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THE HONGKGONG WEEKLY PRESS AND LORD SALISBURY ON THE PRO-Treaty Ports had been postponed until the
POSED OPENING OF TALIENWAN,
(11th February.)
As we
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railway had reached Talienwan, why the CZAR so piously thanked Gon that matters had been cleared. His Majesty would The assurances given by Lord SALISBURY seem to have good reason for thankfulness. -as reported briefly through Reuter's. When the railway is completed his anxieties agency are not very inspiriting. The will be greatly reduced. By that time com abandonment of the demand made for the munication along the Great Trans-Siberian opening of Talienwan as a Treaty Port line will be established, and his army is admitted, and the reason given by the corps will have little difficulty in making Premier is that its maintenance would have their way to the dominions of the Son of seriously embarrassed Chinh. It has there- Heaven. Lord SALISBURY has not been fore been decided to postpone the question equally demonstrative. He has not thanked of Treaty Ports until the railway has the Almighty for any triumph of diplomacy and probably finds little in the situation on reached Talienwan. This means, of course,
He certainly that Great Britain has made a demand, which to plume himself. backed it up by a little naval flourish, and endeavoured subsequently to comfort the House by informing it that Russia and them incontinently backed down. are not sufficiently behind the scenes to Germany had assured Great Britain that judge rightly perhaps as to the wisdom of any ports they obtained would be made free the backing down process, we refrain from ports. His lordship did not say for how commenting too severely upon this ex-long the assurance was to last; probably for tremely unpleasant and far from dignified so long as it will suit those nations. Any movement; but it is permissible to say, in how the comfort administered is of rather any event, that the British Government a cold description. No doubt Germany will should not have been placed in a position to keep to the compact and will also find it to her advantage to make Kiaochau a free necessitate withdrawal without securing the point contended for. It would have port; but Russia is no great respecter of been much better to have acquiesced at first treaties and has a somewhat iconoclastic method of dealing with them when they in the action of Russia than to have en- deavoured to checkmate her and then either become embarrassing or inconvenient. It feared to proceed or become convinced of its is within the memory of many of our readers being a mistake in policy. The reply said how she tore up the Treaty of Paris when to have been given to Sir WALTER RALEIGH she thought the time was propitious, and by Queen ELIZABETH on one occasion when there are other incidents in the way of treaty breaking which can be brought up against he wrote on a pane of glass
her. An undertaking was given that Batoum should not be fortified, it is now a
"Fain would I climb but that I fear to fall." "If thine heart fail thee why then climb at all,"
might have been addressed to the Marquis of SALISBURY at this juncture. If he were not prepared to carry out a threat, why in- dulge in it at all? It is surely an error in sound statesmanship to threaten unless
you feel in a position to carry out the threat. And the attempt to render the Russian oc- cupation of Port Arthur futile by compel- ling China to open Talienwan as a Treaty Port was assuredly in the nature of a threat. That some retaliation for Muscovite rudeness in Korea was not only justifiable but necessary may at once be conceded, but the attempt to render the occupation of Port Arthur useless was certainly a wrong move, There were surely other squares on the Celestial chessboard to which Lord SALIB- BURY might have resorted with equal effect. The occupation of Chinking,
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the Yangtsze, or the re-occupation of the Chusan Islands would have been quite as significant of the intention of Great Britain to protect her interests as a proposal to virtually sit down beside Russia in Manchuria, and far less irritating to that Power. Such a movement would not necessarily imply any intention to en- dorse a policy of partition; it would merely have been the erection of a new British out- post to protect British commercial interests. During the whole of her relations with China, Great Britain has studiously refrained from any attempt to fcquire territory, and only took possession of this barren rock when driven out of Canton by the hostile action of the then Chinese Government, She need not now trouble to seek excuses if she is compelled, by the impotence and imbécility of the mandarins, to demand some other points the future neutrality of which China cannot guarantee, and the possession of which therefore is indispensable to the preserva- tion of the trade which by untiring enter prise, vast outlay, and a fine foresight was built up by Britain in the Far East.
