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"THE TIMES " ON SPHERES OF
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INFLUENCE AND THE OPEN DOOR.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
particular, which is now becoming almost as strong an advocate of the spheres of influence policy as it formerly was of the open door policy, apparently without any clear idea of what either term really means.
(Daily Press, 20th September.) In the file of the Times received by the last mail we find two articles on the China question, both of which contain material errors. In its issue of the 16th August the great London organ says:-" Our traders are "less exacting than those of other countries. They do not ask for preferential duties practically excluding other nations. All they expect of their Government is that "it shall preserve at least some area of "China in which they may trade without having to fuce preferential advantages bestowed upon some other nation. This "modest demand has not been met by the "British Government. It has professed its "unalterable determination to secure equal "opportunity for British traders every- " where in China, but it has not sufficiently "considered what such a determination in- "volves when other Powers with one con- sent take to carving out spheres of in- "fluence. The British trader now sees him- "self everywhere shut out from expansion "by the dominance of an exclusive policy worked here by one Power and there by "' another" This is entirely contrary to fact. In no part of China is the British trader shut out by theexclusive policy of any other Power, par, we hope, will the British Government ever allow the door to be closed in his face. In a note on the recent debate in the House of Commons the Spectator says:-Mr. BALFOUR next turned to insist upon a distinction which exists "between the importation of goods into "China on terms of equal treatment and "the question of concessions, though it was apparently a distinction too fine for "the House of Commons." Apparently the distinction is too fine also for the Times, as it is for many other people, but it is a very real distinction all the same and upon its due recognition depends the success of British policy in China. The open door for trade is a principle to be insisted upon at all costs; the open door for concessions is an impossibility, for the granting of a con- cession to one party necessarily means that a concession for the same thing cannot be granted to others.
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THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY AND ITS MILITARY VALUE.
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[September 24, 1898.
or even in winter, will be provided; but nothing of the sort has been estimated for "in the first construction of the railway, "and the money for the construction of the same does not, at present at all events, seem to be forthcoming." When the line is completed we opine it will not be long before adequate supplies for an army in transport will be found all along the route. We cannot agree, therefore, with the Spectator in considering the Trans-Siberian Railway a military bogey, but we cordially endorso. the remark that "The notion that it "would be wise to go to war with Russia "while there is yet time' and before this 'terrible instrument of war is completed
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as that with which an English railway will run ก summer excursion to the seaside it is assumed that its military potentialities may be ignored. Nothing could be more mistaken. Though the German authorities in 1870-71 gome- times found it more convenient to move troops by road than by rail, it is not to be assumed that the railways did not prove of (Daily Press, 19th September.) value as a means of maintaining rapid com- The United Service Magazine for August hus munication between different points. Stra- an article by Colonel Dr LA POER BERES- tegic value is attache I to the Indian Rail- FORD on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Iu a ways and to the Canadian Pacific Railway, note on the article the Spectator says: and it was the superior railway communica
People here talk glibly of the Trans-tions possessed by the North in the Ameri- "Siberian Railway being ready in four or ena Civil War that the Confederate lenders five years, of Russia then being able to assigned as one of the principal causes of 'pour troops' into Manchuria, and generally the Federal success. It may be well to as if the railway, when made, would make point out, too, for the benefit of those who it as easy to move great bodies of men from may be inclined too readily to jump at "St. Petersburg to Port Arthur as from conclusions from reading brief summaries London to Aberdeen. As a matter of fact, of the article under notice, that the author "the unaccomplished engineering difficulties is speaking only of the immediate future. are very great, and when they are got over "Of course," he says, "with time depôts "Russia will only have a single line, far "with food, rest camps for use in summer,
