PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 69

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

THE FAR EAST QUESTION

Last week I brought my slight sketch of the relationship between Japan and Russia up to the conclusion of the ChinaJapanese war, when Japan found her conquests turned, as one writer puts it, into "Dead Sea fruit," or, as the Newckwang merchants said, "a Barmecide's feast to a starving man," when, in 1898, they addressed Lord Charles Beresford on the domination of Manchuria by Russia.

But before going further I want to refer for a moment to "Problems of the Far East," written 10 years ago by the Hon. G. Curzon, M.P. (now Lord Curzon, Viecroy of India), who has studied Asiatic problems, and divided them into three sections—"The Near East," "The Central East," and "The Far East." In his preface he says-. — "As I proceed with this undertaking"' — he is referring to the working out of the problems — "the true fulcrum of Asiatic dominion seems to me increasingly to lie in the Empire of Hindustan. The secret of the mastery of the world is, if only they knew it, in tihe possession of the British people." It is just as well to remember this when we note that Russia is tightening her grip upon Persia ; is plotting in the courts of the Amir of Afghanistan ; is knoM n to be at work in Thibet ; is practically in effective possession of Manchuria ; is threatening the independence of Korea, and the very existence of Japan as an independent nation ; and to remember, too, that this same Lord Curzon has lately taken the unusual course of making a progress up the Persian Gulf ; is responsible for Captain Younghusband's expedition now in Thibet ; and has had his term of office in India extended.

In his chapter headed "The Prospect," referring to the Far East, he says: — "The powei which has been longest in the field, which enjoys the best geographical position for the distribution of its commerce, or the dissemination of its influence, and which can command the largest resources, must infallibly triumph in any such competition [he is referring to the commercial exploitations of the Far East]. Our position in India gives us the certain command of the main land routes and railroads that will lay open the Far East in the not distant future. Our position upon the ocean, if duly safeguarded [he puts in the "if" because when he was writing we did not have that incontestable maritime predominance without which security could not be predicated], should assure to us the control of the highway. Furthermore, the country which has scattered millions in propping up the rotten republics of the New World may very well repay its age-long debt to the Old by a similar, even if a tardy, service."

He then refers to the rapid spread of the English language: — "After all, chis will be facilitated by the increasing diffusion of the English tongue, already spoken in every store from Yokohama to Rangoon ; already taught in the military and naval colleges of China, and in the schools of Japan, and Siain ; already employed in the telegraphic services of Japan, China, and Korea, and stamped upon the silver coins that issue from the mints of Osaka and Canton ; already used by Chinamen themselves as a means of communication between subjects from different provinces of the ; r mighty Empire : it is destined with absolute certainty to be the language of the Far East. Its sound will go out into all lands, and its words unto the ends of the world. That this splendid future is no idle dream, of fancy, but is capable of realisation at no indefinite period, none who have travelled widely in Eastern Asia will doubt. Moral failure alone can shatter the prospect that awaits this country in the impending task of regeneration." There is nothing of the ignorance of jingoism in such utterances, which are the outcome of deliberate thought and close and extended observation ; so we can line up with him and say ip unison : We sailed wherever ship could sail, We founded many a mighty State ; " Pray God our greatness may not fail Through craven fears of being great!

Whether or not in the interval of writing and now Lord Curzon has seen signs of "craven fears," or has, by the logic of facts, been caused to modify his opinions, I do not know; but we can try to live up to the verse quoted, and to keep in mind Tennyson's picture of Great Britain, when he speaks of her as : Grave mother of majestic work, From her isle-altar looking down, Who, God-like, grasps the triple forks, And kmg-like, wears the crown.

CHINESE RAILWAYS.

It is interesting to glance briefly at the progress made in railway building in China. The first line, a short one, between Woosung and Shanghai, was constructed in 1876 by English merchants ; but it was eompulsorily sold to the Chinese and torn up. When Curzon visited China in 1887 there wasn't a mile of railroad in the whole Empire. By that time— lßß7— Li Hung Chang and other far-seeing Chinese statesmen saw that railways, in the north at anyrate, were necessary (a) to open up the coal mines) to get an independent supply of coal in time of war, and (b) to withstand Russian aggression. The outcome was the line from Pao-ting through Pekin, Tientsin, to Shan-hai Kwan, with a proposal to continue the track through Kin-chow to Newohwang, and from there north to Moukden and south to Port Arthur. And just a word about Po^t Arthur. Previous to 18tt7, it was an insignificant place ; but in that year the French received a contract to build and arm forts, and. by 1890 the work w* well advanced. .Jlow handy that line of railway

and the fortifications have become to Russia !

To gather up a thread or two, let us now turn to Rus*la for a moment. China feared Russian advancement by the means of the Trans-Siberian railway ; yet in 1896 China — perhaps Li Hung Chang advised it, for it has been said he was in the Russian pay — agiced to allow Ru^s-ia, to deflect the railway, to bring it from Stretensk to Vladivostok via Tsitsihar and Harbin, instead of along the left-hand side of the Amur to Khabarovka, and then to Vladivostok. Then, of course, Russian troops were to be permitted to police the line, and so on, and so on. By 1899 Russia, had got on famously, and was strong enough to make a treaty v. ith Great Britain by which Great Britain agreed not to oppose Russia's railway projects in Manchuria, and Russia returned the compliment in the Yang-tse-Kiang basin.

The next point I intend taking up :s: s the Boxer rebellion in 1900 and its results. But I shall take it up next week.

Just another end to gather up. When outlining Japan's history, I intended giving 1900 as one of the great landmarks in her advance. In that year — if lam wrong I want some reader to correct me — she threw open all her ports to British trade, and for the first time all foreigners breaking Japanese laws were tried by the Japanese courts instead of being under the protection of their foreign consuls. It is only lately, too, that Japan has been free in all cases to levy customs duties without foreign interference.