We can understand, in the light of Lord SALISBURY's declaration that the question of
military port. Any assurances volunteered by Russia therefore must be taken with a and until she has pinch of salt,
better reputation established for herself for political integrity we think it will always be more satisfactory to secure a material guarantee for the protec tion of any imperilled interests. negotiations in regard to the position in the Lord SALISBURY's fame as a statesman. Far East have so far added no lustre to
The
RUSSIAN POLICY IN THE FAR EAST AND THE DEFENCE OF HONGKONG.
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would commend themselves to any civilised Power. He adopted too much of the toue of the gentlemen of the road in former days, and no self-respecting Power could fail to respond to the rude challenge thus thrown down. The result has been strained rela- tions where nothing but harmony and a thorough and friendly understanding might have prevailed. There is in Great Britain a growing sympathy for Russian aspirations for an open port on the Pacific and there are many advocates of an Anglo-Russian alliance or understanding in Asia. Both Powers are equally interested in preserving the peace of Asia and both have large territories which contain Asiatic populations. Their interests need not clash in any direction, and each might afford valuable support to the other and assist in the development of the great countries over which they rule. We note that Mr. PRITCHARD MORGAN, M. P., speaking at Aberdare recently, ad- vocated an understanding between Russia and Great Britain, for which he considered public opinion was ripe.
This is undoubtedly the case, but it will not be helped either by the action of the Russian agents in the Far East or the vapourings of the St. Petersburg journals. Had Lord SALISBURY been approached in a courteous manner with a frank statement of the aims and aspirations of Russia in East- eru Asia it is most probable that a modus vivendi would have been arranged between the two Powers which would have satisfied both parties. Russia might have given an undertaking to respect British interests and Great Britain would on her part no doubt have been willing to recognise Korea as in the sphere of Russian influence and have given her moral support to Russia there in return for the CZAR's recognition of Great Britain's paramount claim to exercise her influence in the south of China. Now, how ever, owing to Germany's unexpected action in seizing iaochau, Russia's hand has been
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suddenly forced and she has blundered. In doing so, unfortunately, she has trodden on British corns quite needlessly and is appar ently not sufficiently well mannered to apol- ogise. Hence the somewhat critical unsit- tion at the present moment, as a result of which all the European Powers seem to (7th February.).
be hurrying out battleships to augment The situation in China is still far from set- their fleets. It is to be hoped that messengers of peace" tled, notwithstanding the fervent satisfaction these formidable " alleged to have been recently expressed by may prove so in reality. Certain it is His Imperial Majesty the Czar NICHOLAS that weakness on the part of any Power II. at the clearing of the political horizon. possessing much worth defending is but For some reason the Russians are not happy an invitation to attack, our vaunted civili- It is satisfac- yet, vide the report in Reuter's telegram of sation notwithstanding. the 1st inst. that "the Russian Press is tory, therefore, to know that the British résuming its attacks upon Great Britain." Government are sending out reinforcements We are of course th the dark as to the real to the squadron. Having regard to the reason for these attacks; probably the magnitude of our trade in the Far East and Muscovite journalists are of. opinion that the large increase in foreign squadrons, our✨ British diplomacy is being exercised to naval strength will have to be per- baulk the accomplishment of Russian de manently augmented. The garrison of this signs. They may, for aught we know, colony must also be greatly increased, and regard the British Foreign Minister as a the sooner this fact is recognised at the War dog in the manger, who, not desiring any Office the better. The fleet must be per slice of the Chinese cake for himself, objects fectly free to manœuvre and act as the to see it carved by others. But if so they Admiral thinks best, and this cannot be the quite ignore the fact that if Great Britain case until Hongkong is provided with an desires no territorial acquisitions in North effective garrison. The Navy League are China yet she has a valuable trade with the doing good work, and we trust they will not northern provinces, which she is naturally flag in their endeavours to render the Navy anxious to retain, and that she as naturally equal to the demands upon it, alike in ships, expects to lose that, trade if the country is guns, and men. To accomplish this alone annexed by a Power who has adopted a pro-will be no light task, but it is not hopeless tectionist tariff. Moreover, if any Power of achievement. At the same time, if not has an object to attain she is more likely to too much taken up in the personnel of the attain it by the use of the suaviter in modo, es- Navy, the League night, as cognate to their their pecially when dealing with a highly civilised special subject, take up and express th nation. The methods adopted by the CZAR's views on the necessity of rendering the garri- representative in Korea were not such as son of Hongkong equal to its defence against
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