TROUBLE IN THE FAR EAST

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 105, 5 May 1915, Page 6

TROUBLE IN THE FAR EAST

A few years ago a much-quoted picture of China was one of a giant slowly rousing from sleep. This alleged awakening lias been a painful process. The Empire has been named a republic, but in exchanging the T 'Son of Heaven" for an earthly President, Yuan Shih-Kai, the Chinese have merely put one arbitrary ruler in place of another. Yuan, who is as ambitious as he is masterful and extraordinarily subtle, has steadily strengthened himself in his place of power. One penalty is the perpetual fear of assassination, but there are compensations. Meanwhile,, the countrypasses from one trouble to another. Th« common people, the tillers of the earth, the patient, plodding workers, have not yet realised their hopes of great benefits from the revolution, and the future does not promise the peace and plenty which were to come, according to prophecy, by the adoption of a Western scheme of government. One of China's sore anxieties to-day is the "peaceful penetration" of Japan, and the resolution of the Mikado's Government to take advantage of the opportunity now, presented. China is weak, in a military and naval sense, and Japan is strong. The Allies, particularly Britain, are in Japan's debt for very valuable aid a-gainst Germany, and therefore the time is favourable for Japan to secure a maximum reward for that service. &pch an attitude makes Japan exactly like any European nation, as history, shows. Cable messages 'to-day state that Chinahas declined to accept all the revised demands of Japan, and it is plain that the rulers of tho Republic are using the argument that complete acquiescence with Japan's wishes would mean the practical recognition of a Japanese suzerainty. The Washington correspondent of the London Times remarks, in a despatch published to-day, that? " Pekin thought is probably tainted by Teutonic intrigue."* Germans have been busy with the brewing of mischief in China, since the first day of the war. The German scheme is to embroil China with Japan and to create a distrust of Japan among'the Powers of the Entente. Some weeks ago the Kolnische Zeitung, which is regarded as fairly l'epresentative.of German opinion, alleged that the policy of Japan was to bring the whole Chinese Empire under Japanese suzerainty and to exploit it without any rivals. "To this end," the German journal declared, " Russia, Great Britain, and the United States are to withdraw from the Far East. Russia loses not only her last hope of Manchuria, but also eastern Mongolia. In Shantung not only German but also American influence is 'to give way to the Japanese, England is driven' out of Yang-tse Valley. These are demands of such enormous extent that the mind can hardly conceive them. We might enjoy the thought -of the punishment which has thus fallen upon our enemies. However, we think of the i position of the white .man iv tho Far ! East, which would now scum lost beyond hope, and we lament thct blindness of

catastrophe for our race within the range of possibility." Of course, such extreme language is heavily discounted in Britain and America, but some uneasiness is felt in • these countries. Sir Edward Grey, according to the cable messages published to-day, has been pressed for information, and he has replied that the Foreign Office is in communication with the Japanese Government. China's wealth of coal, iron, and other resources of first-class importance seem to be fated to bring much tfnhappiness to the people who neglected to work those vast stores for themselves.