May 16, 1908.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
battleship fleat to visit there to impress the Japanese with the friendship between the United States and Coins. Japan has eviden ly succeeded in causing a change of plans. This hardly injure America either way, is good for Japan but bad for China.
It can
This is a reference to a rumour accredited it has been decided by a me-ting of the to Washington thit
at
cabinet that it would not be wise this time for the battleship fet to visit China. It is feared that the vsit would be mis- interpreted as an evidence of a disposition on the part of th United States to support Chin in her controversy with Japan. This conclusion has been reached by the Washington au hori- ties, it is said, af or cousilering some of the East, who ind cat that such a constraction i reports from Government agents in the Far being placed upon the proposed visit by many of the people of China who are interested in the boycott.
313
a
recommends that the four battleships should be of the largest and most approved type, and that provision should be made for their onstruction immediately. China is held up as an example of the results of the " peace at any price doctrine, aud Great Britain as having naval policy to be emulated. The result of the last Hague Conference, the President says, his made it plain that the nations will not for some time, if ever, agree on a plan for the limitation of naval armaments. Årbitration, he holds although it shoull be utilised to the fallest extent. cinnot biirelted up in as an effective remedy,
While disalaiming any intention on the part of the United States ever to engage in a war of conquest, the President makes it plain that this country could ill afford t› relapse into a position in which insult would have to be borne in silence. He continues: To build only two battleships a year would mean that this nation would go backward in naval rank and relative power among the great nations. Such a course would be unwise if we fronted merely one ocesu, and it is doubly unwise when we front two OC8 108. The President estimates that within the last twelve years, in periods of profound psace and not 8.5 the result of war massicces and butcheries have occurred in which the loss of life in
mea, women,
Opinion was, however, so divided in the House that neither Lord DERBY nor Lord PALMERSTON could count on an absolute majority, so the Conservative party thought that the country would be best served by uniting to keep Lord PALMERSTON in office under the distinct understanding that no radical changes were to be attempted during his tenure. Of course Lord l'ALMERSTON, in heart a tory of tories, was only too pleased, to concur in the arrangement, which saved him from the pressing attention of bis rest-, less colleagues, -thieu as now bent on the extinction of the realm under their quack measures of uncalled for "reform." History repeats itself, and the itching after change which had afflicted as with a canker the democracies of old Greece, and caused their disappearance off the face of the earth, had broken out in England, till the country grew tired of it all, and welcomed the new arrangement. So for the remainder of Lord PALMERSTON'S life the land had rest and happiness, till evil times once more returned, though temporarily cured, under the feeble guidance of Sir H. CAMPBELL BANNERMAN, and being momentarily made more virulent
any single great war since the close of the and children has beU greater than ia owing to the ostensible leader Leing
Napoleonic straggles. He adds: "To any His Majesty's First Minister, the disease
public man who knows the complaints which are broke out afresh, and threatened to lead
continually made to the State Department to still worse disorders. It was the late
there is an element of grim trage ly in the claim awakening to the dangers of the situation,
that the time has gone when weak nations can that at last convinced the wiser of His
be oppressed by those which are stronger with- Majesty's Ministers that something had to
out arousing an effective protest by other strong interests. Erents still fresh in the be done quickly, which resulted in Mr.
mind of every thinking min show that neither ASQUITH's refusal to accompany any further
arbitration nor any other devie、 can yet ba his uneasy colleague. Of course we may
invoked to prevent the gravest and most terrible be unkind enough to hint that the fact that policy which shou'd animate the United States wrong-doing to peoples who are either few been sent to Washington demanding his removalaud most important of national virtues, the in numbers or, if numerous, have lost the first aud ask.ng the appointment of a more energetic man as his successor The American com-
each recurring bye election proving hostile to the administration hal something to say to the change of frout. Still Sir HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN on succeeding to office did recognise the fact, and as the heart of the country is pretty well tired of
mere Party Government, and only desires to be permitted to rest, it is not needful to pursue the subject further. It is perhaps as well that the itch demon should be laid to rest without any more upraising of party bates and dissensions between inns and outs. There are few who
would not rejoice if His Majesty's Ministers should open the next session of parliament with the anguncement that no political measures were intended to be introduced; and that legislation would be strictly confined to matters social and economic, entirely outside questions of party.
TROUBLE MAKERS.
