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and immediate interests of either Rome or France, the attempt was hopeless from its very beginning. The idea of Pekinese statesmen, that they could obtain better tering by dealing with the Vatican direct than through the medium of France, has all the while lain dormant, and has never been really extinguished, and there is reason to believe that Germany was more or less concerned in keeping it alive. It need *therefore excite little surprise that in view! of the unfriendly feeling just now existing between France and the Pope the idea has been once more revived. It is hardly likely that it will be more successful than before but the very fact that it has been broached may lend the statesmen who now preside over French interests to reconsider the difficulties of the case, and propose them- selves some modifications in their relations with the Vatican.
The
Then again a new modification, said to have been suggested from India, has been proposed in the relations of the Indian Government with the further Enst. new scheme suggests that Burma should be parted from India, and formed into another great
include dependency to the present Straits Settlements And the dependent Native States, Why it should be brought forward at the present moment is not very clear, nor why it should | havę ostensibly come from India. It is of course quite feasible that Lord CURZON should desire some alleviation of the awful weight of responsibility at present resting on the shoulders of the Indian Viceroyalty; but then, on the other hand, Burma has at times afforded financial relief to India when the latter has been taxed beyond her strength by some unexpected crisis, as in the late famiues. Indi and Burma have had a tendency to oscillate; evil times in one have been concurrent with surplusses in the other, and the balance has thus been kept remarkably steady, without overbur dening either. The more probable reason of the suggested radical change is the increasing importance from an Imperial standpoint of the Pacific Ocean; and the scheme probably points to some more definite amalgamation of Imperial interests than is practical under the present system. Then again, Germany has been recently displaying more anxiety regarding her position, and is certainly making strenuous efforts to extend her influence in Shantung, and to carry it across the peninsula to the coast of the Gulf of Pechili. This shows itself in ways apparently petty, as in the refusal of the German Consul at Chefoo, doubtless acting under.superior instructions, to join in a harmless schenie for the crea tion of an international settlement on the model of Shanghai, as also in details connected with the working of the railway to Tsinan, in marked contrast with the system prevailing on the Imperial Railways in Chihli.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
her revolutionary policy, is pretty well con- vinced of her inability to render her any tangible help.
Looking neross the Pacific, the States are under their momentary quartenial paralysis, and though the indicati ns are all in favour of her recent more active policy being re- sumed, probably with increased vim, at the moment nothing is apparent on the surfice. One thing is, however missing. Our own Government has as yet scarcely risen to the comprehension of how intimately the in- terests of our great colonies of Canada and | Australia are concerned in the solution of the problem. Fortunately our greatest statesmen of the day are intimately con- nected with our Imperial as distinct from our merely European interests; it is surely a time when we should seek to draw closer the links which bind us to our great dependencies.
UNRELIABLE AUTHORITIES,
(Daily Press, 16th September.)
If all Russians were like Mr. GABRIEL DE WESSELITSKY, or, to be less exacting, if all Russians occupying positions of authority and responsibility were of his kidney, we should find the regard in which his country is held materially altered, and the hopes he entertains more likely of fulfilment. We have been reading a copy of an address which that popular London journalist delivered about a couple of months ago to the Central Asian Sciety of London; and are impressed by its In these excedingly reasonable tone. degenerate days, when wars and rumours of wars, as well as the increasing hustle and bustle of existence, have made men's nerves too tense, aud their impulses somewhat hysterical, it is something to find a man with a message who has himself strictly under control.
