UNREST TN MANCHURIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15557, 6 March 1911, Page 6

UNREST TN MANCHURIA.

As outbreak of anti-foreign disorders in Manchuria, such as seems to be threatening at the present time, would probably have far-reaching effects. The immediate cause of the unrest no doubt is the plague, which has brought an ignorant population into conflict with the foreign doctors and soldiers, but trouble has been brewing for a long time. The province has been marked by Japan and Russia into svhoi' e s of

influence, and the Chinese officials, its nominal rulers, are disregarded almost completely by the invaders. The United States Government was actuated by the best of intentions last year when it proposed that the Manchurian railways should bo controlled by an international board, but Japan and Russia rejected the scheme without any hesitation. A few months later the two countries concluded tho treaty which pledged them to preserve tho status quo in Manchuria. The agreement has been generally interpreted to mean that the Governments at Tokio and St Petersburg intend to despoil China of its northern territory without interference or assistance from any outside Power. China has made a few ineffectual protests and lately has complained that Japan is deliberately fomenting a rebellious outbreak in Manchuria, with a. view t-o securing an excuse for the introduction of additional troops. Whatever may bo the facts of the position, there can bo little doubt that neither the Japaneso nor tho Russians will withdraw from tho areas they have marked for their own. We were told in a cablegram published on Saturday that the Powers which but a few years ago were locked in a Titanic struggle on the plains of Manchuria intended to divide tho country between them, and evidently China is able to offer no real resistance to this little scheme. The people most intimately concerned would be better off under tho new rule than they are under tho old, and the only Power likely to protest at all seriously against a formal change of ownership would ho America. The authorities at Washington seem to be watching developments in the Far East and the Pacific very jealously.