ind December.
Is the letter headed "A Question of Deep Interest" which appeared in our columns three days ago, the writer, "Anglo-German," asked whether we should rather have China Japanese or Russian. If there is a war between Russia and Japan, and if Japan should emerge from it victorious, would such a restilt be to our advantage? Or, in other words: "Would we rather see China, which, owing to the lack of patriotism and public spirit manifest in her officio! class, is in the dis-Saantity. fall under Russian or Japan. graceful ion of being a negligible
ese supremacy "Anglo-German" virtually answered the question in favour of Russia. He urged the danger of a yellow alliance of Jepan and China against the West. Under Japan's tuition China would restrict foreign trade, shipping, and industries more than Russia does, Whereas there is a hope that Russia will in time fall into line with the ideas of her neighbouring more liberal ised communities, China will ~amain exetusive. "Chita," our correspondent went on to say, "only needs powerful "sand ning such asthe J:, who understand the Oriental mind as we never can, will give her, to revert to her old exclusiveness. We know that we are hated in Asia, perhaps not altogether unjustly, and students Japanese modern history and those who know the inner*thoughts of the Japanese statesmen, are well aware that these are, even more than the superior and that the Japa rus with an intensity, with their higher intellectual ment."
We hav: cogent letter on thi old Chin ubject adele hand now retired, not lung our columns.
that if 1 struggle begins ain in the oid world between the East and the West, it will be better to have Russia on its sidle. imagine, however, that the object of our correspondent: Anglo-German" was not so much to support any definite opinion, as te encourage the discussion of the subject. before people finally commit themselves to cither side in the quarrel which is thought to be coming. It might be pointed out that Japan does notrestrict trade or shipping to the same extent that Russiadocs: The average duty on imports from Great Britain into Russia is 131 percent. It is nothing like that in Japan. The dislike of foreigners in Japan which was alw more sentimental than practical was founded on jealousy, and is dying out as the Japmese feeling grows that they are the equals of Westerners and herein was one of the great benefits of the Anglo-Japanese alliance; it was a recognition of Japan asa Western Power. History shows that if the Japanese overrun China they will gradually become Chinese not the Chinese Japanese, and the China of the past is dying out China is eager to know and be known by the west.
Anglo-German's" letter is answered at some length by the very able letter which we publish this morning irvin " Anglo-S: writer pertinently ask: Japan or Russia has the better to pose as a champion of civil Russia, after centuries of contact with western enlightenment,. is still "an absolute empire of the ancient type.... In the influences of culture, while Russia has many great scholars and men of letters, her whole theory of education and scholarship is one of repression, of the -rushing out of the freedom of. critical thought. Even in China there is no intellectual barbarism to compare w paper censorship in Russia, has been in contact wit enlightenment for some tury. As regards political liberty, she possesses a constitutional govern-on the Western model. she retains the of the Eas!
s gained the method s proof of this, s with ta modern methods of frecdum and 1 area, and her wide-spree system of general education.... If by the ste trament of war, diplomacy, Japan does gaining the hegemony of jo, It seems ditticule to think that she w immediately res ict Western true and intinence, and thus oise a strong coalition of hostile Powers inst her Hi Saxon " has that the new Monroe Dor-trine which an Asiatic League would formulate would interfere with those European nations who revolution, constant ini break:
Compared with that, foreign would be in a more Honrishing even under the corruption of mandarindom. Surely it would be "Would you Japanese 0 Russi factors to herself, Ji a, and the Western work, Por China it makes little fte with which sauce sh+ is eaten. Japan it would be at grand task to undertake the renova tion of China: it is a task in which she has alread a beginning and a successful one, but tite alone can show whether she has the resources of all kinds necessary to carry it through. For Russia asa European nation, the addition of four hundred million Asiatics would be anything but an unmixed benefit, and it would very likely result in the East and the We unwieldy" empire. empire of stich and population would b. menace ty the Western world the Powers that are helping Bussia to extend her empire over China are cutting their own throats as well as those of their neighbew SLARKE'S BAI PILLS ete satranred cither sox, all acyzired er constitutional Discharges from "he Urinary Organs, Gravel and Pains in the back, Free from Mercury. Lstablished upwards of years. In boxes ds, 6. exch, of all Chemists and Patent Medicine Vendors theoughont the World, Proprietors, Lincoln xnd Midland Conn Gommny, Tineatn, Envlan,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.