The first note in the Overland Mult runs friendly contemporary the North-China Daily News, not many weeks ago remarked in a plaintive mood on the indifferent attention then paid by the British Press to Far Eastern affairs, particularly in view of events which were regarded by most Britons on the spot with very keen anxiety. We ourselves came in for a gentle dig inasmuch as our Far Eastern head-line had latterly been only intermittently used. The Shanghai paper will hardly charge us with overlooking at any time the gravity of the Far Eastern situation, but it must be confessed that for a period public attention here had been diverted from Eastern Asia by the seriousness of many issues which had arisen nearer home, and it seemed as if the voices of one or tire crying in the wilderness would evoke nothing bit a ghostly echo from the distant East. But the German' Emperor has changed all that for us. Our Shanghai contemporary can no longer complain that affairs in the Far Fast are shoved into the background, or that there is any deficiency of interesting news in regard to them, The home papers have been indeed full of the Fur East, but their speculations and recommendations have lost something of interest, now that the question of the Join is settled, Germany and Russia have disclaimed in words any intention of enforcing special privileges, and France has declared that she is not going to snatch naval station, All England has to do now is to see thut all these undertakings are observed in the spirit as well as in the letter. Tt is satis gram from the New York, how unanimous the New York journals are in supporting the British policy in China, The correspondent wired on the 23rd of January All London telegrams, even those to the Sun, agree that all England eagerly welcomes and heartily supports what the Sim dispatch calls the virile and vigorous Eastern policy to which the Salisbury Government has at last committed itself." Expressions of Am. erican approval of this policy continue fre-the cordial policy," as the Herald of "ports open and porte free to all world, and cannon, if need be, to keep them open," adding:—"No more memorable declaration has been made for half a century, none by which the world, ourselves includ will note largely profit." The Tribune so; frankly confess to admiration of the spirit in which England faces a momentous declaration." It welcomes the understanding between England and Japan, declares them entitled to the friendly sympathy of other nations, and disbelieves that other Powers can resist "the just and admirable principle" of an open Chinia.
In announcing that the German Government had decided, after a momentary period of hesitation, on making Kiaochou a free port, the Times takes occasion to show that the Chancellor of the Exchequer's allusion to war was not so menacing after all, the fact being that it had done its work. In'its issue of the 24th of January it says:—Experience hes proved that commercial
hostility, which affects injuriously the econo-rivalry may_ exist without, bitter political mie interests of both parties. Other nations, it is to be hoped, will, in course of time, follow Germany's example, and the Far Eastern question may be thereby greatly simplified. in any case there appears to be no sutlicient ground for the alarmist apprehensions of comic of our contemporaries regarding the present situation in the Far East. Though we have offered El conditions, the financial as h she stands sorely in, need, we have no intention of imposing that assistance by force; and gives a general adherence to the conditions, if she accepts the assistance in principle and there la n0 reason why the details should not be modified, provided reasons can be adduced for such modification. In certain quarters the strong expressions used by, Sir Michael Hicks Beach have been strangely' misinterpreted. It has been imagined that the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered something very like an ultimatum with regard to the proposed loan. In reality he did nothing of the kind. He merely said, and said rightly, that "at whatever cost, even. if necessary, at the cost of war," England would never allow her commerce to be excluded from ti Chinese markets. Let that principle be na ed to the mast and constantly kept in view whatever the result of the present financial negotiations swith the Teunglt Yamen may be. Our attitude is in no sense aggressive, but merely one of self-defence.
Two days later the Times reverts to this subject, while noticing the report that Russia had offered to lend China the money she wanted on the same terms as Great Britair seek to attach to any financial offers she may Whatever political conditions Russia may make to China, we shall seo that they do not shut the door which, as Sir Michael Hicks Beach declared, we are resolved at all costs to keep open. Our present treaties with China fully entitle us tofprovent any dangerous effort to close that door surreptitiously. There seems to be an idea amongst some foreign politicians that they have only to be within their "sphere of influence" in order to be able to convert it into a protectionist preserve without regard to the subsisting treaty rights of others. That is a doctrine, Mr." Curzon warns them, to which this country will not subscribe. Nothing short of actual annexation gives any Govemment a legal title to abrogate or curtail the treaty rights possessed in a foreign counts by other. States. Our treaty rights wit China give us the same right of entry to every port as is possessed by any other Power. We can enter it under the same condition and at the same tariff, and these are rights, said Mr. Curzon, "which every British Go ernment may be relied upon to as-ort and which no British Government can afford to sce extinguished." Our treaty rights render the desired operation of the *'sphero of influence" impossible. In these circumstances, and while the Government and the nation are animated with this spirit, we need not perhaps be very greatly perturbed even if Mr. Curzon's forecast as to the result of the negotiations should turn out to have been unduly hopeful.
