TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE CRISIS IN THE FAR EAST.
IT is evident from the numerous, though rather vague, telegrams which arrive from China, from the speeches of Cabinet Ministers like Mr. Balfour, Sir Michael Hicks- Beach, Mr. Chamberlain, and even Mr. Long, and from the attitude assumed by the Opposition, that her Majesty's Ministers have arrived at a very grave resolution. They have decided that the freedom of trade with China, now threatened by demands for exclusive privileges, and by " dotting " the coast with ports which may be left open only to the raiding Power, shall be maintained even, if that is necessary, by war. The actual word, which is for- bidden, as Lord Palmerston once observed to Count Walewski, in diplomatic intercourse, is employed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and would not have been employed bad it not been necessary to warn the democracy that it might be called upon for unexpected sacrifices. As the Russian Government is intent on its Chinese policy, which the Czar considers specially his own, and does not desire Free-trade ; as France is determined for the present to support Russia in all ways ; and as Germany hopes to found a Colonial Empire in China trading exclusively with herself, there will naturally be much irrita- tion among the statesmen who direct those three great States. We doubt if they are prepared for a great maritime war, which they have always post- poned in their minds to a moment when Britain and America happened to quarrel ; but still they constitute V a formidable combination, and if seriously afraid that their interests will suffer, may at least threaten to use their strength in the Far East in an active way. It is, therefore, for the British people to consider most gravely whether they are prepared in such an event to make the enormous sacrifices which will be necessary to enable their Government to prove that it has not spoken in any spirit of braggadocio or from any idea of " bluffing" its opponents.
We believe that the country as a whole, though hardly as yet fully awake to the situation, is resolutely with the Government. The leaders of Opposition evidently are, or such speeches as those of Lord Kimberley, Sir H. Camp- bell-Bannerman, and Mr. Asquith could not have been spoken. The chiefs of finance and commerce evidently are, or Consols could not remain at their present figure, nor would the view of the leading papers be so unmis- takeable; while of the decision of the manufacturing interests there never was any doubt. It is more difficult to gather the opinion of the dumb democracy, but it would be affectation to profess to doubt what it will ultimately be. The masses will follow the two Front Benches, eagerly if America declares upon our side, but in any case with patient resolution. A notion that this country has been of late too submissive to the Continent has gone deep Into their minds, they are sure that the cause of freedom of commerce is a worthy cause, and they are convinced that as the war must be maritime, the chances for and against their country are at all events fairly equal. The whole Kingdom, therefore, though utterly disliking war, would consider this a war in self-defence, and will support its statesmen of both parties in the most determined action.
Upon the whole, and with deep reluctance, we must admit that the country is right. We confess to a certain horror of wars for trade, which are morally indistinguish- able sometimes from pirates' wars, and which almost invariably cost more than the profits of trade will repay in a century. This, however, would not be a war for trade, but for the freedom of the commerce of mankind. The maritime Powers of the Continent, if they declared war in combination upon us, would do it avowedly in order to shut out all but themselves from trading with more than a fourth of the human race, and this not only without the consent of that fourth, but against its will. Their pretension would be like that of Napoleon when he established the "Continental system," or to quote a more exact analogy, like that of the Spaniards when they declared that they would destroy any ship or crew which interfered with their monopoly in the recently discovered New World. It is impossible for mankind hi the present age to put up with such a pretension, yet unless Britain steps forward as their mouthpiece they must put up with it. There is no other fleet in existence which could defend. the freedom of commerce even for a day if Russia, Germany, and France proscribed it ; and if Britain yielded, that freedom over a large portion of the earth's surface would be extinct. A duty, a clear duty, therefore falls upon us, with which considerations of profit have little to do, though those considerations also, no doubt, weigh, heavily with our statesmen. Thoughtful men of both parties have foreseen for some time that, with our small space for agriculture, with our rapidly increasing popula- tion of industrials, and with the ever-widening area of furious competition, commerce must be kept free, or this country can no longer sustain its myriads. We ask even in view of that grave issue for no monopolies ; but it is better to die fighting than to die starving,. and the sea-routes of the world and the great markets of the world must be left open to all mankind. If they are left open it is well, and we remain peaceful traders, care- less who tries to rival or to undersell us ; but if not, we must see, not for the first time in our history, whether the Vikings' blood has grown cold. Our people will respond to the summons, we fear, only too readily, for a profound sense of the unfairness with which we are treated has entered deep into their souls. We have thrown open our ports to the whole world on equal terms, asking of our rivals nothing that we do not ask of our own traders, so that in London some of the greatest merchants are Germans, that in Calcutta and Bombay every foreigner trades as if he were an English- man, and that in the most Protectionist of our Colonies we make no distinction between Great Britain and the most jealous of rival States. There are, we believe, restrictions, formal or informal, in West Africa, but they are made against our own people as well as strangers, and they are about to be swept away. Everywhere else, in the' newest of our possessions as in the oldest, in Uganda as in Newfoundland or Jamaica, the foreigner is as welcome as the Englishman, and the most unpleasant of Custom House officers disdains to inquire in what bottom the goods he taxes may have crossed the sea. We hold the "gate of Further Asia," Singapore, but ask no man for toll, and on our railways charge less to the foreigner for freight than to the British merchant. In gratitude for all this the Continent declares that we are hopelessly selfish, that we monopolise trade, and that if we are not given up to the spoiler, as we ought to be, we shall at least be shut out of all markets that can be closed. Every adventure is justi- fied if only it is directed against us ; every new treaty contains clauses intended to keep us away ; and on the Nile, the Niger, and the Yangtse our rivals, whom we are enriching, are striving for " posts " which they admit will not benefit them, but which will act as "embarrassments to British greed of trade." And then we are told that our power is waning, th .t we shall never fight whatever happens, and that it only needs a menace from the "mailed fist" to make us retreat into our warehouses, and begin intriguing again. The English bear it all with a wise patience, which has for basis the history of centuries and confidence that their commercial policy is just ; but they are very weary of undeserved opprobrium and worry, and if ever the chance comes of crushing a new Armada belonging to the new Spaniards it is in the spirit rather of Drake than Effingham that our countrymen will man their ships for a great final contest. We make no boasts of our power, which has limits, and offer no pre- dictions as to the result, which will be according to the will of God, but of the readiness of the people rash or well justified, to face the entire Continent in defence of the world's right to trade in freedom we entertain ncp doubt whatever. It is a most brutal piece of evidence,. but it is visible to all men, and we would ask the Continent to note that the speech of Sir Michael Hicks- Beach, which openly spoke of war, did not put Consols. back one single point.
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