August 2, 1909.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
BRITISH INTERESTS IN CHINA. [only speculate as to the suggestion which the |
80
viction that more aggressively British ac ion Bank, backed by the British Government, on the part of the Hongkong and Shanghai
German ambitions and would have led to the discomfiture of
maintained the predominance of British influence in this region.
We had occasion to remark a few days ago that the operations of State Banks cannot be rivalled by private finance either in regard to promptitude or daring; and herein, it seems to us, lies the whole ex- anation and difficulty of the question.
THE SPANISH MILITARY
OPERATIONS,
(Daily Press, July 27th.)
91
most of the African possessions are used as convict stations. We may also recall in this connection that in 1860 by the Treaty of Wad Ras the Sultan of Morocco granted the claim of Spain to the small territory of Santa Cruz de Mar Pequena, south of Mogador, but Spain has not yet taken ad- vantage of the concession, possibly because it would inevitably lead to trouble.
Why the present "little war "—which unhappily seems to be developing into an important campaign-should be unpopular in Spain is not very evident. It cannot be due to a sentiment that war per se is wrong. The teaching of TOLSTOY has not taken such a hold on the Spanish as to account for the general aversion to the present fighting, but it may be that the people remember the disaster which overtook their troops and their navy little more than ten years ago when they were made to part with the last of their great over-sea pssessions. That experience has doubtless chastened them and made them realise their unpreparedness for war. Still, we do not suppose the nation has had any doubt of the result of the
The populace may have come to the cou |clusion that the game is not worth the candle, that the rupture will mean not a series of pitched battles, but the opening of a guerilla warfare in which the European troops will be harassed and the Spanish possessions continually menaced. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine a proud people like the Spaniards calmly accepting au affront to their prestige. We should rather expect them to insist on their rights being maintained and to demand that the war be conducted with the vigour and com- pleteness necessary to ensure success. all the telegrams to date emphasis › the fact that the campaign is unpopular, so much so that it is believed that the reveries suffered by the Spanish troops are being minimised. Until more information comes to hand it is impossible to appreciate this attitude of the people. It is in striking contrast to what took place twenty years ago. Then the aggression of the unruly Riff (ribes upon the Spanish outposts around Melilla led to a coufl et in which the Spanish forces at first lost heavily.
Yet
message conveys. Is it that there was an (Daily Press. July 26th)
intrigue on the part of the German financial The somewhat sensational dispatch which
institution to exclude American participation Dr. MORRISON has sent to The Times "
and that the Hongkong and Shanghai from Peking is not easy to understand in
Bank was influenced into acquiescence the light of all that his been published
Against this view we now see Germany during the past few months on the subject of
welcoming the advent of America loans for the construction of railways having less eagerness than the British have shown. in the field with open arms, with no their starting point at Hankow. Perhaps the full import of the message is a little obscured Indeed the statement has been published by the summary which REUTER gives us. We
in a German paper that it is due to Germau friendship that gather from the message that the PRESIDENT
America has of the United States has sent to the Chinese been able to join the combine, and Government a telegram which emphasises President TAFT is said to have admitted this in friendly yet unmistakable terms then an effusively grateful letter, while, from rights of Americans to participate in these
the British point of view, Dr. MORRISON has stated that "it is most desirable that railway loans. That part of the message is perfectly intelligible. The
arrangements should be made by which Chinese Government has shown
the combine becomes extended to the no disposition to exclude Americans from participation.
American group of banks on a footing of Has anyone else? As
we showed the equality," in order to counteract German other day, it is entirely the fault of fluence. The underlying motive of Dr. Americans themselves that they have
MoRuison's telegram evidently is a keen long been left out in the cold. They
se use of disappointment over the far-reach were invited to invest in Chinese railways advantages which Germany has lately as far back as 1905, and it has been adequired in the Yangteze Region, and the con-clashing of arms between Spain and Morocco. mitted by the Washington Government that American financiers at that time evinced no desire to do so; and not until May of this year, when the prolonged negotiations between the British, French and German groups had reached a settle ment was anything heard of a desire on the part of American financiers to participate Then came the entirely unexperted an. nouncement that a protest against the agreement had been entered by the American Government because American financiers had not been invited to participate. It was at the same time announced that a syndicate of finan- ciers had been formed in America with the definite object of investing capital in China. For something like three nonths it had been public knowledge that negotiations in The striking feature of the fighting which reference to the Hankow railway loan is taking plice between the Spaniards and were in progress, yet there
the Moors in the North of Africa is that no indication on the part of America the populace in Spain is opposed to the of a wish 10 participate. That indi. carrying on of the war, and the absolute cation came only after the negotiations censorship ou news of the campaign has had been concluded, and then it took the probably been imposed in consequruce. form of a protest against the settlement.
