The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3818, 10 October 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1883.

The settlement of tho difficulty that has arisen between France and China appears to be as far off as ever. Twenty years ago it would have been impossible for the Chinese Government to have asserted itself in such an unmistakable manner as has lately been done through tho Marquis Tseng. ThC difficulty would have been settled by the immediate blockade of the Chinese ports by a French fleet, and this method of settlement would have received, if not the support, at least the sympathy of England. It would have been considered intolerable by tho western world to be dictated to by Orientals, and any attempt of tho sort would havo been visited with condign punishment. But the China of today is by no means the China of a quarter of a century ago, and the prospect of a war between her and France assumes a question of a deep interest to these colonies. _ The Melbourne Age points out that within the past year she has compelled Russia to recede from tho province of Kuldja—where the Russian merchants who stayed behind were plundered and ill-treated—and has opened up the Corea to English and American commerce, that sho may check Russian influences in that quarter. Her claim to suzerainty over Annam, is, we believo, a sound ono by international law, but so also is her claim to suzerainty over Siam ; and if she succeeds in driving out the French, or, as is more probable, reducing them to tho occupation of a few strips of territory, it can hardly bo doubted that the nominal sovereignty over Siam will be made a reality again. In that case, instead of having two buffers interposed between tho Straits Settlements and China, we shall have China coming up to our very frontier. The prospect is not a reassuring one for England, as sho has foolishly allowed Chinese immigrants to settle in the Malay Peninsula, till"they are practically the dominant population. As tho Americans have at last taken effectual measures to keep the Mongolian immigrant out of California, and these colonies are more or less following suit, it seems certain that any great success of China in a war with France would lead to a great settlement of Chinese colonists along all tho shores watered by the Indian Ocean. Our interest undoubtedly is that nothing of the sort should take place. Next to England, an unaggressive commercial country like Holland is the best neighbor wo can have; and no one we

think would murmur if Belgium or Portugal were to form settlements in Celebes or parts of Borneo. Meanwhile, a French colony in Annam is comparatively an advantage to us. It is not likely to bo dnngerous— for the French havo never yet shown themselves able to create powerful dependencies— and its mere existence is a guarantee that European interests will be protected in these latitudes ; that piracy, for instance, will be stamped out. Practically, too, the French flag protects British trade in Saigon quite as much as French interests. Wo are accordingly bound, for our own sakes,.to wish that : tho French may at least maintain tho position they have held hitherto, and above all that this may be done by peaceful negotiation. Where a country has such immense natural resources as China, and is governed by such statesmen as China seems to possess at present, she is strengthened oven by an unsuccessful war. She easily learns to correct her own deficiencies of organisation, and she takes very accurate measure of her antagonist's weakness. If the Chinese can once establish a definite ratio of inequality to the French—can prove, for instance, that three or five Chinamen are as good as one Frenchman, the rest is a mere question of time. China has eight times the population of France, and lies on the very border line of the seat of war. It is most unfortunate that the French should ever have engaged light-heartedly in the present quarrel; it is earnestly to bo hoped that they may extricate themselves from it safely and honorably. Meanwhile, if they havo to fight, we may comfort ourselves with the reflection that they will certainly not bo in any condition to profit by Lord Derby's timidity in the matters of New Guinea and the New Hebrides.