Russia betwixt her promises and her per tages of which, moreover, are principally on formances. It seems, according to this her own side. The fact of the matter, as well-informed publicist, to be a defect due anyone who will have taken the pains to constitution, rather than to character. to follow the recent industrial collapse The bad faith of Russia is n consequence of in Russia will comprehend, is that tem- her lack of a Plenipotentiary, of a Parlia porarily Russia is in need of those veryment, and of a Cabinet. The powers of the commodities which she is now to permit to Russian Foreign Minister are not the be introduced at a lowered tariff, We inay powers of the Foreign Secretary elsewhere. congratulate fairly and indifferently both There is none of the coherence of the nations on the result, without attaching any English Government about that of Russia; undue political importance to it.
although the idea of a lively Opposition has Nor is the same complacent and self. no place at St Petersburg, there is no un- sufficient sense of the gullibility of her animity of aim as we understand it. neighbours absent from another convenient State departments are interdependent: Bus. little arrangement which Russia is at the sin's are independent: that is the difference. moment intent on making, Finding her Thus, the Russian Foreign Minister may hold on Manchuria weakening, and being enter into an engagement with the repre- desirous of so arranging affairs that whether sentative of another Power, but it has no heads or tails should turn up she may yet be binding effect upon any other department the winner, she has been suggesting terms whose interest may be implicated, anl to China, which for naïvete and self- frequently the action taken by such other assurance might well win the championship department, rather than actual bad faith amongst nations. Though a trifle more in the giver of the pledge, has given rise to. unblushing than ordinary, the new proposals the angry, scornful denunciations to which, have an unmistakable impress of the same as applied to the Tsar's government, wa stamp of semi-astuteness and semi-short-have grown so accustomne As Dr. DILLON wittedness which we must now recognise as the peculiar trade mark of Muscovite ware. 'Motley," shouted the melancholy JACQUES in admiration of a similar display of half- witted innocence, is your only wear and "motley" indeed must we allow the diplomacy of Russia in this twentieth cen- tury to have become. Now, we take it TOUCHSTONE himself would have felt pretty well ashamed of himself had he attempted so feeble a diplomitic parody as suggested itself to the Russian Minister at Peking re- cently. We are wont to characterise Russian diplomacy as marked by exceeding astute- uess, sometimes we add by talent; doubtless our comparison here is with our own. is difficult to conceive a round dozen of other Ministers, each of whom is popularly presumed to represent the concentrated essence of statecraft, standing_round and apparently accepting this blot the scutcheon of the craft. Russia, says this latest professor of the confidence trick, is about to evacuate Manchuria; would it not be well to take advantage of this test instance of her disinterestedness while there is yet time? One would have thought that the veriest yokel making his first railway journey to town would have seen through such au innocent trick; yet the Ministers pt assuring Japan that Russia was acting stand by, and do not even wince. Verily in good faith, and would be as good as her diplomacy is in an evil case; and rigtly word, apparently unaware that this many- said that Swedish Chancellor: "Little thou tongued and plausible Government was in knowest, my sou, with what an absence of a similar situation to the Siamese twins wisdom the world is governed." There as they were represented by MARK are, of course, times when an arrangement | TWAIN, One section signing the pledge, with even Russia might be excusable, but that would only be possible when it was the interest of both to keep it; and that time unfortunately, as far as England is con- cerned, has not us yet arrived, nor is there visible any sign of its approach.
*
i
It
ou
|
puts it, "it is a mischievous mistake to lull *the nation into a sense of security with the "statement that it has received from 'Russia'
1
<x
"
"
4
this or that emphatic assurance, this or "that solemn promise. The exact formula in "all such cases should run : The Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, speaking for itself alone and without in any way circumscribing the action of the War Ministry, the Admiralty, or any other "department of the Russian Empire, has "undertaken, etc.' For the Russian Govern- "ment is not a homogeneous body bound together by a sense of joint responsibility. It is composed of public servants of his Majesty the Tsar, each of whom conscien- tiously strives to further what he deems "to be the interests of his Imperial Master "in the way which he considers most effica- "cious, and without reference to the views, "aims or obligations of his colleagues." In other words, the various departments of the Russian Government are like unto so many unregistered Chinese partners, and the in- ability of one to pay a hundred cents in the dollar is a matter of no concern to the other. It is a pity that the apologists for Russia did not make this clear in the opening stages of the entanglement with Japan. They
41
and the other getting drunk; DEXTEE explaining his occupation of Manchuria as merely temporary SINISTER making preparations to settle there and resist all efforts to remove him. Dr. DILLON thinks that no useful purpose would be served by