170
GERMANY IN THE FAR EAST
AND ELSEWHERE.
-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[March 10, 1902.
which has recently overspread Germany, as well as of the dignified indifference with which it has been received in England. It is the old recourse of the champion of a weak case to abuse the plaintiff's attorney, and the example has been unconsciously followed by Germany. If Germany had a prima facie case to present to the world, or any real grievance to complain of in the conduct of England, she would bave found it possible to exhibit it in plain and truthful language, the fact that she has had to resort to lies and calumniation of the grossest kind is the strongest proof that she has been This is seeking to bolster up a lost cause. plainly becoming the feeling of the world at large; Germany in her vain desire to puff herself into a leading position in the world has overacted her part, and has met with her deserved punishment in her present political and commercial fall. Some feeling of the sort is possibly beginning to come to the frout in Germany herself, and her Reichstag exhibits unwonted difficulty in granting year by year the extraordinary demands of the Imperial Chancellor: the reduction in the requests of the Government for the maintainince of an exaggarated force in China is only one of the signs of returning sense. Germany is playing a dangerous game; there is an old proverb about the use that the Devil is apt to make of idle hands, and idle garrison, especially where it is not by any means required, is apt to lead Germany into still further troubles.
an
It would be the wisest thing for her to acknowledge the mistake, and withdraw her troops before they get themselves into other difficulties.
most solemn engagements of Germany. At the beginning of the recent troubles in China, Lord SALISBURY, then his Own Foreign Minister, and his colleagues in the (Daily Press, 3rd March.)
Government professed much satisfaction at Important though it may be in its an arrangement he bd entered into with results, the recent treaty between Eng Germany to preserve the independence of land and Japan must be considered the entire of the Chinese Empire. Perhaps as rather indicating a profound shifting Lord SALISBURY himself was more sanguine of political relations throughout the than his associates of the value of this world than as a distinct cause of the shift. engagement on the part of Germany, and That shift may be said to have had its indignantly repelled an insinuation that it origin in 1896, when the world woke up to was not worth very much. At all events the fact that underneath the Dreibund, the time came to test its value, and how far ostentatiously put forward as a guarantee the German Empire was to be bound by it. of the peace of Europe jeopardised by the England on the first indication of danger ill-assorted flirtation going on between ordered immediately a considerable force France and Russia, there was really con- from India, and was prepared to send more, cealed a deep-laid scheme, wherein Prince but that Germany said there was no neces- BISMARCK proved to be the principal-actor, sity, as she was sending a contingent; to for the partitioning between Russia and show England's perfect confidence in the Germany of the dominions of the House of promises of the German Government she HAPSBURG. Since that period the world did not hesitate to place her contingent may be said to have entered on a period of unreservedly under the command of the mutual distrust, which recent events, German Commander-in-Chief. Bye-and-bye marked as they have been by the unblush it came to Germany's turn to show her ing repudiation of the most solemn engage- loyalty to her partner. The very occasion in ments, have tended to increase rather than view of which the agreement had been made alleviate. The critical position in which the occurred. Russia declared her intention of supposed divergent interests of the two absorbing Manchuria, and England called main nationalities making up the compound on Germany to fulfil her part of the pact. state known as the Austro-Hungarian The reply might have done justice to Empire have involved Central Europe, has Count LAMSDORFF himself. Germany had of course much to say to the present un- never mentioned Manchuria, and Manchuria settled position of affairs generally; but was not a part of the Eighteen Provinces. The were it not for the illegitimate longings of argument really proved too much; the Agree- a large section of the German states for ment did not mention either Manchuria or the further absorption of their neighbours' Eighteen Provinces, so according to this territory, these internal divisions of the latest interpretation, because it did not Empire of the HAPSBURGS might be left name the two halves, the engagement to to adjust themselves in safety. Unfor- preserve the whole was null and void; Lunately in the present Chancellor of the practically this came to be the case, and the German Empire, Count VON BULow, all ink of the Agreement was scarcely dry be- the worst parts of the very composite fore Germany repudiated the entirety. For character of his famous predecessor are tunately the value of Germany's word of emphasized, while there is a corresponding honour had been pretty well discounted; absence of that strong commonsense