The sun., 1894-11-08
China Pleads for Help.

seemingly is invested with dictstorial
powers, and through its diplomatic agents,
has confessed its inability to resist the
japanese, and has implored the Intervention
OF the European powers. To such depth
of humiliation has been brought in the
course of few months the Manchu
dynasty, which ostensibly rules over 300,-
0O0, 900 human beings, which has spent
vast sums for the best war material which
had II navy notoriously superior to that
Of its opponent In number of ironclad
ships and weight of armament, and which.
relying on its enormous resources, applied
in its published manifesto terms of the
utmost contumely to the Mikado's subjects.
To all onlookers, except Englishmen, who
possess the largest share of the foreign trade
with China under the present regime, it is
patent that IL ever gallant nation, contend
ing successfully against great odds, deserved
to he let alone by outsiders and to be al
lowed to pluck the fruits Of victory, it is
Japan. IL China gives up the fight without
waiting to see whether she can rescue Muk-
den. the old Manchu capital, or even defend
Pekin, 1t is her business to address q prayer
for peace to the Mikado and obtain from
him the best terms she can. There is only
one European country which would dream
of armed interposition on behalf of people
outnumbering its opponent nearly eight to
one that country. Of course, is England,
and she will not venture to lift a finger
against the mandate Of the Gar. will
ing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,' will
again describe her attitude, as 1t did in our
civil war and during the Franco German
contest. In lS61-64 Lord PALMERsToN
then Premier, made no secret Of
his wish to combine with NAPO-
LEON III. for the support of the
Southern Confederacy; and he probably
would have done so but for the warning ut
tered by ALEXANDER ii. that Russia had de-
termined to uphold the Union cause. Again,
in 1901 the English newspapers lavished
expressions of sympathy upon dismembered
and plundered France. but the British Gov
ernment did nothing to check German ra-
pacity, because the Cars representatives
were instructed to say in London what they
said in Vienna to wit, Hands off So, too,
at the present juncture, the Chinese will
find that England's professions of compass
sion and humanity will avail them nothing,
for the reason that neither Russia nor
France will see the Japanese robbed Of the
hsrd-earned gains OF battle in order to give
British traders a monopoly of commerce
with the Middle Kingdom.
England would not be England IL she did
not attempt in this, rs in many a former in
stance, to hide her interested motives by an
affectation of philanthropy. The London
Standard asserts that 1.-The powers have a
interest in averting the disintegra-
tion of the Celestial Empire. Humanity
forbids the thought of allow
ing Government, under which hundreds
of millions live, to be destroyed The truth
obviously is that China is already reduced
to disintegration by the shameful malad-
of the dying Manchu dynasty,
and that the dictates of humanity and the
welfare of the Chinese people alike prescribe
the speedy substitution of an honest and
efficient Government at Pekin. According
to the London Daily Neips. "the moral side
Of the question speaks for itself" So it
does. 1t spoke when the Chinese soldiers
on the Kow-shing fired volleys into their
own countrymen, who had leaped overheard,
and whom the Japanese were trying to
save. IL speaks again in the despatch to
the Central News from Shanghai, accord
Ing to which the Chinese troops In Man
churia are robbing the natives and commit
ting horrible atrocities, while the japanese,
On the other hand, are treating the natives |
we'll, and consequently are received by them
with open arms. If such is the feeling dis
played toward the Japanese even by the
fellow countrymen of the Manchu rulers
At Pekin, how much more likely arc the |
40 al;
The intolerable extortion and oppression |
which they have long suffered at the hands |
IF a barbarian dynasty. 1t is impossible |
that the mass Of the Chinese people, what
ever the prejudices due to lack OF personal |
contact, should view the Mikado's subjects |
with the detestation and contempt which In |
he seventeenth century delayed for thirty |
Years the Manchu conquest of the Middle |
Kingdom. The history of China proves that
he paramount desire of its hard-working
populations is for just and honest Govern
nent, which will permit them TO enjoy in
peace the harvest of their toll Repeatedly
rave they submitted to an alien dynasty
which has offered them that boon. Ex-
lerience would quickly show them that
Justice and probity might he looked for from
he Japanese; such, at all events, are the
of administration in Japan.
There is no reason, however, TO suppose that
he japanese contemplate the conquest OF
he Middle Kingdom; they are much more
likely 10 favor the displacement Of the
'eigning Manchu family by a native Chinese
lynasty. From the disintegration of the
CELESTIAL Empire they would have nothing to
yain; absorption Of the debtor State would
mpair the guarantees for the payment OF a
indemnity. At the same time,
he Japanese might reasonably insist that,
's a precaution against future collision,
which is no part Of China proper,
hOuld be transformed into q buffer State
'etween the Middle Kingdom and COrea.
In any case, it is for China and Japan to
ettle their own quarrel, without any inter
erence on the part Of foreign nations which
hOuld go beyond amicable and impartial
uggestiOns. Even the London Times sd-
nits that any concerted action of the
'owers must lie wholly within the sphere of
IoOd offices. It also expresses doubt as TO