January 13, 1898.] -
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy, and the alliance between France and Russia; but the term could not have been correctly applied, for instance, to the con cert of the Powers for the settlement of the recent Cretan difficulty. Nor is it desirable that the term should be loosely applied to any agreement, evpressed or understood, that may exist between England and Japan. While England regards with sympathetic interest Japan's progress and would gladly lend her any friendly assistance for the furtherance of her welfare, and while at some juncture it might be to the common interest of the two countries to act in concert with regard to international questions, a formal alliance in the larger sense of the term could not be expected to commend itself to the approval of the English public. It is England's policy to avoid entangling alliances, and alliance with Japan might prove par- ticularly entangling and hazardous. The present difficulty is, indeed, in large measure the result of Japan's own errors and wrong-doing. The murder of the late Queen of Korea must be laid to Japan's door, and it was that unfortunate event that caused the King to seek Bussian protection · and led to the rapid increase of Russian influ- encein the country. An alliance with aPower capable of acting as Japan acted in that matter would detract from England's moral standing and be a source of weakness rather than strength.
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"The Times re-affirms the advantages of hevue des Deux Mondes by Mr. RENÉPINON, vaguely, and under the circumstances the “Chusan and some of the smaller islands, of which we make the following translation; vagueness must be considered prudent. If where a self-supporting station could be -“During the China-Japan war England | England and Japan are working for a com- easily established. It believes that Japan "by her vacillating policy succeeded in mon end at one and the same time it is is likely to demand the retention of losing her credit in the Far East. For a only natural that they should act in concert- "Wei-hai-wei." It would seem there- long time previously she had contem aud in the strict meaning of the term, fore that the Times was ignorant of the plated an occupation of the Chusan Islands, that no doubt constitutes an alliance, alleged protocol by which France and
a strategic position of the first order, and but as commonly used in international " alliance conveys a Great Britain are said to have agreed "installing herself in the luxuriant valley politics the term that neither of them should take Chusan. "of the Yangtsze, which is, so to speak, wider meaning than a mere temporary the attainment of some Nothing has ever previously been pul-"the principal artery of China's immense agreement for
Thus we have the lished with reference to such a protocol, body. Fifteen thousand men, it was particular object. the very existence of which has been hitherto said, would suffice for the conquest of this unknown in the Far East. We would fain second Egypt. Everything was got ready believe that there has been some mistake, "for the event; the Canadian-Pacific Rail- but the French semi-official statement ap way and the Empress boats were there to pears too explicit and direct to admit of transport the troops. The plan was almost “carried into execution at the commence- that. When or why the protocol was en- tered into we are at a loss to conceive, but ment of the late war; there was a landing if its existence be a fact it must be due to on the Chrisan Islands, but the foreign some extraordinary blunder on the part of squadrons were on the watch, their cruisers our Foreign Office. Nothing more stupid 'threw inconsiderate glances on the Eng could be imagined than to surrender our "lish operations, the troops were directed lien on such a desirable position as Chusan to Hongkong, and it was pretended
they had and tie our hands in respect of any future
other In the
"destination." action that might be necessary.