In the Far East" article in the" Times of the 25th of January there are some interesting notes on Kinochou. The writer says It is rather curious, in view of recent developments, to note that the Chinese wished to make Kiaochou, rather than Chefoo, the treaty port of Shantung in 1858. It does not appear precisely by what motives Lord Elgin was actuated in his choice. Our knowledge of Northern China at the time was imperfect, and a port in the Gulf of Pechili may have been thought preferable. There was clearly an impression also thst Kiaochou was incouvenient.. Dr, Williamson remarks, in his Journeys in North China, that the choice would have been fatal, as the bay cannot be deep; it is either filling up with the monsoon or rising of itself, and appears exposed to the wind from almost every direction." An impression seems, however, to be now gather found that the Chinese were really right.
doubt the bay is becoming shallower and Kiaochou itself, which was once the most important centre of trade in Eastern Shantung, lies now some 18 miles inland. But its commerce has been affected by other than natural causes; and there seems reason to assume that it possesses advantages which would enable it to recover its former prosperity under favourable conditions. The present port is situated at the head of a creek which is nearly dry when the tide is out. That involves lighterage; and it remains to be ascertained whether the shore can, by means of jetties and dredging, be made accessible to modern ships. What appears certain is that Kiaochou is better situated than Chefoo for purposes of access to the interior, while it can hardly be worse off in the matter of communication with the shore, The mercantile community in China seem to have been convinced, for some time, that it would be worth opening as a treaty port. Chefoo would suffer, of course, to some extent by competition but might, it is suggested, find compensation in the development of a small-steamer coasting trade around the gulf and across to Liaotung.
In its issue of the 28th of January, the Times asks: When is the Areopagus of Europe going to choose a Governor of Crete?" The Times has at last woke up to an appreciation of the futility of the Concert of Europe. "One of the rules by which the Concert des Impuissances, as the irrovent style it, has earned its reputation appears to be that nobody is to propose a candidate until it is quite certain that everybody will accept him." The consequence is, that not a single candidate has yet been formally proposed by any one of the Powers The language used by Ministers in their references to the subject has not been wanting insignificance. Mr. Balfour haa declared that personally he is " disgusted" with the interminable delays which have occurred in takin the first step towards the creation of a rational Government of the island, and he has ironical-Ly suggested that the Powers should decide their choice by "tossing up." Lord Kimberley, on behalf of the Opposition, after that he did not think he could age to depreciate the Concert 40 id that of Mr. Balfour, added that with every word of it, and especi that portion which referred to Crete, and he entirely exonerated Lord Salisbury from Blame for the failure which has occurred. Later and yet more striking are the passages in Mr. Chamberlain's Liverpool speech, "1 sympathise," ho said, with there who denounce the impotence of the great international tribunal to secure peace and order in Crete, and to bring justice and good government to Armenia, It isa discredit. to all the Powers of Europe." He went on to affirm that the deadlock is not the fault of this country or of its representatives, and then he conveyed very clearly what unquestionably is the view of a considerable portion of the community. "I will go further," he observed, most men must be coming to the conclusion that the present position is Lecoming intolerable and that it cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely." Ho referred to the risk of taking any alternative course," but he added that it might be our duty, although he hoped that it would not be our duty, "to preserve our right and indo. pendence and to take isolated action," No Government, ho said, it is true, would have been justified in contemplating anything of the kind, until they hud exhausted every other possibility"—a sentiment which weets, we are assured, with the entire approval of public opinion.' But if many more candidatures are to be added to the list of shams and failures an increasing number of it these islands will begin to ask fact, this situation has not come to pass. That is a contingency which the Areoy and those who control it would do well to dear in mind when next they are tempted to reject a possible Governor because he does not in all respects gratify the wishes of all of its members. There may or may not be valid reasons against the candidature of Prince George, but if he is not chosen, at least let somebody be chosen, and chosen without delay.
The Times correspondent at Berlin sends under date the 25th of January, the following account of the trial of the Editor of
much respected German Punch Eladderadatsch, the Jong estab Herr Johannes Trojan, the well-known editor of the leading German comic paper Kladderadatsch, was sentenced to-day in a Berlin Court of Justice to two months' incarceration in a fortress for the crime of (ése-majesty which he was found to have committed by publishing a caricature in his journal with reference to a speech of the German Emperor addressed to recruits. In the speech in question the Emperor had been reported as saying that "only brave Christians could be brave soldiers." "In the caricature of the Kladderadetach, which was entitled From the camp of the heavenly hosts," the Devil was depicted
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.