19th Jan, Tue British Government is some times criticised for fighting in Afri instead of more forcibly exerting its influence in China. It is represented that China offers the more inviting field to the employment of commercial industry, while Africa has searcely yielded to the search-light of modern methods; but as such representations are made without a due knowledge of the facts, the criticisms based upon them are necessarily groundless. Great Britain controls in Africa an area nearly twice as large as the area of China, and within this British area are gold and diamond mines approximate ing the wealth of all China. That is one reason why the British Government has sent soldiers to Africa. Another reason is, that of the 11,189,500 square miles of African territory there are 10,604,000 held by eight European nations, including Great Britain, and that the most valuable part of this vast territory is Feovered by the British flag. It is then evident that the value of British interest in Africa far exceeds the value of that interest in China, and that a manifestation of inability to! protect it would be fatal to it all. The eyes of nations unfriendly to Great Britain are wider open in Africa than in China, and there must consequently be no slip in Africa. From what is now known of the resources of Africa, the wealth of that continent will be fabulous when developed, but there is a practical view of the subject which brings it nearer under consideration. The entire foreign commerce of China is estimated at £50,000,000 a year, while the I foreign' commerce of Africa is! £150,000,000 a year, and £130,500, 000 under foreign control, and much the larger share of the latter under the British flag.
The above few facts merit consideration; a nation has as much right to go to war to protect its commercial interests as an individual has to stand in the doorway of his and repel the would-be despoiler or invader, and in Africa Great Britain not only has large commercial interests, but claims to stand in the doorway as well. The five native States of Africa would never develope the continent, not any more than the Chinese' develop! China, for all these States own barely 1,000,000 square miles of the area, and do not control more th:
£20,000,000 of the foreign commerce; and mere technical rights should not be a governing rule in the solution of great problems of civilisation.
When the British Government is criticised for not displaying force in China, it may be answered, that the right to use force in Africa is decidedly more unquestionable than would be: the right to use it in China. The proposition to recognise and keep China a sovereign empire, and then not permit her to exer such sovereignty within its full orbit, is] quite unique in originality. "It! China is sovereign, she can lease parts of her territory to whom she pleases, and to deny her that right would be to withhold the exercise of the very essence of sovereignty: and if China, in the exercise of a' sovereign right, makes a lease of ritory to another sov it be seriously contended that a third State could intervene, and of right demand conditions inconsistent with the exercise of sovereignty? And certainly, if spheres of. influence are marked out of the territory of China, the nations having the spheres will exercise influence within them and will have the right so to do. The open door and the sphere of influence are inconsistent terms; the one or the other must give way; they cannot exist side by side, for no nation with proper self-respect will accept a perpetual lease, or even a lease for years of a part of the territory of China and then allow a third agency to cultivate that ferrite in its own special interest. Sucl a feeling of brotherhood need not be expected upon this earth yet awhile.
And the United States ought not to be indifferent to what is going on in Africa, for ten years ago their exports to Africa amounted to only $4,000,000, but now the value has increased to $18,000,000, as great as the increase to China has been; and with the development of the Continent of Africa the trade of the United States promises to be corres-pendingly developed. But the defeat of Great Britain in Africa would mean" the closing of the door there as it is attempted to be closed in China, and by the same continental influences. The last year of the nineteenth century brings' to the surface events which point the destiny of the two branches of the Saxon race, but unless there is more than the unity of moral power it will not be sufficient to achieve that destiny in the interest of all mankind. In Africa the irish flag must be carried to and China should be made ly wake up with the encourage-iment that the integrity of the empire will be preserved under the development of modern appliances; and when that is done, Mr. Kriiger will no longer threaten to stagger the world, and the open door and spheres of influence will be subjects for romance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.