22nd February.
THERE is no ambiguity or uncertainty about the note sent on the first instant from Washington to Russia and China. The United States has got a President who knows his own mind and says what he thinks. Our Peking correspondent told us recently that the Powers having objected to Russia's proposition that she should give up Manchuria—which she originally promised to do without conditions—on condition that China gave her the exclusive right of mining: and building railroads there, Russia proposed as an alternative that this right should be given to the Russo-Chinese Bank, which was to be regarded for that purpose as a private institution, entirely unconnected with the Russian Government. It is against this last proposition that President Roosevelt's note is directed; and so that Russia may not feel offended, the note is sent to China as well, though of course it is as well known in Washington as it is here that China was not voluntarily offering this concession. As we have said, there is no ambiguity or uncertainty about the note; it declares plainly that "to grant any corporation" (such as the Russo-Chinese Bank, for instance) "exclusive mining, railroad, or other rivi'eges in Manchuria would be a reach" of the existing Treaties which the United Srates would view with the gravest concern." This builds a bridge by which both China and Russia can get out of the difficulty; they simply had no idea that any Power would regard the proposition as a breach of existing treaties. This note from V ington fits in well with the Anglo-Japanese Agreement, and shows, what indeed we know already, that the United States, though not formally a party to that agreement, is working in sympathy with the two Powers between whom it is made. The Agreement is already beginning to be efficient. The telegram that we publish this morning says that Lord Cranborne, the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, has informed' the House of Commons that Russia has stated that she intends to restore the Customs at Newchwang to the Chinese administration as soon as circumstances permit, and that there is no question of the good faith of this declaration. It becomes the business of Russia now to show what are the circumstances that prevent her carrying out this good intention promptly. The Powers claim to keep the government of Tien in their own hands, because the Protocol gives them the right to keep open the road from Peking to the sea, and Tientsin was the centre of the attack on foreigners in 1900. Russia may argue that Newchwang is on her road from Manchuria to the sea, which to a limited extent is true; but Newchwang has never been a dangerous centre of opposition to foreigners as Tientsin has been.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.