28th September.
Tue terms of the new Treaty of Alliance between Great Britain and Japan, as published simultaneously yesterday in London and lakie, contain no startling and unexpected clauses. They have been in fact so accurately foretold that little remains to be said in welcoming the new Agreement, except to reiterate that it is, in Lord Lansdowne's words, "designed with objects purely peaceful and for the protection of rights and interests, the validity-of which is incontestable, and on which the arties are fully entitled to insist." here is no menace to Russia or to any other Power in any of the eight Articles; equal opportunities to all nations in commerce in China and in Corea are expressly stipulated for; but the allied Powers will stand firm to resist: together any "unprovoked attack or aggressive action" such as have led up to the war now happily concluded, a war which might perhaps have been avoided altogether had the new Agreement been in operation two years ago. Certainly the reaty makes for peace in the Fat East, and in Asia generally at the present time.
Ip will be observed that Lord Linsdowne in his eminently statesmanlike despatch to the Russian Government, writes justifying the belief that has been expressed in these columns, and elsewhere, that the conclusion of this Alliance was not without effect in facilitating the conclusion of the war. From such a remark it is not necessary to deduce that there is anything as yet un-"revealed behind either the Pence Treaty or the new Alliance. Taken together these momentous settlements place Japan in the position of security and power to which her efforts in the war have justly entitled her, and give her the opportunity, in' the period of prolonged eace which we may hope is now before her, of continuing in the way of progress and prosperity in which she has already made such astonishing strides, Great Britain on her part secures by the new treaty relief from her principal anxieties on the Indian frontier and will be enabled to devote ber energies more freely than ever to the peaceful development of her great interests in the Dependency and in the Far East.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.