more useful for carrying mail-bags than large armies. As the writer of the article, "Colonel DE LA POER BERESFORD, very truly saysThe civilian mind is, perhaps, "somewhat inclined to run riot over "the facilities for transport of troops "which it [the Trans-Siberian line] will 'provide.' As he points out, though "the Germans had the well-laid French "lines at their disposition, the authorities in 1870 often found it more convenient to "send troops by road. The truth is, there never was a greater bogey than the Traus- "Siberiau Railway. The notion that it would be wise to go to war with Russia "while there is yet tine,' and before this "terrible instrument of war is completed, is utterly preposterous." Judging from this it appears possible that Colonel DE LA POER's criticisms may be taken too literally and that the importance and military value of the line may be as much underrated as they have perhaps in some quarters beeu overrated. "When it becomes a question of moving men 7,000 miles," says Colonel DELA POER BERESFORD, "of entraining their waggons, guns, horses, baggage, and food, and transporting all these things, as well as the men, for these vast distances, the problem is not easy of solution." No doubt the resources of the line would break down under a demand for the sudden removal of a large army from one of its termini to the other, but that is n demand that is not likely to be made upon it, and it is not in that direction that the import- ance of the line lies. It may still be found more convenient, even after the line is com- pleted, to send reliefs and reinforcements to Eastern Siberia by sea in ordinary times, but if ever the strain of war is felt the Trans-Siberian Railway will prove of in- calculable advantage to Russia as affording her an alternative route along which she can promptly send, if not enormous armies, at least reinforcements of special corps and of superior ranks. The line would be found of service, for instance, if in some military crisis in Siberia, it enabled the selected generals with their staffs to reach the point of operations in a fortnight instead of by the six weeks' sea route. Facility of communication must always be of enormous advantage in time of war, even although the means of transport are limited. We have heard local military critics express themselves in similar depreciatory terms of the Siberian Railway to those employed by the Spectator. Because the line cannot transport twenty thousand men from Mos cow to Vladivostock with as little trouble
In its issue of the 18th August the Times says:- England cannot single-handed re- "sist the policy of spheres of influence and particular concessions which, rightly or wrongly, all the other Powers insist upon pursuing. But we stand alone, ex- cept for the sympathy of the United States, "for the open door policy, and we cannot "enforce it except inder our own flag. To attempt to maintain it throughout so huge an empire as that of China, without any "aid from the Chinese Government and in opposition to the policy of the other Powers, is simply to court failure and to arouse perfectly unnecessary hostility. "Our affair is to secure for ourselves a fair "share of the Chinese markets by means such as the public opinion of Europe "sanctions" If this means that we are to abandon the policy of keeping the Chinese market as a whole open to the whole world, that we are to allow part of the market to be closed against ourselves while we in turn close part of it against others, the expression of such an opinion is to be regretted. Whatever mistakes the Government may have made in its management of the China question its action has been characterised by much more common sense than the counsels of many of its mentors in the press, the Times in
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is utterly preposterous." The notion is preposterous, not because the Trans-Siberian Railway is not of military value, but be cause the results generally anticipated from such a war are not such as would justify it It is said by the Jingoes that if we fought Russia now we might set her back for twenty years; no one seems to regard it as at all possible that we could permanently retard the development of Russia in Siberia and Manchuria. But what is twenty years in the life of a nation ? If we are to fight let it be for some well defined and permanent advantage.
NATIVE VIEWS on the furlRE
OF THE PHILIPPINES.
(Daily Press, 17th September.) Whether the fate of the Philippines will be decided without a conflict between the Americans and the Luzon Insurgents ap- pears doubtful, the Insurgents having taken up a very independent position. From Manila we learn that President AGUINALDO has received an ultimatum from Major General Oris requiring the removal of the Insurgent troops to a certain distance from Manila. It is probable the ultimatum will be complied with, and that things may run smoothly for the time being pending the arrangement to be arrived at by the Paris Peace Commission, but should that arrangement not prove satisfactory to AGUINALDO and his following there will almost certainly be trouble. And that thear- rangement will prove satisfactory is hardly to be expected. At the beginning the Insurgents were apparently prepared to welcome an American protectorate, but now that Spanish rule has disappeared their ideas have be come more inflated, so much so that it now appears doubtful whether anything less than complete independence will satisfy them. In a recent issue of the Inde
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