THE LATEST ALLY

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 40, 16 August 1917, Page 6

THE LATEST ALLY

When the Chinese monarchical revolution ended in the defeat of the monarchists and the re-occupation of Pekin by the republicans, it was not clear whether the result would make for a maintenance of neutrality or for war against the Central Powers. Nominally, the revolutionists appeared to stand not only for monarchy but for war, and their defeat might thus have been construed into an anti-war decision. That assumption, however, could not stand, because the real contention between the fighting factions was not the war, and the issues were internal rather than external. Probably the main link between the war and the short-lived revolution was the judicious . distribution of gold by the Germans, whose object undoubtedly was to affect the Chinese situation in a way favourable to Germany; and clearly their best course was to subsidise monarchical or any other sort of disturbance in order to postpone, if not to prevent, China's declaration of war against the Central Alliance. As a preventive measure the scheme failed, and China, continuing to move towards the pre-ordained objective in the leisurely Chinese way, has now, through the restored republican form of government, definitely entered the great conflict by making war on Germany and Austria. Thus the substantial aid already rendered by China to Western Europe is regularised, and the way is paved for further drafts of Chinese labourers, perhaps for Chinese soldiers, and for a postwar China not nearly so favourable as she lias been to German " peaceful penetration." The exact relations of Japan 'to China, of the United States to Japan, and of the Entente to the Eastern question generally, remain in obscurity. If it became necessary, the Eastern world might be mobilised against the European Central Powers; but there would be a price to be paid.