Where Spanish rights are being intringel
The disaster fired public "The Times" correspondent at Peking has by the Moors it might well have been taken the view that it is regrettable that thought that the country generally would opinion and the Press called so loudly for the British and American Governments, lave supported the Gavernment in sending revenge that the Government set to Melilla in view of the obligations contracted by the reinforcements to aid the troops at present no less a personage than the famous Mar- Chinese in 1903, did not communicate within Melilla, and when that support is with sHAL CAMPOS, at the head of 29 generals and 23,000 men. The Sultan of Moroce, lost each other at an earlier stage of the held it may be considered that it is due to negotiations and thus prevent the difficulty. | ptical influences or to some more e gent no time in getting the Riff tribes under We cannot see that any blume attaches to reason. Whatever the explanation it does control, and MARSHAT. CAMPOS made a the British Government in this connection.
obtained in which he Treaty nat emerge from the meagre messages
ample The duty of communicating devolved upon
しい hand. Historically, the conflict redress and the promise of an indemnity of America, who had declined to avail herself interesting as being a renewal of the £800,000, which Morocco punctually paid. of the opportunities which offered in 1905, hostilities which were once waged No matter how unpopular the casus belli, and had given no indications of her desire tween the Spaniards and the Moors, it might be re souably thought that the to participate in the leans since arranged. though it is safe to say that the old country would not withhold the support The American Minister in Peking must time jealousy no longer exists. As "the necessary to carry the war to a satisfactory Cnless there is something have been well aware of all that was doing glory that was Greece and the grandeur conclusion. in this connection, and no doubt kept his that was Rome" passed, so did the power radically wrong, the mere fact that war has Government informed on the subject. More-
and civilisation that was Moorish. Not | heen embarked upon should unite all over, so long as the American financiers evinc. only were 'the Moors driven out of Spain, classes, and when that unanimity is not ed no desire to invest capital in China it does but they were gradually shorn of their being shown it may be feared that Spain not seem to us that it devolved upon the territory. Their power waned, until now is, in common parlance, in for a bad time. Chinese Government to inform America of the Empire is reduced to something like Interual dissensions will make it difficult, every opportunity that offered whereby the its original limits. But Spain, not content if not impossible, for her to concentrats as obligations of 1903 could be fulfilled. with its victory over the invader, seized she ought on the Moroccan coast, and the What те do not understand about the rortions of Moroccan territory, and the re-ult will be another humiliatou for Spain. message published to-day is the statement European Power occupies positions at Ceuta So far there has been no estimate of the that "the telegram is directly due to the intri Melilla, Peñon, Albucemas, and Chaferiuas number of troops participating in the recent gues of the German Asiatische Bank, whose
Ilands on the North Coast of Morocco. fighting. Spain is understood to have 6,000 influence over the Hongkong and Shanghai These places are no doubt useful to Spain, troop in North Africa, but as all her other
African possessions are fortified, Bank is injurious to British interests. It but it stands to reason that their retention seems a serious libel on the British Bank to by her must be a fruitful source of dispute presumed that she has little more than a thousand men in Melilla to hold the place say that it is influenced by German intrigue, between the two countries. Ceuta is a sea- and we shall await the full text of Dr. port of some note directly opposite Gibraltar. against the Moorish hordes. The Moors MORBISON's message for some proof of this Peñon is described as a fortress, and Melilla are fue soldiers. Possessing the fanaticism remarkable assertion. Meanwhile we can we know is a penal settlement. In fact, and fatalism of the Mohammedans, they
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