When
[September 18, 1904. national pride, forbid me to disparage an adversary. But it is no dispiragament of the Japanese to disagree with their over- zealous friends who pretend that they are not Asiatics at all, but a race apart. Race, language, culture and traditions make them Asiatics; and it would rob Japan of her strongest claim to the world's respect if she were dissociated from Asia.' And later he added the illuminating remark that “Our contempt for Asiatics is based only on our acquaintance with the Mongol and Turanian tribes which established themselves on the ruins of ancient and highly civilized empires and have stereotyped the decadence which they produced." It is true that there have been many idle attempts to prove that the Japanese are not Japanese at all The western world, surprised to find that its notions of the Asiatic were rudely disturbed by closer acquaintance, and reluctant to correct its impressions, bas thus sought to put a monkey's heal on a fish's tail and call it a mermaid. Not long ago, a con- tributor to this paper dealt with a curious suggestion that the Japanese had a Jewish origin. European and American observers, unable to believe that a good thing may come out of Nazareth, have noted the astonishing progress of modern Japan, and have asked: Can these things be done by mere Asiatics? Then they invented a fable of the Japanese being a remnant of the population of a sunken continent. Uncon scious of the implied insult, some of the Japanese themselves have felt obliged to follow suit. Mr. KryosHI KAWAKAMI, M.A., full of American learning, has quoted DE QUATREFAGES on "The Pignies," and many others, to show that the first inhabi- tants of Japan disappeared before "a superior race of new-comers," and that these iù turn gave place to a third race superior both intellectually and physically," who took part in that same great Aryan trek which was responsible for the European parent stocks. As Mr. KAWAKAMI puts it: "When we first catch sight of ancient England, we see an Aryas settlement fishing in wattle canoes, and working the tin mines of Corn- wall. The hypothesis of an Aryau migration into Japan is not more wonderful... Both eastward and westward the Aryans moved along open water routes." If we accept his hypothesis, we have a stronger reason than ever for the Anglo-Japanese alliance, blood having in both fact and proverb a greater consistency than water! Even then, the English are Europeana, and the Japanese Asiatics, and their points of dissimilarity remain greater than the likenesses founded on their respective national genius and joint humanity.
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we find Reuter informing us almost in a breath that the Daily Telegraph has one day beslavered the Japanese with praise, and the next accused them of a great political bluuder; when even the Times loses its temper (as it evidently has done) over an incident like the expulsion of one of its reporters from St. Petersburg; when all the war correspon- dents, both reputable and reputationless, who came to worship all things Japanese, and remained to abuse them, because the Censor "queered, their pitch"; when we find such easily provoked prejudices, it is no small thing to come across a Russian literary man dealing with a vexed topic like the " Saffron Scare" with all the dignity
We have left it too late now to quote as and reserve of a Supreme Court Judge. extensively from Mr. WESSELITSKY's,address as it deserves. He throughout pays the Those who have heard of Mr. WESSELITSKY only as the London representative of that most_ungrudging praise to the Japanese, "Daily Mail" of St. Petersburg-the Novoe showing excellent discrimination of their When he Fremya-will be all the more surprised to better qualities and successes. Russian policy as exhibited through her find mode.ation in a member of that no- comes to the "meat" of his address, how.. representative at Peking does not materially torious journal's staff. Mr. WESSELITSKY, ever, we find that he is, after all, a victim differ from what it has ever been. It con- however, neatly dissociated himself from his to what we have, avoiding a now wearisome sista, as before the war, of seeking to pose as rabid colleagues by remarking that his phrase, referred to in an alliterative alter- the disinterested friend of China, and views would in no way engage his journal, native. There is, he says, no "Yellow" seeking to widen such rifts in the councils in which "no strict unity of opinion is in- peril, but he seeks to prove, on information of the other Powers a must of necessity sisted upon, and permanent contributors derived from “English sources," that display themselves. The old game of the have a wide latitude." In this address, he Japan is insidiously dóminating China, Friend of China has been pretty well followed the chairman, the Rt. Hon. Sir the Philippines (“but for the Spanish- exposed by recent affairs. On pretence of ALFRed Lyall, G.C.L.E., in pleading for American war, the Philippines might now guarding the interests of the "Friend an Anglo-Russian entente cordiale, When have Asiatic masters")," the Hawiian Siam, British * India (45), Russia succeeded in exploiting the pocke's he came to speak of the awakening of the group; of her too trusting dupe, but her ability to Asiatics, he said: "It is impossible to speak | Persis, &c. &c. Now, Mr. WiZSBLITSKY help has vanished with the exposures of the of it without mentioning Japan. I am in no was careful to emphasise that all his in- campaign. China would be a fool not to danger of forgetting that I am aldrefsing | formation was from English sources, and see the moral; and probably even the ber allies. Even if it were not so, Japan we would fain believe we wish to say, this Umrefss Dowager, who looked to Russia to would still have a claim on my courteous | inoffensively that English sources are more support her with material aid in carrying out | consideration. National policy, as well as I reliable than, well, some others. § Unfor....
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