21st October. are bound up with the Philippines Except to those whose fortunes
the September issue of this Journal is nob of as much interest as many of its predecessors, The first note in "Current Comment" is on the battle of Liaoyang, which Mr, Foord foresaw would be a victory for Japan, and which he thought might prove the decisive struggle of the war. He says: "With the fate of Port Arthur still hanging in the balance, and with the crowning reverse to the Russian arms ab Liaoyang only half revealed, ib may be possible for Russian sympathisers to deceive themselves as to the final issue of the campaign. But September will not be old before the last excuse for accepting the logic of facts will have disappeared, and even in Russia itself, the stubborn and inexorable truth will have to be faced that Muscovite domination in Eastern Asia has passed away, never to return."
In his second note Mr. Foord combats vigorously the preposterous idea that if Japan is as successful as we hope in the present war, Great Britain and the United States will join France and Germany in preventing her enjoying the full fruit of her victory. "The vast majority of the people of the United States," says Mr. Foord, "will view, not only with perfect equanimity but with lively satisfaction, the substitution ¢ Japanese for Russian influence at E eking, and the emergence of Japan as the foremost of Asiatic Powers,.. Che only country in which the F-ench suggestion is likely to find a responsive echo is Germany, but it is happily beyond the power of both combined to give it effect. The tacit acquiescence of Great Britain which was the determining factor int! e successful pressure exerted to ative Japan out of the Liaotung Peninsula in 1895, will certainly not be forthcoming at the close of the present war."
In a note on an article from the "North American Review," showing the present close understanding between the Governments at Berlin end St. Petersburg, Mr. Foord remarks that "some years ago, ib was still possible to cling to the idea that German interests were substantially identical with those of Great Britaio, Japan, and the United States in the Far East, and that Germany might be counted on to support the policy to which the three Powers had committed themselves. It is not possible to entertain aa: such hope to-day." If this is ata merely as a fact, there is no objection to it; if iv is stated as a re-roach, we do not agree with Mr. cord, for Germany obviously has just as much right, if she thinks her interests lie in that direction, to support Russia in this war, as we have to support Japan. There is one matter in which Germany has assisted Russia which may become awkward for the former Power when the war is over, and that is the permitting the sale to Russia of certain auxiliary cruisers which are now being employed to worry British commerce. It has been stated that these steamers are only ordinary merchant vessels, which international law allows a neutral to sell toa belligerent, and that if they had been of any value as cruisers, the Kaiser would never have allowed them to be sold; this argument is destroyed by the fact that some of them were subventioned as auxiliary cruisers by the German Government.
Another note explains that the reater part of the tember num-r of the "Journal" is devoted to the Philippines, and Mr. Foord regrets that the question of the relation of the islands to the United States should be made a party issue. "The American who still delights to proclaim. himself anti-imperialist' is usually a well-meaning, and often an excellent, person in the ordinary
in famishing pabulum for their lipines a very questionable service of life, but he does the
professional agitators and in keeping alive vain hopes among their petty politicians." Some commendatory remarks on the July issue of the "Journal of the American Assoviation of China," and a couple of short notes conclude three very interesting columns of current comment, The following comparative table shows the value, in gold dollars, of the exports of the principal staples from the United States to China and Hongkong during the seven months ending the 31st of July of this and the preceding year:—
Cotton Mineral Wheat Cloths, Oil. Flour.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.