Again, What Is To Prevent
Germany From Discovering Some Day That Kiao Chou Does Not "Meet Her
Requirements," In Which Event What Is There To Hinder Russia From Taking
Over Kiao Chou And Giving Germany Another Port?
Provision has, in truth,
been made to enable Germany to treat Kiao Chou as a negotiable bill of
exchange.
There is really nothing unforeseen in the recent evolution of affairs in
the Far East. On the contrary, it has been clearly indicated by various
writers in the past fifty years. As far back as 1850, Meadows wrote:
"China will not be conquered by any Western power until she becomes the
Persia of some future Alexander the Great of Russia, which is the Macedon
of Europe. England, America and France will, if they are wise, wage,
severally or collectively, a war of exhaustion with Russia rather than
allow her to conquer China, for, when she has done that, she will be
mistress of the world." In reply to those who ridicule the policy of
"guarding against imaginary Russian dangers in China," he said: "Many may
suppose the danger to be too remote to be a practical subject for the
present generation. The subject is most practical at the present hour,
for, as the English, Americans and French now deal with China, and with
her relations to Russia, so the event will be. For those to whom 'it will
last our time' is a word of practical wisdom, this volume is not written."
Again, a few years later, Meadows wrote: "The greatest, though not
nearest, danger of a weak China lies precisely in those territorial
aggressions of Russia which she began two centuries ago, and which, if
allowed to go on, will speedily give her a large and populous territory,
faced with Sveaborgs and Sebastopols on the seaboard of Eastern Asia. Let
England, America and France beware how they create a sick giant in the Far
East. China is a world-necessity." Foreshadowing the gradual extension of
Russia into China, and the time when the former country would become
dominant at Pekin, and when, with all Manchuria organized behind her, she
would occupy the whole of the Yellow River basin, Meadows expressed the
belief that, should that occasion occur, no combination of powers would
then be able to thwart Russia's purpose. "With 120,000,000 Chinese to work
or fight for her, nothing would stand between Russia and the conquest of
the rest of the Celestial Empire; not China alone, but Europe itself would
then be dominated, and it would cost the Russian Emperor of China but
little trouble to overwhelm the Pacific States of the New World." Such was
the forecast of a writer whose name is to-day forgotten.
What are the advantages which Russia possesses over England in dealing
with China? There is, in the first place, the advantage of proximity. The
Chinese people in the northern provinces, and especially at the capital,
which is not far from the Great Wall, undoubtedly discriminate between
Russians and other foreigners.
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