Our correspondent asks event of our having at any time to enforce if this throws any light on the ques- demands against China by force of arms the tion of when the alleged protocol saw the The whole occupation of Chúsan would seem to be one light? We should say not. of the first steps that would naturally be narrative is an obvious invention. There taken in the operations, and to enter into an was no landing by any British force on agreement with a third Power that we Chusan at the time named unless it was the would not take that step means a material ordinary visit paid from time to time by a weakening of our position. Also in the man-of-war to see that the graves of the soldiers buried there at the time of the event of the breaking up of the Chinese em- pire, a contingency which should have been occupation are duly respected, nor present to the mind of any statesman dealing there any extraordinary movement of troops with the politics of the Far East at or arrival in Hongkong of any force any time since the Taiping Rebellion, that had originally had another destina- Chusan would naturally be included in|tion. Presumably M. RENÉPINON built Great Britain's share in the partitioning. Yet all these advantages have been thrown away, and for what? On that point we are left in ignorance. We do not know what undertaking France gave in return for the surrender of our rights, but we suspect it was nothing of any
real value. Can it be that the surrender was made in a spirit of funk at the time of the Franco-Chinese war, when the idea of a French occupation of Chusan presented itself? The proper thing to have done then would have been to give France clearly to understand that Great Britain had rights over Chusan and that it was intended to maintain those rights. There was no rhyme or reason in bartering away our rights for less than a mess of pottage. The pusillanimous policy of always giving in to every outrageous demand of our rivals not only does no good, but it does a great deal of harm, because instead of cementing friendly relations it only encourages further demands. The present or perhaps we should now say recent-critical position of affairs in the Far East is ascribable in large part to the weakness of England's policy during the last twelve or fifteen years. Had England steadily maintained her proper influence during that period she would not have been elbowed out as she bag been. She has now, we are glad to believe, regained her former position. All that was required to achieve that end was to show that she was in earnest, and we trust that she will never again allow herself to fall into a policy of drift. If the mistakes of the past have been happily retrieved before it was too late they have nevertheless entailed a good deal of loss in the meantime.
(11th January.)
A correspondent seuds us, à propos of the article in yesterday's issue on an alleged protocol by which England and France undertook that neither should annex Chusan, an extract from an article in the
up his amusing little fiction upon the bare fact that when the war broke out between China and Japan Eng- land arranged with the latter that the Yangtsze was to be considered outside the sphere of her operations. There was no question between England and France re- gardding Chusan at that time, and it is more probable that the mysterious protocol of the existence of which M. RENÉPINON appears like the rest of us to have been ignorant-was concluded some years pre- viously at the time that France was mak ing reprisals against China.
THE REPORTED ANGLO-JAPANESE
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ALLIANCE.
Does an alliance exist between England and Japan? The China Gazette claims to be in a position to announce such an alliance as a matter of fact, even though it has "not yet been put into written form and probably will never fiud formal expression "on paper. But we have authoritive infor- "mation," continues our contemporary, "of "the existence of what is to all intents and
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JINGOISM AND. THE DESIGNS OF FOREIGN POWERS IN THE FAR EAST.
The Spectator, in its pleasantly didactic style, lectures the British jingo on what is termed his dog-in-the-manger policy, à Propos of Kiaochau and the dividing up of China. China our contemporary compares to a great half-drowned whale which is being sliced up by every crew that can get near enough to it to use its knives. Russia, France, Japan, Germany, everybody is having a cut, and the huge beast is too languid and fatigued even to spout. But British interests, it is contended, are not sufficiently affected to justify intervention. It is time," the article proceeds, that some one should speak out upon this matter. We detest the dog-in-the-manger "policy which some of our statesmen regard as adroit, and which too many of our contemporaries are prepared on all oc- "casions to support. We English have gone about the world for a century snap- ping up every position of vantage we can obtain, opening up new trade routes everywhere, and even conquering broad regions for the sake of trade, which, as ye "think, follows the flag, though France does not find it so, and then when any "Power pursues the same policy we fall
看看
purposes a practical alliance between the “two countries, arrived at in London and Tokyo upon the present position, and with the sole and avowed object of preventing any disturbance of the peace of the Far "East or of the obtaining by any one
European Power or any combination of" these Powers of a paramount influence in "either China or Korea! Success by any
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one Power or any alliance of Powers in "this respect, both the British and Japanese "statesmen have decided to consider as "equally inimical to British and Japanese "interests in the Far East, and both these "Governments have likewise decided to "defend their joint and · several interests "to the bitterest end.” The phrase "what is to all intents and pur-
poses a practical alliance"
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into fits of righteous indignation. What "kind of moral right have we to say that **Russia, wanting as she does to turn Siberia "into a Canadian Dominion, shall not find a port of exit for her vast possession a little reads rather "to the south of the ice-bound regions of
富翁
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