which England had had a very similar instance in kept the other, and more objectionable, 1854, when Russia sought to absorb Turkey portions under control. Notwithstanding in Europe and left in an equally undig the knowledge that the Great Chancellor nified manner the duty of preserving Europe was, under the guise of a close alliance, to her neighbours; and during BISMARCKS actually planning the dismemberment of time, her allies on the Continent had like his allies, the Dreibund contrived to survive, wise had a very similar experience; so because those allies felt a perfect confidence beyond a somewhat plain expression of that as long as this element of common. opinion as to Germany's conduct when sense survived, plain interest would con- Russia was concerned, she found herself tinue to actuate the councils of the prepared. In fact Germany has rather German state. Count VON BULow's recent overreached herself, for the result has been course of policy, financial as well as political, her practical isolation, which has been the has evinced such a decided lapse from the effect of finding herself distrusted all discretion hitherto exercised by his pre-round. This is pretty well exemplified in decessors that this confidence has been the manner in which the next move of Whatever rudely shaken; and the not unnatural England has been received. result of this we may see in the practical Germany and Russia may be pleased to say dissolution of the Alliance, and with it the outside, there is little doubt that both have reduction to its constituent atoms of the been compelled to look upon Japan as a public opinion of Europe. From the very important factor in Eastern Asiatic beginning it was to the credit of the states politics; and the announcement that Eng- men who came to the front in England that land has been the first to recoguise this has they saw the rottenness that underlay the been received with a feeling of disgust,
Will the unnecessary Alliance, and the country at large, though which with all their pretence of indifference perfectly willing to throw in its lot in case is very palpable. At all events, Austria and assurance given by Great Britain, not to of need with its professed objects, refused Italy feel relieved at being freed from the connect Weihaiwei by rail with the interior to unite itself with the shifty opportunism, unpleasantness of being bound fast in a of Shantung still be looked on as binding? to use the lightest word, which under cover league with a antion which, while profess- If so, Germany's share of the Shantung of the Alliance the German Chancellor hading to be their champion, has been secretly sausage "cannot be looked on as the same as the others' shares. Count VON BULOW's adopted. The exposures of 1896 showed plotting their destruction, and more recently how wise had been this course, and the the United States has been giving signifi- remarks about the German garrison at monarchies of Austria and Italy were not cant warnings that she intends if necessary Shanghai were by no means so satisfactory slow in recognising that the aloofness of to preserve her rights by stronger measures as the rest of his speech. What was legití- In mate for others, he said, in order to secure England, which at one period they almost than she formerly thought necessary. believed had been actuated by unfriendly all these things the growing feeling of the commercial interests, was legitimate for or indifferent councils, had really preserved world that, in coming to the front as she has Germany. As Germany was the first them from a grave danger. The events of done, England deserves the support of the country to avow her intention of retaining last year have certainly tended to strengthen nations, is becoming more and more apparent. her troops at Shanghai, this statement is this belief, and to indicate how little This is the true explanation of the very dis- disingenuous. The securing of commercial by the conversion of Shanghai dependence was to be placed on the graceful and undignified burst of blaguardism interests
utterance
(Daily Press, 7th March.) The German Chancellor's latest speech, as reported by REUTER, is more calculated to advance the cause of peace than his recent sensational
(or, perhaps we should rather say, reticence) on the German outery against Britain with regard to the Like every other South African War. politician who has referred to the Anglo- VON BULOW Japanese Agreement, Count finds that it suits his own country's policy excellently, that country being thoroughly disinterested in its action in China. This unanimity of profession is very gratifying to bear; the fulfilment of the promises will more gratifying. Count VON be still
to make a BULOW, however, went on
statement about Germany's definite
in Shantung, to which we
little importance. He, must attach no expressly disclaimed exclusive rights for Germany in the province, and using a grotesque metaphor defended his country from the charge of being greedy. · Ger many does not want any extra sausage in China, but demands the same rations as others." This is certainly straightforward and explicit, but we should like to know how Germany's mining and railway rights in Stantung are to be reconciled with this non-exclusiveness.
position
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