There are some Americans in the Far East who think that America ought to protect China-or any other country,- against Japan. They think that whether any country needs protection or not, way
11
any-
America ought to "lick Japan. After she has licked Japan, she ought to "sail in" and lick Germany, England, and a few others. Meanwhile sh ought to "fire" Judge WILFLEY, and Minister RockHILL. With regard to the latter it is printed that
hey say that his unpopularity renders him useless and that American interests are suffer-
ing in consequeno". He is charged with trying to bring about situations which will force re-
sponsibility upo him regardless of the real Messiges have
in its relations with China.
(Daily Press, May 13th.) It is fortunate for the future reputation of the present President of the United States of America that historius will not have to depend on what the American newspapers say about him. We number ourselves among Mr. ROOSEVELT's most sincere admirers, believing him to be a greater mau than yellow-press references to his doings and sayings indicate. We also believe that there is a class of citizen in the great American nation that is not all howl aud hustle, that absorbs knowledge and com- monsense while others munch peanuts, and that speaks and votes patriotically while others expectorate. We do not believe that Judge WILFLEY's detractors at Shanghai are typical of the great nation, nor that a miserable scribbler at Manila voices always the sentiments of Washington. The Manila Cablenews rays, at the tail-end of a bellicose and ignorant outburst misrepresenting the state of Far Eastern politics, that
mercial interests in Chins regard as significant
the fact that during Rockhill's recent absence in the United States the relations with Chin
improved, only to be followed upon his returu by immediate disintegration.
China looks to America for protection not only against Japan but against all the land. grabbing nations of Europe. China invited our
any
new
•
17
ו,
cipicity for self-defend.." In conclusion the President says: "The United States ought not to indulge in the persuasion that ontrary to the order of human events they will for ever ke-p at a distance those painful appeals to arm3 in which the history of every other nation ab uuds. There is a rank dae to the United
Sates among the nations which will be with- held if not absolutely lost by a reputation for weakness. If we desire to avoid insult we must | be able to repel it. If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all tim s ready for war."
These patriots of sorts talk politics with the phraseology of the prize-ring. Diplomacy is caviare to them, and they don't see why Uncle Sam shouldn't knock into the ropes nation
as easily and as simply as a pugilist renders his rival hors de combat. We have recently had the opportunity of learning whit President
He might also have added, though it ROOSEVELT thinks of the type, a few doubtless goes without saying, that it must samples of which have not yet come to the also be known that at no time should the China const. They infest Congress.
Thus chauvinists who act as deputy-screamers for on April 11th, Mr. Congressman HOBSON the American Eagle be taken seriously. To supported the Presi·lent's proposal for four prove our good faith in this expression of "Dreadnoughts," but in doing so he disgust, and to show that there is no used language to which the President and national prejudice "bak of it," we may many others objected.
mention that Loudon is als disgraced by an outcrop of gentry of the same
Of the President's message, the kidney. Daily Express, for instance, says in half- inch capitals that it was " undoubtedly aimed at tapau," though in no report of it that we have seen, including that of the Express, can we discover words that warrant such a statement, though between the lines it might be possible to read that he was sympathising with China against "all the land-grabbing nations." America neel be under uo serious fears of war so long as she attends strictly to her own business, but it she ever thinks of capering out as a univer. sal righter of wrongs, lika a national Dou Quixote, she will need more ships than she has at present. In the Far East, she should at least wait till China invites her services.
He referred to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and hinted at the possible union of the British and Japanese naval forces in Canadian waters in the event of a dispute between Japan and the United States. War clouds were gathering, said Mr. Hobson, clouds that would being not only war between nat ons of the whit rage, but a great war between the races of the world America was in the middle; she had been placed there by Providence and was simply carrying out national policies.
This sort of talk was very properly deprecated by sauer Americans, and it appears that the opposition to the proposed naval increment was even strengthened by There is not the slightest such extremes. reason why America should not have a far stronger navy, if she wants it.
She can
afford it muca better than can some other
nations, and there is no nat on, not even Japan, that would presume to object to her constructing a naval force adequate to her immense seaboard. If the Hobsons and the Manila madmeu are to preponderate in her future councils, however, we should be sorry to see it. In his Message to Congress, Mr. ROOSEVELT
The Nippou Yusen Kisha bas at present twelve steamers running between Japan and Europ. In a couple of months time, it will add six larger and handsomer vessels to the ruo, built in Japan, of about nine thousand tons each.