The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1909. THE YANGTSE VALLEY.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 213, 7 September 1909, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1909. THE YANGTSE VALLEY.

Tor the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resuitunoe, For the future in the distance, A.nd the good that we cmn do.

One of the most important communications that have reached us for some time past from the Far East is the statement' just published by the " Times " from its special correspondent regarding England' 3 position in the Yangtse Valley. The correspondent in question is either the "Times'" famous Peking representative, Dr. Morrison, who is recognised everywhere as an oracle on Oriental affairs, or the special commissioner, who was lately detailed to investigate the Manchurian claims of Japan, and who was described by the "Times" as possessing absolutely unique qualifications for his duties. In any case we can accept this dictum as to England's status in the Far East as supported by all the authority which the " Times " still wields when it turns from domestic politics to foreign affairs, and it i 3 difficult to overestimate its ominous significance- For we are assured that England is being steadily superseded by Germany in the Yangtse Valley, and that the Germans, by virtue of the control they have secured over various important Tail way concessions, now hold the key of the situation there. The "Times" attributes the collapse of England's ascendancy in Central China to the refusal ot the British Government to concern itself with commercial interests, which it prefers to leave entirely to " private enterprise." On the other hand, Germany and America regard the maintenance of the nation's prestige and the extension of its commerce as one of the chief duties of the State, and the difference in point of view may account for the extent to which our rivals, and more especially the Germans, have gained ground at our expense of late in the Fai East.

It might be assumed from the tone adopted by the "Times" that England has some definite claim on the Yangtse Valley, and that Germany, iby making an incursion into it, is encroaching in Koine illegitimate way on our preserves. But this is very far from the truth. The Ordinance ol IS9B, to which our ca>ble

message refers, was merely an informal I arrangement mutually settled between the Powers to the effect that they recognised each other's paramount interest in the portion of China with which they had then respectively established the closest commercial relations. Thus Bus sia claimed predominant commercial standing in Manchuria, Germany in Shantung, England in the Yangtse Valley, while America, Japan, and France were content to locate their interests in the southern provinces. But none of the claims could be fairly interpreted as constituting a "sphere of influence" for the Power concerned. As to England's position, Alexis Krausse, in his standard work "China in Decay," writes:—'"To speaJs of the Yangtse Valley as the sphere of British influence is to assume a position for which there is not the slightest justification. The cession of the Valley lias never 'been, demanded by this country.

and it has Host certainly not been volunteered by the Chinese." All that China ever did ia the matter was to pledge herself not to alienate the Yangtse Valley to any other Power. But it was never proposed that the Valley should be made OTer to England; and as England has always professed to maintain the principle of the "Open Door" in the Far East, she can hardly 'blame the Germans and Americans for pushing their trade into the Valley, which forms the largest and richest field for commercial enterprise still unexploited in all the world. The importance of the Y T ang-tse j Valley to England and to China can be j only vaguely indicated by statistics. Tbe basin of the Yang-tse covers about 750.000 square miles —fifteen times the area of England—and comprises the greater portion of seven Chinese provinces. The largest of these, Szechuan, alone has a population of nearly 80,000,000, and the total population of the district watered by the great river and its tributaries is not far short of 170,000.000. In agricultural and mineral wealth it is doubtful if any region in the world surpasses the fertile and densely-crowded districts through which the Yang-tse and its many tributaries run, and the potentialities of the Valley, if once its natural resources could I>e exploited by the most efficient means, are practically illimitable. The annual trade of Shanghai, the city where British commercial interests are most firmly founded, amounts to over £40,000,000, and the foreign trade of Hankow, a city of over a million inhabitants, situated 600 miles up the river, is set down by Krausse at over £13.000,000, of which over SO per cent is in British hands. Possibly these facts may give some idea of the immense possibilities latent in this vast region, and they may suggest the inference that England, recognising the enormous potential value of the commerce of Central China, must have taken reasonable precautions to secure a practical monopoly of it for herself. But, unfortunately, as the "Times" laments, the British Government has never yet been prepared to admit that the extension and protection of British commerce is part of its duty; and the inevitable consequences of "Laissez faire" have already revealed themselves clearly enough in the Far East. Ten years ago, when Lord Charles Beresford wrote his "Break-tip of China," England was still the dominant factor in China's foreign trade. But within the last decade, the face of the situation has changed. Germany, which has never pretended to favour the "Open Door," has not only maintained her position in Shantung, but has backed the financial and commercial incursions of her subjects into the Yangtse provinces by every means in her power; and the natural result is that [England is rapidly Posing ground in what was less than ten years a£o regarded as her own exclusive "sphere of influence." The control of China' 3 foreign trade is at stake in the Yangtse Valley, and the loss of this invaluable asset is not the least of the many I injuries that England has inflicted on herself, through the lack of a policy at once "consistent, continuous, and J comprehensive," in the Far East.