Or all the changes that international politics have undergone during the present century, none deserves more serious attention at the present time than the struggle for the formation of ententes and guarantees, At first sight, and judged only by their underlying intention, the series of mutual understandings and conventions which may be suid to hav grown out of the adjustment of French and British differences, might be regarded as the best safeguard of peace, in view of the counterpoise it affords to the intolerable growth of armaments. In actual fact the cholo of international relations is now so tightly drawn that it can hardly bear additional pressure without breaking, and we have reached a position of affairs when it is impossible for the parties to these agreements to protect themselves further without danger of precipitating the very catastrophe which they are most anxious to avoid. That the arrangements which have linked Great Britain, France and Russia in a kind of triangle of forces are purely defen sive in character cannot seriously be questioned even by the Power which now finds herself most excluded from the combination. What was begun between France and Great Britain by the delibera~ tion of the two Governments has been ratified by the whole democratic feeling of both nations; and democracies are too keenly awake to the virtues of peace to have much taste for the doubtful fruits of war. But it is difficult, whether for one nation or any group of nations to. maintain a merely negative attitude; and the discrepancy already existing between th of the triple entente und the sities of in policy are to increase er than to deere: with the advance of time, However trae it may be to sly that Gen is herself chiefly responsible fo the present ntpprockement of her three neighbours, the fact is not likely to incline her to look with additional favour on the results of her work. Twenty years ayo the Powers in question were kept asunder by barrier of mutual distrust, which it had been the sedulous care of Bismarck to erect and solidify. With the inauguration of the world policy which followed upon the Emperor William TI's accession and with the dismissal of the late Chancellor, that barrier was larvely broken down; while the open cha longes for supremacy that began to issue from Berlin encouraged, if they did not actually necessitate, a re-grouping of the principal figures of the concert.
How acately the genera! tension is being felt inay be in part mated from the eagerness with which the recent meeting between King Edward and the German Emperor was watched, and from the subsequent rumours of a projected entente between Great Britain and Germany, which, according to a German, it is to be the. special mission of Sir W. E. Goschen to promote directly he arrives at Berlin to tuke over the charge of the British Were such an agreement p would not be necessary to wait for the utterances uitributed to Mr. Lloyd Georye by the "None Freie Presse" of Vienna, to see that the oppression of the moment might he immensely relieved, since'it is the: isolation of Germany which ives to the chancelleries of Europe their chief preoccupation. Unhappily for the practical chances of the desired urement, impracticable questions of disarmament would appear to: have been indicated as a basis of discussion. To increase the difficulties of an understanding, Germany is not altogether beyond suspicion of wishing to bring the affairs of Persia before such another conference as that of Algeciras. Meanwhile mess has Leen iny the growing strength whose ability to act independently with dangerous effect isno longer possible to ignore. Recent events at Constantinople—the popular enthusia Sir Gerard Lowther was received on his arrival, the application of the Turkish Minister of the Interior for the aid of Englislt and French specialists in irrigation and road-making—would seem to show that Turkey also is stretching out her hands towards the charmed circle of the Northern associates, in a manner that can hardly fail to umbrage to the Power which has so long regarded the Turk as ander her special protection; and this the more so that it would relieve Russia of a real cause of anxiety in the Caucasus.
The efforts that are being made in one section of the American Press to create a movement in favour of alliance between the United States and China need not. lo taken too seriously, Even if it were not virtually an axiom of America's—international dealings that her statesmen neither seck, nor feel the need of any alliance, China is obviously in no condition to.|become the ally of a first-class Power. That the United States desires to be on the friendliest terms -|with China, even, perhaps, to the point of pursuing "a strong policy" in the Far East, has been made plain in abundant ways. But the simplest explanation of that desire may be found in the necessity of recovering the lost ground in her trade with China on which the American Asiatic Assuciution bay laid such stress. It is yet, however, of considerable interest to consider what effect may be produced by the interference of America in Far Eastern polities in driving Japan into a triangular agreement with Russia and Great Britain. The suggestion has been made, as a recent telegram from our Tokio correspondent informed us, with special reference to the preservation of the territorial integrity of China
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.