THE TERMS OF PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 74, 28 March 1895, Page 4

THE TERMS OF PEACE.

If the terms of peace which China has authorised her ambassador, Li Hung Chang } to offer to tho victorious Japanese are aB stated in the telegrams from St. Petersburg, it is pretty clear that the,great empire is beginning to recognise tho fact fcbab she has persistently ignored all along, namely, the facb that she has been very badly beaten. In Hung Chang, "it is said* Jhbipitta that his Government ia prepared to pay a war indemnity, and to consent to tho Japanese troops remaining in tho Chinese territory they now occupy til) the money is paid, He is also empowered to olfer die cession of Foochow, Majicosima, Brtt.au, Baduyan and Formosa. Ad the same time China will not hear of giving up the "Liatong Peninsula, on which Port Arthur is situated and which has been the chief scene of the war. Notwithstanding that the Japanese have overrun that) part of China the Chinese will not consent to its passing into tho handtt of their victors ; but conscious that the Japs may contemplate the permanent occupation of the place as a position of great strategical value, the wary Caleetiala propose a compromise that may commend itself to the outside powers. The suggestion is that the peninsula should be created a butler State under the joint protection of Russia, France and' Great Britain.

The mosb important concession on bhe part of iho Chinese is, of course, Formoaa. Tho Japanese have always cast longing eye 3od that beautiful and fertile island, and under tho Japanese its resources would no doubt be rapidly developed. Tho surrender of Foochow is also important, bub it is questionable whether the Japanese will consider the«o and the other concessions a sufficient price for China to pay for peace even in addition to the indemnity, which is suro to be heavy. Tho possbasion of Porb Arthur, which she captured, would give Japan a po9ibion on the gulf'somewhab akin to that which England occupies in Gibraltar., With such a foothold iD Chinese territory Bhe could exercise ao immenso power over the country. China knovvs this right well and hence her suggestion that the whole peninsula should bo mndo d buffer State. The position which Japan will ocupy in the East, should peaco bo concluded even on the terms mentioned, will be very different from that 'which ehe held a year ago. Then she was a comparatively insignificant nation from which no one expected much beyond pretty bamboo tables, and chaira, and brtc-a-braes. Now she is the power, in that quarter of the world. She cmorgoa from the struggle with a halo of victory shining round her, with a large acquisition of territory, with no loss to her treasury, for we may be sure China will have to pay for the war, and with the power to interfere in the affairs of the Corea to such an extent as to prevent the encroachments' of Russia in that direction. She has beon peculiarly fortunate in her campaign, having gained enormous prestige arid material advantage at a cost that is surprisingly trifling.