Saturday's Times reprints from the Nome Vreraya an inter. view
in regard to China with a Japanese diplomatist at present in St. Petersburg which is of the highest interest. The Japanese have, he declares, an enormous advantage over all the other Allies because they are of the same race as the Chinese and understand them. "If his country acted in common with Europe in China, it did so only provisionally. It would not permit any partition of that Empire, and Europe ought to be content with the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, and leave to the yellow race the Pacific Ocean, which, in case of necessity, that race knew how to defend." If the worst came to the worst, the Japanese would unite with the Chinese in order to form a solid nationality, capable of defending its independence. After all, the so- called civilising mission of the Europeans in China was only a commercial enterprise, the object of which was to sell to the Chinese at the point of the sword the fruits of their industrial over-production which they do not know bow to dispose of elsewhere. "Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese will ever adopt European moral civilisation. Europe, which has in- vested millions in China, is now clearly running after her money, like an unlucky gambler who endeavours to make up his losses by imprudently doubling his stakes." In conclu- sion, the diplomatist said that the wisest course would be not to impose on the Chinese too hard peace conditions, to which they neither could nor would submit, and which would only draw Europe into a conflict beyond her strength. Of course, there is a certain obvious pose in all this, but who can deny that there is also a great deal of rockbed truth? The alliance of China and Japan is a real danger, in spite of Europe's command of the sea.
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