“AND THE DOOR WAS SHUT.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11540, 29 March 1898, Page 4

“AND THE DOOR WAS SHUT.”

The policy of “ the open door ” in China has received a check which may not be overcome save by the fearful agency of war. It is ominous to find, journals like the London Times and Standard deploring the weakness and vacillation of a Conservative Government, and urging the adoption of a more vigorous policy in opposition to the tactics of Russia, France and Germany in the Celestial Empire. The leasing of Port Arthur and Talienwan by China to Russia, even with the retention of “ sovereign rights ” by the former country, is a deliberate blow to British interests in North China. No one will be satisfied with Russian pledges or engagements that these ports will be kept open to trade. What is meant by “ an open port, under the superintendence of Russian officials,” it is not difficult to divine. It would be a port where British trade would be subject, to all kinds of imposts and restrictions that would render “ the open door ” of no practical avail. The situation has therefore once more assumeda grave aspect. The British may be ‘‘ a nation of shopkeepers,” but for this very reason the present is one of those crises when, in the words of the late Laureate, “ the smooth-faced, snub-nosed rogue would leap from his counter and till, and strike if he could, were it but with his cheating yard-wand, home.” Matters may not be so bad as they are believed in Hong Kong to be, but certainly everything points to the isolation of Great Britain, and to her having to face the alternatives of war or submission, to having the “ door ” of China rudely slammed in her face. She .is not likely to hesitate in making her choice. We have no sympathy with the American financiers who prefer war to the present uncertainty; but a point may be reached at which British patience should endure no longer, and at which, in the interests of permanent peace and the progress of civilisation, impudent aggression should be met by active resistance. The hint that Russia’s ■ withdrawal from Corea was due to an understanding under which Japan gave tha Czar a free hand on the Liaotong Peninsula, places a new and unpromising aspect on the state of affairs in North China, There are signs that the British Government is preparing to pursue the aggressive policy advocated by public opinion. “ A strong naval demonstration in the Gulf of Pe-chi-li,” ,is what the Times calls for ; and this, in view of the large force of Russian troops being sent eastward, and the active naval preparations of the Czar'S. Government, may . he, tb an outbreak of hostilities. The bop© of Japanese co-operation with Great Britain would seem to be now remote, and if she has to face, single-handed, a coalition of Russia and France there will be desperate and sanguinary fighting in the China seas. It is to he hoped that an escape will he found, from the present threatening situation, whereby national honour and. interests will be satisfied without a resort to war. The position of Great Britain is one of the utmost difficulty; but if the wisdom of her statesmen should fail her she can rely upon the patriotism of her people to hold—it needs be, by force of arms —the position she has won among the civilised nations of the world.