CELESTIAL PROBLEMS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4412, 19 July 1901, Page 4

CELESTIAL PROBLEMS.

Within the past few days it has become apparent that a permanent settlement of the Chinese difficulty has not yet been arrived at. We bad been led to believe that the occupation of China by the Powers was drawing near an end, that the Emperor and his court were again to take up their abode in the Imperial capital, and that nothing remained to be done but to put the finishing touches upon the negotiations between the Powers for the payment of the enormous indemnity of sixty-five millions. But all is not being arranged s o satisfactorily as was hoped. Our cablegrams inform us that owing to Anglo-Russian differences over tne payment of the Chinese indemnity, negotiations are at a deadlock, and Reuter’s agent states that the British troops to remain at Tientsin will be increased by one thousand men. The exact nature of the disagreement between Russia end Great Britain is not made clear, but it doubtless bears upon the method of raising the interest on (.he indemnity and upon the terms of repayment. The proposals made recently by Lord Lansdowne, on behalf of Great Bri» tain, were in a fair way to being accepted by the Powers. But Russia claims nearly one-third of the total indemnity and Great Britain’s bill is considerably less than a tenth of the whole. While Russia may have practically more interest in the indemnity, Great Britain has infinitely more interest in China, since her trade with that country is more than that pf all the other nations. Speaking in the House of Lords a few days ago, Lord Lansdowne declared that the Government would not be justified in allow ing British trade to be made, as it were, a milch cow for the purpose of facilitating the payment of indemnities. Among the matters involved in the deadlock in the negotiations is doubtless included the question of what duties shall be imposed to raise the necessary funds to pay interest on the indemnity debt. China had agreed t<> the amount oj the

indemnity demanded, although it was the opinion of some financiers, notably Sir Robert Hart, that forty millions was as great a sum as China could reasonably carry. The amount was to bo paid in bonds accepted at face value, and repayable with interest at four pel cent, in the course of forty years. But while all that was settled, fb® question of how the annual interest of £2,600,000 was to be raised, to say nothing of th* sinking fund, had to be adjusted to the satisfaction of the Powers. If duties are to bo placed upon imports into China, then, since the bulk of China’s foreign trade is with Great Britain, the result might be disadvantageous to the British manufacturer. The claim on behalf of British commerce seems reasonable. What Lord Lansdowne said in effect was that, if there were to be additional burdens caat upon British trade, compensation would have to bo found in additional and countervailing facilities in the interests of British merchants.

How these countervailing facilities may be obtained is a matter for mutual arrangement, and in doing so, the reported deadlock in the negotiations has probably arisen. If certain spheres are not to he set aside for British trade, other Ppwors will have equal access to the markets which British merchants have built up and rightly regard as their own. The imposition of differential duties in favour of British trade in those spheres where British interests hitherto have been paramount would answer the purpose ; but to cast such obstacles in the way of Russia’s securing her pound of flesh, representing twenty millions sterling, as against six millions due to Great Britain in the way of indemnity, i g not acceptable to the aggressive Muscovite, whose object in China has evidently been the acquisition of “loot” and territory. Great Britain’s interests in China are purely commercial, and her merchants will demand of their Government that their trade be safeguarded and absolved from plunder at the Hands of Russia, It has been the intention of all the other Powers to facilitate a final settlement. Russia alone has played double in her negotiations with China and the Powers. The increasing of the British garrison at Tientsin will, however, show to Russia that Great Britain is not, to he coerced into accepting terms that will militate against her trade interests. The final settlement of the war indemnity was regarded as a probable source of embarrassment among the Powers, and America suggested at the time that in the event of a satisfactory adjustment not being arrived at, the whole matter should be referred to_ the International Commission of Arbitration at The Hague. Before Great Britain accepts r.py offer of that kind, she may be expected to exhaust every means of settlement known to diplomacy, but she may discard a peaceful solution of the difficulty and enlist the aid of Japan to hurl defiance at Russia and support her moral and commercial rights in the Celestial Empire ny a resort to force.