THE LATEST RUMOUR FROM THE FAR EAST. T HE kind of
enthusiasm so often manifested in this country for Japan is, we confess, to us a source of continual perplexity. That Englishmen should be interested in the development of any Asiatic race, and especially of a race so gifted with the adaptability in which we assume all Asiatics to be deficient, is not only natural but befitting. We rule one-third of the whole population of Asia, and apart from the intellectual interest of seeing any nation burst out of its fetters of habit and begin a new career, it is of the highest moment to us to be sure that we read Asiatics rightly. If they are really not bound, as we all assume them to be bound, in withes and chains of custom and belief, but can, when they please, throw them off and stand up free, then our future, as well as theirs, will be totally different from anything the most far-sighted among us have imagined. Conceive of all Hindoos believing that the honour of India was something for which to die in battle ! But why the English, of all peoples in the world, should be disposed to " take up" a pagan nation, which with some fine qualities retains the dreadful callousness that the pagan faiths have usually bred, a nation that if it thought it politically profitable would without scruple conquer by extirpation, is almost incomprehensible. To us the rumour circulated on Tuesday that Japan and China had succeeded in arranging a defensive and offensive alliance seems news of most sinister omen. The rumour is possibly true, for both the great factions in Pekin appear to wish the alliance, the reformers because they think that if China were governed like Japan they themselves would be free to propagate their ideas, the Conservatives because they feel that if China cannot be strengthened so as to resist attack, China may be dis- membered and their whole system brought down with a final crash; and if true the story would signifya resurrection of Mongol power which would be formidable not only to Russia, but to all Europe. Japan can give to China precisely that of which China is in search, a caste of organisers who, without being whites, and Christians, or interferjng with her social system, could impart a new vitality to her Army, Navy, bureaucracy, and finance. The Government of Pekin is still strong enough to levy hundreds of thousands of conscripts, who in three years, if armed from arsenals controlled by Japanese, subjected to the relentless Japanese discipline, and guided by Japanese officers, would be equal to any troops likely to be employed in Asia, or produced in any Asiatic State. The Chinaman is essentially brave ; the Japanese officer knows as much, for his particular purpose, as a European, and he has learned the secret, at all events when employed on State business, of putting an end. to corruption. We can see no reason why the Chinese Army if so reorganised should not be formidable, while it certainly would be, as compared with any armies which Europe can ship by sea, exceedingly large. No maritime Power could forward a hundred thousand men to China, and keep them up to that number, and supply them fully without being sensible of an exhausting effort, and the assumption that such an army could defeat three hundred thousand Chinese, well drilled, well led, and provided with quickfiring rifles and Maxims, is an assumption merely. If the Government of India had three hundred thousand Ghoorkas whose loyalty was beyond suspicion it would laugh at a threat of invasion from almost any combination of Powers and that would be the position of the Cabinet of Pekin. Indeed, it is doubtful whether a large army could ever get to China by sea, for the Chinese make excellent sailors, and the Japanese in possession of both fleets, increased as they might be if China reformed her finances, might make the despatch from Europe of a great fleet of trans- ports, however carefully watched and guarded, too risky an undertaking. One defeat en route, with the awful slaughter that would accompany it, would make it most difficult to employ conscripts, or even our own free soldiers, again on such a service. The frightful defi- ciencies in supply which, more than any other cause, paralysed the Chinese Generals in their defensive war against Japan would disappear with the disappearance of corruption, as would also the poverty of the Chinese Treasury. If the revenue raised reached Pekin, China could buy anything, and once under Japanese Controllers it would reach Pekin. They would pay the tax-collectors regularly, and they would execute them mercilessly, and between the two persuasions they would induce the Mandarins, if not to abstain from plunder, at least to leave off plundering the central Government. Mandarins made comfortable would dislike being hanged. It is use- less to say such results could not be attained. They were very nearly attained by General Gordon, and all experts declare with Lord Charles Beresford that they could be attained again if only the Manchus would thoroughly trust European officers. Why should Japanese officers fail, then, if they were trusted ?—and the hypothesis is that they would be, or the Treaty would not have been framed. The Japanese would understand their Chinese subordinates far better than Europeans can understand them, there would be much less of the jealousy which has so hampered everybody employed in China except Sir Robert Hart, and there would be a pitilessness in enforcing orders from which Europeans, however stern, instinctively shrink. China in the hands of Japanese statesmen would, we believe, for certain purposes, and especially for defying European menaces, be again a most formidable Power.
But, say the journalists, China would then be able to resist Russia. Possibly, though we doubt it, for Russia touches China by land, and St. Petersburg could waste men almost as freely as Pekin ; but where would be the benefit to Europe or the world in that ? The Russians are not lenient governors, but at least they are less cruel than Chinese. The Russians desire territory ; but would Chinese led by Japanese be such pleasant neighbours to Bengal, which they could reach through Thibet far more easily than Russia can reach the Indus ? The Russians are ready, it is alleged, to restrict trade, though they do not restrict it at Archangel or Odessa ; but what kind of restrictions would China enforce if she were once relieved of the fear of compulsion by European forces ? The Mandarins, once in possession of a strong Army, would do precisely as they pleased ; and if Europe remonstrated, Europe would be treated precisely as Italy now is,—that is, with an insulting defiance hardly veiled in diplomatic forms. If China recovered or " saved " Manchuria, as so many of our con- temporaries appear to hope, she would simply grind Manchuria for her own benefit, and keep all profit of trade in her own hands, as she did before Russia had approached the province. The Russians must govern Manchuria with reasonable lenity for fear of insurrection, and must allow foreign trade in order to make their possession pay ; but China, whenever free to act, has resisted both temptations. How much have we sold to Manchuria during the last century ? That China has the fullest right to ally herself with Japan, and thence- forward to make of the alliance a new source of strength, we cordially acknowledge ; but that the transaction would tend to our advantage, or that of Europe, we utterly deny. On the contrary, it would place immense masses of the material of power in the hands of Mongolians, — that is, of a race which has not accepted Christianity, whose character is pitiless, and who are dominated by a vanity which has all the effects of ambition and fewer of its restraints. The ambitious man at least wishes his sub- jects to prosper, in order that he may himself be great ; the vain man can tolerate ruin around him if only he is *worshipped and obeyed. It seems to us that many of our people are falling into a hatred of Russia which posi- tively blinds their reason, so that even merchants are content not to gain provided that Russia loses. That China has a right to keep Manchuria if she can do it without too much cruelty we frankly admit, but imagine wishing that in a war between China and Russia, China might win. It is as if Greece had longed that Parthia might conquer Rome ; nay, worse, for Parthia had at the time when Crassus fell perhaps the better creed.
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