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THE LUST FOR EMPIRE.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Driven to desperation, the Russians set fire | to their own city, and the French having no shelter, and far removed from their base of operations, had to retreat. In that disastrous retreat the grand army of the Emperor perished practically to a man, and with it practically perished the empire that he had taken so much care to found.
(June 27, 1904.
THE WAR.
(Daily Press, 18th June.)
(Daily Press, 20th June.) In all ages a very similar law of nature has
Admiral BESOBRASOFF by his dash from prevailed to prevent the dream of universal
Vladivostock to within thirty miles of Port empire ever being realised by mortal man.
Arthur, and by the blow he has inflicted ou The cause has ever been the sanie; a break
his enemy in the sinking of the transport in the communications with some distant
Hitachi-maru with the loss of one thousand dependency has exposed some defect in
In all these cases the lust for empire lives has achieved the first notable success organisation, and the great empire, towards which in each individual instance had pro- in the war that can be placed to Russia's the building up of which so much skill and noted the invasion conduced directly to the credit. The sinking of a transport is not, energy has been expended by the founders, issue. To gain initial success, and sufficient to be sure, a very heroic act, but the loss of and so much loss of blood and misery has vis inertia to overrun. its peaceable neigh nearly its entire freight of troops will not been undergone by the vanquished, has bours, the first steps of such an army must be without a stimulating effect upon the suddenly collapsed in the face of some be rapid, and once impelled on its course no men of his squadron and the Russian sea apparently insignificant foe, whose ability pause is practicable, nor can any time be and land forces generally. It is noteworthy for defence was nut thought worthy of allowed for reflection, nor for consolidating that no official Japanese despatch given out entering into the councils of the invaders. the kingdoms overrun, or arranging for for publication has confirmed Admiral It was thus that the great RAMESES, having communications if once interrupted. To SKYROLOFF's report that the squadron conquered the whole of Syria up to the pause in such a career is fatal; the leader is approached so close to Port Arthur, but it is insignificant town of Kadesh, found himself no more master of his actions than is the on Japinese testimony we have it that this suddenly brought up by the king of the Malay who has once started to run amuck. squadron last Wednesday was in the Strait Khatti (Hittites). RAMESES had been mis- To advance or to halt are both equally of Corea and there sunk one transport and informed as to the position occupied by the fatal, and, driven to desperation, he shuts his torpedoed another, without, however, in the enemy, and advancing with his bodyguard eyes and rushes blindly forward. Such was second case, a disastrous result. We have of some two thousand men, found the the cause of the decay of Egypt; such of already recalled the fact that since the Hittites had succeeded in surrounding him. the mad attempt of DARIUS to conquer war began a squadron under Admiral His soldiers fought with the courage of Greece; such was the ruin of the Empire KAMIMURA had been specially detailed to despair, and succeeded in guarding the king of Genghiz; such was the end of NAPOLEON'S watch the enemy's ships at Vladivostock, till reinforcements arrived, when the foe final effort towards universal monarchy; and the public will be eager to learn how was defeated with great slaughter. RAMESES, and such in the end, even should Russia it happened that this opportunity of attack- however, took warning from his narrow
contrive to evade for the moment the dooming the Vladivostock squadron was missed. escape, and concluded a treaty with the she has prepared for herself, will be the re- From the official telegram announcing that Khatti on equal terms, and we hear nosult of Russia's unwise uneddling with the Admiral KAMIMURA started in pursuit the more of further hostile advances of Egypt seemingly insignificant empire of Japan. same day that Admiral BESOBRASOFF deliver- into these regions. So DARIUS THE (REAT, Matched against Russia in even war, Japaned his blow on the transports, it is seen that King of Persia, in his schemes for the con- could have had no prospect of success, but the Japanese Squadron was at Sasebo, 30 it quest of the world found himself twenty- Russia in her intense folly gave her of her is not improbable that they will overtake four centuries ago confronted on the plain own notion the only possible means of suc-
the Russian ships. of Marathon by a little Greek army; all cess, and Japan, as Greece at Marathon, Asia had submitted to his arms, and it
waster of herself, boldly seized it. The sedined an almost ridiculous thing that a
fortress of Port Arthur, to gain which country which was not as large as the least Russia has staked her honour and her of his satrapies, should dare with a few reputation amongst the natious, has turn thousand meu to confront him in the field.ed against her. It may have fallen hy Before evening the hitherto invincible Per- the time these lines are published; it sian army had undergone a defeat, so severe, and accompanied with so great a loss of prestige, that from that day the power of Persia commenced to decline. An adven- turer, one ÅRSAK, of whom nobody had ever heard, a few years after the death of ALEXANDER at Babylon commenced to raid the northern frontiers of his distracted empire. Taking skilful advantage of the disputes between the great conqueror's suc-
Her own
may survive in Russian hands for a few months; it may even
never be fated to Japanese armies.
