THE ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE.
[To THE EDLTOIL or TJIE " SPECTATOR."2
Sin,—The letter from Mr. Okamoto, Special London Corre- spondent of the Asahi, Osaka, in your issue of the 9th inst. is most interesting and somewhat amusing to those who know anything of Far Eastern affairs. These generalities like :— " It should be remembered that the Alliance has as its object the maintenance of peace and order in the Far East and only these conditions will preserve China's future," and "China's real hopes of ultimate unity and good government must therefore rest in the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty and in the adoption of a common policy by the two Allies" are, of course, mere typical diplomatic phrases that simply mean nothing.
You rightly emphasize the importance at the present juncture of close and harmonious relations with our American cousins, but the touchstone of those relations must be our future policy in China. That policy has hitherto been one of loud professions of support for the Open Door, Equality of Opportunity, the Integrity of China, and all the other formulae or desiderata to which the United States Government justly attaches the utmost importance and is determined to uphold, while, on the other hand, allowing ourselves to be identified with a Japanese policy in China and Korea which can hardly be described as other than utterly at variance with these professions. Admittedly, our positions up to the present and before the elimination of the Russian bogy and the terrible German menace was one of exceptional difficulty, but a new era has dawned, and we have now an opportunity of throwing off the shackles.
The Far Eastern problem is really a simple one and can be solved without difficulty by the answer to the question :— Is Japan determined, under the domination as hitherto of the Military junta, to continue a policy in China of attempted paramountcy there based on propinquity, racial affinity, and so-called economic necessity; or is she, on the other band, having profited by the lessons of the Great War, prepared honestly to recognize, first, the commercial and political equality of all nations operating there; end secondly, the claim of China to sovereignty within her ows domain, to reciprocal treatment in all matters requiring settlement, and to sympathy and support rendered in harmony and co-operation with the other interested Powers?
On the answer to that question hangs the issues of war or peace
In the Far East, and no proposal for renewal, even in modified form, of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance should be entertained until that answer has been given to the world.—! am, Sir, &c., W. MeC. OSBORNE (late Commissioner of Customs, China). Carnalea, Co. Down.
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