fall into the hands of the Yet we are none the less justified in believing that as
an Empire Russia has fallen for ever-never again to be a bugbear amongst nations. oppressed millions have been brought to wonder at the falsity of that seeining strength which once loomed over them as ARSAK succeeded in founding a something more than natural; the nations kingdom, powerful enough, not only even in Central Asia, conquered not by arms but tually to turn the tables against the Mace-by the distant prestige of her arms, which donian supremacy, but three centuries later to inflict so severe a blow on Roman prestige that the empire never completely
cessors
recovered the shock.
Most of all should Russia never forget this great truth. Twice, almost by miracle, has her empire been saved when in the last throes of extinction, not by her own prowess, but by circumstances over which she had herself little or no control. In the four- teenth century the entire of Muscovy was overrun by the Mongol hordes of BATU KHAN. Passing into Hungary and Germany the hordes bade fair to destroy the rising civilisation of Europe, which lay helpless at their feet. Fortunately at the crucial moment the senior KHAN OGOTA died, and BATU, realising that the inevitable wars of the succession would need all his energy, left his conquests incomplete and recalled his troops to the steppes. In the nineteenth century, again, the EMPEROR NAPOLEʊN, iu the pursuit of the will-o'-the wisp of Univer- sal Empire crossed the whole of Europe
they had been assured were invincible, have ween that prestige scattered to the winds; and seeing the last rag almost frantically grasped in nerveless hands, have naturally asked themselves: Are we not men ourselves as good as these? The nations of Europe who have been looking to Russia as the arbiter of the Coutinent, and founding their own little schemes of conquest on obtaining at least Russia's complacency, have like wise come to look a little more closely into her ability to help, or the value of her opposition should she decline to take part in their little shuffle.
Such, we take it, has been the most use- ful lesson taught by this most modern of wars, which, yet scarcely more than four months old, has already been pregnant with lessons of the most valuable nature.
An incident, most gruesome and regrettable, occurred lately when H.M.S. Rinaldo was six hours' steam out from Sandakan. It appears a bluejacket unfortunately fell overboard, and in
However pleasing the sinking of a trans. port with almost its entire human freight may be to the Russians as an act of war, the whole civilised world must shudder at this method of annihilating brave men. Not that the Russian squadron has done any. thing that, according to the rules of war, it was not fully warranted in doing; but the spectacle of these thousand soldiers volun- tarily preferring to be sent to the bottom of the ocean rather than surrender them. selves alive to the enemy strikes the im- ngination in a way which most peculiarly affect the chords of the world's sympathy. Possibly many will condemn the act as wholesale suicide quite unjustifiable
under the circumstances, but for our part we would wish neither to condemn nor entirely commend it. Some have derived from this wholesale immolation the mistaken notion that the element of cowardice enters into it; but anyone acquainted in the slightest degree with Japanese military history will instantly reject the notion. It is not cowardice; these soldiers did not fear the treatment that might be accorded them if they surrendered themselves alive to the enemy; their preference for death under such circumstances shows in fact a proud, unyield- ing, patriotic spirit and a magnificent stoicism which the world can admire even though it deems the occasion unworthy of its exhibition. We shall fail to understand these acts in their true light if we judge them entirely from the modern Europe.n point of view. We need to know that Japanese military history abounds with examples of wholesale acts of suicide. Seppuku (the form of suicide peculiar to Japan, but now practically obsolete) probably had its origin, according to Mr. BASIL CHAMBERLAIN, in the desire on the part of the vanquished warriors to avoid the bumiliation of falling into the enemy's
without opposition and entered on the plains the act of swimming towards a lifebuoy, which hands alive. After a battle, GRIFFIS tells us,
was immediately thrown to him, he was seized suddenly by a shark, and disappeared from
of Russia. The Russian army was unable to stop his advance, and Moscow, the first city of the Empire, was taken by the French.view.
the vanquished wounded fell on their swords, drove them through their mouth or breast or cut their throats. Often a famous
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